East Texas Logging

[jinman]

Wow! That truck is top-heavy! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif It may be an optical illusion in the photo, but I wouldn't want to drive it around a corner going very fast.

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( What I hated about the cutter was you sometimes cant see up to the top of the trees sometimes and you dont see a rotten section about the time you cut through it and all is ok you here a bam and get jarred.
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I think you made a very wise decision to stay away from logging. Maybe other folks see this as exciting or fun work, but like you, I'll get my "kicks" pushing dirt. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Taylortractornut]

Jinman alot of logging equipment here gets first of the month lightning lol. Its ok now theres not alot of labor to logging as we mostly have slash decks and other things. A company here has 2 Husqvarna saws and 2 Stihl Pole saws. Sounds funny but they use the pole saws for trimming the long branches down. I get poison ivy too bad to do much logging. Now that we have Asian hornets thats alot to stay out of the woods on to we dont have africanized bees here yet. The hollow trees are a prime place for the hornets. Also normal ornets are another good incentive. I still see a few clearing but im more comfortable on a dozer than in a cramped skidder cab. my friends that log have all newer equipment and it isnt as bad but it still has a few down sides. I also have a friend with older equipment but he mostly thins. And doesnt need any thing fancy as its short work. I build all his shear blades with mine he gets 4000 acres of thinning with factory ones he gets 2500.
I need to scan a few pics of Berry Land Clearing has a 648 Deere skidder with a brush rake built onto the blade for clearing scrub land and cutovers. He also pulls a 5 yard pan with it.

 

[rlk]

Jinman, nice pictures. Last year we had a bunch of trees cut so we could put in a pond. This picture shows the cutter in action.

Bob

 

[rlk]

This picture was taken after the tree was cut. The cutter can pick the tree straight up and drive around with it. He would cut 3 or 4, place them in a pile. The skidder driver would back up to the pile and grab all the trees and take them to the loader. At the loader they would take all the limbs off; cut them to length, then put them right on the log truck to be taken to the mill. Quite an impressive operation.

Bob

 

[jinman]

Wow! Those machines are so cool. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif I had a picture of one cutting a tree, but it was buried in the brush and you couldn't see it as clearly as your photos. Those are really primo shots. I love the one with him carrying the tree. With the controls of this machine, they can get into close places like near your house to remove trees. You wouldn't want anything less felling trees that close to the house. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

After the trees were taken out, what did they use to put in your pond (and remove stumps)? Excavator? Backhoe? Dozer? ...just curious.

 

[rlk]

Jinman, the guy who built the pond had a track hoe (picture attached) to dig all the stumps. He also had a dozer to push the stumps to the burn pile; as well as a couple of dump trucks to hall the clay for the dam. I'll post a few more pictures of the construction.

In looking at this picture, look at the size of the stumps compared to the size of the track hoe. We had some really big stumps!!

Bob

 

[rlk]

This picture shows the process of the track hoe digging along the banks and putting the clay into one of 2 dump trucks to be trucked to the dam. You can see the spillway pipe sticking up - the dam was built up about 5 feet higher than is currently shown.

After the trucks would dump their loads, the dozer operator would smooth everything out. We then used a vibrating roller to compact the clay. Even though I contracted for the whole job to be done, I ran the vibrating roller. Took a couple of weeks of hauling clay, spreading it about 6 - 12 inches thick, compacting it, then start over again. I did not get any pictures of the roller cause I was running it.

 

[rlk]

Putting the spillway pipe in.

 

[rlk]

Finished pond, standing on the dam looking back towards my house. The white garage is the same one in the other picture where the cutter was driving around with the tree.

Bob