I started cutting and skidding last weekend after getting a couple of snow storms. That first 12" really settled, but we've got 5" of new today and it is still coming. Hard to see the falling snow in these pics, but I was pretty wet when I got back inside. Rain tomorrow, and then sun and a young (20's) logger from my wife's job is coming to help get a better jump on it while the moving around up on the hillside is still easy.
Looks like you are getting the same weather we are. I’m gambling and not removing snow from the yard until after the rain, in hopes I can avoid ice slicks.
I don't think it' going to warm up enough to rain here.. But I am waiting til tomorrow just in case..
Did you ever have to have carb work done on your 359? Mine is definitely needing work. Trying to decide if I am up to tackling it myself.
Oh man that looks like fun. Was hoping for a white Christmas but ain't gonna get it. Been dippin' into the 20's but no moisture. 1 day of rain in December for us. I'm thinkin' January is gonna hit us hard though. Happy processing and merry Christmas!
We having been getting the white stuff; probably a foot on the ground with a few coastal storms that blew in. The soothsayers (also known as weather forecasters) have said "just an inch", but they must have meant a big inch because I had to fire up my bulldozer to plow that inch of snow. It has taken me awhile to get back into winter logging for sure, but here in Maine, logging in the snow just feels right. We are actually supposed to have a white Christmas; 4-8 inches of new snow.
My wife was just telling me they are expecting 3” Christmas Eve and then another 7” during the day - but then she realized she was looking at ME, not VT. We are expecting only a few inches, which is better for me. We’ve got about 12” on the ground, and my farm tractor is fine with that, but as we get up around 2’ it gets hard to move around on the hillside. I’m doing thinning - almost precommercial stage of growth, so lots of tall skinny stems that have to be dropped and pulled out carefully to minimize the collateral damage. I cut them into 20’ logs to make it easier to limit damage, but of course that means I spend a lot of time on the ground. I think my ideal setup would be to winch the logs over to the roadway and then forward them out with your nifty forwarding trailer.
I'm actually headed out your way. I am not sure where Windsor County is, but I got a friend who lives in Johnson, VT. I' would like to get out there more often, but it is 1-1/2 hours from our house in new Hampshire, so I am not sure if I will get there.
Johnson is north-central, and I’m southeast. Drizzle and fog. It is 29 degrees. A little ice accumulating on the fences, but so far not looking like a major ice event (fingers crossed). You can see there’s an icy crust forming.
Back when I logged with a 2 wheel drive Ford 900 with ring chains; a foot of snow was about the limit. back then I just hobby-logged so what would happen was, I would get snow throughout the week, and it would pile up too fast to log during the weekend. I think if I kept logging as the snow came down all week, I could have logged in deeper snow. I bought my dozer just because it can go in the snow better than a tractor, and of course the mud too. With the winch and log trailer combination, it is a formidable logging machine. I got the skidder now, and while it is faster and easy, I don't really like logging that way. It is okay up to about waist deep snow, but then nothing matters, it is not that it cannot go in the snow, it is that I struggle cutting the trees, limbing, bucking etc. But I remember where I started. A Ford 900 farm tractor, an old woods trailer, and humping out 4 foot wood out of the brush with pulp hook. Then we had to load that wood onto a Ford 600 stake body farm truck...the biggest butt logs at the top because my Grandfather wanted everyone to think we had a log loader. I get a lot of people today who makes fun of my log trailer, but honestly, it blows my mind how easily it picks up wood with no more than a lawnmower engine (6 hp). 30 years ago, who would have thought? I am working with the Maine Forest Service to do a forestry exposition for micro-logging equipment. The big stuff is cool...don't get me wrong...but who can justify $250,000. Naaaa...doing big stuff with small equipment is what impresses me. I am thinking about building something like this for my log loader...perfect for what you need. Hands free firewood! Skip ahead to 51 seconds/ and or 1:20 seconds for where the fun starts...
We might be closer than you thought. Our other house is in Lisbon, NH. Katie and I got married in North Haverill, NH in 2011.
It takes about 1hr and 20min to get to the slaughterhouse in North Haverhill. Nice area up there. I’m about halfway between White River Jct and the Mass border.
I think there is a definite place for some smaller scale mechanization. My wife’s company has quite a few highly mechanized crews. The newest equipment is bumping up against what can legally be moved without special trailers and permits. The cost to move from site to site means there has to be quite a bit of marketable timber or a landowner with an eye toward the future. Bigger landings, wider woods roads, etc. I’ve only got 60 acres of woodland and have a hard time justifying much more for heavy iron, but I do believe a forwarding trailer is somewhere in my future.
I got a good deal on that log trailer, and use it as much for farming as I do for logging so I get my money out of it. It paid for itself the first year I had it. It is a nice machine and I would encourage you to get one, if only because it is like having a homestead swiss army knife. I have used it for 100 things it was never designed for: pulling the engine out of my bulldozer being one of them. How else would you do that? Or digging a trench to your barn. Its not a big enough job to get anyone there to do it, but who wants to shovel a 200 foot trench, 4 feet deep, 1 foot wide by hand? My only adamant suggestion: get the powerpack for it (seperate hydraulics and engine)...it really is worth every penny!
