1980's pictures here logging in Manitoba where I cut mostly black spruce on flat ground 10 to 11 months of the year.
Table top flat ground, timber all leaned on the average south east and an IWA union pay rate for treelength limbed and topped at 3.5 inches diameter piled at the roadside landing. Skid length couldn't be no longer then 500 feet.
You can see me working off the face of my strip and the pile in the landing is in the distance with some bigger wood I cut earlier.
I'm getting into the smaller fringe wood here where it's thick as the hair on a dog's back.
With my 90cc 910 Jonsereds with 16" to 18" b/c (later 064AV) I just make a quick slash for a face cut and then cut the tree right off the stump with the back cut.
When the trees starts to fall I pitch them into bunches. Sometimes 10 or more trees per bunch leaving enough room for the skidder to get between the butts and standing timber.
Bigger wood he'd back blade the limbs off and pull the butts all even.
I'd help my partner pull out the mainline and then help him choke up for the first 3 or 4 chokers.
Then I'd go top the trees at 3.5 inches diameter with very little limbing as you can see after I cut the tops off.
We were averaging 30 to 40 cords in a 7 hour day in this small wood and thanks to the union rate we got more $ per cord when the wood got shorter.
Bigger wood 55 foot and over treelength best average daily production was 60 cord a day.
Our paper mill made concrete bag quality SPX and SPK kraft paper with these little 100 year old black spruce.
It was a good gig until the feller bunchers and grapple skidders came in the early 1990's.
