Today I decided to skid the logs I’ve been making for the past few days. I wanted to get them on the rack so I can start making the 2x4s I’ll need this coming summer for the fenced-in garden I hope build. I started with the two big trees I took down along the power lines that had such an unanticipated consequence the other night.
Here I’ve pulled the tree down that the power company topped for me, and have branched and bucked it. I’ve backed up to the edge of the woods and have payed out the winch cable and wrapped the chokers around the logs from the other tree I cut down. Once these are out of the woods, I unhook and rehook so I can skid the logs back to the rack.
Here I’m skidding the logs down the road to the rack. My dozer is not fast, so I usually have plenty of time to contemplate as I’m hauling loads. Franco can not tell the difference between me walking, and me driving the dozer, so he continually drops his stick right in front of the dozer hoping I’ll throw it for him. If I were good enough with the bucket, I could probably flip it up in the air for him, but I usually just run over it.
Once both loads (about 9 logs) were skidded up to the sawmill area, I attached the forks to the bucket and positioned the dozer in front of the logs. Using a canthook, I rolled the logs onto the forks, lifted them up, drove over to the rack, and then dumped them. When it comes time to saw these logs, I’ll roll them one by one onto the mill (usually by hand, but sometimes with the canthook) and cut them up.