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Scott G
ParticipantKevin,
Fire mitigation work has been my bread & butter, although not by choice, both when I had my mechanical operation, and to some extent now with the horse operation. As a forester, it is a huge part of what I deal with on a regular basis. It has become a component of pretty much every project we do.
Firewise is a national program that has slowly but steadily gained momentum through the years. CO was involved to some extent, touting “Firewise Communities”. Now the CSFS pretty much takes the lead not necessarily following the Firewise template. I know NM & WY pretty much use what Firewise provides as program models.
Fuel Management is the #1 driver in the west right now for forestry. Something I don’t necessarily agree with but that would take a long time to explain why. In short, fire is (should be) a component of forestry, not the other way around.
That said, defensible space around homes and strategic shaded fuelbreaks around communities are one of the largest opportunites for horse loggers in the west that there is. These treatments require high aesthetics and low-impact harvesting techniques if they are implemented correctly. In essence, it is backyard forestry…
Ray Pilcher of Devil’s Tower did quite a bit of fuels work in the area with his horses for the Firewise program. You may want to try to track him down for more info if you want a take on the local situation.
Don’t have his contact info handy but if you Google him you’ll get it.
Participant’88 Chevy 3/4 ton flatbed with a ’89 16′ stock trailer. The wife & daughters have the ’05 Duramax and ’04 Exiss GN with living quarters. Guess that tells you where I rate in the big picture…;)
I resurrected the stock trailer a few years back when I got serious about logging with a horse again. Rewired it & boarded up the front ahead of the slam gate to have a secure place to keep harness, rigging gear, saw stuff, etc… works well to have a secure place out of the weather.
Not much to look at but it works well. Didn’t know we were going to have a beauty contest or I could’ve taken some pics yesterday when I was hooked up. Now the truck is at the top of the mountain and the trailer is sitting at the bottom (road iced out).
I like the versatility of flatbed truck/trailer vs. straight chassis haul truck. I can put a pretty decent load of post & poles on my small flatbed. If I want to haul more/sawlogs I have a 20′ GN flatbed trailer I can load down.
I’m on tail end of the 2nd engine, 3rd front end, 2nd rear end, etc.. on the truck. It’s gettin’ very tired (well over 300k very hard miles)although it still does the job. Chained up to pull the pass just yesterday…
Saving my pennies to get a Dodge 1 ton flat bed like John’s and a 20′ GN Stock combo that I can rig specific to my needs for stayin out in the woods for an extended period of time. Wall tents are OK but the weather proofness of a trailer and time saved of not having to set up/tear down camp are nice.
Anything over 20-22′ is too tough to get around on the small two-track woods roads around here. A rig the size of John’s or my wife’s (24′) is just to big to clear and make the corners without getting banged up. Same goes for the metal. Anything other than steel trailers on the back roads and you end up with some expensive recycled metal. Aluminum & aluminum/steel just doesn’t hold together. Aluminum frames are notorious for bending when the going gets rough…
ParticipantJRT = Jack Russell Terrorist
ParticipantPutting your horse in the back of your standard PU was a pretty normal way of going when I was a young kid. My Dad had stock racks for our old 3/4 T GMC that we use to haul our small mares and pack burros around in. 1 horse or 2 burros was a usual load. I can’t remember the last time I saw a horse in the back of a PU. Seemed to die out by the mid-80’s. Never heard of a single road wreck with a PU w/ stock racks as opposed to many by trailers. The major downside of hauling with a truck is that you need a decent cut bank and/or large ramp for loading/unloading. I also find it easier to turn a gooseneck around in a really tight spot as opposed to a large straight chassis. I’ll pick a gooseneck any day for hauling…
ParticipantPhil,
Put a receiver on the back end of your GN. Towing multiples can be tricky and near impossible when it gets too tight but at at a minimum you could get the majority of the way there, drop/secure the mill, go the last bit to the job site, dump the GN & horses and go back & get the mill.
You’ve seen those Mega-RV rigs driven by tourists with blue hair towing a jeep + boat+ jet-ski behind them!
Once I get a horse-drawn forwarder that is how I’m going to handle it…
ParticipantHorse or machinery operation, if it is much more than 1-1 1/2 hours I set up a base camp and spend at least 1/2, if not all, the work-week time there.
Travel time eats into the budget and the body.
ParticipantAwesome guys, thanks!
I still haven’t sorted through the pics I took on Sunday at LIF. When I get a chance in the next week or so I’ll post some of the best on here.
Awesome day cuttin’ (choppin’:D), ground frozen hard, just the right amount of snow, and a day that just felt right…
FYI, John P.’s video is now online
ParticipantHey Geoff,
Can you scan those drawings and post them? The copyright would have expired by now I would think.?? I got some pictures of Carl’s rig when I was back there but more detail is always nice.
Sincerely,
Member of the Western InvasionParticipant@dominiquer60 22305 wrote:
I am sharpening my pencil and preparing for what those western NY farmers have to through at me. The guys in the east don’t care and would rather vote yes and support keeping opportunities open for those that don’t have the chance to inhert mega dairies.
Give ’em hell, Erika! Best of luck to you. Might help if you invite a reporter from a respected local paper to attend the hearing. Bureaucrats listen much better when someone is taking notes… Somehow people seem to associate QC with larger operations. That’s a crock…
ParticipantFrickin’ awesome, Kevin! Flames painted down the side would be a perfect accent. Reminds me of something like “Mad Max” from a draft perspective. I can almost imagine Tina T. sitting up there alongside…
ParticipantThere is an outfit here in the RM region who markets (and maybe manufactures) an interchangable bit system. They are very refined and very well made. Using secure recessed set screws, you can change shanks, bars, ports on bars, jointed bars, etc.. For example, you can change out the straight bar on your liverpool with a snaffle. They are kinda spendy but extremely well made and all bar components are sweet mouthed. They allow you to really “fine tune” your headgear. Unfortunately I can’t remember the company’s name but with a bit of searching it could be tracked down.
Almost made the plunge, but balked. Maybe next year. Truth is all of the horses I have driven were in either an egg butt/D-ring smooth snaffle or liverpool and they responded just fine. Seems to me moving from the smooth snaffle to the liverpool with all of the adjustment options you have pretty much gives you all of the options. Headgear like double-twisted wire snaffles I’ve never had much use for, that option seems to come with hard mouthed and/or some competition pulling horses.
I picked up a book over twenty years ago “Bits” authored by Louis Taylor that is a good read, albeit a bit dry, on every conceivable bit of headgear and following up on the history. If it is still in print it is a good one to have on the shelf.
Happy T-Day everyone!
Participant…5 degrees and 30 mph winds yesterday. Wind chill conversion was -35F. Balmy -20F today. Picking boughs yesterday on the north/dark side of the mountain and thinking Maine is a pretty desirable tropical destination in November.
So, how do we take the energy & ideas of LIF and move them forward through the rest of the year? This is a question…inquiring minds want to know.
I tried with the DAPFI effort, but obviously that fizzled. Suggestions??
ParticipantNow I know what the definition of surreal means…
Left the MOFGA mansion early yesterday morning and just kept heading north until I was puttin’ around the New Brunswick border then headed back to the airport to catch my flight. By 11:30 last night I was almost to our place trying to keep my eyes open and stay on the road. Lot of ground to travel in one day. No major travel clusters this time, only an hour delay and no body cavity search:D Woke up this morning to fresh snow, 12 degrees and crystal clear skies & sun. Still need to unpack, haven’t even gotten the gear out of the car yet. Still in a bit of denial I guess…
To say I had a great time with you folks would be an understatement of magnitude. Way beyond the exchange of information, methods, & philosophy was the core of something much larger. Something, at this time, I can not even find words to express. Like others, I had a lot of time to think on the way back…
I have never had the opportunity to spend so much (but yet so little) quality time with so many like-minded folks that are so immersed in a belief, culture, and lifestyle, as I am.
Think I’ll get a handful of some lines this afternoon and go for a drive in the woods to further ponder those same thoughts…
We need to take this energy and move our culture/methods forward.
You people now occupy a very special place in my soul…
Participant@Does’ Leap 22220 wrote:
I have been cutting spruce and have been getting a lot of tear out or fiber pull on my but logs from the hinge. Per Game of Logging standards, I aim for a hinge thickness of 10% DBH, a hinge length of 80% DBH, and a notch angle of at least 70 degrees. Any suggestions on how to avoid this?
George
George,
Try reducing the thickness of your hinge, ONLY if you feel comfortable about it. You’re cutting at the butt, not breast height??ParticipantFeeling a bit surreal being back here on the mountain after a phenomenal week…
Tim, being a mule ain’t bad. They aren’t stubborn, they just have an uncanny sense of self-preservation & self-interest. Pretty necessary, quality traits to have as a logger.
Jimbo, first off it was great to meet you, man. I sure wish you could’ve stuck around but certainly empathize with your situation.
I purchased “Horse in the Forest” from RH a few years back. Gail Damerow literally “pasted” updates on new paper over original text, pretty custom!
Joe might still have a few copies laying around, give him a call.
As far as what Carl hauled off the brow. There were 3-5 singles twitching to that brow with predominantly novice loggers over ~ 2 days total. I’d say average twitch length was ~150′ and we were scrambling for wood. All of us spent considerable time behind the saw to keep us in wood as that was a challenge. Material coming out was primarily pulp as our priority was to keep sticks in front of the students to twitch, a lot of toothpicks were moved that otherwise would have stayed in the woods. There were only a couple of nice logs that I would have qualified as true sawlogs, but thats my interp coming from a different region. Plowden put his Scandinavian-inspired rig together for the last day and moved a lot of 8′-16′ small wood off the brow as well. Awesome system, perfect for the post & pole material I cut out here. I’ll be getting a PPS (Plowden Proficiency System) II in the very near future 😉
I’d throw out a rough distance of ~ 1/8 mile to final landing, so 1/4 mile turn total?? My visual estimate of distance out there is probably a bit off. But then again, I’m a bit off in a lot of ways…
‘Wicked’ awesome time, folks
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