Thought I would start another journal for 2012-13. Not sure what happened to last years .. maybe deleted. Dirt did you make nasty remarks on it???

Anyway a couple of posts to play catch up.

Hey now! I pretty much stay away from Journals. It must have been Hup or Alaskan.

First visit to the cabin June 13th

Still some snow on the road in:



A bit of snow on the West side of the cabin:



We found a couple of tears in the roof, probably from the ice under the snow sliding:



From seeing those three tears in the roof we are now going to cross strap the roof and put metal roofing on it.

Several pine trees around camp have been stripped of bark about 30 feet up. This is all second growth lodgepole pine planted after logging. I suppose next they will try to eat the cabin walls.



We already know about the griz visit. here is a picture of my outside wash basin. Think that was a small black that decided to have a chew on it.

I have more pelt boards than 3 trappers need. Having said that I continue to make them, many for other trappers. Now that we have a wolf season we will need to make up a couple of wolf boards. So the other day in my travels wouldn't you know it some cedar left behind at a landing from last winter. Someone cut the best log at 10 feet up then cut a bunch of firewood sized blocks out of the middle of it. You can see the butt rot typical of our Western red cedar. This log will mostly be clear, it is about 18 inches diameter at the butt end. Should make our wolf boards, some lynx and coyote boards and a stack of marten boards.

So out we go with the trailer and load it up. It is now here in town and one of my neighbors will custom cut it for me with his band saw mill.







What we did was cut a couple of poles and crossed them above the log tied with a chain. The we lifted one end with a small chain block. backed the trailer under and used a come a long to pull it into the trailer. Worked very well.

Nice!

Here is a frightening scene and a bit of a story to go with it.

So last summer I was looking for some good wood logs or standing snags which would be handy to get at for firewood for the trapline cabin. In one older cut block there was a nice standing dry fir snag. There was quite a lean to it away from the road so it would take about 70 feet of cable to pull it out. Anyway I left it for another day.

This spring I go down the same road and my dry fir snag is gone and I could not see where it was driving down the road. We turned around down at the landing and started back up. There through the low green brush I see the butt end of the sawn log. So I stopped and went up the bank to investigate. Wow what i saw made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

Some one had made an undercut towards the road then an angle cut on the other side. With the lean on that tree there was no way it was going to the road. You can see he had to cut the stump completely before it came off. When it came off the stump it rolled and came down right where he would have been standing and felled the opposite direction to the undercut. This tree is over 24 inches on the stump and probably over 80 feet tall. Someone is lucky to be alive.

The good news is It will probably be in my woodshed at camp before fall. That is unless this idiot faller gets there first.

Retards... At least ya got some wood

I guess it saves you from cutting it. Hopefully he isn't laying under it.

-TJ

You didnt see any broken plastic saw parts laying around did you?

If I made that big a mess out of a stump I would have sawed it flat and hid the
evidence.

Some folks learn the hard way, really all that comes to mind. Well glad ya got some firewood.

Ron, I sure love these journals of your's!

Sometimes you get lucky on logging incidents like this. You show up and with a few spare parts you have a new saw.

Thanx Alaskan, I try to throw a variety in the mix.

Well I stopped by camp today and sure enough a bear, prob not the grizz took a chew on one my "Dirt" bottles, one with amonia. None of the others touched, bet he is still trying to spit the taste out. Thanx for that idea Dirt.

Got a couple of cams set up, one for vids and one for stills. See what that brings. Hope a bear does not eat my cams, I used a ladder to set them, but not up too high.

That is hilarious though scary as you may be right!

The scary part is that his boots might not fit Ron...

They are probably clown shoes so they would be way to large.

Today we milled my cedar log. A fellow just a couple of blocks away has a Wood Mizer bandsaw mill. A few knots but lots of really nice clear Western Red Cedar boards. Some are 14 inches wide. They are 3/4" thick and will be 5/8" once dried and planed. Some are cut to 1/2" thick to plane for marten boards, ermine boards, and some squirrel boards. Looks like we will get at least four nice 8 foot wolf boards. It is all dry piled now. All in all I am very happy with the material from this log.

Milling the log:





Boards are all dry piled.

I cant believe from what i seen on that stump. who ever cut it wasnt still laying there also they cut thru the holding wood.i like reading your stuff ron.and seeing how others live!

Thanks for sharing Ron!