Graeme McMahon Regnans Take Down
- Thread starter gf beranek
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Burnham
Woods walker
Makes me grin, ear to ear, just thinking about such a summit of legends in the biz. I'd have paid a small fortune to sit at their feet and listen.
top_notch
Treehouser
Fantastic photos! Huge trees;excellent work! I especially like the photo with the mini excavator "Chip Bogging" in the first group on the first page. Can't wait to see the motion picture!
G
Graeme McMahon
Guest
I have started 2 new divisions in my company, locating underground pipes and plumbing repairs. They seem to go well together and I'm very busy.
Graeme
gf beranek
Old Schooler
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #80
I am qualified as well. Having once broke a 3 inch water main with a chunk the same way. However I left the repair up to more qualified persons. It was a geyser that one.
SouthSoundTree
Treehouser
Mountain Ash/ Euc vs. mountainash/ Sorbus
pete mctree
Treehouser
We all seem to provide extra services;
I provide a metal detection service within trees. All I to do, is put a new chain on my big saw & cut the stem where I think there won't be any
gf beranek
Old Schooler
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #83
Ah yes. The 066 metal locator.
I found most metal fasteners people put in trees lie in a region where it is comfortable for them to reach up or stoop over. Making a low stump, right near the ground, conventional style, has saved booggering a lot of chain.
I found most metal fasteners people put in trees lie in a region where it is comfortable for them to reach up or stoop over. Making a low stump, right near the ground, conventional style, has saved booggering a lot of chain.
Ed L
Treehouser
Great pics and a great job by all involved.
Ed
Ed
You and me both, Burnham
Getting it second hand is fine, too.
Graeme, as an old logger I have to ask, what size of trees were you able to put that much tonnage ( boardfeet) on the ground in, because in the trees we grow here, doing that would be beyond the stuff of legends.
Are you talking about just felling, or is limbing and bucking involved as well.
I can see that Regnans would be easy to limb and buck, since all the branches go upwards, but isn't it a brittle wood, with lots of breakage when hitting the ground.
Not trying to bug you, I just like to learn about how they do it in other places.
woodworkingboy
TreeHouser
I have a whole woodworking division connected to my tree services. Sometimes folk show an interest, but after telling them they will need to wait three or four years for the wood to dry, then if the bugs don't get it the warping and cracking might, they seem to all but lose interest. Poor salesmanship, I fear. 
Jed
TreeHouser
Pete: 
Top Notch:
Yeah, I was a fence-mender yesterday.
Thanks for the info Sean.
Top Notch:
Yeah, I was a fence-mender yesterday.
Thanks for the info Sean.
G
Graeme McMahon
Guest
Fair question Stig.
As you know the quality of the bush governs the wood that can be shifted. We are still logging "39 regen.". Whilst there is variation amongst it, it is generally accepted that you produce a 60m tree in 60 years.
Felling, limbing and heading off is my part of the process. Roading, making landings and scrubbing must be done before felling. Pulling the wood to the landing, barking, processing, grading and loading onto trucks has it on its way to the mill.
Harder bush on the North face of Mt. Baw Baw has the volumes back to 20- 25,000 ton (8 - 10,000,000 board feet). I hope that conversion is correct! In a 9 month season I would put about 200 litres of bar oil through my falling saw. If I get ahead of the skidder I go back to the landing and cut up for the excavator operator. If they are hard to bark it helps production on the landing.
Hand felling is almost a thing of the past now as it is expected that contractors use a harvestor. I wouldn't go back to the bush unless I could hand fall. I used to fall for a 4 man crew, Faller, skidder (grapple), excavator(landing) and dozer/landing man. The larger volume season that I fell had 2 excavators on the landing, 528 cable skidder, 2 dozers and landing man.
We are only as productive as our weakest link so a high volume year is a credit to the logging crew and the luck of the weather.
Graeme
As you know the quality of the bush governs the wood that can be shifted. We are still logging "39 regen.". Whilst there is variation amongst it, it is generally accepted that you produce a 60m tree in 60 years.
Felling, limbing and heading off is my part of the process. Roading, making landings and scrubbing must be done before felling. Pulling the wood to the landing, barking, processing, grading and loading onto trucks has it on its way to the mill.
Harder bush on the North face of Mt. Baw Baw has the volumes back to 20- 25,000 ton (8 - 10,000,000 board feet). I hope that conversion is correct! In a 9 month season I would put about 200 litres of bar oil through my falling saw. If I get ahead of the skidder I go back to the landing and cut up for the excavator operator. If they are hard to bark it helps production on the landing.
Hand felling is almost a thing of the past now as it is expected that contractors use a harvestor. I wouldn't go back to the bush unless I could hand fall. I used to fall for a 4 man crew, Faller, skidder (grapple), excavator(landing) and dozer/landing man. The larger volume season that I fell had 2 excavators on the landing, 528 cable skidder, 2 dozers and landing man.
We are only as productive as our weakest link so a high volume year is a credit to the logging crew and the luck of the weather.
Graeme
SouthSoundTree
Treehouser
I've like the look of mountainash/ sorbus for a while now. Ran across a customer that said that theirs stunk badly. I thought that was weird to hear. Never heard it before.
gf beranek
Old Schooler
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #90
That's a new one by me. Sorbus?
flushcut
TreeHouser
I gotta say Jerry were you like a kid in a candy store on that take down? From what I have read in your writings in High Climbers I can only imagine you wanted to pick up a saw and jump right in.
Thanks, Graeme.
Sounds like you are in the same position that I am, versus the harvesters.
They are able to handle bigger and bigger wood, so eventually all that is left to hand fell here are the oldest hardwoods.
While I don't mind working in those and can make a good wage doing so, it is way easier to fell, limb and buck trees that are around 60-80 years of age.
I fear that we are the last generation of "real" loggers. In the future logging will be done with a joystick, not a saw.
Sounds like you are in the same position that I am, versus the harvesters.
They are able to handle bigger and bigger wood, so eventually all that is left to hand fell here are the oldest hardwoods.
While I don't mind working in those and can make a good wage doing so, it is way easier to fell, limb and buck trees that are around 60-80 years of age.
I fear that we are the last generation of "real" loggers. In the future logging will be done with a joystick, not a saw.
SouthSoundTree
Treehouser
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbus_aucuparia
This isn't he sorbus we have around here. I can't recall what the species name is for ours.
It has pinnate leaves like fraxinus ash, nothing like euc.
Many of the eucs planted around here got hit by a very cold snap (for the PNW) two winters or so ago, and didn't make it.
This isn't he sorbus we have around here. I can't recall what the species name is for ours.
It has pinnate leaves like fraxinus ash, nothing like euc.
Many of the eucs planted around here got hit by a very cold snap (for the PNW) two winters or so ago, and didn't make it.
canadiantreeman
TreeHouser
Great pics, Gerry. Must have been great to walk those woods, thats one place on my bucket list for sure.
woodworkingboy
TreeHouser
Are those harvesters limited by steep ground? It might be one reason that they have never found broad use in these parts.
gf beranek
Old Schooler
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #96
Sorbus sitchensis, most likely, considering where you live.
There are lots of sorbusses named mountain ash, but aucuparia is not amongst them.
Names of trees is a whole game of it's own.
Olive ash is actually just good old European ash fraxinus excelsior that is old, female and have grown in a wettish environment, causing it to get a false haertwood. That heartwood is sold as olive ash.
canadiantreeman
TreeHouser
I remember reading about the giant mountain ash from down under when I first got into the biz. My imagination sure ran wild with that one considering I had no concept of eucalypts and being from the bald headed prairies. Sorbus was my only frame of reference. I was picturing 300 foot tall trees with red berries all over them.
I smartened up eventually...I think.
I smartened up eventually...I think.
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