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TaylorJohnson
ParticipantThat rope sure sounds nice . I think back to carrying 7 or 8 chokes pulling 150′ of cable in snow up to my waist and it makes me wish that they had this when I was pole skidding. I have thought about getting some of that stuff out of Bailey’s to use with my block and tackle . I could have use it today to pull a tree down I had hung up. The wind took it into a big red pine and man alive It was hung. That extra power from the pullies would have been nice . I ended up using a winch and a high lift jack as a winch to get it out. That rope would be nice and would put you a safe distance from the hangers.
I was just telling my wife to day that I wanted to buy some of it. How are those blocks in Bailey’s ? are they tough enough to use a team on? I also found a sailer book that has a lot of stuff in it . They are the only place I can find with the quick links I like for fixing chains. Taylor JohnsonParticipantI use an Axaroo all the time. It is just a pick with a small blade on the back. It is nice to have that blade incase there is still a limb on a stick that was missed. We use to buy them by the arm loads for the guys. I have seen A LOT of guys stick there legs with a pick, I always tell them how to swing and were to stand but they don’t often listen most generally they have to take a little skin off to learn lol . I always use the short handle type it just works out well for my hight and arm length. Taylor Johnson
ParticipantI would love to come to this but this time of year is busy for me with working , hunting , land trapping I am wore out . I would really like to come and I envy you that get to a bit , have fun . Taylor Johnson
ParticipantMy Grandpa had a peavy and we knew not to touch it . I want to get a good one . I have a guy up here that finds a lot of old logging stuff and when he does he brings it to me to look at or buy. I would like him to find me a good one. Taylor Johnson
ParticipantLOL Carl ,
I had to laugh at what you said ” there is a reason they call it a can’t hook ” When ever I would use one around other guys I would call it a can hook . They would give me a funny look and eventually ask me why I was calling it that, I would say “cant hook just sounds to negative so when I use it I call it a can hook ” .. Taylor JohnsonParticipantAfter I read my last post I had to laugh a bit ,, what a choppy sounding mess lol. That post was more like a text message . What is technology doing to us and the written and even the spoken word ? LOL Taylor Johnson
ParticipantGeorge ,
I get down that way once in a while , I have logged a lot across the river from you . I might be going to that auction . Do you know Dave Mortensen? or Joe Johnson ? Some time this winter or when ever you will have to bring a team up and work them a bit. I will have one sometimes to apprentices this winter . I am hoping to head south after a while though . I actually have some jobs I have to look at in your neck of the woods . Taylor JohnsonParticipantYou have a lot going for you in that you have horse experience and you have other ways to supplement your income that complement horse logging. I would love to learn proper farrier skills, I know how to trim mules and horses to suit me and have helped shoe . Saying that I can say that I do not have any where nere the skills of the old boy that I help and that shoes my horses in the winter. I learn all I can from him and I think for the first few times we ment he may have thought I was a mute lol. I was just trying to be quite and listen to him and watch him.
One more thing a long time ago Tim Carrol who is a horse logger from MN told me some good advice he said “in horse logging fast is slow and slow is fast” this is true . There is nothing wrong with working hard and moving quick but if you get fast in your head it will soon get knocked right out of it LOL. Taylor JohnsonParticipantGeorge ,
Carl is right the chain saw safety if very important. I will send you some info on classes in our area. And once again watch who you take advice from . Some people will act like they are experts on every thing to do with logging and they will have never even logged off 10 acres in their life. When you do find an old-timer or some one that really knows their stuff ask them every question you can think of . If you commit 30 to 40 hours a week to the craft you will learn a lot and you will get something done. Logging and getting something done is a trick , you have to be very tired to learn if not you can bull your way though poor technique. It is like working a heavy bag any one can walk up and hit it hard eight or nine times but can they hit it hard for 30 minutes when your arms are not fresh and are weak your technique has to make up for your lack of strength. Then the next time you are fresh some of the technique will be with you and will make you better and faster . You learn , get better , get faster,…. when you put the hard work in and push your self when you feel like quitting . This is why you can see a twenty year old in the bush swinging a saw like a mad man and a fifty year old-looking like he is walking in the park and at the end of the week the fifty year old has doubled the young mans cords. When you are tired you become very aware of the steps you are taking and the moves you are wasting. Taylor JohnsonParticipantHello George,
I will post things as they come to me. First thing is that if you get into horse logging it can be a very rewarding job . To look back at acres that you have logged with horses is a true sence of accomplishment . I don’t know how much you have logged with them or who you have asked about it . Some advice I would give you is to take a lot of the advice you get with a ,,, well more than a grain of salt. You can wast a lot of time and money on poor advice . Also be ready to work your self very , very , hard if you are ging to make any money with consistency and do not get into bidding against mechanized operators ( most of the time , there are exceptions to this rule ) . Find jobs they don’t want and get them at an arrangement you can make money at. Do not work cheap with the promise of big pay days a head , your time is valuable and the work is dangerous so get paid for every thing you do . Learn how to lay out a strip for your horses. If you just go in and start dropping trees with no plan then you will fail. Logging is logging and you have to be efficient and laying out a job is just about a lost art it seems these days and in horse logging you can not shift a gear and make up for mistakes and poor planing. If I can think of some other things I will post them but right now I have to run .
I looked at you web site and it looks like you have a nice place . I live in WI but in the northern part by Hayward . If I can help you in any way let me know my number is 715 416 1078. Taylor JohnsonParticipantScott , I have seen guys get knocked stupid by short wood LOL. You have to run long lines or be up beside your horse / in front of your horse. Never beside it but if you are be on the out side of the hook the logs will be less likely to come into you but will mostly swing away from you. Taylor Johnson
ParticipantA 40 , 60, 80, 300, 3000,… acres it is all the same were a guy runs into problems on the big plots is if the road system is not suited for trucks . If you are forwarding much over about 60 acres with any consistency you better be hauling 3 cords or better I think.
Tim when I logged down in MN there were small log trucks there with off-road tires on them that they uses for forwarding wood out to were a log truck could get to it. This type of set up might do you good. I want to get a ford 700 or Chevy C 60 ,, well something in that size range . then on jobs were I have a long forward to get my wood to a trackable spot I will hook my loader to the truck load the truck and loader and drive it out. I will do this if I have hills or if it is just to long for the horses to be efficient. Another thing I am always looking at is how can I use this piece of equipment in other ways. Know if I had a truck of this size I could haul larder loads of hay , small loads of fire wood , pull loader easily from job to job or horses. My cousin had a small gmc with a small hood loader on it . That truck had a fuel mizzer motor in it and he would drive that truck to work every day, he could drive that truck pulling his horses and cheap as a chev with a 350 engine in it. Plus when he got there he could forward his wood and haul small loads to the mill or to fire wood costumers. There are a lot of trucks out there this size and a lot of use loaders off of old forwarders and what not. This would be a cheap what to get into a rig that can do the job for ya. Taylor JohnsonParticipantScott , that is what is nice about my forwarder it is cheap to fix , like you said you can put a new motor on one for about 1200 bucks. When I am talking old and new I mean a big picture . I mean the whole lay out of the job and the way we forward it. I know what you are talking about as far as bottle necking . I do not know enough about using bob sleds to know about their effecitcy as far as the way I log. I do know with the right amount of guys and the right crew they could be efficient because they have been in the past. In this day and age could it pencil out ? I do not know for most but for here it could not because of the work comp issue. It would sure be nice to have that option and try it .
I spent some time this week-end talking with my Grandpa. He is in his Eighties and was born in a logging camp in the UP of Michigan I mean literally born in a lean-to log cabin in a logging camp. He was telling me about there loading teams and skidding horses. Back then they hauled every thing to the narrow gauge style rail roads. Each teamster had a full-time swamper and there was a team on the loading of the sleigh that was most of the time smaller and fast plus two guys hooking logs. That is lots of guys but with that kind of help there was not a lot of bottle necking . In the 60s they were still using the same job lay out except that they had cable jammer trucks instead of small fast teams and guy hooking logs . The machines changed but the horses and their skidding job stayed the same. What else stayed the same is the basic job lay out. I even have pics of tucks with chains on pulling sleighs full of logs out of the woods . Logging is logging bob sleds , horse loaders , horse hydraulic loaders, cable jammers , hydraulic loaders ,… there all the same basic idea at their core get the wood to the river , train , truck ….. or what ever to get it to the mill. Get the equipment that suits your needs but is not over kill to what you need. A buddy of mine were talking tonight and he use to horse log now he has a dirt business. He said he would not need a giant dozzer and semi to do what he needs to get done he would work himself out of work that way. It is the same with horse loggers , to my a double bunk valmet would be over kill but to have a small horse-drawn forwarder or a small truck with a loader that you could still back down stub road would be good that is what they had at the end of the last stretch of horse logging.
The biggest thing we lack today in the horse logging world is man power . We either can not find guys to work or we can not afford to hire them. This leaves us with the option of using equipment to take the place a couple of men. We can do this but we must still apply the same basic principle to our horse and what we do with them. Taylor JohnsonParticipantOne of the things I tell people is that you can not just shift a gear on a horse when the going gets tough , they are not a skidder don’t even think of them that way if they have a problem you need to solve it for them . It is true that it is a lot of work to work a horse. Carl I do think this is why so many people who try it end up with skidders . It is a cultural mind-set we let machines work for us and that is the difference in our culture today as opposed to the culture of even 50 years ago . We need to find that mind-set and use it to be succesful. I am talking as an industry. Taylor Johnson
ParticipantMitch we cut a lot of 100” and 102 ” wood here still. Up were I am at there is very little pulp shipped tree length. I have bunched lots of wood in my life of the 100” kind. Some times I still do for the horses , when I do I put a stick down so I don’t have to fight a chain under it. Cutting and bunching is a lot of work but at times I think it is the way to go in small wood. In stead of pulling out five sticks of wood tree length I am able to pull eight or more or how ever it works out even if it is one additional stick it all help at trucking time.
. Taylor Johnson- AuthorPosts