It all started with the Feller-Buncher arriving.
This is a Tigercat L870C
It has some impressive specs

This is the business-end

 

Cutting wheel cuts tree off flush with the ground
Grapple on the left holds the tree before it falls and the operator uses the hydraulics to place it on the ground

This thing barely made it through our main gate
 

Here's Butch the operator performing some daily maintenance before starting for the day. This thing burns 11 gallons of diesel an hour, weighs 12,000Lbs
 

Cutting wheel has removable teeth.
They are removed and flipped over and reinstalled for a new sharp blade.
 

This tree is grabbed and quickly cut off in one fluid movement
See the shot taken 2 seconds earlier

First day's work
Feller Buncher made quick work of this three acre unit of 30 yr old Doug Fir. Steep hillsides were no problem.
 

After three days of work, the Feller-Buncher had cleared nearly fourteen acres
..and these three machines took over:
 

The shovel
This machine was the all around workhorse
 

The Processor
This one picks up a tree, shaves all the branches off, measures it and trims the ends.
More close-ups of the workings
 

The skidder
This one had a grapple and twin winch drums.
It could grab and haul cut trees on any hillside. Note the tire chains on the front drive wheels.
 It is articulated.

Here's the processor stripping off the limbs of a tree
It was amazing how fast and efficient it was.
With this method, many of the limbs are scattered so there was no huge amount of slash when the job is complete.
...more detailed photos of the Processor
 

Jeremy and Tim from Hart Logging, Dave and Tom from Valhalla Tree Farm having a look at the game plan
 

Our Forester Consultant Jim Murphy and Tim Hart having a chat

Here's all three working on the west side of huckleberry hill
Skidder is hauling trees to the processor while the shovel works farther up the hillside cleaning up the debris and making piles of slash
 

The shovel operator spent a fair amount of time sorting the species and grading the logs in preparation for the log trucks. The rest of the time he fed logs to the processor or organized stacks of "just processed" logs

Processor has a made a pile of tops and junk to the left of his main pile
 

Working on grading some alder logs

That's Tim Hart and Dave looking at the fine grain Douglas Fir Logs.
This particularly high quality load went to Canyon Lumber in Everett.

 

Such a nice load that even the log truck driver Jerry had to take a photo.

Three separate "landings" were made for the sorting and grading on the front 14 acre parcel. Each was next to the road for easy and fast loading of the trucks

 

Burning some slash

As the November days became shorter, the machines worked with lights

Preparing to load a log truck
Each day Tim Hart checked log prices at the various lumber mills.
 

Log trucks and loggers communicated by CB to ensure no surprises on our narrow roads.
 

Each truck was loaded with specific species and log size to be delivered to a specific lumber mill.

What an outstanding place to live!
...more on Dave and Jan's new view

Still some log debris but a whole new outlook
A stand of 30 yr old Fir was left on the top of the hill
 

Another fully loaded truck heading out to one of the local mills
For this job, with our size of logs, most went to the Hampton mill in Darrington
 

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