[Baystatetom]

Just go slow and easy. If it scares you a little bit you are in good shape. If it scares you a lot leave it alone! Somebody told me once “Just remember a lot of people better then you have been killed doing the same thing”. I think of that all the time. I was cutting a hung up oak and ended up with 7 broken bones and crutches from April 1 to July 4th. I cut a lot of ice storm damage, every tree had a widow maker in it. There is no real safe way, just try and be slow.
OSHA regs require removal of all snags and “danger trees” before working within a tree length of them. Bad for wildlife, good for ground men.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

I remember all the stories of a barn burning and all the farmers in the county coming and helping put up a new one in a weekend. My grandfather had a mill and did a lot sawing for those projects. All the farmers in my town helped each other with the harvests, hay corn etc. That way no one person had to buy every piece of equipment. I think you are right about having to many options. We may not always feel wealthy but now a days we can afford to rent the machine rather getting help from several neighbors.
I for one can’t ever remember turning down somebody who asked for help. But there are a lot of selfish people out there.
Selfish or not I like working my team enough to do just about anything with them and think it was good fun.

[Baystatetom]

So much for oxen being slow, looks like they were moving at a good pace with that building! Could be some breed I am not familiar with but those look more like bulls then steers?
There is a house here in my town that was rotated 180 degrees in the 1800s when the road was moved from one side of the house to the other. I am not sure exactly how it happened but there is a tale that the women of the house started doing the dishes looking to the east and ended them looking to the west out of the same window.
Mitch I have heard lots of stories about the old farmers working together to get big projects and harvests done quicker, to bad we still don’t see that happening more often.

[Baystatetom]

If I had to speculate I would say that we New Englanders held onto our oxen long after the rest of the country switched to horses for two reasons. One being we are “thrifty” and the other resistant to change. I bet the reason oxen are in the pictures is because anybody thrifty enough to move a building over onto their property is also thrifty enough to refuse to buy horses.
Oxen are also known to be slow and steady, which might be a asset in a project like this. I would also assume not many people moved enough buildings to become expert at it. Probably everybody who tried it had their own ideas and techniques.
I remember when they moved that bridge in Mass. I think it took at least a weekend and they only moved it off the brook and onto solid ground. Sounds like a great project though, should be fun.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

Should have also mentioned many invasive plants are quick to colonize disturbed soil. Letting hogs rut it all up might have a short term gain but it would come back several fold I am sure. I have heard of some success with goats and sheep but I am not sure they will kill it or just suppress it for the time they are around. So many of my clients have asked about this I am thinking of buying a small herd myself.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

@Tim Harrigan 29741 wrote:

I have resisted using chemicals for several years. Now I am considering spot spraying individual plants so I can be exact in what gets sprayed. Never tried hogs or goats, not set up for fencing either of those. It seems like goats could do the job though.

I do way more invasive plant control then I want to. I am sure I will misspell the names without looking right at the label, but multiflora and bar berry are both pretty easy to kill. Glyphasate found in round up or rodeo works well. Tractor supply also has a cheaper store brand. The real trick is to get the whole plant, even though it is supposedly systemic it is possible to kill only half the plant. Garlon or brush be gone works quite well also, active ingredient is Triclopere again misspelled I am sure, it will not kill grasses so is good in pastures, will not harm animals but passes right through them so you can’t use it near milkers. I really prefer a motorized backpack mist blower that way you can hit the whole plant without having to climb right in it. You can do a cut stem treatment if you are prepared to donate a quart of blood to your cause. Mix the round up with windshield washer fluid to prevent freezing in the winter at about 20% active ingredient or use garlon 4 in mineral oil. Rose has a ten year seed bank so you are in for a long fight.

I wasn’t a chemical fan either but after fighting with the stuff for so long I now realize it is the easiest most cost effective method to get the job done and done well. I’ll PM you my # if you want more info. To bad your not closer I could help in the field.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

What a nice team you have, they make it look easy, not fast and jerky like mine. Comes with age and practice I suppose. I have two more woodlots to administer timber sales on and then I am hitting the woods with my team for the winter in the name of TSI. Can not wait!
I would get some round up on that multiflora though its not going to go away on its own. The increase in sunlight and ground scarification from harvesting trees will actually make it a lot worse. 5% Round Up out of a mist blower will take it right out.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

I think there is a difference from breed to breed, my jerseys seamed to care less about the heat then my Holstein/Shorthorns do. I wondered if it was the light brown verses black color. Somebody told me Charolais were good in the heat, don’t ask me why I wouldn’t have guessed that. 80 seems a bit low to worry me. I think common sense could keep you out of trouble.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

I am going to have to read this 5 times and really think about it for it all to sink in, but my first reaction is that most people hold this info pretty tight to their chest. Thanks for sharing, I do believe sharing information will help all of us become better at what we do.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

http://nesilvopasture.eventbrite.com/ Got this email a while ago and just remembered to pass it on. Looks interesting but I will be making the 5 hour trip out there the next week to deer hunt, I don’t think I’ll go the week before for a conference.
Trees look good Andy, let me know if you need help with the deer, wink wink.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

Carl is right about loggers not knowing their actual production cost. I have 4 jobs going right now. 2 cable skidders, a forwarder, and a forwarder fellerbuncher operation. Only one of the 4 could tell me exactly what it cost him to put a log on the landing. One of the cable skidder guys has his own log truck and couldn’t even tell me what percentage of his fuel bill went into the truck verses the skidder. It seams that loggers look at the price lists from the mill then look at the standing timber and take a guess at what the stumpage should be. In a lot of cases I (the forester) set the stumpage rate based on what I am hearing for prices from other foresters and what I have gotten on other lots recently, but this reflects my idea of timber quality not a loggers production cost. It seams to me being able to figure out those cost would make good business sense. In these hard times all loggers horse, ox or machine needs every edge they can get.

[Baystatetom]

I realized today that this discussion has been about SFI Sustainable Forest Initiative, while the green certification I have worked with is FSC Forest Stewardship Council. Not sure of the exact differences but figured it worth a mention. FSC does random audits I suppose, if the bad guys were lucky and didn’t get audited they could get away with bad forestry and a green label.
As far as not following State laws, some laws fly in the face of common sense and good forestry. So you could say in certain instances I don’t follow them either. Doesn’t mean I am a bad forester. When dealing with things like forestry that is both a art and a science you can’t pass laws that cover every possible situation.

[Baystatetom]

I used to go to those meetings too, but finally had to stop. Being a forester isn’t just what I do, its who I am. I would get so pissed of it would take a week to think about something else. I just take it too personally. I finally realized that you can’t reason with somebody who is unreasonable.
Most if not all of the guidelines required for SFI green cert are already law in Massachusetts therefore I think all Mass. timber should be certed. But that is not the case everywhere. In places where there is no laws or regs concerning things like harvesting in wetlands, erosion control on slopes, or stream crossings then yes SFI cert would indeed mean that they were held to a higher standard.
I decided a long time ago to do the best work possible on every job, I go to bed at night and sleep well knowing I did the right thing for the forest. I don’t need 30 extra pages in a clients folder to validate my work.

[Baystatetom]

In a highly unscientific test I bought several different colored hoofs for my dog at the feed store. My 9 month old lab mix can chew a white hoof down to nothing in 2 days while the black ones take a least a week. I have to say I am surprised, I thought there would be no difference. I remember my grandfather saying the blacker the better but I always thought it was just a old wives-tale.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

Had not thought of it until somebody else mentioned it, but this year I have 2 acres of carbon free pumpkins. Plowed, harrowed, cultivated and pulled to the roadside stand all with oxen.

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