I know we have a lot of winter left but spring is in the air this week . We are having some temp up in the low 40's and it feels great. The snow is melting and the horses are playing like young colts running in this warm southern breeze. I do not like to see an early break up because it just means a long one . When it breaks early it never ends early it just last longer. When break up does come my techniques change a bit . I do more single horse skidding to bunch wood into areas I can get to with my cart or loader them in the early mornings when the ground is frozen I  take it to a landing a truck can get at. i like working the horses single , I think it makes a horse a better horse. When you work a horse single you get to work very close with that animal one on one , you notice things about them that you might not working them in a team. After a week of this kind of work they even begin to act a little different I think. .  I also think it builds confidence in an animal if it is done in a proper way.
  I never like to rush my time, I like to enjoy the day and season I am in . A person can wish there lives away wanting it to be different than it is be it weather, were you live , day of the week , .......  I think people miss a lot by thinking this way I really try not to. I am enjoying this season of my life but when it is spring I will savor every moment of it as well , I love spring work. Taylor Johnson 

I brought the horses back for the first time in about a month. It is good to have them home plus I have a lot of work for them to do around here. The temp is suppose to be around 35 to 40 the next few days so I will be dragging the drive way because it will be turning to slush . Winter is long up here but it always seems like it is short as far as work goes, there is always lots of work to get done before break up. Every logger I know is working as much as possible because we all know in the middle of March the road bands go on know matter what the weather is doing. Most years by mid March we get some warm weather and it gets sloppy and muddy but it always gets cold again and frezzis back up infact most time it will turn bellow zero again for a week or to at least in the mornings .
 One of the best thing about the horses is that it lengthen the amount of work time you have every year. You can always get back into the woods before the big machines can and you can always work a little longer than they can. These horses are the most flexible source of producing wood that I have ever found. Even the small tractors do not compare , some are ok just not as good. Horses are the way to manage these small wood lots and if they could change some of the insurance laws and employment laws I could give the big boys a run on the the big  pieces as well. These laws are crippling to us small businesses , it is the hardest thing I have to deal with fare and above anything else that I have ever come up against . I have enough work a head of me to hire a large crew but the laws will not allow it .  

 It has been cold this week but I am still plugging along . It has been 20 bellow 0 Fahrenheit at least every morning this week. It will be cold one more night then start to warm up for awhile .. I am looking forward to that but am hoping it does not get to warm. I wonder how cold is to cold to work in..when is it just to cold? My opinions on this very with how mush money I need to make being a big factor :) . A person can sure get use to some cold temps but I sure wish I did not have to.

This morning I am trying to round up my thoughts for the week and turn them into accomplishments. If you do not act on your thoughts with proper timing they seldom amount to much if any thing. Mondays are a good time to get your thoughts together and try to make a productive week out of them by planing your actions  . I would rather be the man that tried than the man that sat on the porch and thought about it with little or no action at all .
  It seems this week did not have a clear ending , worked Saturday in the woods , worked on an article until 1 am Sunday morning , did some more work on the article Sunday night , and still have to go though scale slips from the mill ..... very tired . The last year I have been trying to have clear work week endings and it has helps me stay on track a little better , there is a reason the Lord says to rest and I am learning that after 30 some odd years .

Just got my new Great Lakes Timber Professionals magazine. This month it is full of  articles of all the new rules for truckers and especially those trucks that carry raw forest products. It really does seem that they are trying to put every one out of business. People that deal in raw forest products can not take much more . They have written laws over the years to make it hard for a small log hauler to opperate... well more like impossible so the trucks have gotten bigger and bigger out of necessity. Now they are saying that the trucks are to hard on our bridges and they just upped the fines for over the weight limits from $.02  a pound to up to $.06 a pound ... not for all trucks , just for log trucks.... a little discriminating I would say  being that we do not haul any more weight than other freight trucks.

February 3, 2011

  Today was to windy to fall timber.. or even skid it really. I fixed things on the landing, looked at another job that I have to do, down the road a bit, to see were to put in a road, and took an evener that I had broke earlier in the week to be fixed. On my way home I talked to an old logger that use to work for me years ago and he told me an old saying that I had heard him say before  "The man that cuts on a windy day does not live to spend his pay."  This guy is like a lot of other old loggers I know, he just wants a few more years in the woods, a few more days to drop trees, and a few more times to feel tired and to walk back to the truck at the end of the day smelling of sweat, saw-dust and chain oil .... why do we love this so much? Most people that spend just a few days doing what a logger does would think we are fools for wanting this, but few that do it for any amount of time ever quit and if they do, it is when they can not do it any more from injury or plain old age. I am thankful that I have my days in the woods to look forward to and can not bear the thought of when my time in the woods is done and I am  just wishing I was there.  Taylor Johnson 



Bob "Uncle Bob" Netta and my daughter, Nettie Sue - 2005



February 2, 2011

Hello and welcome to the first blog post by Mule Skinner Horse Logging!
I wish it was more exciting, but I thought that before I just started posting my own thoughts, it would be interesting to hear some topic suggestions from you! So please comment here or email me at taylor@muleskinnerhorselogging.com and check back to see if I chose your suggestion :)
More to come soon!
Take care
- Taylor Johnson