Hello Volunteers,

On Wednesday, June 29, FOSM volunteers will buck a dozen medium to large logs in Nine Mile PA and split them to generate donation wood for the Mountain Christian Church Wood Ministry. Lou Romero will bring his power splitter to the project.

On Friday, June 24, Michael Arndt and Sam Beard bucked one large log into sixteen 1-foot pieces ready to be split into quarters. They also bucked all but three of the large logs in the other pile near the group area. They bucked the small logs (4-inch to 8-inch diameter) into pieces that were 2-feet, 3-feet, or 4-feet in length so that these smaller logs can be hauled to the donation wood lot and bucked and split by the Wood Ministry volunteers.

Three large logs (about 18-inches in diameter) remain in the lower pile and about a dozen larger logs remain to be bucked in the upper pile. We can drive pickup to the piles, and the splitter can be rolled to the piles near the upper parking lot in Nine Mile Picnic Area. This project provides an opportunity for inexperienced chain sawyers to get a few hours of practice bucking logs.

Meet at 8 am at the FOSM Guard Station behind the Ranger Station where we will load several chain saws, the sharp chain bags, cant hooks, Dolmars, and other equipment in vehicles to take to the picnic area.

Wear long pants, a long-sleeve shirt, and boots with slip-resistant soles. Bring hard hats, work gloves, eye and ear protection, lunch, snacks, and drinks. If you do not have a hard hat, one will be provided.

I hope that we will process all the logs in these two piles on Wednesday so that we can move on to other projects in the coming weeks.

One of the other projects is taking down the two tall steel posts supporting old solar collectors in Sulphur and Doc Long PAs. If you have ideas about how we can take these down safely, please email me. My current plan is to support a poles with volunteers holding 4 straps, unbolt the pole base, raise it above the 4 large bolts, and let fall in a controlled way to the ground.

We can also look at the steel bike rack set in concrete in Cienega PA that we have been asked to remove. There is a another bike rack at Ellis TH for us to remove.

Sam Beard, Projects Chair

Friends of the Sandia Mountains