Skidding Logs

[Drilling Man]

I fell a couple white pine and cut the logs out of them a few days ago...  Now it's time to skid the logs out.  The first one went fairly easy, other than the fact they are up on a big hill in a hard to get to spot...
 

 
  Once out of the woodlot, i started down the hill and into a sandy valley...
 

 

 
  Going down the hill, takes you into a sand pit...  I have no idea how you'd ever get these logs out of that sugar sand without MFWD!!
 

 
  I left my log trailor on the valley floor, and loaded the logs there...
 

 
  Now, it's time to get the 16 footer out, and it's further in, and in a tough spot!  This is as close as i could get, and not only am i at a poor angle, the log has a stump in front of it!!
 

 
  You can see how i handle a problem like this one, i use a pully to change the direction of pull.  You can see how it works in these picts...  I guess i could cut everything out of my way, but that's NOT the way i do my logging.
 

 

 
  After some "jockying around", i managed to get the log out where i could get ahold of it with my 3 point hitch and started skidding it out.
 

 
  Once i had it out, i loaded it beside the 20 footer...
 

 
  And headed down the trail for the road home...
 

 
  FINALLY, i'm out on the road and headed for the sawmill!!
 

 
  Next job will be to mill these logs into lumber!!
 
  Hope you enjoyed the picts!!

  DM

[Glanceblamm]

Drilling Man

While I have never logged, your detailed story's are very interesting on getting that timber out and running it through your mill.
The pictures that you post along with these outings are a nice bonus. It would be great to be able to work with you for a day!

I have done some chainsaw work in my time. About ten years worth and this was just in the interest of feeding a wood burning stove.
A lot of this work was done in the ditches that border the gravel & dirt roads which would help the land owner out by keeping these agriculture access areas open.
This Would Seem To Attract Deer Where There Was No Previous Sign Of Them. It Wouldn't take long...Usually by day two in an area, the sign would be there.
It seemed to be so consistent that at times I considered running the saw a little on the afternoon before the opening morning of the season although I never did do this.

Do you find my observations to be true?. A lot of this wood was soft maple with some black locus and wild cherry thrown in. Also had some of what we called piss elm that was a real bear to
Split unless it was dried out good. Hedge was also cut to add some heat to those cooler burning woods.
THANKS
GB

[Drilling Man]

  Thanks for the kind words...

  I live in an area where there is NO shortage of food for the deer, and we have a LOT of deer here...  In places where the deer have less to eat, they "will" come to the sound of a chainsaw.  They know that there will be "tree tops" laying on the ground with soft shoots or leaves for them to eat.  I've had loggers from up north in this state tell me that many times...

  But, around here that doesn't happen, even though it's a rare day that i don't see deer and turkeys walking around in my fields...

  DM

[deerslayer79]

Drilling Man,you certaily give the forks and grapple on the front of that agco a good workout,looks like a handy attachment.I'm looking at getting one of those rootrakes with a grapple attachment for the front of my New Holland.

[gdolby]

Good day to all. drilling man, great post and pics. brings back a lot of memories. you dont know how much fun your cheating yourself out of doing that with a tractor instead of mule teams. Keep up the good work........Bill

[alsaqr]

Best farm logging rig i ever saw was made from a surplus 10,000 pound truck winch.  My friend made a three point mount for it and connected the winch to the tractor pto.   It is a super logging  tool. 

[Drilling Man]

Best farm logging rig i ever saw was made from a surplus 10,000 pound truck winch.  My friend made a three point mount for it and connected the winch to the tractor pto.   It is a super logging  tool. 

  Hey alsagr,

  I'm now in the process of building a 3 point "skidding winch".  I have the winch and some of the steel gathered up, but it's slow going because of other projects.   Also, it's going to take some time because i want it better than just "some junk" thrown together, so i'll just keep plugging along on it.  There's no way i'm going to put the kind of money out a new one cost, so home built it is!

  I hope to take picts along the way, and post a few when done...

  DM

[horsepower]

I skid logs with a team of draft horses.  A lot more nimble in the timber and I can squeeze through much narrower gaps between trees.  That sand pit might be a bit of a problem though unless it was chained up real short to get some lift on the front of the log or using an arch.  I parbuckle mine onto a similar set of running gears to move them out or directly a flatbed trailer if I am taking a load to the mill.