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Jim Ostergard
ParticipantScott, I’ll get cooking on the feature I’m thinking of and send my “graph” on who I am and how I got started in the next day or so. Been awful quiet here but lets hope it is because everybody is working.
JimParticipantWelcome Richard,
I live and log with horses here in the mid-coast area. Mitch and I know each other so you have some resources close by. Mitch cut his teeth with horse-logging way-back, well not so way back but when we all cut a lot of four foot wood. Great resource. I was mostly skidder or tractor mounted in those days so am glad to be out of it and using horses.
Just got an email this morning asking if I wanted a Halflinger stallion but not really something for me at this point. Would like to try the ponies in the woods but got my hands full with y big guys.
Let us know where you are and maybe out paths will cross. if you sign up for the MOFGA Low Impact workshop you will meet a bunch of us.
JimParticipantA bit more of this history. Back in the “70’s I converted a very small coastwise tanker into a swordfish boat. It had the original Lister (from the forties) with its big flywheel and was hand crank. I sure hated starting that thing in a cramped engine room. It was very common to have a Lister for electricity aboard the commercial fishing vessels probably up until the mid eighties when the boats got bigger and the electric loads higher.
JimOParticipantGoing well here mitch. Not cutting a stick, too wet. Going to burn blueberry fields today. Are you still boiling sap?
JimParticipantFunny about some horses rolling and some not. My old Belgian rarely does it but the Perch cross does it, out the barn in the morning and after the harness is off. Had another Perch cross who did the same thing, especially after getting groomed and washed off after harness on a hot summer day.
I have a friend who pulls his guys in farm pulls and has one that is prone to colic. He immediatly loads him in a trailer and off for a ride, all night if necessary. He has for years always come out of it.
JimParticipantWell, I’m certainly guilty of sitting back and not being very active. Some of it has to do with mud season which is weird since it is a good time to turn the compost piled from the horses all winter, order seeds and all the other great spring activities.
Think some of it is mild depression also. No work and this leads me to not having the energy to go hustle horse jobs or get back to chopping on a skidder crew. That said, age may play a part and it would be nice to hear how any of the other, “old fellows”, handle that. My head mostly says I’m 40 and can still chop 8 hours a day but my 69 year body sure rebells.
I agree as Carl mentioned we have a good seed or kernel in this small group and it will sprout with time. We will have peaks of activity and then slow times when folks get really busy but even that will sprout the plant I think. Just a little water now and then and perhaps the mulch is the slow time between waterings. This is a strong group with many visions and experiences that will bring others in. The newsletter idea will help that flourish.
JimbojimParticipantJason Glick in Montville, Maine has one for sale. He is a member here and I will alert him to your posting.
JimParticipantThis is an interesting thread. Carl, sounds like some of our past has some stuff in common. I have to really understand where I’m coming from each time a I go to hook either of the guys up. In the last few years I’ve suffered awfully from depression and whenever I took that to the barn I often had trouble. My mental state tended to overcomplicate things with old baggage. That is mostly been dealt with now but I often have to work at, “clearing,” myself before I start out.
A couple of years ago I read two books by Linda Kohanov, The Dow of Equus and Riding Betwen the Worlds. They have some great examples of how her horses reacted to the baggage folks brought to them.
JimParticipantI can’t add much except to say, “right on,” to having a marketing thread here. Around here Jason Glick has really done well finding appropriate work for himself, his pair and several of us to help on jobs where he uses the mill as well as the horses. He has been able to get steady winter work from landowners who want wood milled on-site for building projects. Myself on the other hand being a somewhat thick, “square-head,” and chopping away on the traditional model find that I often do not make good money for me or the horses but do good work for the landowner. Not bad altogether but I keep having to jump on the skidder crews to pay the bills. A marketing tool for products that are going to firewood, pulp or poor scale at the local family-store mill would be a great help.
Great thinking guys
jimbojimParticipantPaul Birdsall here in Maine has modified his “D” ring into two parts. And that seems to work well. He is in his 80’s and it wasn’t so much height as age and strength. He wrote an article describing it in SFJ and if I remember correctly somebody described in on one of the threads.
jimParticipantGeorge,
Over the years I’ve found that a 7 to 8′ chocker is all that one need for most operations. I use the same hook as we do with larger skidder rigs. They come smaller I think some of the Farmi tractor winch ones will do. And the chain is smaller. I’ve stretched chain out but never broken one. I have to chains that I have one larger link attached to on the end. It is cut through on a 45 on one side so that I can slide them together and thus have 15-16′ on chain when needed.
Jim OParticipantHere in Maine we apply for an exemption as an independent contractor from the workers comp system from the workers comp board. When that is issued and given a copy of to the landowner with the contract the landowner is then freed from liability is one is hurt on the job. If another person is going to work with me they have to have the same independent status and in theory need to be doing a separate process, say one felling, one twitching and also have a separate contract with the landowner.
There is still liability insurance I carry which is between $550 and $700 a year. Only used it once when I took down a set of power lines and could have paid for that out of pocket. The Maine Master Logger certification requires it as part of their process but I’m thinking about getting out of that ’cause its run by the big guys now and I have seen some work that is really awful and they keep their certification. So much for the rainforest alliance and all that stuff. Sure make for some cushy jobs for a few folks who have never cut a stick of wood.
With all the good discussion in the last few days by this group I again try and think about what would happen if all the rest of the world could chip in. Again who is a logger and who is not. Don’t want to get Bumpus-ed to death every time I want to share.
Blowing about 30-35 NW and cooling off. Hard crust on the snow, no day to chop so I’m baking bread.
JimbojimParticipantScott,
Thanks for all again. As to the logger, not the logger issue I didn’t intend to lead us in a direction of exclusion intentionally. I was more concerned with getting so many posting to the group that it would suck up too much energy reading and weeding them out. I’ve been involved with groups that called themselves loggers and they really were not. Energy just seemed to drift off somewhere else. Not necessarily a bad thing but not about the life and times we share as loggers.
I guess the real challenge is how to keep the logging focus and keep it open to folks who are really serious about learning all the valuable stuff we have to offer. Love more discussion on this point.Carl,
I would like to invite Mitchmaine on to this forum. Here is a man who has cut a lot of wood and is some good with horses. I seen him do both. Lots of experience we could use. That man has humped a lot of 4′ spruce in his time. He teaches well and is one of the trainers at the annual LIF in Unity Maine. His barn was featured in SFJ some time ago and he has a horse drawn sugar operation.
Again thanks to all who are thinking how we move on this whole thing.
jimbojimParticipantJason, Very nice job on the release. I think it was good to include the original list of names, gives a real sense of how spread out the group is and that we could come together. Brings to mind a (perhaps) minor issue and that is how to we determine a horse logger? Is that important or do we want anybody who twitches one stick of wood a year? Might be a good discussion.
Good work all for keeping the various balls rolling. Lots of work to do for sure and I will be happy to noodle over the hardcopy stuff and with collaboration, see if I can get something presentable together. Like Mr Plowden we are getting hammered here on the coast with snow and nearly storm force winds. Glad my days fishing for cod on George’s bank are over! The ground is very wet under the couple of inches we had before this hope the cold of the next few days will stiffen it up as I need to get the new in harness and on the scoot to get him ready to work.
jim OParticipantNice rig. I have a very old iron, “devil dog,” with out the fifth wheel. I seemed to always turn it over so the fifth wheel is a great addition. I will add one and give it a try. I like smaller stuff I can load in the truck or trailer myself and take to the job.
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