SouthSoundTree-
TreeHouser
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2014
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Hey Evan. Wondered if you were still around.
New Guy
- Thread starter dstimber
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MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
Outstanding pics!!!! It looks like a nice place to earn a living...
FireFighterZero
Captain Zero!
Awesome!
dstimber
TreeHouser
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #59
Thanks guys! Im going to try to find some old pics of the equipment we had taken out back in 08. We used to run an 8Ft Albany bandmill, and a Monster Klameth( that may not be how it is spelled) carriage that we got used from a large mill in Portland Oregon. Now we run the Hurdle circle mill that is in the pics. Had to take the big stuff out when the market got so bad to cut down on our overhead and operating cost. But it is still kicking.
FireFighterZero
Captain Zero!
Thats cool. We had a sawmill next to us for years. It was all home made, and the only safe place was in the operators seat.
It was a big circular saw mill.
It was a big circular saw mill.
Thanks for the reply Dstimber, and welcome to the house!
Spent a year subbin to a logging outfit who'd set up the largest portable wood mill at that time, set up just adjacent to the Lake Arrowhead shore line. Thing was as big as your building almost. Outfit called AFP run by a third generation logger, who was mighty particular about how clean the logs were that ran though his fancy mill to the point of paying a couple guys to run those beach comber model metal detectors along both sides of each log, and they did find stuff, bolts from outdoor light fixtures n such. But the really interesting thing about Matt, more so than his giant portable wood mill, was the WW2 tank landing craft he had on Lake Arrowhead itself, so AFP could do the entire shoreline home owners associations tree's via the shore with his landing craft, inside there was a big tracked bobcat rather than a tank. Brush in the bottom, 33 foot logs on the gunwales. Amazing how powerful those two Allison turbo diesel motors on that boat are to back that thing fully loaded off the beach, and across the lake to his mill. About 2007, shortly after the fires in Big Bear.
Ole Matt was one helluva loggin fool.
Jomo
Spent a year subbin to a logging outfit who'd set up the largest portable wood mill at that time, set up just adjacent to the Lake Arrowhead shore line. Thing was as big as your building almost. Outfit called AFP run by a third generation logger, who was mighty particular about how clean the logs were that ran though his fancy mill to the point of paying a couple guys to run those beach comber model metal detectors along both sides of each log, and they did find stuff, bolts from outdoor light fixtures n such. But the really interesting thing about Matt, more so than his giant portable wood mill, was the WW2 tank landing craft he had on Lake Arrowhead itself, so AFP could do the entire shoreline home owners associations tree's via the shore with his landing craft, inside there was a big tracked bobcat rather than a tank. Brush in the bottom, 33 foot logs on the gunwales. Amazing how powerful those two Allison turbo diesel motors on that boat are to back that thing fully loaded off the beach, and across the lake to his mill. About 2007, shortly after the fires in Big Bear.
Ole Matt was one helluva loggin fool.
Jomo
Limbrat
TreeHouser
That's cool about the landing craft. When I worked for the power company, we served Dog Island via submarine cable and had an LCM to haul our buckets and line trucks, poles and transformers across the bay. The foreman we had reminded me of General George Patton, an old school hard nosed whip cracker. When we hit the beach, it was game on.
The difference between the ISA Certified Arborist tree industry and the highly mechanized logging industry's huge!
It's so dang humbling as a climber faller working flat out to have some old scraggly guy chain smoking Marlboros in that big tracked bobcat staying right on your butt single handedly, all day long! He also skippered the landing craft. Kinda rough final cleanup just using the lower tines of grab bucket as a rake though!
The production rates are jaw dropping to say the least. But I did notice that even the best of them that I was fortunate enough to actually work with in Big Bear that year, were decidedly lacking when it came to climbing and rigging out strategic takedowns that couldn't be dropped or reached with a crane. That was my incard among them. They also make a helluva better coin than even the best commercial arborists do, and deservedly so because their production rates with all that expensive equipment are indeed phenomenal.
Jomo
It's so dang humbling as a climber faller working flat out to have some old scraggly guy chain smoking Marlboros in that big tracked bobcat staying right on your butt single handedly, all day long! He also skippered the landing craft. Kinda rough final cleanup just using the lower tines of grab bucket as a rake though!
The production rates are jaw dropping to say the least. But I did notice that even the best of them that I was fortunate enough to actually work with in Big Bear that year, were decidedly lacking when it came to climbing and rigging out strategic takedowns that couldn't be dropped or reached with a crane. That was my incard among them. They also make a helluva better coin than even the best commercial arborists do, and deservedly so because their production rates with all that expensive equipment are indeed phenomenal.
Jomo
dstimber
TreeHouser
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #71
I agree about the production rates. The overhead an expenses are insane, almost to the point where the profession is not enjoyable due to the fact that its go go go all the time. But on good flat ground with good timber the crews can make mega bucks. Our logging crew is constantly struggling. We had the same crew for nearly 30 years. But they have either passed on or retired. Now we just cant seem to find anyone that wants to work out there anymore. My dad runs that crew now. He is the youngest at 55. They currently do not not have anyone that cuts by hand. All they use is a Timbco Harvester to cut, and it is wore out lol. They can still cut 15 truck loads of hardwood out in a day when it all goes well. It takes around 6 a day to keep our mill going. We saw between 28-30K bd ft of lumber a day. So its wide open for them as well as us at the mill. I think just in the mill for every hour that wood isnt in the headsaw the company loses around $1000 bucks. Major headaches! lol
squisher
THE CALM ONE!!!!
Heh Denver, welcome to The Treehouse. I appreciate the pics! I live quite close to Tolkos lavington planer mill and grew up in a small town nearby that was built on forestry. I know all to well, even as a Canadian, about downturns in the forestry/lumber industries.
Looks like a great outfit, I'd love to run something like that.
Looks like a great outfit, I'd love to run something like that.
When I jumped on board the ISA certified arborist band wagon with both feet in the early 90's?
I was a full on high production go go kinda guy, to the point my favorite crane operator, that I've done far more removals with than any other C O, thousands n thousands, pulled me aside one day and suggested I chill the ef out, before the company's owners began to expect that kinda balls out production rate every friggin day?
As I get older n frailer, I appreciate the wisdom of his advice that day, because I knew his true concern was for my well being, and the crew's.
Jomo
