[Gabe Ayers]

The photo of the very capable ring counters shows some stain that suggest there was a fence nailed to that tree about x number of years ago. Is that going to be an issue?

When we deal with big trees like this that we are going to saw, it is nice to have a band sawmill, because even if there is hardware inside, it is only a 20.00 blade as opposed to the damage being to a commercial sawmill blade.

The hardware bluing would stop this log from being bought by most sawmills.

I am sure you noticed this too.

~

[Gabe Ayers]

Beautiful log and work Carl. I knew you would get it out.

Are you going to quarter saw that stick? It is surely big enough to make some nice stuff, that will reveal some lovely lateral rays, dry with less degrading and sell for more money. You know all that I’m sure. It is so big enough you might have to rip it to get it through a woodmizer, but it might be worth it.

Hope you are feeling better this morning. In the south at this point, any little bugs are being blamed on the snow…the wind and the next storm that brings more snow again….right now we are blaming every aliment on the snow, it really has this part of the country snowed under.

~

[Gabe Ayers]

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/reprint/High_Cost_and_Low_Value_of_Electricity_from_Wind.pdf

Haven’t read this, but thought it might be of some interest on this subject.

~

not an issue for HHFF, ignore signature

[Gabe Ayers]

I am interested, please keep us in touch with what develops on that.

~

[Gabe Ayers]

NAIS ~COMING SOON, MANDATORY INTERSTATE REQUIREMENTS
By Darol Dickinson & Russ McAfee

Dr. W. Ron DeHaven is CEO of the American Veterinary Medical Assn.USDA Sec. Vilsack announced during the morning of Feb. 5 that NAIS was over, ended, no more.

His customary emotionless announcement was fairly brief, but the detailed USDA Factsheet (Click here for factsheet) released simultaneously required seven pages of small print describing the animal ID “will do’s” and “won’t do’s”–all of which will be enforced at some future date in a to-be-determined manner.

The New York Times reported this based on information from an “unidentified USDA informant.”

At once thousands of emails flew from around the globe with nearly as much excitement outside the US as the home land.

Ranch and cattle producers smiled and nodded.

But it seems the victory may be short lived.

Now comes a lone government employee saying he cannot endorse Sec. Vilsack’s new announcement.

Dr. W. Ron DeHaven is CEO of the American Veterinary Medical Assn. The US veterinarian head count is 100,728 licensed practitioners; of which 930 are Federal Veterinarians, employed by APHIS, and 23 are Homeland Security staff veterinarians.

DeHaven has always been a verbal supporter of mandatory NAIS. He says Vilsack “. . .has been caving to this public resistance…”

DeHaven’s “public resistance” is the overwhelming majority of livestock producers who opposed the NAIS for a list of reasons that would choke a giraffe.

According to DeHaven, the mag-daddy of veterinarians, none of these “resistors” should have had any voice in the NAIS’s demise, and Secretary Vilsack should not have listened to them.

One gets the feeling he would like to see Vilsack go away, and himself take control.

Then again, DeHaven has shot his mouth off before, under oath. He showed his out-of-touch thinking March 11, 2009 when he testified to the House Committee on Agriculture as a hand picked presenter. He stated, “If the US is to remain competitive or grow export markets, an effective NAIS will be required.”

Evidently unknown to DeHaven, the US has been a net importer of beef for the last 21 years. Last year, the country exported $2,183,977,168 in beef and imported $4,857,454,008.

We haven’t produced enough beef to feed the nation in 21 years, yet DeHaven confidently testified that future exports are imperative.

USDA released their NAIS Fact Sheet February 5. It states:

“What is certain is that animal disease traceability will be required for animals moving in interstate commerce. . .To ensure interstate compatibility and connectivity, APHIS will work with States and Tribal Nations in establishing standards and guidelines where free or low-cost tags will be incorporated as options.”

DeHaven says the AVMA cannot endorse the Vilsack new approach:

“As I understand it, they will let each state and tribal nation more or less develop their own program? So, I’m concerned about interoperability between fifty or more different systems. Will one state be able to talk to another state as an animal moves through interstate commerce?”
DeHaven’s Audio: “Click Here”

From this statement, it would appear DeHaven has never processed an interstate veterinarian animal health certificate.

Here is how it works, and has for every veterinarian’s lifetime:

An animal is sold into another state.
The state receiving the animal has “states rights” and determines the rules of entry.
The owner of the sold animal contacts their local veterinarian.
The vet has an “Entry Permit Acquisition Book” with phone numbers of every US state and tribe, provided by the USDA.
They call the state vet office of destination, talk to an authorized person, receive the required protocol, do what ever health tests are required for entry, complete a standard animal health certificate, receive a permit number to enter the state, and the critter is ready to travel.
This health certificate has four copies of different colors.

One copy goes with the hauler,
One stays with the local vet,
Two go to the state vet of origin, and
They forward one copy on to the receiving state vet.
The receiving state has a staff of people who check these incoming certificates every day, and may actually go and inspect the animals after arrival if they have concern.

It has always been required that a permanent ID be on each departing critter. This can be a:

Fire brand number,
Tattoo,
Cheap government metal ear clip,
OCV clip, or
Other approved ID.
This has been established and is already done.

No animals travel across state lines without ID and a health certificate, and nothing is new about that.

This is a system that has worked for a lifetime, and Vilsack understands the total cost to USDA is zero to continue this process.

This system has been used successfully during every major outbreak of livestock disease in our history.

Currently a huge weight of mistrust hangs over DeHaven, Vilsack, and the USDA. Vilsack says he is well aware of “. . .the downward confidence level NAIS has caused.”

The attempt to shove NAIS down the throat of every livestock producer in the U.S. will-not-be-forgotten, and the USDA may try to resurrect and rename it again–the Every Animal Traceability Tax, (EATT), or the No Cow Left Behind (NCLB)–but the results will be the same.

And another bureaucrat like DeHaven will stand up before some Congressional committee and pretend there is this huge, dangerous, animal disease mountain to climb and that without a NAIS, the food safety of the nation will be imperiled.

Hopefully, that bureaucrat will have enough sense to know we already have a successful interstate commerce system in place, and that all it takes for a producer to comply is to make a phone call to the destination state and do what the receiving state asks.

It’s that simple.

~

just a forward, nothing to do with HHFF, ignore signature….

[Gabe Ayers]

I’d love for y’all to have all this snow Carl. I thought that was where it was supposed to be ^ up north. Fortunately a woodsmen with a skid steer came and busted out 7 foot drifts today, not real sustainable but had to be done, don’t know how we would have done it that quick any other way. Another storm predicted for Monday…..

An arch really helps with a big log going up hill. I’d whittle on it to make it as smooth as possible too. We’ve put little rollers under them to get’em started before, once they’re going the horses will have more confidence about moving them.

If it is 30″ small end diameter that’s a big hardwood log for sure. That footage is on a Doyle scale?

It looks like it may just simply be over mature or died of old age? What da u think killed it?

~

[Gabe Ayers]

Venison tenderloin, mashed tators and home canned green beans, no bar codes, eat that way pretty regularly round here for about 40 yrs now But I know we are different than most mainstream Americans, yet so much like our not so long ago ancestors and kin.

I guess the salt and pepper came out of a container with a bar code….darn, hard to escape the systems supply…

~

[Gabe Ayers]

By the looks of the leaves still being on it, that tree appears like it may have died before leaf drop, is that the case? No doubt there could be some rot in it, so finding out how much rot before grading the logs out would be good. That starts at the butt, which makes bucking it harder. We usually will mark the logs out then cut from the top down to release the forces as we buck out the logs which of course were measured from the butt up. When the soundness is suspect one may be better to buck from the bottom up so as to not be disappointed when more than a third of the overall diameter is rotten. Just thinking out loud about it as I would if standing there myself.

You can get her Carl, put those good horses on it, start with the smaller logs first to build their confidence at being able to come away with a load from that spot and about the third log or so take that 10′ butt on to the landing….

I’m certainly are not trying to tell an old hand like you how to do it, just running through the drill for the newer folks that might be following this post, I have total confidence that you will get it out one way or another.

What species is the tree? NRO? whatever it is, it is worst first….being horizontal is a major indicator of decline, humor attempt, serious humor…

Let us know how it works out.

~

[Gabe Ayers]

Well fellows a couple years ago I was writing about this on some board and it seemed dismissed as not much of a concern. Well it was a major concern then and even more widely understood or recognized now.

I would suspect our woods may end up looking like the woods in the countries where the invasive species came from….pitiful.

It can be summed up by the statement – bamboo ain’t wood.

China is now the number one importer of our logs so they obviously don’t have wood of their own to process and sell to us, so they buy ours cheap, process it sometimes on these huge processing ships, dump the waste in the oceans turn around and bring the goods back to our shores to sell.

I think some research should be done as to which silvicultural prescription leads to what invasive opportunities? Not sure who would pay for such research since the results would be somewhat obvious. All the invasive botanical’s are disturbance dependent, so that factor would be somewhat undeniable. Given that common sense understanding it would seem that the situation indicates a need for light disturbance harvesting techniques.
I’m sure you guys get where I’m going with that…..

It is just sad that some of the best minds and hearts will have to waste time trying to figure out how to save what forests we have left, when they could be concentrating on how to make the most of it as an intact ecosystem, but that may not be an option… at this point.

Globalization is certainly an evil agent leading the attack on the millions of years of local ecosystem development. Meanwhile the entire movement toward an exchange that has only benefited a few economically and harmed many in the long term is being touted as the right thing to do. This all coming forward while the word “protectionist” is used to dismiss any concerns that are informed by any local ecosystem steward. It seems appropriate that we protect our local systems of lesser life just as it would be to bare arms to protect the sanctity of our own homes.

Glad you guys are working on all these things, keep us in touch with what we can do to help. Keeping firewood being burnt right where it is harvested makes good sense, as an ingredient in a new decentralized supply system and local resource based economy.

Unfortunately the human race is usually to ignorant, apathetic or short sighted to take care of itself as a species, must less the entire eocsystem. It all starts with denying we are a part of that ecosystem, usually with some line about these concerns being to anthropocentric, another stupid shallow dismissive statement of denial like making protectionism to be a bad word….

Ok enough ranting, y’all have a nice day.

We’ll just go out and deal with simple problems like 7 foot snow drifts in the driveway…. we can work our way out of that situation, I really don’t know what we will do about the scary subjects of this post???

~

[Gabe Ayers]

Skidding tongs have a swivel on the hook, lifting/loading tongs don’t

Erika, that is a cradle hitch, good eye and photo – thanks

~

[Gabe Ayers]

The cradle hitch is for an arch only, as far as I know. I think it was developed to provide lift on a log that may be taller than the slot bar on the arch and in some cases wider than the wheel base/track. I learned it from an old Yankee logger.

It is a matter of putting two chokers around the log with the chokers at the bottom or as we describe it, when looking at the end of the log you are hooking to as a clock – that’s a real clock with hands and numbers, not a digital clock… put one choker at 5:00 and the other at 7:00 and then put your chains in the outside or widest slots in the slot bar and when the team moves forward the log gets good front end suspension, doesn’t dig in, doesn’t pull as hard, disturb the ground as much and allows your animals to apply there power to move the wood with less effort.

This of course requires getting the choker chains under the log which may mean moving it a bit to get some clearance under the log. Another point is the orientation of the choker to the chain. You have to have the chain running through the choker such that it will choke and not slip or slide around the log but actually choke and tighten so as to stay in place and lift. This may not be a good description, I’m not sure how to say it better.
Put the choker pointing up and the chain around the log and through and then up to the slot so it chokes and tightens when the team moves forward. The choker hook goes under the log first and the chain goes over and around the log through the choker and back up to the slot. Sometimes we use a choker on one side and a slot hook on the other, but that is not as stable, but will provide the same lift if it stays in place when tightened up. Hope this makes some sense.

This forms a cradle which lifts the end of the log when hooking from either end. It helps deal with the flare on the butt cuts. It gives the option of providing front end suspension from the little or big end.

I guess we should post some photos of this arrangement, which fortunately we use often when we are working in good sized timber.

Let us know if this makes any sense, it is a useful way of attaching big logs to the arch and getting good suspension. Ben Traveling Woodsman may add to this description in his own words.

~

[Gabe Ayers]

Skidding tongs have a swivel on the hook and will let a log roll around on whatever face it wants. They do come loose and they are a subtle thing to hook. But dealing with logs flat on the ground they save allot of time. When the logs are laying on rock there is no excavating. A combination of all the tools is great. Attention to the details of felling and putting a helper or small piece of round wood under the log when possible makes excavation easier or not required.

Good Discussion.
~

[Gabe Ayers]

Ridgewind Farm, Central Appalachia, 3000ft., snow cover since before Christmas, now about 27″ of hard base on level ground and you can imagine the drifts. We have worked the 1/2 mile long right of way to the point that we have no place to put snow. Now we are just going with the pack it down and drive over it approach. Just had our latest snow of about 4 more inches and now 60 mph winds forecast…

I am beginning to believe some of my deep southern critics that say that Virginia ain’t the south. Unless maybe it is the new south pole…. this is ridiculous is a common comment by everyone down here.

4WD pick up is only good on the road. No choice but to feed with the horses, they are the only way of moving hay to the fields for the herd of 16 Suffolks and one black mule.

Snow texture changes with the wind and air temps almost daily, so you never know what surface you have to work on tomorrow. Glad we have good horses to work.

Our total snow is closing in on 60″ so far. Somebody said that was more than Anchorage Alaska and is surly more than Vancouver from watching the attempts to get snow cover for the Olympics.

Springs are running in places I have never seen them.

Enjoy the art work someone sent me… hope it doesn’t offend anyone….

accurate sendiment but x rated

[Gabe Ayers]

Congratulations to George and Kristan indeed.

What a great step to have the animal powered component of your work included in the validation of sustainability. Congrats to the state of Vermont for that official recognition, puts the Green Mtn. State ahead of all others in that honest assessment of power for the farm.

Keep up your good work. Now that you have gained this wonderful recognition you may be watched closely for continuing success. Thanks for setting this great example.

~

[Gabe Ayers]

The arch is usually bent by hanging it on a tree or stump not by the load that is pulled. But if a fellow put some extra gussets and bracing maybe you could get by with the lighter material. Stronger is always better if you want it to last a long time without any repair. It they get twisted out of shape they are real hard to get back square. I have one now with a spindle that is slightly tweaked and will have to take it the shop and chain it down and try to tweak it back and reinforce it a bit.

I noticed you asked or included skis in your message. Have you make you some ski runners for it too. Do they just bolt on the lugs like the tire rim?

~

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