Cutting Down Trees Doesn’t Make You a Logger – So Much Can Go Wrong

Hey it's Brock here from Rock Hill Farms Today we're going to cut down some trees Get them cut up into Manageable logs and then haul the logs Off and sell them to a local Mill So I actually had other plans for what I Was going to do today But I was talking to my friend Paul last Night and he said they're still having a Hard time Getting their regular shipments of logs Delivered to the mill And I'm not a logger so I can't cut Enough to keep his Mill running or I'm Not going to try to but I can take down A couple trees and bring them just a Little bit to Help keep them busy so should be a fun Day first thing I need to do is make Sure I've got gas and oil in the in the Chainsaw make sure I've got a sharp Chain get all my gear then we'll go pick Out a couple trees Should be fun all right I think I've got My two trees picked out We're going this one here And that one right there these are both Healthy trees I don't know 30 inch diameter or Something like that they both might have Just a slight lean this way but not much So obviously we're going to take them That way but instead of the bore cut I Use most of the time this will be a

Straight back cut and probably use some Wedges Foreign [Music] [Music] Because I was out here to harvest Saw logs this result is really Disappointing and I knew it before it Hit the ground So If you look at my hinge here on this Side I cut the hands down to about four Inches and then on the other side I was Going to cut it down to about two and a Half to three inches and then come back Around here and take it down to three Inches and then I thought I would Probably be hitting my wedges a little Bit more but it didn't go that way Because the center of this is soft and There's a hole in it so this right here I can I can push my thumb into this You pull out the fiber of the tree And if you look at the hole in the tree It gets wider at the bottom and it's Getting narrower as it comes up the Stump and then about two or three inches In here The hole stops but the wood is still Really soft so I don't know how far up This goes it could be two feet in we Turn back into solid wood Or half of this tree might be bad And the reason I think this is really

Relevant besides I mean I can make Firewood out of most of this no matter What and the saw logs aren't worth much More than the firewood so it's not a big Deal to me But this conversation makes this really Interesting to me Because this tree is not dead If I if I had not cut this down it would Have still put off leaves and look just Fine But it's dying from the ground up and Rotting If I cut this down a few years ago All of this would have been solid wood That could be turned into Lumber and be Used Now today Most of the end of this is not usable So this tree Might be 80 or 100 years old But it's not growing anymore it's dying And that means it's past time to take it Down in my opinion They reach a point in their lifespan Where they're a crop and you need to Harvest them rather than just letting it Die and rot and be worth nothing so Just is what it is let's get this cut up Hopefully I was hoping I could get two Logs out of this hopefully I can still Get one so I'm going to limit cut it up At that end and then find out where the The rot ends on this

Foreign [Music] Okay so if we come to right here We've got So 21 feet would be 252. If we cut it right here We've got 21 feet Now they want 10 foot six inch logs so If we cut it here then go down 10 feet We'd have 11 foot left and maybe get an Eight foot out of it So I think I'm gonna cut it here And then I'll be able to handle it and I Think I'll cut it here and then I'll start Cutting 16 inch rounds off the end and See how far we have to go before it's Solid [Music] Oh [Music] We have 90 percent of the limbs off of This now and I could cut it right where It's at but basically this whole thing And this is still really heavy the whole Thing is suspended on one little Kickstand of a limb right there And I'm not crazy about that because I Can understand the forces up here but at Some point that whole thing could roll Over so I've already got the skid loader Over down here to carry the logs I'm Thinking I'm going to see if I can just Roll this over and take all those forces

Out of play Foreign Now I think this cut is just less Complicated And we've got a spot right here that's A foot off the ground And it's on the ground on both ends so When you think about it both ends are Pushing up or pushing down on the ground Then the middle is trying to come down As I cut it means compression wood is on The top and tension on the bottom always Cut the compression first so I'll make My cut on the top halfway through and Come up from the bottom to finish it [Music] So I'll make my cut on the top halfway Through and come up from the bottom to Finish it [Music] I stood right here and told you how I Should cut it and then I did it wrong [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] Thank you [Music] Foreign To take three firewood rounds off of That so 48 inches four feet we lost off That let's see what we have left 200 inches

So They only want to buy logs that are Either 10 foot Six or eight foot six and I can't get One of each I can't even quite get two Of the eight Footers And they prefer to have the 10 foot so I'm gonna cut the best 11 feet off this 10 feet 6 whatever it Is And only get one log out of this then We'll take down the other tree but first When you get this one cut and loaded [Music] [Music] Hmm [Music] Foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Foreign Foreign [Music] [Music] Hmm [Music] [Music] [Music] Foreign The last time I held logs on this Trailer I did not show myself strapping Them down and you could see me drive off

So someone was worried that I was Driving with those just sitting there And just so you know just because I Don't put straps on it in the footage I always strap my load down before I Travel Still having trouble getting logs huh Yeah I'm supposed to have a Couple semis come in but I haven't came Yet that's what your dad said he they Keep saying they're going to bring them And then they don't some of them's been A week and some of them's been three or Four weeks coming so those are for sale If you want them yeah but I wanted to Talk to you a little bit about the price And get this on camera yeah so I've been Thinking about your stick I got this Feeling you've got two sticks and one's For buying and one's for selling yeah That would be nice but no yeah one more Thing I want to negotiate is you said 40 Cents aboard foot I'll take that price If you can tell a pig joke like your dad Big joke but without the pig joke I want A little more well If uh if you get enough video of me You'll figure out that Dad has all the Jokes so he might get a better price I'll give you the rest of the the day to Think of a pig joke Thank you The last time I brought logs here I Showed you guys The Stick of Truth it

Determines How much you get paid I've had the feeling I'm probably going To be taking like a Caribbean vacation After he measures these these aren't Like those last puny ones these are the Good logs That one would be a 144. okay 100 141 boys so that one based on putting The stick across the narrow end is 141 Board foot Here show them how you uh how you're Looking at that you're just stabbing Something into it to see how soft it is Right oh yeah Usually And it's you can tell pretty easy I mean I can see it looking at it but Yeah that's kind of I think your dad Said if it'll go in an inch then it's Not usable at all yeah so the The hard stuff the stuff that you can Tell is good it just Barely sticks in Uh Put that in I don't know maybe a half Inch A little bit worse there yeah that's Pretty bad right there and right there And you can tell it visibly Now since the the bottom end of it's Good you're probably going to lose a Foot or yeah it's hard to say but Yeah and depending on what I'm cutting

At the time I might cut that one back to Eight foot rather than ten but Uh we usually buy them at what they come In at so that one could scale 181 But because the bad spot And how big it is I would probably knock It back to 122. And that's a little bit Uh you don't know it just kind of comes With experience of seeing what it could Be okay so this instead of 180 board Foot is worth 120 board foot at 10 foot Because the last two foot is We don't know how much but the end of it Is too soft to use and when someone Brings you logs you have to agree on a Price before you can cut into that so You have to figure something out and That's how why you kind of have an idea Of how much you just subtract yeah for It yeah and that really comes just with Experience of seeing that so often I've Seen it where that could ruin most of The log could come in here and uh be a Big void And then I've seen it where it could go In three inches and not ruin anything And you never know so these two logs Here we've got 140 and one 141 and 122. So 263. and then we've got a third log Here okay so he's got an eight foot Stick that after measuring and Subtracting for a few bad spots we have Two logs that are each 85 board feet

So that's 170. And 263 or 33 And times 0.4 173.20 All in a day's work yeah you know if I Had I think I a guy could a feller could Make a living out of cutting these trees Down and bringing them to you if he had Enough of the trees yeah just enough of Them that's the thing I could even if I Was really serious about doing this I'd Run out of trees in six months yeah out Of usable trees so All right made a little bit of money Today I'll be laughing all the way to the bank Hey I appreciate you guys taking time to Watch this video I'll put links on the Screen to more of our videos and I'll See you next time