Today I sing the praises of a life-changing $90 tool. When I made hash of part of my lower pasture a couple of weeks ago, part of the problem was not being able to get the red oak logs into a good position to grab them with the grapple. I compensated by driving the tractor on ground that couldn’t support it and made another spring project for myself. The issue was that the only way I knew to pull a log was to loop chain around it and pull the chain with the tractor. These logs were situated in a way that there were no gaps underneath them, so I couldn’t get a chain in place. I knew I couldn’t be the first person to face this problem, and my friend Bob confirmed that loggers indeed had a solution: log tongs or grapple tongs, available at the local purveyor of loggers’ miscellany for less than a pair of running shoes.
![skidding log-7287](https://travelswithmusti.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/skidding-log-7287.jpg)
![skidding log-7288](https://travelswithmusti.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/skidding-log-7288.jpg)
![skidding log-7291](https://travelswithmusti.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/skidding-log-7291.jpg)
![skidding log-7312](https://travelswithmusti.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/skidding-log-7312.jpg)
For reference , these tongs have a 32″ capacity. Bob and I were able to pull out all six chunks of red oak in less than half an hour. Magic!
Tagged: Bob Jones, Cass, grapple tongs, Hollow Oak Farm, Kubota, log tongs, Logging, PB&H Equipment, red oak, skidding, tractor