Well I said I cut a load of ash logs and as is often stated, without pictures, it never happened. So here a few are, compliments of my patient wife who took them for me. Everything went well, with no barber-chairs on such highly valuable logs, however an interesting thing happened in the last picture. As I was cutting the last tree into logs on the deck it instantly cracked four ways. I have run into this issue before with internal stress in the log that just explodes when you cut into it with a saw. I am not sure if it ruined the 250 bf log or not. It scaled better at (4) 8 foot logs so its not like the scaler can take a 10 footer and cut it back to a 8 foot and call it good. Nope he'll either take it or call it junk. Too bad on a such veneer ash log 26 inches or so in diameter. As for the pile of wood in total, I'll let you know what it paid up at on Friday.
Wow, those are some big 'uns! Interested to hear what they bring, and how much more you get when you do the prep work. Apparently your wife knows how to use the camera self-timer...and she looks very young. I have a lot of White Ash that's gonna go down to EAB, more than I can use any time soon. Selling some wood might be an option, but the trees are buried deep in the forest on sloping ground. I don't have a 'dozer and those logs might be a little tough for the quad to pull.
I should point out a trick an old duffer showed me many years ago when cutting logs, but pulling them out tree length, or at least, more than one log at a time. In the third picture, the one with me and my youngest daughter, just to the left of my saw, you can see a saw kerf ring. That is the mark for my 10'-6" log with trim allowance. What I do is run my tape out to whatever length I figure will bring me the most money for the tree, then ring it and then start my next log. By doing that, you have a nice ring that you can find when you get out to the deck even after trees roll around from skidding. You can actually see this in the 5th picture. I am looking the log over for that kerf-ring to see where to cut the log at.
That is nasty (and costly) when it happens but, it happens. Those pictures really take me back many moons and bring back some good memories. Thanks for sharing.
I called my trucker today and asked him to move them quickly as a few had already split and he said he would move them tomorrow. The Log Yard is only 9 miles down the road so its not a big inconvenience. I thought about moving them via my Wallenstein, but I would look some stupid unloading them at the log yard. Like a Tonka truck on the interstate! BTW: The long, ugly looking logs are mat logs!
LodgedTree Those are awesome pictures of fresh or nearly fresh cut wood. Keep em coming! The bonus is having a family member in one of the pictures.
I noticed your life is good t-shirt, I wear them too. Your daughter is a cutie too. Nice shots of you working the trees and kudos to your wife for taking them. Does your dozer just skid for you or do you use it for other things?
I have a farm so I use it for everything. Right now I am supposed to be down to a Christian Camp bulldozing in a gravel pad for a barn, but got stuck here cutting more wood. I bought it primarily for the woodlot though because a lot of it I just could not get to with my little Kubota Tractor, but the two really work well in tandem. The Kubota is light and quick where as the dozer is slow, but has plenty of traction. Its kind of like being a carpenter; its not just using a plumb, level and square, it is knowing WHEN to use each one that makes you a carpenter. Sometimes the bulldozer works better, and sometimes the tractor does; bulldozers are designed to push and tractors are designed to pull. What I found is, the bulldozer works well for building the roads to get the wood out. Areas that are inaccessible because of cradle knolls, brush and limbs is a usable road within ten minutes of firing up the dozer. Once a road is built, I then can travel over it faster with my Kubota and get more wood out that way. But around the farm having a bulldozer is very convenient. I put in a lot of ditches this year with it.
The logs just left and it was not even disappointing, it was depressing. (4) of my biggest logs are junk due to that cracking. As my trucker and I talked, "boom" the darn thing split again! I also thought I had a load, but it was 3/4 at best. I am guessing I'll be lucky to make $700.
I "liked" your post, but that's a bummer. When we bought this place from my wife's grandma, a neighbor was having his place logged and I thought, "Well, I'll have them hit our place too, be a nice guy, and give the money to Grandma." That was before I became a wood nerd, and I didn't know much at the time. They took 70 trees, and for the lousy few thousand bucks they gave us, I would gladly come out of my pocket right now with double the money, just to have those trees back. I just know they raped the big Walnut, Black Cherry and White Oak outta here.
LodgedTree , I assume you were able to keep the cracked trees and are able to turn them into firewood
Oh yes, my trucker knows anything that the scaler won't take, stays here, though it probably won't be used for firewood, but sawn on our own saw mill. It is crackd, and won't get good, wide boards, but it can still be quarter sawn and it is clear wood without a knot in it. Having our own saw mill has actually paid for itself just in that fact alone. Like the pine saw mills we sell wood too, years ago they used to scale white pine logs and so it was understood, anything #2 and down was coming back home on the truck. We had a lot of #2's after that. And another time, we cut a wood lot where the landowner had another logging crew go in and cut the wood. They got just the select white pine out and left the rest and what a mess. But it was a years time between when they left and when we started logging it. We hauled in the #2's and #1's to the saw mill and the scaler was going to give us #3's for the whole pile because the logs started to get pine weevil in it. But we knew the score and said, "oh no, the pine weevils just laid their eggs, but they have not had time to ruin the wood. We'll haul it home and saw it ourselves if all you will give is #3's" We sold that load as #1's and #2's. It's a shame you have to be in the business not to get scammed, but that is just the way it is I guess.
