Just got home from the National Parks out in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Added another 18', 8 ton, running gear load to the pile. Most logs are 20'+ long 10" up to 22" in dia.
Yesterday was just too hot to be tripping in the tree line (along the harvested wheat field). The productivity shows, although this was a pretty heavy load. There were 3 full fork loads that made the backend of my MX5100 with beet juice and 300# of wheel weights feel light. Plus a smaller lift of maybe 200-250 #'s. One 24" Red Oak plus a few small ash and a couple cherry that had blown down.
There are a ton of trees that are heavily weighted towards the field and have a good bit of lean. Plunge cutting and releasing the trigger is working pretty well. I missed the first plunge when I come in from the other side on the large oak. My main concern was taking out the possibility of a barber chair. I'll be putting the 28" bar on the 372 for the cut on it's cousin tomorrow. Here's the current pile with a 6' bucket for scale. Although there is a bit of reverse "forced perspective" now that I look at the pics.
