[Baystatetom]

I have been trying to do this more just so I am not as wore out at the end of the day from wrestling logs with a peevy. Last winter I stacked logs on my landing 5 deep this way. I try to get them to a spot where I can have the team at a right angle to the scoot. I really like the idea of setting a snatch block (pulley) so the team stays in the trail and you don’t require such a wide spot. I just love this site for showing me all these little tricks!
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

I have been thinking a lot about terminology lately myself. As in how do I sell my services. I think I am going to go with “Eco Friendly Timber Harvesting”. Excuse my mix of thoughts here but to hit a few topics, Carl people go to you because you are so well spoken. I think we feel many of the same things but I could never express myself the way you do. Sorry its a burden for you but I for one am glad somebody can talk more intelligently about these topics.
On to the next topic, I was working with another forester friend the other day whom I have had extensive talks with about draft powered logging. We were marking a mature pine stand for a skidder crew and he says to me “you can leave the big ones if you want, the landowner is only doing this because I really pressured them that it was time, they don’t care about making money off it”. Well what the hell! Why am I not ox logging half as many stems per acre. The answer is I can’t make my coworkers look outside the box. I typically blame the landowner for being greedy and only wanting to make the most $, but this was defiantly a case where the forester was to blame. I came home and started crunching numbers to see if I could make it on my own. Unfortunately I still need to administer timber sales to the machine guys.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

I like to drive from a few steps out in front. My teams have learned to follow me so I don’t have to keep giving small turn commands as we move through the forest. This also helps with narrow skid trails so I don’t have to be in the brush all day. Not sure if that is any better or worse for farming type stuff. Mine have actually started driving themselves, I hook the chain say get up and they head out from the stump to the main trail by themselves. Not sure if I like that or not but so far its been good. I think you and your team will gradually learn the best way to work with each other. No need to be just like everybody else, the perfect way for you is the one that works.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

I do a ton of invasive plant work as part of my Consulting Forestry. Now a days it’s just a normal part of the job. If I don’t control the invasives, I can’t regenerate timber species. I do pressure wash the ATV regularly but never gave a thought to my steers. Not that I use them for invasive control but it maybe should be something to think about.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

The jabbing stick is a good idea. My off steer tried to push everybody to the left for a while, I used to reach over my near steer and tap his cheek with my goad. You might also try tying his nose over with a halter so he can’t lead to the left with his head.
Good Luck
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4049666203092.2139544.1325088378&type=1
Here is some pics
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

I bought my daughter a 13 hand POA a little over a year ago. He was a great horse when we got him and all 3 of my young kids could ride him, however he quickly figured out that he knew more then we did about riding. He bucked my girls off a few times and then went down hill from there. I have gotten a lot better at staying in the saddle but its not a fun ride. I am farm boy not a cowboy. I was thinking about trying to break him to drive so I could trot him around on the road for a while and wear him before anybody tried to ride him. He is a real sweetheart of a pony and acted well when I got him so I know he can be better. But after reading this thread I am thinking breaking him to drive is probably beyond my skill level. I had hoped that after breaking a half dozen teams of oxen that a horse would be easy, but it really is a totally different language.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

I like Stihl better then husky myself but Carl is right one that runs well is the best. It has been several years maybe more then 5 that Stihl started putting the 0 at the end. For instance the 044 became the 440, so those saws are fairly old.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

I had a a little brain freeze there. I was thinking of tree scales where the form class takes taper into account. Log scales indeed consider the log to be a cylinder. Scale sticks are cheap enough and easy to find you should get one. . (actually real easy to find around here, I leave them in the woods all over).
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

@Does’ Leap 38418 wrote:

Thanks for the response. I am figuring out this logging thing as I go along without having had the benefit of working with someone with experience, so your input is helpful. I will ship some of those logs. I think I will also lean toward the 20 footers. I have watched guys running slashers over here and they seem to be always cutting for length on hemlock.

George

Wow, $320 is good. I am only getting $230 and I have to pay a trucker to load it on a trailer. Allegedly the log rules (scale) take taper into account on longer logs. How ever I do think you may lose some scale anyway, which is often compensated for by higher per thousand prices for the longer logs.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

“But in the long-run I come down to the art, the craft, the pure personal expression of my own creativity. I am doing the kind of work I want to do, the way I want to do it, with inherent levels of personal satisfaction that make me a better father, a better partner, and better citizen, and a better human being than I know I would be if I weren’t doing this……….. And most days I take my profit in this understanding before I even hit the woods. This doesn’t help pay the grain bill, but it certainly takes the sting out of it.”

Thanks Carl for putting my feelings into text,
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

How come this is only a American thread, Don’t you guys on the other side of the pond have anything to say?

[Baystatetom]

I am ashamed to say I have poor fences and my animals get out from time to time. One of my steers refuses to be caught once he is out. The trick I have learned is to use the one I can catch as a shield to sneak up behind. I just bend down low behind Rock and walk him over to Star reach under his neck and snap a rope onto his collar.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

Economy of scale forces me to, or allows me to go onto a wood lot and remove all the poor quality material at once. The stocking level is greatly reduced but the average quality of the trees left to grow is dramatically increased. So is the integrity of the available seed source.
If I understand what you are talking about Carl a lot of those poor quality trees would be retained and slowly removed in order to maintain a higher stocking level. From a finance stand point we would be allowing the growth of poor quality trees hence reducing the growth of those high value crop trees. This may indeed be a better technique as far as the greater ecosystem is concerned, but would result in a lower value timber resource over time.
It always just comes back to finance. Unless we can somehow attach a monetary value to a healthy ecosystem it will never be possible to move from a niche to a common market.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

Carl’s third party certification idea sounds great but it reminds me of the “Green Certification” we have now. Massachusetts had a big push to get properties SFC certified a while ago. I certified my own land as well as several clients properties. So far it has only added time and expense through additional paperwork, inspections and site visits. I still have not sold a single stick of Green Cert wood for a penny more then noncert wood. Don’t get me wrong I think its a great idea but so far it remains a feel good thing for those who can afford to feel good. If the wood market can’t accept and pay more for mechanically produced wood harvested under a higher standard how can it do it for draft power.
P.S.
Its a bit off topic but the native people of the northeast used fire to manage our forests for thousands of years before Europeans ever got here. We really have no idea what things would have looked like prehuman because even our virgin forest were managed.
~Tom

[Author]

Posts