[Carl Russell]

Oh man Andy, I really like that one.

It makes so much sense once I see it, but I just haven’t been able to picture that type of modification. It appears to address many of the functionality issues. I am still interested in how these will hold up in situations where there is rapidly changing angles of draft, or abrupt shocks. I worry about them rolling and twisting out alignment if jarred just right. But that may be a slim risk.

Nice job, Carl

[Carl Russell]

If you have them in i-photo or some other album you should be able to export them to your desktop and downsize them at that point.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

PhilG;19361 wrote:

Hey Scott,
…..
how long will the horse skid be to the forwarder trail, I have seen Carl mention 1000′ a few times, is this what you shoot for also , or less on a job of that size?
……

Taylor Johnson”….I take it you don’t all have arches so try to keep your skids to about a 500′ average and remember every time you touch that wood you loose money,….”

I am about to start a job with several other teamsters, two of us will have teams the third a tractor and forwarder wagon, and a fourth with a saw. We expect to use the teams on arch/carts and will keep the skid distances less than 500′.

My reference to 1000′ is the outside distance that I try to use the cart, but those are jobs where I don’t have something like a forwarder. I will use a scoot sometimes in the 500-1500′ range, the loads are typically smaller, but it is a lot faster to load and moves easier, however it is less maneuverable.

But the point of the sleds or the forwarder are to shorten the twitching distance. I will make staging areas around the lot where main skid trails are easily accessible, then twitch in logs and trees from the shortest possible distances, usually no more than 200′.

This is what we intend to do with the forwarder. We’ll make a loop road through the lot that transects the harvest area on reasonable terrain, then cut and bunch all along this trail. This way the tractor can just make the loop and not have to find a place to turn around. We will however make sure that our staging areas are big enough so that we can stockpile 1-2MBF without a lot of handling and stacking.

We are cutting white pine, red spruce, hemlock, and some hardwood logs and fuelwood. Markets are not strong but are active. We are going to charge by the hour so that we all can keep track of how we contribute to the production. 2 men with saws in the morning, 2 running teams, then 1 saw, 2 teams, and the forwarder in the afternoon. I’ll report back after we get into it a ways. I am hopeful that this will be the beginning of a cooperative effort that can help to increase the effectiveness of draft animal-powered forestry in this area.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Yeah Jean I remember speaking to her.

Lisa made a suggestion that if we ever do this type of thing again that we put some placards out with factoids that will cause folks to ask intelligent questions. It probably is they can only think of a few basic questions… what are their names, how much do they eat, do they like their work, how old are they, are they related? Anthropomorphic perspective, and inexperienced with animals in general, and working them specifically.

I also spoke with a man from NH who is working miniature donkeys, and I told him I would pass along some names of folks who have mini horses and may help him with answers about harness etc.

Can I give him your contact?

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Jason, I copied these from your FB profile.

Great horse….

Carl

[Carl Russell]

So I just spent two days at an event showing people some of the stuff I do with my horses, including skidding logs. I took the buffer singletree to demonstrate it as well. There were quite a few comments by folks who seemed to know a little bit about working horses. There was general appreciation for the concept.

Also, I was skidding logs on a level grassy surface so I had more time to observe the action. As I see it now, the spring compresses to the point where it can suspend the weight, or sustain the draft, then as the animal moves forward it fluctuates just slightly with draft spikes. In this case it did work as I had envisioned, returning the stored energy, but in much smaller fluctuations than I had expected, so they had escaped my observations in the woods.

Kinda cool.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Just finished the week from hell, schedule-wise. Actually really good week with a lot accomplished, but hardly time to turn around or sleep.

Will get back to this in earnest this week.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

mink;19317 wrote:

carl i was wondering what the 2 little dips are in the steel going over the bunk are for ? do you find the sled better than the 2 wheel carts for pulling firewood? mink

The dips are to place a pole in, for rolling logs up onto the bunk.

As far as being easier, it really has to do with skid distance. I use the cart for distances up to 1000′, but any distance over 1000′ I find the cart to be inefficient…just can’t put on enough for the turn time. The sled is another beast altogether. Twitching logs into a central location then loading them onto the sled seems the only way to harvest logs on long skids without using a tractor.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Jason, sorry for the loss.

Post the pic to the photo gallery, then you can copy and paste it into your post here.

Good luck my friend, Carl

[Carl Russell]

Very awesome!!

Carl

[Carl Russell]

That’s a body made for logging:D…..don’t let it go to(o) waste:eek:

Carl

[Carl Russell]

It’s hard to keep these old pieces in sound condition. Especially these rakes. I also have always used mine behind the forecart, and have found it to work great.

As far as the bolting as a result of the break-down, I’m gad you’re safe and well. I always see these situations as good opportunities to exercise communication in extenuating circumstances. There is no way, and probably not much sense in it anyway, to expose your animals to catastrophic events, but we still need to find the way to reinforce our communication and leadership when it does happen.

Good job, and thanks for sharing.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Countymouse;19192 wrote:

….. When you say the spring never recovered, do you mean it never decompressed at all or just never decompressed completely? A partial decompression while moving also indicates stored energy being returned to the system. With heavier loads, I never saw the spring completely decompress, it just fluctuated between different degrees on compression. This is still a good thing from a design point of view. Compressing and not moving, though, is pretty bad.

The spring partially compressed then fluctuated slightly, but never decompressed until the horse stopped. I also agree that there is some beneficial effect, but I am idealizing that an effective buffer would recover more completely. But maybe it is more the storing of the energy, or trapping of the energy, in the compressed spring, rather than the release that really creates the increased in efficiency.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

I figure that 70bf weighs about 6-700 lbs.

My point about the flex is that although it did compress the spring about 1-2″, there was enough consistent draft that there never was any chance for the spring to recover, thereby delivering the stored energy back to the task. It made for a squishy hitch, which may have some positive effect, but it was hard for me to see that it actually could increase efficiency. I would be more inclined to see a buffer as beneficial if it were able compress and then recover while the hitch was still moving.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Wicked busy this weekend. I have a list of people who have expressed interest, in the order they contacted me. Pretty much every item has someone interested…. I will be making deals with every body during this week. Thanks, Carl

[Author]

Posts