Logging

Taking a break from activities directly related to erecting buildings, we are engaged of late in clearing an area of forest where our septic system will be installed.  We have developed a system for processing trees which is reasonably efficient as well as producing useful materials.  After we fell the trees we first remove all the small branches and brush.  Anything less than about two inches in diameter or so we put through our chipper to make nice wood chips which is useful for paths and landscaping.  Branches in the 2 to 6 inch range we cut into sections for firewood.  Finally the large trunks are cut into 12 foot lengths which we are currently storing for future processing into timber.  We use all our machinery to accomplish this but there is still a considerable amount of manual labor involved.

A 12 foot length of trunk is dragged out of the forest with a chain and the tractor.

The logs are loaded onto our "Big Red" dump trailer for transport to a storage area.  We use the excavator to lift these; the larger logs can weigh 800 pounds.

We have about 2 tons of log on the trailer and it is ready to roll.