It's about 7x 15x 2.5 or262.5cuft of wood divided by 128 is 2.05 cord rough. Just me putting a tape to is as I am about to cut it off my trailer.
Don't forget to subtract the saw kurf every 16 inches...... I used to load logs on my trailer, it was a pain getting them off!! Now there are saw cuts here and there on the deck from cutting on the trailer...
It is a pain. But it's still way easier than carrying them through the woods a round at the time!! I didnt hit the deck one time, I did nick the rear angle iron on the trailer though trying to get those tight ones out of the back row
Stay horizontal my friend...your body will thank you-it's the natural way...we've been upright since the dark ages...let's not go back...
It's purely logical Sir Savage One, He grows it vertically for us so that we won't be tripping all over the place. When time for harvest and to put toward the heat our bodies need, He intends for us to Lay It Down... Do I have to call on Conway again to serenade you???
I realize log loaders are expensive ($18,000), but I will have to say, after getting one a few months ago, I am not sure how I got along without it. Whether picking up logs off a trailer, picking wood to cut into blocks (rounds to split) at perfect waist height so I don't have to bend over with a chainsaw, or even moving a heavy bush hog around to work on, it is a back-saver. It really is a mobile crane. Considering the price of back surgery, its probably a bargain too.
At the price of wood (unless yall market is way different than here) I don't see how anyone makes any money logging on that scale?
How could you NOT make money? I got a $10,000 dozer pulling a $18,000 trailer, working by myself from 9 AM to 4PM and not busting my hump to do it making between $320-500 per day. better yet my dozer is not working at all. Its pulling wood on wheels, not digging into the ground, not tugging on its final drives, really nowhere near taxing its 19,000 lb tractive effort. Fuel costs are nil too; 3 gallons per day for the dozer and maybe 1 gallon of gasoline/oil between the Wallenstein Log Trailer and Chainsaw usage. Being on tracks and wheels I can go in any weather, on any soil, in any terrain, and in any depth of snow, and being low impact, I have a lot more prospective landowners that will let me harvest wood off them. With a skidder I could get out more wood in a day granted, but it would burn 5 GALLONS PER HOUR doing so. The skidder would also cost more to purchase, roughly $18,000 used which is what a new Wallenstein log trailer costs. Skidders have a poor reputation here because of the ruts they make reducing the landowners who are willing to let them use their land for logging. Now start getting into the costs of mechanized forestry and you start looking at fractional equipment; "that feller-buncher costs 1/4 of a million, that chipper is 1/2 a million, etc", not to mention the fuel they consume and how much land is required to keep the beast's fed and I am not just talking about fuel, but wood too! It is the same old story; low cost/low volume or are you going to go high cost/high volume? Now keep in mind I am selling wood to the paper mill or log yard at wholesale prices, and yet I think I have proven my system is justifiable enough, but then lets start start looking at retail prices. What if I took those same Spruce logs and sawed them on my sawmill and sold the lumber? Or what if instead of selling those 4 cords of hardwood, I converted it into firewood at $250 a cord instead of $80? Yes I have an extra day in the process since they must be split, but I also tripled my money per cord. But I don't need too and that is the thing; I am NOT a logger, I am retired and my goal is not to log, my goal is to clear my land of trees and convert it to farmland so I can raise more sheep. Like anyone, I have choices, I can drive around in a $50,000 pick up to work, or I can drive a paid for $10,000 bulldozer pulling an $18,000 log trailer whenever I feel like harvesting some of the resources God has given me. I think in that regard I am well ahead. It's half the cost, paid for, and makes me money. The real question in my heart lately is not IF I am doing the right thing, but if this is what God wants for my life? I am in no way suggesting God wants us to be miserable, but it is not being too comfortable either. It is looking like God is opening a door for me and Katie to take the gospel and our knowledge of raising sheep to the impoverished nation of Moldova. I know this; God has not granted me the luxury of retiring at age 42 so we can eat, get fat and cut a little wood. He has freed up my time so I can honor him. The work in this world is intensive and the workers are few, and if that is what God wants, Katie and I will do just that; here in Maine at our church, at a Christian Camp for Children, or halfway around the world.
What works for one doesn't always work for another. With that said I can see that you have a plan to clear your land to raise more Sheep. If you can clear your land and get your investment back or most of it from the sale of logs you are way ahead of if you had to pay to clear your land. You will still maintain ownership of your equipment when the land is cleared and your heard has a pasture. Rent it, work by the day for others or sell it, it's like money in the bank.
