Skidding logs

[Ken Pike]

I grew up in the country on a run-down farm & learned to drive on an ancient Famall A that belonged to my maternal grandfather - miserable thing (both of them!). No hydraulics just a fixed drawbar for towing things, grabby clutch & 1/2 turn of free play in the steering box. We used the old thing for everything - gardening with horse drawn implements, snow plowing with a home made wooden front blade, skidding logs for firewood & saw logs & hauling 4' pulp wood on a 2 wheeled trailer made from a truck frame. No way to lift a chained up log so we just dragged them. Most of the neighbours had Ford 8N's (including my paternal grandfather, my buddy) & I thought they were Cadillacs with that hydraulic 3 point hitch. My '47 Ford 8N & my 1980 Kubota B7100 really outshine that old Farmall A. In fact my little Kubota can outwork the 8N on most jobs.

 

[Reg]

My dad had a baby grand that he would plink away at whenever life got the better of him. He could hammer out some nice boogy-woogy, but it would drive my mom out of the house in a matter of minutes. After about a half hour, my sister and I would usually find something to do over at the neighbor's.

My L3240 is the smallest of the Grand Ls, so it's the baby Grand. And if life gets the better of me, there's no better cure than to go plink around the field on it.

The couple-moment quote is from a statics lecture. The prof was as dry as a box of hard tack and he said it without any meaning other than the physics meaning. I was dating a sweet gal and was kind of daydreaming about her during the lesson when he said it. I couldn't stop laughing, so he threw me out of class.

We had a grande in my parents' house just after WWII in London, England.
We were lucky, half or more of the houses on our street were bombed out.
I grew up playing in bomb sites (which COULD explain a LOT).
Some time in the early 50s it got replaced by an upright and I think that was about the time that us kids were allowed to touch it.
The Grande was for mother, dad never played.
I didn't take to keyboards until the early 80s and I have only a keyboard (decent simulated hammer action though).
Boogie Woogie is my favorite, as with a lot of music fairly easy to kinda/sorta play to an OK'ish level, incredibly difficult to get GOOD (-:

I took the Mason and Hamlin factory tour in Haverhill last year.
Interesting mix of ancient and modern, but clearly a dying industry/business.
So, your username is also a neat double entendre - - kool.

 

[Baby Grand]

We had a grande in my parents' house just after WWII in London, England.
We were lucky, half or more of the houses on our street were bombed out.
I grew up playing in bomb sites (which COULD explain a LOT).
Some time in the early 50s it got replaced by an upright and I think that was about the time that us kids were allowed to touch it.
The Grande was for mother, dad never played.
I didn't take to keyboards until the early 80s and I have only a keyboard (decent simulated hammer action though).
Boogie Woogie is my favorite, as with a lot of music fairly easy to kinda/sorta play to an OK'ish level, incredibly difficult to get GOOD (-:

I took the Mason and Hamlin factory tour in Haverhill last year.
Interesting mix of ancient and modern, but clearly a dying industry/business.
So, your username is also a neat double entendre - - kool.

Thanks, Reg! The factory tour sounds fascinating. Always loved the idea of piano makers building Dehavilland Mossies during the blitz.

 

[Tollster]

Had my sawkick back today and my knee was in the line of fire,I was kneeling with right knee on ground,cutting left to right and was in a tight place doing the back cut on tree when it happened. No chaps
Wrapped and compressed it as I was working alone, and drove to the ER 45minutes down the road. Missed the bones and tendons and got 10 stitches just below me knee. The 3/8 full chisel did a number.

So I recon with my birthday on monday, my wife will get me some chaps,or a body staple kit.
I always wear earplugs, hardhat and saftey glasses,

 

[s219]

Sounds like you got lucky! Chaps are good -- I wear them in all but the hottest weather. Labonville full wraps are the best.

 

[Baby Grand]

Sounds like you got lucky! Chaps are good -- I wear them in all but the hottest weather. Labonville full wraps are the best.

Same here. They hamper your mobility a little, but I raised a tuft of fluff on them the first day I had them on. Glad to hear you got out of it with just stitches and an ER trip. Sounds like you kept your head when things got scary. You did good.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Had my sawkick back today and my knee was in the line of fire,
No chaps
Missed the bones and tendons and got 10 stitches just below me knee. The 3/8 full chisel did a number.

You were very lucky. Stop and think how easy it would be to change your life by running a saw. And it only takes a second. Anyone working in the woods without chaps is flirtting with danger. It just takes that one time when the unexpected happens. If it is to hot for chaps then I stay out of the woods.

 

[Short Game]

Yesterday was a felling and bucking day for me too. Very wet out there and I can't use the tractor. Had to pack the saw in. I had three trees to drop and all were deep in the woods and looked like surefire hangers. I should have had on a hardhat but was able to stay out of the line of fire. I need one of those hardhats with the ear protectors. As it is, I choose the ear protection. I did a good job at getting the trees down without a hangup.

Two smaller trees, I pre-bucked for shiitake mushroom logs (multiples of 42 inches) and a bigger one, I pre-bucked for firewood (multiples of 15 inches). My log forks are 75 inches on center. I now must wait for a couple weeks of dry to be able to go get them out. There will be minimal skidding to do, if any. I think I will be able to get most all those logs with the forks this time. We are expanding our disc golf course to 27 holes and those trees were cleared for one of the new holes.

Sorry to hear about that accident. I've had so many close calls over the years. Been hurt, but not too badly. After the felling and bucking yesterday, I pressure washed some logs that came down in the last heavy snow. After all that, I played fifteen holes of disc golf. By the time that was over, my back was totally cooked and I could barely get into and out of my easy chair last night. Thankfully, after a few bourbons and a night's sleep, I'm much improved. Will take it easier today.

 

[Bob77064]

You were very lucky. Stop and think how easy it would be to change your life by running a saw. And it only takes a second. Anyone working in the woods without chaps is flirtting with danger. It just takes that one time when the unexpected happens. If it is to hot for chaps then I stay out of the woods.

Good advice.

 

[hydro2]

This is the first year I have not worn mine. Looks like I will be wearing them again after reading about you're mishap. Sorry about it.

 

[Tollster]

Got some Husky chaps today when I went in for faucet washers, prolly not the best available, but in stock, I learned my lesson, thank you for ya'lls concerns.
I pulled off the hospital dressing today and got it cleaned up,figure I will pull the stiches in 10 or so days, its hard not to bend my knee, as I worry about pulling the stiches through, recon its light duty for a couple days.....faucet repair.... yahaa.

 

[Egon]

Ouch!

 

[hydro2]

That's looks sore. Defiantly be wearing my chaps.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Yikes, a man's hide is no match for a saw chain.
Probably when you were making that back cut the tree settled back just enough to squeeze the rear part of the chain without pinching the saw and that made the bar shoot out of the cut like a rocket. Usually the saw is pulling in towards the cut but if you squeeze the back or top of the bar/chain the bar will want to come out at you.

 

[Tollster]

Yikes, a man's hide is no match for a saw chain.
Probably when you were making that back cut the tree settled back just enough to squeeze the rear part of the chain without pinching the saw and that made the bar shoot out of the cut like a rocket. Usually the saw is pulling in towards the cut but if you squeeze the back or top of the bar/chain the bar will want to come out at you.

I was trying to figure what happened,I know it was windy and I was on the leaward side of the tree, which was a pine, I think the wind did push it back towards me and I either pulled it out in an effort to bush the tree away or it kicked back,the brake did not engage, and its fully fuctional as I clean it every day prior to cutting and then check it.
Since it was windy,I only wanted to work small stuff, all saplings under 5" and 10-13" tall. I had a large oak up against me left shoulder,so it was tight quarters and my leg was in the line of fire.
A valuble lesson was learned saturday.

 

[brokenknee]

Got some Husky chaps today when I went in for faucet washers, prolly not the best available, but in stock, I learned my lesson, thank you for ya'lls concerns.
I pulled off the hospital dressing today and got it cleaned up,figure I will pull the stiches in 10 or so days, its hard not to bend my knee, as I worry about pulling the stiches through, recon its light duty for a couple days.....faucet repair.... yahaa.

You may want to move your knee at least a little. That knee locks up fast. I broke my knee about 3 1/2 years ago, had a plate put in. It was about three weeks before the doc told me I could start moving it, it felt like the knee cap was welded together.

Glad it wasn't worse that it was. It sure looks bad enough.

 

[s219]

It's really risky cutting when it's windy, as it loads a tree asymmetrically and the load will vary unpredictably. I stick to ground work on a windy day. I think you got off easy with that injury -- I have heard of folks killed by a barber chair due to a "light" wind load. Sometimes the skinny trees are the worst.

 

[Tollster]

It's really risky cutting when it's windy, as it loads a tree asymmetrically and the load will vary unpredictably. I stick to ground work on a windy day. I think you got off easy with that injury -- I have heard of folks killed by a barber chair due to a "light" wind load. Sometimes the skinny trees are the worst.

I watch a video the other day showing a "Barber chair" and wondered what caused it, now it makes sense how the trunk could split lengthwise with the grain for 15' or more feet springing the butt up on an unsuspecting loggers head and chest, I don't think the fellow was more than 50% thru the trunk when it sprung in the video.

 

[s219]

I watch a video the other day showing a "Barber chair" and wondered what caused it, now it makes sense how the trunk could split lengthwise with the grain for 15' or more feet springing the butt up on an unsuspecting loggers head and chest, I don't think the fellow was more than 50% thru the trunk when it sprung in the video.

Yeah, and imagine it launching the saw back at you too!

There are special cuts that can avoid a barber chair when cutting leaners or loaded trees. The Coos Bay cut is my favorite.

 

[Short Game]

The alders we have here are especially prone to barber-chairing. The worst of them are the smaller, but tall ones. I know one quadriplegic who can attest to this. However, my closest call came from a fairly large big-leaf maple. It was hollow and had an unseen crack in it. When it jumped off its stump, it landed right where I had jumped from, as I hurled my saw.

For those who don't know, barber-chairing happens with trees that are leaning enough that they split their trunks before the back cut gets close enough to the undercut for it to hinge to break and the tree to fall. The part of the trunk above the uncompleted undercut flies upward as the trunk splits up the log. The part that splits away from the log, springs straight up in the air and when the hinge does finally break, the inertia of the upper, splitting away side, jerks the butt end upward. The top of the tree falls short of its full length and the butt end usually lands several feet backward past the stump, trying to reach out and touch someone.

Here's a tip for leaning trees that you think could possibly barber-chair: take a logging chain and wrap it tightly around the trunk just above where you are going to do your cuts. I use a whole 20 foot chain and take as many wraps as it can reach, and hook it back into itself. This way, if the trunk splits, it can't spring apart. I've done this many times. The guy who told me about it was 8 years older than the 20th century and had worked many years in the woods.