# Slayed Some Pasture Queens Today



## Kevin

I'll post more pics later after I eat, but I took down some queens today. The weather was perfect for logging in the sun - 107 at one point. 

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## LoneStar

Fields look nice and green up there.


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## Kevin

LoneStar said:


> Fields look nice and green up there.



We've had just enough to keep them that way, but not much lately. More brown underbrush than is visible too though.


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## Mizer

What species Kevin?


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## Kevin

Okay Wade, you said you like logging pics, here's some a little different. Falling pasture queens is not like taking trees from mixed hardwood stands. Especially ERC like this. These things are gnarly when they grow out in the open. The only one I dislike more is a Bois d' Arc queen. 


A few slated for tomorrow . . . 
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Cleared a path to start on this one . . . 
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Starting the process
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Time to sharpen. I finally tried out the Dremel chain sharpener. I was surprised at how well it worked. Will give a review one day . . . 
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I parked in the shade . . what happened to my shade? :dunno:

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I never had this happen before . . . . 

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I stuck my ear to where the tree bark & sapwood had slid inside between the tire and wheel and sure enough it was letting out air. So I took my chainsaw tool and hammer and cut the through the wood against the inside of the rim lip. Then I jammed what was left into the tire and it stopped the leaking. 
[attachment=8645]

All clear. 
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Back to work . . .


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## Kevin

*RE: moderator practice stuff*

Next I tackled this one that I showed earlier. 
[attachment=8647]

I'll get several hundred BF from it since it was solid. Here's my wife standing beside it to give some scale . . . . 
[attachment=8648]

Then, I don't know what happened to my camera. I have the worst luck with them. I started to take some pics after I dropped it and this is what it took. I took photography in high school and this is what is called solarization. I hope it isn't that way permanently! :dash2:
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I saw some really cool stuff in that first cluster of trees. I hope to get better pics once I get them home - I found something in the top of one I never seen before. I never save the tops but I saved part of this one.


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## Mizer

Great pics Kevin! ERC is a lot of work even when it isn't 107.


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## UpNorthWoods

Can't wait to see those things opened up! Thanks for the pics


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## DKMD

Cool shots, Kevin. Those are some big ERC trees!


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## wade

Thank you for supporting my habitual reading habits Kevin. Got my fix for today. Don't really know what I"m going to do tomorrow.......Maybe someone will come through with my fixxx.






Kevin said:


> Okay Wade, you said you like logging pics, here's some a little different. Falling pasture queens is not like taking trees from mixed hardwood stands. Especially ERC like this. These things are gnarly when they grow out in the open. The only one I dislike more is a Bois d' Arc queen.
> 
> 
> A few slated for tomorrow . . .
> 
> 
> Cleared a path to start on this one . . .
> 
> 
> Starting the process
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Time to sharpen. I finally tried out the Dremel chain sharpener. I was surprised at how well it worked. Will give a review one day . . .
> 
> 
> I parked in the shade . . what happened to my shade? :dunno:
> 
> 
> 
> I never had this happen before . . . .
> 
> 
> 
> I stuck my ear to where the tree bark & sapwood had slid inside between the tire and wheel and sure enough it was letting out air. So I took my chainsaw tool and hammer and cut the through the wood against the inside of the rim lip. Then I jammed what was left into the tire and it stopped the leaking.
> 
> 
> All clear.
> 
> 
> Back to work . . .


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## Kevin

wade said:


> Thank you for supporting my habitual reading habits Kevin. Got my fix for today. Don't really know what I"m going to do tomorrow.......Maybe someone will come through with my fixxx.



If my camera is working I'll try to snap a few more for ya. It's finally warm enough now to get back out there . . . .


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## Mizer

[/quote]
If my camera is working I'll try to snap a few more for ya. It's finally warm enough now to get back out there . . . .[/quote]

Kevin, I have been thinking about your camera problem. From the looks of the pic I would say that you almost turned your camera into a X-ray camera. I suggest that you drop it again and see what happens. If it works you could take a pic of a trunk and see if there was anything interesting inside. 

disclaimer:
While trying to create an X-ray device it is always advisable to consult an expert before proceeding.


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## Admin

*More Queens*

A few more we dropped today. This first one is where my wife was standing in front of the big one yesterday, before my camera went bonkers. Which I figured out by the way. If you have a camera that has a swith that says "Nightime Mode" and it says "OFF" and "ON". - during the day the proper position for that switch would be the "OFF" position. 

Here's waht is looks like after you limb and remove the trunk.
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These next three pics are of something I never seen before. Took a minute to figure it out. This multi trunk tree gree on top of another dead three and the bark just crawled all over the dead one an preserved it to a large degree. 
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This queen produced some great solid saw logs. 
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Driving wedges to push it the way I want it to go . . . 
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Mrs. kevin snapped this right as the tree was a falling on the grass and I was a hauling ass. The top was tangled with other trees and I don't like hanging around when widow makers start raining from the sky . . . . 
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## Admin

*RE: More Queens*

Time to start limbing . . . 
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Then wife and I had time to play a quick game of hide and seek in the 105 temps today before starting on another. 
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After clearing, dropping, limbing, and bucking a few I turned my eye toward the largest twins left on this property. I left my tuning screw driver at the house - I always have to forget something, so I made one out of a bobbly pin that I inserted into the hinge of my wifes van door and bent the end just enough to make a m"blade". Worked like a charm. I'm always having to MacGuyver something . . . . 
[attachment=8689]

I had been taking breaks and drinking plenty of water and keeping my dew rag wet and felt okay, but dog tired. I topped off the fuel and oil tanks in all the saws and made a road in . . . . 
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The I limbed them as high up as my 28" bar would reach. Backed the tractor out and prepared to drop the smaller of the twins. Then . . . I suddenly hit the wall. My wife saw it too. She took my BGL and it was 54. I was done. No energy all. It has dropped to as low as 39 while logging and ask Doc Dave that is too low to be logging. Some people start to check out when their glucose gets much lower. 

My wife loaded the tools and saws for me and after about 20 minutes after drinking my glucose booster I was feeling good enough to jump on the tractor, uh, crawl up on the tractor I should say and she followed me home. We only live about a ten minute tractor drive from the fields so soon as we got home I jumped in the shower, uh, crawled into the shower and she fed me then the dogs, and we did a tick check. I found a teeny tiny one on her. Wouldn't have thought it was a tick if it wasn't moving. 

Zoe I guess you were right, I ain't no spring chicken any longer. But I pretty sure I would have worked most 20 year olds into the ground in this heat, and all in all I'd say it was a bonanza of a day. 
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## Mizer

Great pics again! Watch yourself out there in the heat. What kind of tree was that one that grew over that other log?


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## woodtickgreg

Looks and sounds like a great day. When I hit the wall it's usually due to heat, every time I get heat stroke it seems to come easier. Spring, fall, n winter for me now. The body snatcher tree is pretty cool, nature is full of surprises. Glad your wife was with you, not wise to log alone.


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## Kevin

Mizer said:


> What kind of tree was that one that grew over that other log?



Water Oak. It looks very cool when you can take it in all at once in 3-D.


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## Mizer

Kevin said:


> Mizer said:
> 
> 
> 
> What kind of tree was that one that grew over that other log?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Water Oak. It looks very cool when you can take it in all at once in 3-D.
Click to expand...


I bet it does! That is something that I could find a place and sit down and look at for quite a while.


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## Vern Tator

How do you get the limbs to levitate and just hang in the air after you cut them? Is it a Texas thing? :rofl2: They look just like accidents waiting for a place to happen. At 107 I'd be elsewhere. We are supposed to have the 90's in Seattle tomorrow and I'm not looking forward the market one bit. Just me and my water bottles under my tent, hoping we have some buyers.


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## Brink

LoneStar said:


> Fields look nice and green up there.



Even the tractor is green. Lol. Up here, the tractors are blue.


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## Kevin

Vern Tator said:


> How do you get the limbs to levitate and just hang in the air after you cut them?



To be a Jedi Logger, you must feel the Force Vern. Feeeel the Force . . . 

:karate:


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## Kevin

Brink said:


> Up here, the tractors are blue.



Our tractor used to be sad also. But when we converted it from a farm tractor to a logging tractor it became a Happy Tractor.


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## Brink

Kevin said:


> Our tractor used to be sad also. But when we converted it from a farm tractor to a logging tractor it became a Happy Tractor.



Hmmm, thought they were envious.


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## Brink

Oh, and it took me 1/2 an hour to figure out what erc is.

Im so smrt!


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## Kevin

Brink said:


> Oh, and it took me 1/2 an hour to figure out what erc is.
> 
> Im so smrt!



Ys y r!


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## Mizer

So what is the plan for these beauties?


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## Kevin

Mizer said:


> So what is the plan for these beauties?



These will be used for 5/8 siding, 6 x 6 porch posts, and 8/4 decking to finish the last part of the wrap-around porch.


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## Mizer

Kevin said:


> Mizer said:
> 
> 
> 
> So what is the plan for these beauties?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These will be used for 5/8 siding, 6 x 6 porch posts, and 8/4 decking to finish the last part of the wrap-around porch.
Click to expand...

I love wrap around porches, I bet it will look great all in cedar.


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## woodtickgreg

Kevin said:


> Vern Tator said:
> 
> 
> 
> How do you get the limbs to levitate and just hang in the air after you cut them?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> To be a Jedi Logger, you must feel the Force Vern. Feeeel the Force . . .
> 
> :karate:
Click to expand...

May the schwartz be with you.
Mel brooks, spaceballs.


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## davidgiul

Vern Tator said:


> How do you get the limbs to levitate and just hang in the air after you cut them? Is it a Texas thing? :rofl2: They look just like accidents waiting for a place to happen. At 107 I'd be elsewhere. We are supposed to have the 90's in Seattle tomorrow and I'm not looking forward the market one bit. Just me and my water bottles under my tent, hoping we have some buyers.


What is the table fee? Nothing worse than going to the market and not making table. 
I went to one last Sat. and the table was 150.00. Barely made table but passed out a lot of cards. How many shows do you do a year?
Keep the pictures coming, Kevin.


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## Kevin

*RE: More Queens*

I didn't take a bunch of pics today compared to other days because I needed to make every minute of logging count. I was nearly wiped out by 2pm. They are just of the one take down of the twins. On the smaller of the two, it was a fairly extreme leaner more than can be seen from the pics and it got worse as it got higher. I was pretty sure it was hollow to some degree so my usual leaner technique made me leery of getting whacked with a barber chair. So . . . I used a technique I've only ever read about - a Coos Bay cut. This was the perfect tree on which to try it out. 
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I was really worn out after 3 days of logging in this extreme heat and I did not execute the cut as well as I woudv'e liked. But this tear is not as nearly as bad as what it looks. In the pic ity looks like it tore 1/3 into to three but it's only about 3 inches thick and tapers out quickly up the tree. Negligible loss. BTW I love that Coos Bay cut. It has a triangle variation too but I used the classic "T". It's rare that I'll ever need it, but it's a great cut to have in the tool box. 
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When I dropped the tree I knew I wasn't getting away since it would go very fast - lot's of lean and all the limbs on the lean side of the tree since it grew next to the big one, so I decided when I heard the pop to just sidle around to the other side of the bigger twin and let her protect me from flying and falling debris. She had enough upper lean and large solid upper canopy on the safe side that nothing was likely to get through to me, and this was the main reason I felled the smaller first. 
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After she flopped I scooted back around the tree to see what was just now exposed for the first time ever. Cognitive dissonance. How can this be? There is a small vertebrae lying on this freshly-exposed stump. This cannot be. The tree is too solid to have been a home for a critter large enough to bring a bone this size into the tree.
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The heat was getting to me. Of course, it fell from up above between where the trees were butted against each other; some critter had taken a carcass up there and chowed down . . . but since I never saw it fall it was just "there". Guess you had to be there but it was weird for a second or two. 

Next to drop the bigger one. No fancy cuttin' needed here just my usual for a leaner: 
1) Notch cut 2) plunge cut leaving ~20% holding wood 3) view escape route one more time 4) make sure boot strings are still tied and taped 5) release holding wood 5) haul ass. 
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Then I went to bucking, and did something I hardly ever do. In fact, I don't remember ever doing it to an ERC. As I bucked the first saw log above the butt log, I read the tension properly but the log sheared along the grain all the up to the crotch. :fit: How could I misread the tension? 
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But closer inspection revealed I didn't misread or mis-cut. See the dirt? That portion of the tree had heart rot and was home to a critter. But the butt log was solid. This is highly unusual. I'm seeing all sorts of weird stuff with these bigger queens. 

It was another good day, and I've dropped and limbed and bucked enough lumber these past three days to build a large cabin with a wrap around deck and furnish it too. But I have another 3 or 4 days of ERC I should log, to stock up while the stocking is good. This property is for sale and the land owner told me to get it while the getting is good. It's also my closest hunt for hogs and so while I wish her luck selling the place I hope she doesn't for a little while longer. One thing is for certain, I'm not doing any logging tomorrow. My body has vetoed any such activity. I may be on the computer all day tomorrow I need some dang rest! 

:lolol:

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## Kevin

BTW did anyone notice all this curl? There was tons of compression on the compressions side of the tree (makes sense yeah) and that's what made the curl. There's going to be a lot of pretty wood in this tree I wager. 

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## Mike1950

Going to be beautiful wood. Love the smell of any cedar but western cedar takes me back 50+ yrs .


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## woodtickgreg

Cool pics and sounds like a great day! I did see the curl but you beat me to it. On the computer all day you say? Imagine that, me too!
Did you say hog huntin? That's on my bucket list too, always wanted to hunt hogs, I've had the meat though, i'ts yummy!


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## LoneStar

Very cool pics! 
I cant help but hear Ray Stevens singing about the macho barber shop 
"I'm a Logger, Just up from Coos Bay Oregon, been topping trees. Quite possibly the toughest man in the entire world"


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## Kevin

woodtickgreg said:


> Cool pics and sounds like a great day! I did see the curl but you beat me to it. ...



I saved some for ya but you prolly saw it too. 

[attachment=8764]

It's all curl!


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## Final Strut

Kevin said:


> Mizer said:
> 
> 
> 
> So what is the plan for these beauties?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These will be used for 5/8 siding, 6 x 6 porch posts, and 8/4 decking to finish the last part of the wrap-around porch.
Click to expand...


That stuff sure is purty. If by chance you would have some 2x2 by say 12" long or so cut offs shoot me a pm. That sure would make some nice box calls.


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## woodtickgreg

Monty python has the best lumber jack song!


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## Kevin

Final Strut said:


> That stuff sure is purty. If by chance you would have some 2x2 by say 12" long or so cut offs shoot me a pm. That sure would make some nice box calls.



Not sure I can spare that much Scott. 

Actually I have a lot of cedar right now. A dozen or three saw logs worth and probably 7500 BF of milled ERC. PM me your requirements but be forewarned you may have to stay on me about it. I'm really liking this vacation stuff not having to fill jig orders or very many wood orders. 

:irishjig:


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## DKMD

Wow, that's a lot of curl! I'm not usually a fan of cedar(don't care for the smell and have a hell of a time finishing it), but curly cedar is a whole different deal. I'm looking forward to seeing that stuff when it's been through the mill.


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## Vern Tator

I'll second what David said, and stand in line right behind him.


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