# LOOKOUT! That Tree Is A Deathtrap!



## quads (Feb 7, 2010)

It's odd how often I run into hollow trees. Of course, if they were healthy, then I guess they wouldn't be dead! Just cutting the notch, and they start to fall already, pinching the bar. Most of the time it's hard to tell what they are going to do. Sometimes they shatter and come crashing down without warning. I can usually tell beforehand if they are hollow, but not always, like this one.







It was an absolutely gorgeous day to cut wood! The old maul handle is finally starting to get just a tiny bit of play in it. After 25 years the epoxy is shrinking. I bet within 10 years I will have to replace the handle. I should just buy a Fiskars.  If I am going to have to replace the handle on that old maul every 35 years it will put me in the poorhouse!






And I did cut a fair amount of it today. I'm almost caught up with what I've burned, sold, and given away. One more day should do it, depending on how much I sell tomorrow. Then I can start stacking the excess in the woods again.






Dropped these two trees and skillfully missed the apple tree in the foreground. Even if I do say so myself!






Today it was my ATV that got hit by my wild split pitching!






Not bad, these gloves made it almost two winters. I'll have to reach into the grab-bag and pull out another pair.






Today wasn't all wood cuttin'. I took some airplane pictures too.






Way, way up there. 40x worth. Picture starts to get a little grainy.






Somebody was having a little air to air combat practice!


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## crs7200 (Feb 7, 2010)

I enjoy all the pictures that you send in.  I have to say that I am jealous.  I wish I had the land that you have to gather firewood.  I buy a log load each year and cut, split, and haul it to my house.  I have to have it dropped nearby because the way my property is layed out, there is no way for a truck that size to get in my back yard.  No front yard to speak of.  If I was one house over, I would have all the room required.  I live pretty rural, so cutting at the house is not a problem.

I have the wheeler, saw and all the cutting and hauling stuff.  Just don't have the land.   Poor me 

It would be real nice to have the land when the winter months to keep the cabin fever away.  

Keep sending in the great pics.


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## bogydave (Feb 7, 2010)

As usual, great pics.
Yeh, I bet you keep the equipment out of range of the tree, since they don't always go as planned.
Tops in the birch here get punky & the wind takes them out from top down in stages. (widow makers)
Looks like all that rain, packed the snow down several inches.  Can see the tree after it's down
The plane going south/west is the one to be on.  Phoenix!
Holding pattern busy eh? (or planes were playing chicken or going back cause they forgot the coffee) 

The left glove is still good, you only need one for the right hand. LOL


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## quads (Feb 7, 2010)

crs7300 said:
			
		

> I enjoy all the pictures that you send in.  I have to say that I am jealous.  I wish I had the land that you have to gather firewood.  I buy a log load each year and cut, split, and haul it to my house.  I have to have it dropped nearby because the way my property is layed out, there is no way for a truck that size to get in my back yard.  No front yard to speak of.  If I was one house over, I would have all the room required.  I live pretty rural, so cutting at the house is not a problem.
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> I have the wheeler, saw and all the cutting and hauling stuff.  Just don't have the land.   Poor me
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Yep you're really packed in there by my standards.  I don't think I could ever live packed in with neighbors like that.  My nearest neighbors are about a mile away, and they're all relatives of mine.


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## quads (Feb 7, 2010)

bogydave said:
			
		

> As usual, great pics.
> Yeh, I bet you keep the equipment out of range of the tree, since they don't always go as planned.
> Tops in the birch here get punky & the wind takes them out from top down in stages. (widow makers)
> Looks like all that rain, packed the snow down several inches.  Can see the tree after it's down
> ...


I park plenty far away from the tree and walk to it when felling, even if I don't plan on the tree falling that direction.  

The oaks here go the opposite of your birch.  The roots (or hollow stumps) rot off then the whole tree tips over.  Usually after the smaller branches and bark have fallen off.

The snow really didn't go down much, but it has a hard crust on it now which the tree doesn't sink into far when it falls.  In places where I break through the crust, I still go up almost to my knee.

I'm under the approach to Minneapolis.  Almost every plane I see is heading there, northwest.  I can't even dream of warm weather when watching the planes!  The curvy trails are from fighter jets out of Fort McCoy.  They are out almost everyday practicing and roaring around.  They're really hard to get a picture of though!


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## Bobbin (Feb 7, 2010)

Bet if you duct taped the worn through glove fingers you could save some real dough and buy the Fiskars maul... (I hate that gloves wear through just when they're "broken in").


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## hareball (Feb 7, 2010)

Those are some great pics! Really like the jet too.

Is that a Red Oak that you have split there?


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## quads (Feb 7, 2010)

Bobbin said:
			
		

> Bet if you duct taped the worn through glove fingers you could save some real dough and buy the Fiskars maul... (I hate that gloves wear through just when they're "broken in").


Ah yes.  But, I am almost out of duct tape, have to get another roll, and I still have half full bag of new gloves.  Don't worry, I don't throw the old gloves away.  Mrs. Quads will wear them on her one trip outside next winter when she can't find her own gloves again!


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## quads (Feb 7, 2010)

hareball said:
			
		

> Those are some great pics! Really like the jet too.
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> Is that a Red Oak that you have split there?


When I was younger, all those trees were called red oak by the oldtimers.  Never heard of black oak.  Nowadays all the younger people call them black oak and say that none of them are red oak.  So, they are either black or red oak!


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## hareball (Feb 7, 2010)

quads said:
			
		

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I'm learning! But there is always a curve ball lol


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## Gary_602z (Feb 7, 2010)

quads said:
			
		

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Glad I don't live that close to my relatives!  

Gary


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## quads (Feb 7, 2010)

Gary_602z said:
			
		

> Glad I don't live that close to my relatives!
> 
> Gary


Don't I know it!  That's where some of my give away wood goes.


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## PapaDave (Feb 7, 2010)

bogydave said:
			
		

> As usual, great pics.
> Yeh, I bet you keep the equipment out of range of the tree, since they don't always go as planned.
> Tops in the birch here get punky & the wind takes them out from top down in stages. (widow makers)
> Looks like all that rain, packed the snow down several inches.  Can see the tree after it's down
> ...



Nah Dave, plenty of life left in that r/h glove.


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## bill*67 (Feb 8, 2010)

nice picts. quads. i really enjoy them. every time i see your posts i think about that song by the zac brown band, when he sings " i got my toes in the water, ass in the sand, not a worry in the world , a cold beer in my hand , life is good today, life is good today ill bet you get to sing that song alot! keep up the good work!


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## quads (Feb 8, 2010)

wildbillx8 said:
			
		

> nice picts. quads. i really enjoy them. every time i see your posts i think about that song by the zac brown band, when he sings " i got my toes in the water, ass in the sand, not a worry in the world , a cold beer in my hand , life is good today, life is good today ill bet you get to sing that song alot! keep up the good work!


Ha!  Thanks!


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## ironpony (Feb 8, 2010)

quads said:
			
		

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from what ive read, when you were younger all those trees were
SAPLINGS


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## gzecc (Feb 8, 2010)

Quads, I think I asked this before, and forgive me if you answered me.  I've seen a lot of your skillful picture taking and always see a lot of smaller trees.  Everything seems to be < 15" across. Why is this?  Is this just my perception?


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## quads (Feb 8, 2010)

ironpony said:
			
		

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Well, let's just say that I can remember when the woods was a lot different than it is now.


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## quads (Feb 8, 2010)

gzecc said:
			
		

> Quads, I think I asked this before, and forgive me if you answered me.  I've seen a lot of your skillful picture taking and always see a lot of smaller trees.  Everything seems to be < 15" across. Why is this?  Is this just my perception?


It’s because there never used to be any trees here.  This was all prairie/grassland 100 years ago, or less.  As a matter of fact, where I normally cut is on an old stagecoach line called the Pinery Road.  Then jackpine and scrub oak grew up and that was the end of the prairie.  In 2004 a tornado came through and uprooted most of the biggest trees we had, then the loggers came in and cleaned it up.  Now the oak wilt is taking it’s toll and killing many of them.  What you see, is all that's left, and hazel brush and raspberries.  None of the trees are over 100 years old, and there are very few even that old anymore.


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## crs7200 (Feb 8, 2010)

quads said:
			
		

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Not as bad as it looks. Here's a view from the house to the back yard. There's only 500 people inthe whole town, so it's pretty small.


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## quads (Feb 8, 2010)

crs7300 said:
			
		

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That looks a lot better!  Not so many houses.  A very pretty picture, by the way.  Snow and the boiler out there chuggin' away.  I like it.


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## Jags (Feb 8, 2010)

Still a little too close for me.  I'm not trying to make an "oh yeah" statement, but this is my back yard (from this summer):


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## quads (Feb 8, 2010)

Jags said:
			
		

> Still a little too close for me.  I'm not trying to make an "oh yeah" statement, but this is my back yard (from this summer):


Nice!


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## crs7200 (Feb 9, 2010)

Jags said:
			
		

> Still a little too close for me.  I'm not trying to make an "oh yeah" statement, but this is my back yard (from this summer):



I'll take it.  Before we bought this house 9 years ago, we looked ONLY at places out of town.  Any town.  What we found is that they were either whay to expensive or needed way to much work.  Of course, a few months after buying, 3 that I would have grabbed went up for sale.  That's how it usually goes.   

Your pic looks like my buddies house just a few hundred yards up the road.  Nothin around but hills, as long as your looking away from town!!

so, I pack our stuff and you can let me live way out there at the end of tht nice property you have :cheese: 

Like I said before.....I'm jealous.

Here's a few picture from about 1/2 mile away from the house.  

Keep sending in those pictures and keep up the good work.


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## Jags (Feb 9, 2010)

Awesome country side pics CRS.

My first pic was to the North.  Here are to the west, south and east.  These pics were taken not for the landscape view, so you may have to look past the subject of the pic and into the background.


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## quads (Feb 9, 2010)

crs7300 said:
			
		

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Nice sleds!  I don't own a snowmobile anymore, but sometimes I miss it.  The trail runs for a couple miles or so across the farm.  I'm usually not too far from it when I'm cutting wood and there has been a lot of traffic on it this winter (about 300 feet of my main wood hauling trail is shared with the snowmobiles).  Yesterday, I could hear an antique running down the trail, but was just a little too far away to see what it was.  It sounded like a single cylinder Sachs, which is one of the engine types that I used to use a lot (on the old Rupps).


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