Not an Engineering Marvel but Good Enough

[slowp]

Went up a timber sale road to take care of "just a couple" of blowdown trees.
Here's the start, and I'll be back tomorrow too. IF the market was better, these would be going to the mill instead of being made available for firewood. Sigh..

Twinkle ran well, I'm thinking it is the explosive sticker that is still stuck on it.
We got a couple trees beyond. Did I mention I was a bit frustrated from trying to "herd cats" (set up a date for a pre logging meeting)? Had to take it out on something.

A good thing happened. I made it to a non-engineering marvel. The winter of 2006, we got hit hard by one of those "comma" storms and got an enormous amount of rain. This creek changed course and was washing out the road. To put a new culvert in would have required massive amounts of time waiting for the specialists/planners to do all the surveys and analysis. The logger's equipment and unit were on the other side. He and I put our heads together and came up with a ditch cleaning project which didn't require any planner involvement. He reinforced the ditch with rock and we channeled the creek down the original culvert. I didn't expect it to hold but it has.

Saw this cedar stump when I threw brush over the side of the road.

Twinkle and I shall return tomorrow and cut more...I'm sure there's only a couple more to cut...

 

[huskykid141]

nice pics! :greenchainsaw:

 

[johnzski]

I'll bet you never saw a stump that big when you were in WI-- that thing is huge !

 

[slowp]

I'll bet you never saw a stump that big when you were in WI-- that thing is huge !

Nope, and my old boss sent me some pictures of a Wis. unit I'd worked on and it looked so flat except they think it was steep. When I worked here in the
80s, one of the check cruisers took us younguns up in the vicinity of the stump to show us how much breakage there was in the big trees. They were falling some 7 to 9 foot diameter old growth. The ground was pretty broken and the tops just shattered when they hit.

Our fallers are knocking down some pretty big trees that are hazards in campgrounds. There was one that they didn't feel good about doing so they hired a logger I work with and he cut the thing down. It was a large rotting schoolmarm, they weren't sure how it would hold. They were considering using explosives, or chaining the tree above the cut. He cut it and didn't even have to run away fast which was good cuz he has a bad hip and had knee surgery last winter. Guess he was an excellent faller before he hurt his hip. Sounds like he still is too.

 

[Gologit]

Nope, and my old boss sent me some pictures of a Wis. unit I'd worked on and it looked so flat except they think it was steep. When I worked here in the
80s, one of the check cruisers took us younguns up in the vicinity of the stump to show us how much breakage there was in the big trees. They were falling some 7 to 9 foot diameter old growth. The ground was pretty broken and the tops just shattered when they hit.

Our fallers are knocking down some pretty big trees that are hazards in campgrounds. There was one that they didn't feel good about doing so they hired a logger I work with and he cut the thing down. It was a large rotting schoolmarm, they weren't sure how it would hold. They were considering using explosives, or chaining the tree above the cut. He cut it and didn't even have to run away fast which was good cuz he has a bad hip and had knee surgery last winter. Guess he was an excellent faller before he hurt his hip. Sounds like he still is too.

Sounds like it, alright. The body might start to fail but all that experience, knowledge, and lessons-learned never goes away. You learn to think a little farther ahead when you find you can't scramble as quick as you used to.

 

[sILlogger]

Sounds like it, alright. The body might start to fail but all that experience, knowledge, and lessons-learned never goes away. You learn to think a little farther ahead when you find you can't scramble as quick as you used to.

being a young punk myself i can still scramble pretty quick....but ive been whached enough times that im beginning to see it before it happens and can see it coming before it does....usually...but the ole timers just amaze me...it is like they are dancing....and they can do it every day...i have my days of it and it is great when it does...but it is like they can do it all the time...i just like watching them work because they are so fluid

 

[Gologit]

being a young punk myself i can still scramble pretty quick....but ive been whached enough times that im beginning to see it before it happens and can see it coming before it does....usually...but the ole timers just amaze me...it is like they are dancing....and they can do it every day...i have my days of it and it is great when it does...but it is like they can do it all the time...i just like watching them work because they are so fluid

LOL...When you only have just so many moves you try to make them count. I'm still pretty catty but I tend to look for the easier way to do things whenever possible.

Think of energy as a bank account.You want to use as little as possible for any given task. You use it efficiently and you want a definite return for every expenditure. Use the energy up too fast and you're bankrupt...with a lot of daylight and work to do still ahead.

 

[sILlogger]

Think of energy as a bank account.You want to use as little as possible for any given task. You use it efficiently and you want a definite return for every expenditure. Use the energy up too fast and you're bankrupt...with a lot of daylight and work to do still ahead.

AMEN TO THAT!!! and man can i tell a difference between now and 2-3 years ago. i get more done without burning the energy that i used to. my efficiency has definitely improved

 

[slowp]

Yeah, I took a guy out to remark a unit who had been a Navy SEAL but had never worked in the woods before. He took the lead, and I followed. I kept catching up to him and told him to take a narrower strip. He just glared. Finally, he lost his temper and started yelling at me to "pull my weight". I then pointed out that I had been filling the rest of the unit in behind him and couldn't take a wider strip. He turned red and said, "How?" I told him marking timber is something I had been doing for years and know how to do, know shortcuts, etc. I have to say it was pretty funny.

Back to the tree, the video I saw, and it was only on the little camera screen, the tree looked like it was doing what a normal tree should do, no splitting, just went over slowly and in control. We have some good fallers around here.

 

[Backwoods]

I got a neighbor who at the time was 92 he is an old faller. He took out a grove of tall straight oak that covered about an acre and a half. I bought all the straight logs from him and he split the rest into firewood by hand, cleared the brush, burned all the branches, brush and cut out all the stumps below grade. (There were 2 big Doug fir stumps left from trees he had fallen years ago that were in the same class as the cedar stump above) It is all lawn now. I offered to help him several times but he insisted that he needed something to do. Said if I don’t get up in the morning I don’t get up at all. All summer he fired the chainsaw up at 7:30 every morning except Sunday, and shut it down at noon. He is still alive and kicking.

 

[slowp]

The guy who dropped the tree isn't all THAT old. He's only a couple years older than me. I think he's been working in the woods all his life as he comes from a family of loggers and former loggers.

 

[Burvol]

The guy who dropped the tree isn't all THAT old. He's only a couple years older than me. I think he's been working in the woods all his life as he comes from a family of loggers and former loggers.

That kinda sums up my family in a nutshell.

 

[redprospector]

LOL...When you only have just so many moves you try to make them count. I'm still pretty catty but I tend to look for the easier way to do things whenever possible.

Think of energy as a bank account.You want to use as little as possible for any given task. You use it efficiently and you want a definite return for every expenditure. Use the energy up too fast and you're bankrupt...with a lot of daylight and work to do still ahead.

Hahaha. I thought I was just getting lazy.

Andy

 

[Gologit]

Hahaha. I thought I was just getting lazy.

Andy

Nope. Not lazy. Smart. And older...cause the alternative to getting older is really grim.

 

[redprospector]

Nope. Not lazy. Smart. And older...cause the alternative to getting older is really grim.

That's what I tell the 2 guy's working for me (early 20's) when they give me a hard time about getting old. It beat's the alternative.

Andy

 

[lt1nut]

"Work smarter, not harder." Been hearing that for decades and saying it for years now, problem is when you like working with your hands also. All I can say is take care of your back folks, ain't no fun when when it doesn't work right any more. All joints can be replaced and function properly but the ones in your back, top that off with it being the bottom of your brain all the way down and things are never the same afterwards.

Sorry for the preaching, meant more to agree and got carried away...

 

[2dogs]

I tell most young men they need to work harder. Smarter will come later.

 

[slowp]

I don't think I'm smart enough to cut these. One looks to have some top and side bind and be hung up in a tree. I'll look closely but probably just mark them for firewood. I walked the road today thinking there might be enough to go on a log truck but the walk was in vain. To the woodpiles it will go.