Moving Firewood on Bobsled

[Carl Russell]

Started moving firewood today using the team with a bobsled. Cut and twitched yesterday, and loaded about 1.5 cords of wood on the sled today. The skid is about 2500 feet, all downhill. Had two short days, but should be able to get a couple of loads a day out of here when we get going.

Carl

[Donn Hewes]

That is a nice load of wood Carl. Question about the roached mane. Is that just personal preference or is there another reason you do that? Most all mules are roached, just the way the manes grow, but I have sometimes considered doing the horses as well. Donn

Busy trying to ted an inch of rain out of some hay before it rains again!

[Carl Russell]

Donn Hewes;18939 wrote:

… Question about the roached mane. Is that just personal preference or is there another reason you do that?…

Personal preference because I can’t stand trying to keep the mane managed. I never liked a long mane, scraggly and always in the way. I was never good at trimming a mane so it didn’t look like a bowl cut. My mentors always roached their horses’ manes, and I liked the way it looked, and after trying natural manes, I agreed with their preferences.

Oh, and it really helps them pull better;)

Carl

[Scott G]

2500′ for a total of almost a mile turn? Thats a long haul for firewood…

Looks like you get a decent load on the ‘bob, though.

[Carl Russell]

Scott G;18943 wrote:

2500′ for a total of almost a mile turn? Thats a long haul for firewood…

Looks like you get a decent load on the ‘bob, though.

It’s my own land. I wouldn’t be able to make it work if it was for a client. I have 150 acres, and it is nearly 3/4 mile from my landing to the back corner. Luckily it is all down hill, out.

It is worth it to me to work my horses across the entire landholding, rather than hiring someone with machinery.

And, the most feasible way is to use the bobsled. I figure I can get 2-4 cords a day from pretty much any part of the land. It may turn out to be some pretty expensive wood if I ever get enough to sell though.

It takes some conditioning, but horses can be used to move pretty big loads over long distances if the land lays right. It is a slow production for sure, but I own everything I am using, so there is no immediate out of pocket expense to try to cover. It is a lot less expensive for me to move wood on my sled than to get a machine or forwarder to do it for me.

I do it this way because I have to on my own place, but I also want people considering using animals to power their farm and forest homesteads to realize they don’t have to compromise. All of these hills were worked exclusively with animals 100 years ago, and I’m still using their trails.

Carl

[mitchmaine]

hi carl, if you can cut and yard 4 cords of wood with a pair of horses each day, i’d call that a good days work.

mitch

[Carl Russell]

mitchmaine;18947 wrote:

hi carl, if you can cut and yard 4 cords of wood with a pair of horses each day, i’d call that a good days work.

mitch

That’s in the short skid areas, 500 feet or less. And that is a rough average anyway, because my “days” are inconsistent based on who started squawking earliest, or what I forgot to do yesterday, or what I broke….like the roll and bunk on the sled….Gotta start up the sawmill today.

Carl

[cousin jack]

Carl, do you have any close up pics of the bob, unladen?

[Carl Russell]

cousin jack;18961 wrote:

Carl, do you have any close up pics of the bob, unladen?

I’ll get some soon. It’s a bit over-used at this point, so I’ll be rebuilding it.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

This is what the sled looks like when it is empty. There are two 15-20′ chains that I use to wrap the first layer of the load, one for each side of center so the load cam pivot while turning. There is also a chain binder and another 20′ chain to bind the whole load to keep the logs from spreading out behind. Runners are 4″ thick ash cut from a crooked butt log to get the sweep in grain, tongue is 2×8 ash, roll is 4×6, and the bunk is 4×8 sugar maple….with one side snapped of from a really big oak log this winter…soon to be repaired. There is lots of steel re-enforcing the wood, so it can really stand up to abuse.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Here’s one more. Sorry about the size, but I am limited to copying these from the photo gallery as I have over run my attachments capacity.

Carl

[mitchmaine]

hey carl, did you have to splice a peice into the right hand runner once?

[Carl Russell]

mitchmaine;19096 wrote:

hey carl, did you have to splice a peice into the right hand runner once?

I may have cut a piece to put in under the beam as it may ave been rotting a bit and shimmying…at least it looks like it….but I only vaguely rmember such a thing. Otherwise the rest of the runner is complete.

Carl

[cousin jack]

Carl, thanks for those, CJ

[mink]

carl i was wondering what the 2 little dips are in the steel going over the bunk are for ? do you find the sled better than the 2 wheel carts for pulling firewood? mink

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