e 1975 gales, there were some 200ha of salvageable sawlogs and we began discussions on how to make the most of the situation.Laurie King asked me first, if I could put a logging crew together and secondly, what would the logging costs be to skid site.
Well that caused me a great amount of work to figure out the logging cost because at that stage were were not logging on the forest. Eventually, I came up with the price if 25 cents per square foot of log measure. Meantime Laurie had asked around for prices from sawmills and he came back to me saying that we had the logging job but we had to do it for 21 cents!
I didn't have a blindfold! There were no other crews around and there was a glut of timber available because the same storms hit most of Canterbury. As it turned out, we did log the area within budget albeit with a raw crew (at the start) and variable piece size and one of the main reasons for the success was that Bert Bennett [Bennett's Sawmilling] took all the l
ogs and Fletchers, with Burnie McMullen as local boss took all the timber Bert produced despite there being substantial sapstain. Sapstain is a fungus that discolours timber/logs but apparently does not cause timber weakness only an aesthetic degrade.
I led my team of Mick Hill the Dozer driver, Mel Jamieson who was on the skids cutting up the logs, Doug Turner and Jim (Skippy) Wilson as bushmen. These guys were inexperienced as bushmen and I had to train them as we went along and my role as gang boss was to take responsibility for the risky jobs that inevitably crop up when logging in windthrow.
We had a Cat D6 Bulldozer and a logging arch that was actually a D7 size. This made it difficult when making tracks because the arch was wider than the D6. Mick could manage it very well but when he was away, I drove the thing and usually tipped the arch over whenever I was track making. There was a trick to righting it so the problem was not huge, just frustrating and maybe be could take the arch off when track-making but that involves time and of course there is pride!
We were given flash, secondhand Husqvana chainsaws and a bunch of logging strops. So we were fitted out fairly well.
The trouble with windthrow is that is is difficult to predict where the tension is on each tree, so where is the best/safest cut. Uprooted trees can be cut and suddenly the trunk is off the stump and the roots fall back into the hole - very quickly sometimes so you have to be quick enough to keep out of harms way.
Gen
erally I would be the 'breaker-out' which is the guy who works out where the dozer backs up to, or is able to back up to. Then take the strops, attach them to the logs in a pattern that will pull the logs into the logging arch.
Sounds easy enough but those strops were heavy (half inch wire rope, choker and large ring to slide up the main rope) and I carried a few of them at once - 4, 5, 6 or up to 8 depending on the size of the sawlogs.
As well I had to pull out the main winch rope. Those Hyster winches are able to drive out, which makes pulling the rope easier, but Mick found that driving it out made the winch drum spin too much and the plug at the end would pop out. So I had to pull the bloody thing out thus pulling the whole weight of the rope, the not-so-freewheeling winch and the strops! No wonder nobody else wanted that job! And thinking about I must have been a tough bugger!
We worked an hour extra per day and the team gradually came together very well. Over a period of two years we never had a bad accident and while we worked hard in dangerous conditions, the relationships within the team remained strong aside from normal and expected blowout.
Phil W
ilkie reminds me on a regular basis [he is now over 8o!] about the time he nearly killed me and thought he had! I was down the hill sawing a springy tree and looked up as Phil dropped a tree in my direction [he thought I was further drown the hill]. I knew I could not get out of the way because of the slash, so I ducked down among the fallen trees. These trees took to shock and I felt the tree Phil had dropped fit my helmet. But it only just hit it - I felt it clonk but did not damage to my hat or my head for that matter. Incredibly lucky!
Even some funny things happened. I doubt that I can relate this as I saw it, but it was side-splitting. Skippy missed the truck and came up on the Yamaha motorbike but he had no experience a motorcycle riding. We let him go in front of us at knockoff and got a laugh straight away. The throttle was a bit touchy and he opened it too much, so the bike took off with him holding on for grim life lying prostrate on the tank and seat. Somehow he managed to get seated [without stopping] but was going a bit swiftly and each corner of the road he lurched precariously, holding himself up by using his feet and managing to keep the bike loosely upright.
Mick was driving the truck and tears flowed down his cheeks! How Skippy managed to get to the bottom of the hill was a combination of luck and agility but once on the more stable tarseal road he shot ahead and safely returned to HQ.
Well that caused me a great amount of work to figure out the logging cost because at that stage were were not logging on the forest. Eventually, I came up with the price if 25 cents per square foot of log measure. Meantime Laurie had asked around for prices from sawmills and he came back to me saying that we had the logging job but we had to do it for 21 cents!
I didn't have a blindfold! There were no other crews around and there was a glut of timber available because the same storms hit most of Canterbury. As it turned out, we did log the area within budget albeit with a raw crew (at the start) and variable piece size and one of the main reasons for the success was that Bert Bennett [Bennett's Sawmilling] took all the l
ogs and Fletchers, with Burnie McMullen as local boss took all the timber Bert produced despite there being substantial sapstain. Sapstain is a fungus that discolours timber/logs but apparently does not cause timber weakness only an aesthetic degrade.I led my team of Mick Hill the Dozer driver, Mel Jamieson who was on the skids cutting up the logs, Doug Turner and Jim (Skippy) Wilson as bushmen. These guys were inexperienced as bushmen and I had to train them as we went along and my role as gang boss was to take responsibility for the risky jobs that inevitably crop up when logging in windthrow.
We had a Cat D6 Bulldozer and a logging arch that was actually a D7 size. This made it difficult when making tracks because the arch was wider than the D6. Mick could manage it very well but when he was away, I drove the thing and usually tipped the arch over whenever I was track making. There was a trick to righting it so the problem was not huge, just frustrating and maybe be could take the arch off when track-making but that involves time and of course there is pride!
We were given flash, secondhand Husqvana chainsaws and a bunch of logging strops. So we were fitted out fairly well.
The trouble with windthrow is that is is difficult to predict where the tension is on each tree, so where is the best/safest cut. Uprooted trees can be cut and suddenly the trunk is off the stump and the roots fall back into the hole - very quickly sometimes so you have to be quick enough to keep out of harms way.
Gen
erally I would be the 'breaker-out' which is the guy who works out where the dozer backs up to, or is able to back up to. Then take the strops, attach them to the logs in a pattern that will pull the logs into the logging arch.Sounds easy enough but those strops were heavy (half inch wire rope, choker and large ring to slide up the main rope) and I carried a few of them at once - 4, 5, 6 or up to 8 depending on the size of the sawlogs.
As well I had to pull out the main winch rope. Those Hyster winches are able to drive out, which makes pulling the rope easier, but Mick found that driving it out made the winch drum spin too much and the plug at the end would pop out. So I had to pull the bloody thing out thus pulling the whole weight of the rope, the not-so-freewheeling winch and the strops! No wonder nobody else wanted that job! And thinking about I must have been a tough bugger!
We worked an hour extra per day and the team gradually came together very well. Over a period of two years we never had a bad accident and while we worked hard in dangerous conditions, the relationships within the team remained strong aside from normal and expected blowout.
Phil W
ilkie reminds me on a regular basis [he is now over 8o!] about the time he nearly killed me and thought he had! I was down the hill sawing a springy tree and looked up as Phil dropped a tree in my direction [he thought I was further drown the hill]. I knew I could not get out of the way because of the slash, so I ducked down among the fallen trees. These trees took to shock and I felt the tree Phil had dropped fit my helmet. But it only just hit it - I felt it clonk but did not damage to my hat or my head for that matter. Incredibly lucky!Even some funny things happened. I doubt that I can relate this as I saw it, but it was side-splitting. Skippy missed the truck and came up on the Yamaha motorbike but he had no experience a motorcycle riding. We let him go in front of us at knockoff and got a laugh straight away. The throttle was a bit touchy and he opened it too much, so the bike took off with him holding on for grim life lying prostrate on the tank and seat. Somehow he managed to get seated [without stopping] but was going a bit swiftly and each corner of the road he lurched precariously, holding himself up by using his feet and managing to keep the bike loosely upright.
Mick was driving the truck and tears flowed down his cheeks! How Skippy managed to get to the bottom of the hill was a combination of luck and agility but once on the more stable tarseal road he shot ahead and safely returned to HQ.
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