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Baystatetom
ParticipantPretty team, what mix are they? I hate it when people call my steers pretty, I want them to look tough. But if yours are heifers its probably okay to call them pretty. :p
ParticipantSpring? Isn’t February still winter? I saw a bunch of blue birds yesterday, maybe it is spring. Skidded logs through the last of my snow here today, I’ll be in the mud tomorrow.
~TomParticipantInteresting that those are called rafting peavies. I have a bunch of them. My family ran a small mill in the 50s. I would have guessed it was just a easy way to make them on the farm. Mitch is right those hooks are more common then the rest of the peavey. Folks used to take them off the peavey to use them pulling fence staples. If you cant (pun intended) find one I have a few here, I can mail you one for the postage.
~TomParticipantI have 4 jobs going now. 3 cable skidders and a forwarder, all have struggled with poor ground conditions since September. Rest assured your not alone.
Be safe out there,
~TomParticipantSorry Lee, crazy busy. I have work for you when you get here.
~TomParticipantI think it is true that time heals all wounds. I hope time passes quickly for you.
~TomParticipantI can’t seem to get photos to upload but you can see my version in my Oxen album on here being pulled by my daughters jerseys. I made mine to fit some old stainless steel runners I found next to a old sugar house.
~TomParticipantNice little sled! I’ll get some pics of mine and put them on here, it looks completely different from yours but I haul a 100 gallon sap tank on it too. Don’t get me wrong you may have the better design. Next time I might steal your ideas.
~TomParticipantI just read a couple books by Eric Sloan called American Barns and Covered Bridges, and a Reverence For Wood. He has a lot of sketches of old barn doors. I am not a real reader and I couldn’t put those books down.
~TomParticipantYour right Tim. Every time I go out I get a little better. And I don’t worry about admitting to hanging up a tree every now and then. I see professional loggers, and good ones at that, do it all the time. The difference is they just put a cable on it and rev up the diesel. I came across a logger one time with his saw pinched in a top. He says “dam that only happens when somebody is watching”. I told him look at it the other way be glad I was there to help get it out.
~TomParticipantI keep my steers in a converted horse stall (box Stall). It is 8’x10′. I used to let them loose in there like a horse but it seamed to use a lot of bedding. I made it so they each have 4X8′ with 2′ in between. I used 4″x4″ to make a railing around them. Their heads stick out into the center isle of the barn (not included in the 4×8′ measure). I like it that way because you don’t have to walk in between them to hook them up. That way if my wife or father in law does chores for me they don’t have to squeeze in beside them.
I will say though that they never got out of the box stall, but with the new system they have broken clips, chains and collars several times now. A mess in the barn and a few days feed is the cost every time.
The other side of the barn has old cow stanchions, but they must have been for skinny little jerseys or something because they won’t halfway close on my steers necks.
~TomParticipantWith the idea that skidding will be easier now that we have a snow cover I just cut the biggest tree I will have pulled with the steers so far. A hemlock with about 300 bdft in it. Of course I was trying to be selective and leave the small hardwoods to grow, and I missed the hole I was aiming for and hung the tree up. What a pain in the rear. Took 2 hours to get it down. Guess being an expert directional feller is prerequisite draft logging 🙂
ParticipantOnly somebody who supervises logging would think this, but my first thought when I saw Carl’s pic was “O man imagine the erosion that skid trail caused”
~TomParticipantI have a book called “Red Wood Classic” by Ralph Andrews. It has a ton of really cool pictures. Looks like anywhere from 5 to 7 teams pulling a couple of 8′ diameter logs at a time on corduroy roads. One pic even has 5 teams of horses in front of a teamof oxen on the same load. Never noticed that before.
I think a lot of times they split the big ones into smaller pieces before moving them long distances.
~TomParticipantLooks good! If only you had some way to communicate with like minded people who worked in the woods back east, you might be able to get somebody to ship you out some hickory for bows.
~Tom- AuthorPosts