How We Handle Small Sawlog Loads

We are a small sawmill located in the Appalachia Mountains of south-central Pennsylvania near Lake Raystown.  Typically, we hire logging trucks to pick up our logs, but what do we do about the small sawlog loads?  Well, today we thought we would take you along to pick up an oak log.  This log was about 29’ long with an approximate 28-29” diameter.  According to our log weight calculators, this log weighs between 8,000 and 9,000 pounds. 

The day was cold and in the high 20’s to low 30’s Fahrenheit and it was windy.  In the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania our winters are often damp which seems to make us feel even colder.  Snow came early in the morning which is typical for this time of year.  We are bundled up in multiple layers which restricts our movement and makes loading much harder. 

We take along our skid steer with grapple bucket to load the log.  We cut the log into three pieces about 9+ feet long.  Our buyers typically desire lumber in the 8’ to 10’ length range, so cutting the log to length on site made sense to us to help with loading.  Plus, the skid steer we took along would not be able to lift the log without cutting it.  It is never worth risking ourselves or the equipment trying to push the machines past their limits.

Because of the weight of the log load and only bringing one trailer, we had to leave the skid steer behind while we took the logs to the yard.  We retrieved it in a second trip. Including traveling the two trips over the mountain and stopping to refuel, we were finished with this job in well under four hours.  

Hope you enjoy the video! – Bren and Chuck