[AT] Swamp loggers. A log skidder is a tractor isn't it?

[Indiana Robinson]

On Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 7:54 AM, charliehill <charliehill at embarqmail.com> wrote:

>
> That kind of work gets in your blood.  I wish I was still doing it.
>
=============================================



I hope to be doing a little by spring or early summer...
I always wanted to be making sawdust and shavings from when I was a
kid and my father said it must have been in my blood. One paternal
great grandfather owned a water powered grist and saw mill during the
latter half of the 1800's over in the next county east. He bought the
mill and spent the unheard of amount of $8,000 rebuilding it, the dam
and the mill races. In a history of the community it says that as you
entered the town from one end all you could see was big stacks of
lumber and when you left out the other end all you could see was big
stacks of lumber. The mills ran on water most of the time but he did
have a huge stationary steam engine for periods of drought.
My first mill was a circle saw mill. I keep looking for a picture of
it but haven't found one. It was not a great mill. I ran it with my
Super MTA.
Here is a picture of my second mill:
http://picasaweb.google.com/robinson46176/LumberMilling#5404728103934508546
I can't get any pictures of my little Woodmizer because it is still
sitting back in the corner of the shop with part of it still in the
boxes. :-(
I need to be thinking about log skidding methods. My woods over in the
next county is river valley with banks on both sides. The drive is
quite steep and I have no desire to back flip a tractor pulling logs
up the hill and it is pretty steep and rocky to get my trailer up the
hill with my old 4 X 4 truck. I may have to haul logs on old wagon
gears without any bed and load them in the valley with a boom on a
tractor then pull them up the bank drive with the 4 X 4 truck.
Another option is to snake the logs up the bank with a big capstan winch.
My #$%& knee is taking much longer than I expected to get better but
it is definitely getting better. About the only thing that gives me a
lot of trouble is standing. Well, that and getting up and down from
the floor. :-)
Diana has gotten used to me abandoning her at checkout stands in
stores. I can walk and shop as long as I keep walking (and leaning on
the cart) but standing 5 minutes in line is still a problem. As long
as it keeps improving I can't complain. A guy I knew just died... Now
that is a pesky problem... :-)


-- 
Have you hugged your horses today?

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com