CHURUBUSCO – The temperature climbed toward 90 degrees. The sun was high in the sky, and the humidity made the air thick as soup.

But DeKalb County Horsemen's Association members came out in the heat, wearing baseball hats and overalls.

They had a job to do.

Using eight teams of draft horses, the group's mission Saturday was to remove as many cut logs as they could from the woods behind Churubusco resident Bob Green's property.

Green turned to the Horsemen's Association for a more environmentally friendly way to remove the older trees, and he hopes others will follow suit.

Down the hill from Green's house, an antique chuck wagon provided by association member Dick Griffis was set up in a clearing. Everyone had just eaten a lunch of homemade chili, hot dogs and other treats provided by fellow member Bob Miller.

Green said he was friends with members of the Horsemen's Association, and when he was thinking about clearing the woods, he asked whether the organization could help. Along with logging, association members offer their services for weddings, funerals and wagon rides.

The group jumped at the chance, Green said. About 10 members came out, and they brought along 16 Belgian, Percheron and Haflinger draft horses.

The horses huffed and puffed in the heat as they dragged logs from the woods. Sweat glistened on their backs. At one point, Green asked Griffis how long the horses could work.

"They'll work here all day," Griffis said. "But you've got to give them breaks."

In order to hook a log up to the cart, Harshman said, a large pair of tongs is fitted around the log. The horses pull, and the tongs dig into the wood. As he watched a pair of horses trying to drag a 20-foot log, Green said the wood will be used to make veneer sheets, furniture and doors for houses or cabinets. Leftover brush will be used as firewood.

By the end of the work day, the group had removed 54 logs, association member Dennis Oster said. While the association's men did most of the logging, Oster's daughter Amanda helped out as well. Along with its regular services, Oster said the Horsemen's Association works with 4-H to teach children like Amanda to steer the draft horses and help with various activities.

Amanda was nervous at first, her father said, but she soon warmed up to the horses.

"She's all excited," Oster said. "She wants me to buy a pair now."

Using horses instead of machines to remove the logs is less destructive and will leave a smaller carbon footprint, member Stu Harshman said.

Although many people might view any cutting of trees as destructive, Green said the removal of old trees allows newer trees more room to grow.

kshawgo@jg.net