Buckin' Them Branches...Jus' Whatdayado ??

Yep, I know what ya mean about not wasting time on the small stuff....that's the way we are too UNTIL the good stuff is mostly gone, then we go back to processing down to about 2". I hate having to leave it behind, but in most cases we have to stay ahead of the excavation and not slow down the site so we've no choice but to take the best.

FTG-05, I like your set up. I was trying to figure out what tractor you are running there.....

I agree about the rocks.... Man, you talk about a pucker factor....last year I had to dig a step into a creek bank for a toe hold and use the Stihl 440/24" bar at eye level to drop a 30" sycamore for a buddy. At eye level, the leading edge of the notch was mere inches above ground level. My SIL was in the truck hooked to a cable 20 some odd feet up the trunk to pull the tree in the needed direction. On my signal, a slight nudge was all it took to keep it from dropping directly across the creek. I did NOT enjoy those critical 2 minutes on that steep rocky bank at all.

I been this route many times also. Mostly we'll do what we need to depending on the circumstances but we ususally to try to pack it home for the major processing.

Backwoods Savage...oats is one thing we never raised... I don't know why though. Mostly our grains were wheat and barley, milo, soybeans and horse corn. Hay was lespideeza (sp?), alfalfa and johnson grass. Filling silo was my favorite late summer work. Picking corn not so much as we unloaded the wagons by hand with a grain scoop. But I did like grinding corn....did you ever have a machinery bolt go through the hammer mill ??? Whew !!!! What a racket....and hell on the screen.

Again everyone, thanks for contributing. Its nice to see the different and creative ways people use to accomplish the same goal.



One more pic just for posterity.... This is a sycamore branch about 9" and the top end of the size we put through the saw. They are just too heavy to handle if over 6' long or so. This one was partially sawed, tilted away from the blade, the saw was then shut down and the branch re-threaded onto the blade JUST for a picture for you guys !! The normal max is usually in the 7" to 8" arena, up to 8' to 9' long with the occasional 10 footer thrown in just for the heck of it.

 

I normally cut the branches to stove length while on the tree, rather than cut large full branches from the trunk and then deal with them on the ground. Can't do them all this way, but quite a bit can be done, saving a lot of bending over with the saw. Cheers!

 

That last picture with the glove and the saw really scared me at first! I thought it was someone's hand lying there!

 

Kubota L4330, about a 38 hp tractor.

Thanks!

 

Shawn - how do you lift the big long logs up into the cradles ?

 

I like to use a pair of log tongs. The trailer deck is about the same height as the sawbuck, so I just drag them off the trailer right onto the horse. Now getting them on the trailer in the first place.... Mostly brute strength. If I can lift one end of the log, I can flop it into the trailer. The last pic mostly was just for fun, to see how much I could put on there. Do not try that one at home.

 

I am in the camp of cutting to length before or as a part of limbing. It is not as fast as conventional limbing but conventional limbing is all about freeing the log, not about using the branches as firewood.