Brit logging.

[John Shipp]

Even got to drag some down pole length, rather than slithering around on the bulge. Then diced them to length down by the ditch.

 

[John Shipp]

And then we didn't like the look of the side slope, so I got to be a roadbuilder for a couple hours! The forwarder man was happy afterwards.

 

[hvy 1ton]

How is the new year treating you @John Shipp

 

[John Shipp]

Hvy 1ton, on grand scale all is fine, thanks for asking mate. But been hard getting back to it after new year shutdown. Wife, kids & I went to Japan over new year to visit her family and friends, just got back and now everyone here has head/chest colds, fever, guess we picked something up on the long flight home!? So it's been messy, and back in the woods is dark, very grey, misty, muddy so we're joking but careful not to take a rope with us if we're on our own!

No new pictures, and funny ish story, I dragged my old laptop in the hand luggage all the way over to Japan thinking I could find something interesting to post here while I was sitting around. But it turned out that my wife had previously removed a few files to make space for backing up more recent (kids) photos, she had said something about this, but I didn't realise she meant all my old stuff! So somewhere in a dusty draw is a memory stick I guess, but it made me smile that I took that thing all the way there to find out they were all gone.

The sun must bust through sometime soon, and I will post something interesting when it next happens! Cheers amigos.

 

[John Shipp]

Ok, it's been a while, and I'm having a snow day today. Apparently it's 10 degrees colder here than at the north pole this morning, not sure how true that is but it's definitely chilly and looks set in for a few days.

 

[John Shipp]

Set off early on a sunday morning recently to avoid traffic, was so peaceful compared to weekdays. Been up to the usual felling for firewood with occasional sawlogs.

 

[John Shipp]

Quite often faced with a large leaner that we want to fell sideways to avoid trees growing under it. But particularly large oaks, they're often so immensely heavy with towering crowns that the hinge or holding wood fails early and they go where gravity sends them. So I saw ole Logger Wade showing a "triple hinge", I was a bit sceptical at first, but after a few more hinge failures I thought I'd give it a go. So these pictures show large crowned oak, and several hopefully retained young oaks beneath it. And the triple hinge worked. Shame you can't fell the same tree twice to see if it would have gone sideways anyway, but there was another large leaner we did next, using normal cuts, it failed as soon as it started to move...

 

[John Shipp]

Without the wheeled loader on the job, getting these lumps on strains the equipment.

Managed to blow a hose.

 

[Graham1]

Snow looks lovely, you can tell it's the first day of spring tomorrow. Been pretty cold here, sea froze in Bembridge, Isle of Wight, which is near us. No laying snow yet, but due tomorrow so they say.
They have been doing a lot of felling near me, but leaving a lot of the bigger stuff as there a no local sawmills that can take it any more.
Graham

 

[John Shipp]

Yes, it's a laugh Graham, firewood customers that have been saying "see you in the autumn" have been calling in a panic.

It seems the mills have to work hard to market hardwood species other than oak and most of them have given up trying. The ones than are interested are far enough away that the transport is too much and it's simpler and more cost effective to put them into firewood. Luckily we can find a sawmill for some of our logs but would be good to see straight grained beech and poplar getting used round here. Also ash.

 

[Tones]

Don't you fellas have portable mills over there?

 

[John Shipp]

There are portable mills and we can pay money to saw them. Then we have to stack them properly and cover top. Then find buyers. It's the finding buyers bit that is tough part. It just sits there.

 

[Graham1]

Portable mills round our way only seem to custom cut stuff to order. Guy with some woodland opposite our yard wanted a shed built, so timber was cut from that and cut on site, but have not seen people cutting on spec and trying to sell. We just don’t have that sort of market. Builders would rather buy structural wood from builders merchants and timber cladding is now mainly plastic fake wood.
Graham

 

[John Shipp]

Wot Graham said ^

 

[Tones]

Thats a bugger. Here in Oz there are blokes with portable mills who are flat chat. One bloke I know has continually 3mths work ahead. Trees that aren't good for structural timber are usually cut for furniture which they get a better price for but don't sell as many cubic feet.

 

[CM1995]

Here in Alabama we have a fairly robust forest industry from pulp/chips to southern yellow pine lumber but finding rough cut oak for trailer decking can be a challenge. The last rough cut oak we bought came from a specialty hardwood mill that deals mainly with peeler logs for plywood laminate, I guess they have some lesser grade oak to saw nominally.

 

[Jumbo]

but finding rough cut oak for trailer decking can be a challenge. The last rough cut oak we bought came from a specialty hardwood mill that deals mainly with peeler logs for plywood laminate, I guess they have some lesser grade oak to saw nominally.

I was in Savannah working a couple of years ago, and we had a day off to do laundry and tourist around. We were in "Somewhere" Alabama and we stopped to get gas, out behind the minimart was an old tin shed with the sound of a band saw emanating. My working partner and I both worked in the woods here in Washington in our younger life and we were naturally curious. Went back there and there were four old geezers taking turns drinking beer while the fifth one ran the saw, did the off bearing and everything else. They were running red oak, 12 and 14 ‘lengths. They all took turns working and they said they only did the work for beer money since the beer cooler was only about 100 feet away. We sat and spent some time visiting, drinking beer (very generous) and telling lies. We had a great time. They were cutting some pretty sizeable cants 4x 8s through 6x12s. Don’t know if the beer or age fogged my memory banks, but for the life of me “Somewhere Alabama” is all I remember.

 

[John Shipp]

Here in Alabama we have a fairly robust forest industry from pulp/chips to southern yellow pine lumber but finding rough cut oak for trailer decking can be a challenge. The last rough cut oak we bought came from a specialty hardwood mill that deals mainly with peeler logs for plywood laminate, I guess they have some lesser grade oak to saw nominally.

Oak prices here have crept up a little as availability of standing oak sales is restricted and owners are expecting more for their 100+ yr old trees, which is fair enough. However, this seems to be regardless of how much care and attention the trees received, particularly early stem pruning, so even the roughest oaks have a heavy price tag attached...

 

[John Shipp]

I was in Savannah working a couple of years ago, and we had a day off to do laundry and tourist around. We were in "Somewhere" Alabama and we stopped to get gas, out behind the minimart was an old tin shed with the sound of a band saw emanating. My working partner and I both worked in the woods here in Washington in our younger life and we were naturally curious. Went back there and there were four old geezers taking turns drinking beer while the fifth one ran the saw, did the off bearing and everything else. They were running red oak, 12 and 14 ‘lengths. They all took turns working and they said they only did the work for beer money since the beer cooler was only about 100 feet away. We sat and spent some time visiting, drinking beer (very generous) and telling lies. We had a great time. They were cutting some pretty sizeable cants 4x 8s through 6x12s. Don’t know if the beer or age fogged my memory banks, but for the life of me “Somewhere Alabama” is all I remember.

I am looking forward to the day that we work to that method, it seems like a fun way to do it! We were all seriously tempted today, the rubbish we've been cutting. It's a job for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. They are a large charity that own a lot of woodland here. Some of their management techniques seem very wacky. We generally get to cut down a lot of rubbish on RSPB jobs, it's all under the guise of ecology or "Sites of Special Scientific Interest", but it's just poor forestry in reality.

Somewhere Alabama sounds great!

 

[Tones]

An outfit here in Oz has started radial sawing logs. They claim they can use timber that normally wouldn't be used and that by radial sawing retains better strength in the timber so it can be used structurally therefor better prices.