Lakeview Farms project (house)

[wroughtn_harv]

The getting stuck was no fun. First it was about six thirty in the evening. I was way back in the woods. The only thing that could get to me to pull me out was another tracked machine. It had to be capable of pulling me out without burying itself.

It all started with a request by the client for a log count still available. He had two men who work with him in the woods doing de-limbing and needed to know if they were going to be needed the next day.

So I ran way back in looking doing a survey of trees on the ground de-limbed. When I was done I grabbed a big one and headed back out, no since going back empty handed, dad would be proud of his son.

I came upon a stump that was perfectly in the wrong place. I stopped. I couldn't back up because I had a big tree behind me on the chain. So I tried to go over the stump. A slight spin of the tracks and we started sinking.

The two men came up cut oak logs to stuff under the tracks when I lifted up the front of the tracks by pushing the forks down. The logs just sunk in under the tractor. I couldn't lift the back of the tractor by stabbing the forks down and lifting up. Nothing to grab that would hold that much weight.

 

[Bird]

the guy/gal that invented the grease gun tensioning device for adjusting the tracks

I'd have had no idea what you were talking about if a Kubota salesman hadn't shown me that on a mini-excavator track. That certainly is a neat idea.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I was just about ready to call it a night when I noticed that if I hooked up a chain just right I could maybe pull about a foot out of slack if I had a chain attached to an oak about forty feet away.

We walked out to the trailer and grabbed the chains. I pulled the forks back towards the tractor and ran the chain behind the bottom pivot point. The guys pulled out the slack and cinched it up to the oak. I curled the forks and moved about six inches forward. I was able to lift the boom and pull us another six inches or so. We repeated this process until the fourth time when I was able to use the tractor's tracks to move on up and out.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

One of my last runs out I decided to take a photos of the trail.

I start off hooking on to three logs and then heading out.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I'd started closest to the staging area and worked my way out. That's why as we get closer to the trailer the ruts get deeper and look more traveled.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

It was a lot more fun than it looks.

 

[EddieWalker]

Harvey,

Thanks for the update and great pictures!!! Glad you're ok and didn't get hurt from those branches. It always amazes me that it's the small ones and the limbs that are the most dangerous.

Is Craig going to mill those out and use them on the house? It seems like they are sort of green still. Or is there a time frame to mill and dry them out?

Keep us updated, I'm curous to see what he's going to do with them.

Eddie

 

[wroughtn_harv]

The logs will be cut to length and then the bark will be removed with a big power washer. For the floor trusses one side will be sawn flat with his saw mill Logosol.uk - Innovative wood processing products by Logosol!

The idea is when you walk in there will be exposed cedar logs accenting the ceiling in every room. He's looking for specific Y shaped cedar log that will be a functional accent post in the main living area.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

He's going to saw planks for the front porch. He's also going to cut all of the siding and trim pieces. I brought in 101 logs this time. There's another twenty or so laying on the ground in the woods needing to be de-limbed and probably another hundred or so standing that would make great logs.

One of the pictures is picnic table he made from some pine logs from Eddie's. The other pictures are of a picnic table made from cedar planks and some of the samples of trim boards.