- [Seth] This is the flight deck,
a jump off point for Berm Peak's mountain bike trails.
If memory serves me correct,
it cost about $600 to build back in 2019.
This same structure today would breach the $2,000 mark
and that doesn't bode well for Berm Peak.
Wooden features are kind of what we do.
Sure, we do have the Alaskan Mill
for processing our own timber,
but it's not like slicing bread.
Using an Alaskan Mill to plank hardwoods like oak
consumes time, bar oil and chain wear.
It's great if you need a specific dimension
or a few pieces.
But that's not what we have our sights on.
Berm Peak is home to many standing dead hardwoods.
Some are even naturally decay resistant,
which means the whole tree is still filled
with strong and usable wood.
If we only had a way to get big chunks
of this timber off the mountain,
we could take it to the sawmill down the road.
So what I wanna do is make a rig
that attaches to the receiver of the Gator.
It's gonna go up
and then that's where our wench is gonna be.
It's gonna attach to the skidding tongs.
We can lower it onto a log, lift the log up
and then we can use the Gator to get it all the way
from the woods to our trailer.
- [Kevin] Where are we taking it?
- We're gonna take it to the sawmill.
I've been planning to build this skidding rig for a while
but never had the sense of urgency until now.
If we can bring this plant to fruition,
any timber we have access to could be processed in bulk.
(energetic music)
- [Kevin] I don't think any welding took place here.
- Ooh.
- [Kevin] Oh man.
- Learning is expensive.
You either have to pay somebody to teach you,
like in school.
You have to use your time in an apprenticeship
or you have to keep making mistakes by yourself.
If you're afraid to try, you're never gonna learn.
That looks like a little bit almost like welding.
- [Kevin] I think it's that jacket.
- [Seth] Now it's tacked up.
(energetic music)
In addition to dead standing trees,
we have quite a few just lying around.
We can use the wench on the Gator
to pull them out in the open,
then see if our log trailer actually works.
Get the dolly underneath.
Oh, look at that.
- [Kevin] Yeah.
(energetic music)
- [Seth] With these logs on wheels, we can tow them out,
instead of skidding them across the driveway.
I don't wanna piss off my wife too badly.
We're still renting the excavator
and we can use that to load the timber into the trailer.
(energetic music)
You may wonder why we don't just use the machine
to grab the timbers and walk them out of the woods.
The answer is that it would be prohibitively slow
and cumbersome, given the distance we need to travel.
Our contraption is making it real easy
to get these to the trailer,
but we still haven't truly put it through its paces.
- [Kevin] Dude. Crazy is how long we put it.
- I think we got to tow it past this entrance.
Just grab the old little Frenchy.
- Get outta here, Frenchy boy.
Oh, come here.
- What is it doing to our thing?
- [Kevin] It's really got it cocked, like-
- Cause we don't wanna do this to it.
Just, we should never be towing it with this because,
yo that bent the Gator.
It bent the receiver on the Gator.
- [Kevin] From here, you can really see that, like-
- You can totally see. Oh God, I hate that.
For some reason,
it never occurred to me that the Gator's receiver
would be the weak point.
I just assumed that pulling too hard
would break the skidding rig
or cause the Gator to pop a wheelie.
Not so.
The Gator's rated for 130 pounds of tongue weight,
which I'm more than happy to exceed by a bit.
But what we created is straight up foolish.
When you pull straight out on this thing,
it's like a purpose built leverage bar
that puts insane stress on the receiver.
That was dumb.
But I think we can redeem ourselves and bend it back.
We bent the receiver back with the excavator
and used the ratchet strap to transfer the load
to the tie down points in the bed.
We'll redesign this rig someday,
but for now we're back in business.
- [Kevin] Back up.
- [Seth] Just missed the whale tail I think.
(energetic music)
The timbers we cut from branches
will serve us better as support posts.
As for the straightest sections of trunk,
the trailer is now packed with them.
This load is a test to see if loading timbers
and taking them down the road
is more efficient than using the Alaskan Mill on site.
And we're about to find out if all this work was worth it.
(energetic music)
- Come back about right there.
That's good right there.
See that saw bit sets against that shoulder?
And that tool I showed you,
if you stick it through there and you pull it out.
- [Seth] One of the reasons I love bicycles
is you can plainly see how they work.
All the gears, cranks and cables are right out in the open.
The same is true for this mill.
There are no microchips, LCD screens or safety sensors.
If something breaks,
you don't need to wait for someone from the manufacturer
to come reprogram it.
It's not the latest in sawmill technology, but it's tough.
And it's right down the road from Berm Peak.
- They're hammered to run at a certain RPM.
Other words, if you back out there and sight that saw,
it's not perfectly flat, it's in a dish.
When it comes up to speed, it stands up straight.
It's got tension in it
and that's when you can drive it straight down the log.
If it gets warm, it takes the tension out of it
a little more and it becomes wobbly.
So it's important that the saw blade
doesn't really hit the log, it's sliding through the cut.
- [Seth] Rollers, chains, pulleys, gears and conveyor belts
all work together to serve the blade and it eats.
Audi controls it all from a little control booth.
He examines each log, rotates it into position
and locks it down.
With the pull of a lever, a plank is born.
(energetic music)
Through years of experience,
Audi knows how to get the most planks out of each timber.
But waste wood gets used for shims, mulch, firewood
or sawdust mountain.
(energetic music)
- [Audi] The saw mill.
I mean, it just looks like a little old mountain saw mill,
but it's afforded us a good living.
And I put my daughter through college
and we built houses and made a living
and a gift to it all is working for yourself
and doing kind of what you think you can do for yourself.
And it's been, it's been a gift and a blessing.
I can't complain about it.
- [Seth] With our freshly minted planks loaded up,
it's clear that this is the way to go.
- It's about 500 and say 525 board feet of it.
210 bucks.
- [Seth] If we're processing more than one timber,
it's absolutely worth it for us to drag these
to the trailer and head down the road.
This will get us through a good part of the summer.
And the best part is we still have, again,
as much standing white oak
and some back there that we haven't even touched.
Although very imperfect,
we did get to practice a new workflow,
familiarize ourselves with some new tools
and make a new business relationship.
And with the lumber stock pile looking healthier than ever,
I'm seeing big wooden features in our future.
If you wanna see us build those features,
make sure you subscribe to Berm Peak.
Thanks for watching.
Thanks for riding with me today.
And I'll see you next time.
Yeah, I still gotta return this lattice to Lowe's.
Gator for sale, lightly used just around the property.