forestry

[Chris Sheppard]

I think he ment pounds stirling.

 

I'm not convinced. It sounded like the 100-150 was if he really went for it. I still reckon it's number of trees.

[daddyola50]

I'm not convinced. It sounded like the 100-150 was if he really went for it. I still reckon it's number of trees.

 

sorry for the confusion i did mean pounds chris , as for stems 22years ago was felling for stroke prossesers not harvesters . two of us were felling 200 to 300 each daily in hamsterly , just fell sometimes just back cut them and chase them off . they were ready for more the next day . then one day a harvester turned up wow look at that , the rest is history

[openspaceman]

What you say here is about the top and bottom of it in a nut shell . I am 60 and love " being " in the woods but I have had enough by 2.00pm and its hard enough to make money even if you work till 4.30 or so . It a young mans game and at the same time a mugs game if you want to at least eat every day . The rates are toooo low to be fair to the amount of back ache and fatigue involved . The only thing you get out of working in the woods is sleep !

 

I'm similar again Stubby, just pruned an apple for my daughter, ringed some logs of an oak I had felled for a neighbour and then dozed off at 15:00. Luckily my real job is not physically demanding.

 

I was shouted down at an early FCA meeting when I spoke against attracting youngsters into the industry but it did change dramatically for the worse. When I started piecework felling I would earn more in a day than a bus driver would in a week, and that was cutting pulp at £4/tonne.

 

20 years ago I was paying a feller 14p/Hft and he'd make £150 plus a bit for the cordwod and petrol was relatively cheaper then.

 

When I finished (closure of Sudbrook) I would still put 2 29 tone loads onto artics with the County and be home by 17:00 and not have much expense other than 5 gallons of gas oil. You need a lot of optimism to finance a modern forwarder and haul 100 tonnes/day just to cover expenses.

[Chris Sheppard]

This needs renaming the Doom and Gloom thread

Edited April 20, 2013 by Chris Sheppard

[Chris Sheppard]

Found myself thinking about this thread again this morning while on the tractor, mainly all the negativity floating round, especially from those freshly into it or wnating to be.

 

Getting your foot in the door is something I can't really help with, but ways of making yourself stand out above others and therefore helping to keep you in work I think I can.

 

I appreciate not everyone will agree with all of these, but these are things that in my opinion make the difference between someone who fells trees and someone who does it well.

 

Stumps - there's generally no excuse for high stumps (buttresses don't count as an excuse - you've got a saw, use it!). If the side of your saw isn't about on the floor you're doing something wrong.

 

Snedding - Everyone misses an odd small limb from time to time, but missing lots on the underside isn't good. Likewise, leaving pegs. If you've gone the the effort to cut off a branch, do it properly, especially on hardwood. There seems to be more and more people almost making pruning cuts when snedding hardwood - if your saw isn't up to growling off heavy forks then get a bigger saw!

 

Stacking - The other two annoy me, but as it's usually me forwarding it out, this is my absolute bugbear. Stacks that look like they've been dropped out of the sky by a chinook are no good for anyone. I'll mention it once, tell you a second time and after that I'll not pick it up until you change your ways

 

Cutting to length/spec - beleive it or not, stuff gets a spec set for a reason. OK, Chip and firewood aren't always so critical, but still, if your sticks measure 14 ft instead of 12, and the wagon goes out light because it can't fit enough bays on, that's at least two faily important people you've upset so far. More importantly is top diameters/lengths for things like sawlogs - if a load gets rejected because of your mismeasuring, then you'll not be very popular again.

A quick check on diameters is to have a series of marks on the side cover of your saw - the older Jonsereds used to have 5cm, 10cm and 14cm (from memeory) cast into the side of the clutch cover for that very reason.

 

Brash - tops left hanging and brash 4ft deep a) looks crap, and b) tend to do damage to machines (not talking about purpose built obviously), if you're asked to mash it up a bit on the way - do it. Also, when mashing up brash, try not to leave spikes (ash is probably the worst for this) as they tend to have a habit of finding the sidewalls of tyres a bt too easily.

 

One thing I've noticed over the years is each and every one of the above tend to surface when people try to go faster than their ability will let them. Get into good habits first and speed will come later.

 

Overheads wise, a couple of saws, combi can, a few wedges and felling bar and you're away - don't get sucked into needing a 4x4 straight away, surely you can carry a saw and fuel a few hundred metres can't you If it wasn't for having to shift the tractor and trailer about, I'd probably have a little van or maybe something like another subaru legacy again.

 

You'll likely earn very little to start with, but if you have the right attitude and are prepared to stick with it, then it can be a rewarding job. You'll have good weeks and bad weeks and at times wonder why you bother, but on the whole you should feel great

 

Worse case, if you don't like it you'v got all the gear you need to go and chuck brash through a chipper

Edited April 21, 2013 by Chris Sheppard

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

Found myself thinking about this thread again this morning while on the tractor, mainly all the negativity floating round, especially from those freshly into it or wnating to be.

 

Getting your foot in the door is something I can't really help with, but ways of making yourself stand out above others and therefore helping to keep you in work I think I can.

 

I appreciate not everyone will agree with all of these, but these are things that in my opinion make the difference between someone who fells trees and someone who does it well.

 

Stumps - there's generally no excuse for high stumps (buttresses don't count as an excuse - you've got a saw, use it!). If the side of your saw isn't about on the floor you're doing something wrong.

 

Snedding - Everyone misses an odd small limb from time to time, but missing lots on the underside isn't good. Likewise, leaving pegs. If you've gone the the effort to cut off a branch, do it properly, especially on hardwood. There seems to be more and more people almost making pruning cuts when snedding hardwood - if your saw isn't up to growling off heavy forks then get a bigger saw!

 

Stacking - The other two annoy me, but as it's usually me forwarding it out, this is my absolute bugbear. Stacks that look like they've been dropped out of the sky by a chinook are no good for anyone. I'll mention it once, tell you a second time and after that I'll not pick it up until you change your ways

 

Cutting to length/spec - beleive it or not, stuff gets a spec set for a reason. OK, Chip and firewood aren't always so critical, but still, if your sticks measure 14 ft instead of 12, and the wagon goes out light because it can't fit enough bays on, that's at least two faily important people you've upset so far. More importantly is top diameters/lengths for things like sawlogs - if a load gets rejected because of your mismeasuring, then you'll not be very popular again.

A quick check on diameters is to have a series of marks on the side cover of your saw - the older Jonsereds used to have 5cm, 10cm and 14cm (from memeory) cast into the side of the clutch cover for that very reason.

 

Brash - tops left hanging and brash 4ft deep a) looks crap, and b) tend to do damage to machines (not talking about purpose built obviously), if you're asked to mash it up a bit on the way - do it. Also, when mashing up brash, try not to leave spikes (ash is probably the worst for this) as they tend to have a habit of finding the sidewalls of tyres a bt too easily.

 

One thing I've noticed over the years is each and every one of the above tend to surface when people try to go faster than their ability will let them. Get into good habits first and speed will come later.

 

Overheads wise, a couple of saws, combi can, a few wedges and felling bar and you're away - don't get sucked into needing a 4x4 straight away, surely you can carry a saw and fuel a few hundred metres can't you If it wasn't for having to shift the tractor and trailer about, I'd probably have a little van or maybe something like another subaru legacy again.

 

You'll likely earn very little to start with, but if you have the right attitude and are prepared to stick with it, then it can be a rewarding job. You'll have good weeks and bad weeks and at times wonder why you bother, but on the whole you should feel great

 

Worse case, if you don't like it you'v got all the gear you need to go and chuck brash through a chipper

 

We need a show us your stump heights / snedding pegs / tops album!

 

Was always taught that tops should be trashed to less than knee height for the subsequent extraction machine axles, particularly tractor and timber trailer; FC guideline is maximum 1.5m long tops; hate edge trees with 20ft long brash that you have to pulp up tho!

[Chris Sheppard]

We need a show us your stump heights / snedding pegs / tops album!

 

Was always taught that tops should be trashed to less than knee height for the subsequent extraction machine axles, particularly tractor and timber trailer; FC guideline is maximum 1.5m long tops; hate edge trees with 20ft long brash that you have to pulp up tho!

 

An Arbtalk hall of shame

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

An Arbtalk hall of shame

 

There are already some humdingers on my 3rd photo in the skidding thread; 2 or 3 big fat ugly pegs behind the tractor. I remember thinking blx to it, that stick can sned itself (50% possible with larch of course) when being pulled out!!

[Chris Sheppard]

There are already some humdingers on my 3rd photo in the skidding thread; 2 or 3 big fat ugly pegs behind the tractor. I remember thinking blx to it, that stick can sned itself (50% possible with larch of course) when being pulled out!!

 

Know what you mean - could have been stringy spruce or gnarly pine and they'd have been still intact by the landing!

 

It's when forwarding I get most frustrated as usually I'm a bit of a stickler for getting it on the trailer as nicely as sensible so it comes off better the other end, plus only running small gear, every stick counts.

 

It's amazing what you can sned from the tractor seat with a bit of ingenuity

[csservices]

Its something I've always fancied a go at but I don't think my back would stand it day in day out now, used to do a bit of thinning for local shooting estate but mostly it was stacked to be handballed onto a trailer or pickup, any larch, spruce etc we would cut to 5ft lengths and then saw into hedge laying stakes on site using my old mcconnell bench on the tractor, with regard to the comment/s above about brash and keeping sites tidy I remember two of us thinning a stand of silver birch, they were between 10-18" diameter trees from memory, had to fell, sned and cut to managebale length to handball and stack for collection, I worked by felling one, snedding it and stacking brash and timber then moving onto next one, the lad I was felling with felled about 30 trees without moving anything and ended up with a huge dangerous mess, and by time he'd cleared it all I think we were tree for tree, by the end of the day