Tree felling vids

[woodworkingboy]

Haha.....it's on the bi weekly menu or so. Do you have any Japanese restaurants in your area? You need a katsudon fix! Tonkatsu is similar, just that the rice is separate from the pork. It is often a standard item at most J restaurants, if not katsudon.

 

[MasterBlaster]

We have a bunch of eastern cuisine restaurants here, but I've only eaten at the one on the mall. I need to check them out, I imagine!

 

[woodworkingboy]

When it comes to katsudon, it is a pretty basic recipe for J cooking. I suspect most places would serve it. They have to probably call it a different name, like "Breaded and deep fried pork over rice"....? If it was a Chinese place, it might be a different animal.

 

[Tucker943]

It is a good gig Butch. I run a grapple skidder and a chainsaw. Its cold, and LOTS of machine maintenance, and lots of time spent fueling and greasing things. 2 hour ride to work each day. So while its a good, it also has its setbacks. I am out of my business I went in on with a firewood processor. That ended abruptly and to my disadvantage. So, I lost my 100 cord winter sale pile. Left me in a tight spot way too late in the year. So, ill go log during my down months while also socking away a pile of money as we speak.

 

[cory]

Sounds good to me, except the travel. Where you cutting?

 

[Tucker943]

Ill be at the top of Bradford County along the New York border. Literally on the border. Ill be working on a clear cut. The town is Warren Center. Its a clear cut that the company worked for has another few months left. Its on state game land and is intended as a clearcut for creating improved grouse habitat in the years to come. I follow a feller buncher around and skid trees to a chipper. Almost everything gets chipped. Anything too big for the feller to cut is my job to snip. I worked on this cut a few years ago. The state only allows this particular piece to be cut between Dec 15 and thaw out. So it has taken a few winters. They don't put much machinery or manpower at this cut. It wasn't a huge dollar bid from day one. Just something they have 2 loggers and one trucker peck away at in the winter.

I think its great. I sit and blow my ears out to classic rock from New Yorks radio stations which I think trump pennsylvanias by far. The skidded has an air ride seat and heat too. I just rock out and skid trees.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Chris, I thought that the firewood gig was going well for you. Sorry that it didn't work out after the effort, but good luck with the new activity. Be careful out there.

 

[cory]

what kind of skidder? You gonna do the drive every day, or stay over some?

 

[Tucker943]

Deere 648GIII with a dual arch, and oversized tires and blade. A nice unit. I ride there each day. Two winters ago I worked that cut and I get up at 3:30, leave my house at 4:40, jump in the tool/fuel truck at the company garage, and start spraying ether and turning keys at 6:40. Work from 7-4, grab 100 gallons of fuel on the way home for the following day, and be at my dinner table for 6:30. In bed at 7:30.

 

[cory]

Dat rocks!

Heckuva machine you're driving. Long days, but it's nice to be busy in the winter!!!!

 

[Tucker943]

It was going well Jay. Very well. Set myself up to sell bundled firewood to some retail places this winter and things were looking mighty good. The individual I was in on it with is in the early stages of alzheimers and has started to lose his marbles since june. He ended up screwing me in a fit on anger towards me. Not because he was angry at me deep down, but because his mind is slipping and he is becoming confused, and it frustrates him and he points the finger at anyone around him. He and I got into a dispute, it escalated, and went to a point of no repair.

I lost on the deal. Its just business though. I had nothing invested into the matter other then my own time. I made a pile of cash on the situation, and it fell apart. It wasn't a loss. It wasn't a bad chapter. It was a goos situation while it lasted and I am not twisted up over it. I've come to find that business changes its direction now and again. You steer a business one way, dabble in that new direction, and in time, the business will be steered in a slightly different direction for one reason or another. That's how I look at this. It was a chapter that served its purpose, and came to an end.

 

[Tucker943]

And a summer pic of the skidder.

 

[MasterBlaster]

 

[cory]

Whata beast! Great pics!

Being a grapple, vs a line machine, do hours go by that you don't get out of the seat?? And does all that sitting sorta make you lame when it comes time to get down and walk around?? Maybe it's just me being old, but that happens to me after 15 min on my Kubota.

 

[sotc]

Thats a real log getter!!

 

[cory]

Lotta good makes of skidder out there, but hard to argue with a JD. I remember riding with the driver on a JD 440, back in like the mid sixties, I was wide eyed as we drove thru 2' deep mud/water filled ruts, he threw his empty can of Bud, it got swallowed up by the big tires rolling on those big axles.

 

[Tucker943]

You get antsy to stretch your legs but remember, I get out constantly to cut sonethig the feller couldn't get. Something always needs fuel, or grease, or knives. If I get that antsy I simply get out and mosey around for a bit. I can get my work blown out faster then they can chip and haul usually. If I choose, I can skid like an animal then screw off for a half hour here and there. You can only skid so much to the landing and id there isn't a truck there to be chipped into, there's no sense in skidding more just yet. Logging with that company is different. You skid like your ass is on fire whether trucks are there to load or not.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Good attitude on the firewood deal, Chris. I can only imagine that when your mind starts going and you don't know why, it must be a fearful thing. Probably even if you know why.

 

[Burnham]

I'm way behind on this thread...on the TH in general...but thanks Cody, for the fine vids...reminds me so well of many years of work under my belt. That's a great way to learn to fall troublesome hazard trees, served me well as I got older.

 

[Tarzan]

You bet pard

 

[murphy4trees]

Here's a quickie from Hurricane Sandy

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[Al Smith]

That talk about big deep skidder ruts takes me back to the 60's .Locally they used old A-frame lift ton and a half converted grain trucks they'd chain up .Lift a big oak log and charge through deep mud you wouldn't think the could get through and left ruts that are still there today some fourty year plus later .Freakin maniacs ,two ,three tons of oak on the back and the front axle two feet in the air going hell bent for leather .It's a wonder they didn't kill themselves .Well some of them did as a matter of fact .

 

[Tarzan]

I call that "fence posting" Daniel

 

[pantheraba]

I worked the last few days with my brother-in-law, Billy, and his two adopted Ukranian sons, to remove a mess of trees so he can plant a blueberry farm. His father (my father-in-law) died a month ago...he has raised blueberries for many years and has about one hundred very productive bushes. Billy is going to transplant them to his house next month or so. We are clearing the trees and he has a man lined up to remove the trunkwood. He will get a bulldozer to de-stump it and grade it.

The area we are clearing is bounded on both sides by wires that meet at the apex of the drop zone. I had to top two to get them to fit but got to fell 5 or 6 decent sized whole trees. I don't usually get to do that. 'Twas pretty windy which kept it interesting but it was all good...nobody hurt, nothing broken and made a real big mess.

The last two videos were made by the boys...I thought they were playing with their phones while I was cutting the trees down...I noticed them put them at the base of a tree when it was rope pull time. They were making videos...good on them. Trouble is the vids were sideways...I had to rotate them but that took filtering them thru two programs...quality suffered some.

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[MasterBlaster]

Tim-BAHHHH!!!