Oak Firewood

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  • #87202
    Michael Low
    Participant

    I completed the oak firewood logging job and thought I would post on the outcome.

    This winter my wife and I are living in Washington state on the border with Oregon.

    Oaks in this region often inhabit the worst sites and do not grow large. Fire hazard is high and so debris removal is a priority to landowners.

    Harvest was worst first removal with all tops and branches.

    We set the fee at $85/ cord yarded and de-limbed.
    $35/cord for bucking to 14-16″

    So $115 total per cord with six cords total for the job.

    I was able to yard and buck two cords in a 9 hour day.

    I would increase my yarding fee to $100/ cord in this type of wood (lots of short trees/ small diameter)in the future. So total per cord would be $130

    Skidding distance was from 300-100′ per landing. The woodlot ran parallel to a small airplane runway and I was able to space 1 cord piles about 400′ apart down the runway.

    Photo of woods was post harvest.

    Piles were 8′ wood and simply the most efficient way to compile lots of small sticks and keep track of volume.

    • This topic was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by Michael Low.
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    #87386
    Donn Hewes
    Keymaster

    That is pretty impressive working alone with a single horse. It looks great there. If the skids where longer a boat or scoot that would carry 4′ or 6′ pieces might be something to try (it would cost them more!). Nice work.

    #87389
    Rick Alger
    Participant

    Looking good, Michael.

    #87390
    Brad Johnson
    Participant

    Nice looking work Michael. Keep it up!
    -Brad

    #87411
    Michael Low
    Participant

    Thanks, It was a fun job for some nice people.

    I did consider a go-devil, and would have used something for longer skids, but in the end ground skidding made the most sense with the tree spacing and whole tree extraction.

    Skoghasten is a Scandinavian logging company who have a chart with metrics for job cost, including terrain, distance to site, forest type etc. It may be the horse in the forest book that has the chart.

    Of course you have to work in an area for a while to determine how to interact with the different variables and establish such a chart.

    • This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by Michael Low.
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