Load of wood from my friends house

I spent Monday this week at my friend's woods. We took the bobcat Toolcat and hauled my 4x8 trailer behind it into the woods to fill up with rounds.

The trails have some tight corners, we needed the all wheel steering that the Toolcat has to get around those tight bends. We'll need to work on those trees that make the corners tricky next.

My buddy had his two sons out as well, they rode out on their ATV. The kids tended the fire from small rounds of freshly cut basswood, but it burned when provoked enough. Everything was wet from about 2" of fresh heavy snow that ended that morning. Anyways, while my buddy and I cut fallen trees snd some that were close to the trail, the boys got the fire going well and it was good for cooking lunch, which was hot dogs over the fire. Fire cooked hot dogs are always the best.

Here's the result.



I used the ms170 I won at Dennis's GTG to fell the biggest ash. It was about 17" dbh. Amazingly it worked pretty well for that. My buddy took the 4 biggest rounds of that ash for bonfire seats. I still got a full load.

 

What a cool post! All that's missing are pics of the weiner roast and the toolcat! Sounds like a wonderful outing.

The Toolcat seems such a dream machine, I have looked at those. Do you like it? What attachments do you have?

Your trailer is uber cool and I have one similar. Mine is homemade, is yours? I like your wide lumber 1x10 and 1x12 or whatever they are. Do you have a rear gate or removable panel? Mine is due for an overhaul on the wooden frame.

 

Nice work Horkn , the kids will remember those outings forever! More of those adventures & less time in the shop is my goal for the New Year. I missed a lot of time with my kids while earning a living & don't want that with my grand kids. Great Post!

 

That's a decent load of wood. As mentioned, those memories will last a lifetime. I remember hating firewood stuff as a kid.

 

Ironically

 

Ha no kidding! Mister I love those huge rounds that make 90 splits. Maybe alien abductions are real. He does like funny colored saws.

 

Lol, true story. It was never a fun affair back then.
I just like my saws all one color, not like desert treats.

 

I wish the Toolcat was mine. That's my buddy's. He bought it last fall when he purchased the 50 acres behind his house. He's got a long blacktop driveway. His mother built a house for herself a next to his land, but she's got a decent amount of driveway too, and plows his and his mom's driveways. It's the 5600 I believe. The one with the hydraulic dump bed. It's got front hydraulic quick disconnects. So, for implements/ attachments, he's got the v plow, the bucket, and the brush hog that can cut down small trees. He got a set of 4 mega bright cab mounted lights for Christmas this year. It's got heat and air conditioning, which is really nice. It's got enough power to pull leaners over.

Yeah, I meant to take pics of the machinery, the progress, and hot dogs, but it's my buddy's place, and I want to respect his privacy. Also, we were busy working, then eating, then working some more.


The trailer is a King, so not homemade. It was given to me by my other good buddy. It was given to him by his girlfriend's dad. He's already got enough trailers.. Those are 1/2" thick pine wood sides. They are pretty brittle. The tail does slide up and off, with a little work. ATV ramps work fire loading any wheeled items.

I ran the dolkita 6421 first, and I need a new bar for it anyway, because it's starting to arc on bigger pieces. Since I was walking up the trail further, I wanted a light saw. And the 6421 needed refueling and the 170 was so gassed up. So the 170 was deployed. Sure, I could've used my buddy's Makita 6100, but I wanted to test out the 170's capability. That was it for sure. I touched up the chain with the pferd CSX for that mini chain. My buddy was working on a snaggle of fallen poplar and basswood that fell by the trail. They have fires back there, all the time, so they need all the wood they can get. They won't run out, especially if they don't mind basswood. There's beech, and ironwood, cherry, as well as a few oaks back there too.

Yeah these boys will turn out just fine. The older son is 14 and his dad let him run the Toolcat while we were loading the bucket on the Toolcat and then unloading it into the trailer. It's great for the kids to get familiar with equipment, as they'll be better equipped to drive a car when they are ready. The younger son basically turned the fire the whole time, which was necessary with not perfectly dry basswood.. He got it going pretty well, but I helped as I could by putting top pieces of trees into the fire, to get the driest fuel into the fire.

These kids like the outdoors. They got a greater swiss MTN dog this fall, a rescue about 9 months. The pup likes to run around outside and the kids are both into sailboat racing. So they like doing stuff outside. My buddy wasnt much of an outdoor guy until I introduced him to jet skis, snowmobiles, ATVs etc when we met in college about 20 yrs ago, so, I think he's having his kids make up for his non outdoorsy youth? It's all good, that's for sure.

It's funny that his kids address me as Mr Jahn. Having no kids of my own, it's odd, but I like the respectful salutations.

 

this is what a Toolcat is.

He's also got the fork kit for it too.

 

Sounds like an awesome day all around.

 

It is bad azz. The badazz factor rises as the price tag rises.
Yeah. I forgot the disclaimer.

That isn't me, or my buddy, or his Toolcat, but his Toolcat is just like that, except he doesn't have a salter box for his. My buddy's too busy with his day job to need the salter option.

 

Lol, you forgot about move to Knoxville.

Tommy Knoxville maybe.



Edit, none of these people are me.

 

Nice stuff there Hork! Ash which is your favorite?

When i owned my 170 i bucked a few bigger logs which it handled well. Cut up an entire 16" DBH red maple.

 

My favorite ash is the kind that's in my stacks.

 

You mean in my trailer? It's ash. Which one, no idea. It was dead standing, and now in rounds in my trailer. Easy on the back there's a couple small basswood rounds I threw in to top off the load