3R Home and Barn Project

[3RRL]

Also got a call from the contractor and they have already dug the footings for the barn. Man, it won't be till September 24th that we'll be up there again. We will stay for about a week to watch them put the logs up. so I'll have a bunch of photos at the end of the month to show the progress. The well guy is also coming up tomorrow to see about installing the 5,000 gallon water tank.

Tom, I should have listened to you. Your idea of web cams would come in real handy about now!

 

[Defective]

I've never done a burn pile before and it scares the heck out of me. I'm going to start with teenie weenie piles first to see how it goes. I've got a lot to burn but have to wait until Winter before they allow any burning out here.

You should invite Eddie out for a week in the winter...Did you see some of the burning he did?

 

[john_bud]

Rob, do a search on "forestry winches". They make PTO powered ones that are mounted on the 3 pt. The face of the winch mount (toward the log) is a steel sheet. The bottom is angled away from the tractor and the top is an expanded metal cage to protect the operator on the tractor. You use a rope to pull it on and off. The bottom is lowered into the ground and the pull digs it in real good. No slip. Here's a link to some of the better companies.
Farmi Skidding Winch
Fransgard Tractor Log Winches


They ain't cheap. I'm sure you can knock one out in a week, eh?

One other thing you need to make. Get some appropriate steel tube and make an A frame. Make a chain key hole in the top of the A. Wrap the chain around the tree/stump, set the A frame at a 20ish degree angle. (Top of the A closest to the stump and 3' off the ground.) When you pull the chain with the tractor, the A pivots up, the chain is secured, so the stump has to pop out! Or you need to get a stouter A or bigger chain.

 

[3RRL]

I like the "A" frame idea a lot. I'll keep in mind for a rainy day project.
But those log skidding winches are ... man they are not cheap! Funny I had searched them earlier and one site you gave I'd already been there and looked at the 40 to 60hp ones. I don't need the whole contraption, I'd like to get just the PTO driven winch. Maybe mount it to the belly of the tractor. I think that and a snatch block would work for what I got to do.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

... idea of web cams would come in real handy about now!

Rob,

I thought about mounting a camera at the building site but I might actually catch someone working...contractor has only worked 2 days in the last 2 weeks! We will be having a talk if things don't pick up a little next week.

David

 

[john_bud]

Rob, Have you thought about the PTO driven winches that tow trucks use? You can find them on e-scam for $4-600, IIRC.

"Rainy Day Project"??? I thought you were in southern California. Didn't they make a song about the frequency of precipitation there? ;-)


jb

 

[sandman2234]

Another way is the pto driven winches from the military vehicles. Just add a hydraulic motor to them, if you need just pulling power. If you need to be able to stop them without them freewheeling when you remove power, it make take some extra stuff, but I doubt the brush pile is going to move far when you stop the winch.
Instead of burning the piles, have you considered just moving them out of sight to another location and allow them to become homes for other criters?
They will eventually deteriorate...
David from jax

 

[thunderworks]

A comment on the "home for the critters" idea . . . Our land is a combination of woodlands and open pasture. When we bought the land the pastures were heavily overgrown with hedge, locust and cedar trees. As we cleared the pastures, we created huge brush piles at the edges of the fields. I left them for a couple of years because they were a great "home for the critters", and I thought a good thing. Last Fall, I met with a state biologist to discuss native prairie grass restoration in several of the fields. He saw the brush piles and strongly suggested that I burn them. He told me that the critters that love the brush piles -- racoons, opposums, rats etc . . . love to eat the eggs of many field birds that we wanted to encourage to nest in our fields. I burned them last winter.

 

[KentT]

OK, Rob...

We're due an update. If they were on-schedule, your logs should've been delivered and we should be seeing walls going up and pretty rapidly getting to the "dryed-in" stage...

We're waiting...

 

[Brad_Blazer]

Hey Rob,
I'm not sure you need a winch - just some good cable that is easier to handle than chains. (You'll have to do the same thing with a winch.) Will the 4-wheeler be able to pull it up the hill instead of dragging by hand? Anyhow if you hook onto the tree a few feet off the ground and your tractor is pulling down hill, it should be pretty effective.

Logs going up! It will be great to see your home take shape! I love those natural logs. Mine has the little milled "D" logs and I still like it a lot.

Brad