whats your method

[forvols]

I have 6 100ft poplar trees down. I started with the tops and getting out anything 3" or so. Then I went to the trunks and cut one tree into rounds. Then split that and stacked. Yesterday I spent the day just cutting up the rest of the trunks into rounds with the plan being to take one task at a time vice mix and match. Cut til the cutting is done (for these trees) then split til the splitting is done then stack it all...Just wondering how do you guys approach with multiple trees?
edit to add: all 6 of these trees are within 50yds of each other.

Tony

 

[quads]

One tree at a time. I start at the stump, cut the trunk and limbs as I work my way up. Put the saw down and then split and load the trailer. Then on to the next tree and if the trailer is full I just throw in a pile next to the trail. When all trees are cut, split, and thrown in piles next to the trail, then I start hauling to the stack and stacking.

 

[Danno77]

I know this is vague, but I just do one job until I get tired/bored of that job, then I move to the next. Some days I'm in the mood to just keep cutting as long as i can, some days I really wanna have a pretty stack of rounds, sometimes I really feel the urge to get some split wood drying in a stack.

A lot of times the ground dictates what i do, as well. can't be driving all over muddy fields and ruining them, so might just mean i do saw work and no hauling. I don't saw while it's snowing, but i don't mind stacking or splitting. I'm a wuss when it comes to rain, though. I don't go outside in the rain. I hate being wet. (T-NOT-WSS)

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I do all the cutting during the winter months. As to how I cut the tree up, that all depends upon the tree. Sometimes I'll start cutting limbs and sometimes I'll start cutting at the butt.

Splitting is done at this time of the year and yes, I did split some wood this morning. When the splitting is done then comes the stacking. When the stacking is done the pile is forgotten until the following late fall or early winter when I cover the top of the piles. No more is done until it is time to burn that wood which means anywhere from 3 to 7 years from the time it was cut.

Through all this, I work very slow.

 

[smokinj]

I do all the cutting during the winter months. As to how I cut the tree up, that all depends upon the tree. Sometimes I'll start cutting limbs and sometimes I'll start cutting at the butt.

Splitting is done at this time of the year and yes, I did split some wood this morning. When the splitting is done then comes the stacking. When the stacking is done the pile is forgotten until the following late fall or early winter when I cover the top of the piles. No more is done until it is time to burn that wood which means anywhere from 3 to 7 years from the time it was cut.

Through all this, I work very slow.

you not getting any of this rain? I am under water again...

 

[Backwoods Savage]

The sun shines brightly here Jay. We had snow all day Saturday but nothing since and pretty much all the snow has melted. It is windy today but nice for splitting wood.

 

[gpcollen1]

Is this tulip or a poplar like cottonwood or quaking aspen? The 100ft trees i just assumed tulip...

I cut all the limbs/brush and drag it away. I cut everything into logs and stack it knowing it may take me a bit to get it all split. I have no problem with letting those rounds begin to dry out like that, especially with something softer like Tulip. Then I just locate the splitter near the pile and do it til it is done...

I think you get in a good groove working on one task til complete...

 

[Tony H]

The sun shines brightly here Jay. We had snow all day Saturday but nothing since and pretty much all the snow has melted. It is windy today but nice for splitting wood.

Same here we have not had rain for over a week and last week it hit 70 then snow and a high of 34 Saturday.

To the work I have a couple trees I am cutting into rounds and throwing in piles after I have that done and get the wood next to the splitter split I will pull the splitter up and split and stack the piles. I will sometimes split it all and sometimes split a bunch and then stack depending on where I am at.
The only differences are when the tree is down in my yard I usually cut the top and clean it up so I don't kill the grass, if it'sin a place where others might take the wood I cut and haul the medium stuff then the trunk and leave the top and brush for last.

 

[Kenster]

I buck the tree into logs eight feet or so long and use my 8N tractor and boom pole with chain to carry them to my work area. I stack the logs together. I buck the limbs where they lay and use the tractor's dirt scoop the tote them to be split (if needed) and stacked. Then I buck the logs and roll the rounds over to where they will be stacked. Split them and stack them. Drink beer, but only after the work's done. Hard fast rule around here is no drinking til your through with power tools and tractors for the day.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Is this tulip or a poplar like cottonwood or quaking aspen? The 100ft trees i just assumed tulip...

I cut all the limbs/brush and drag it away. I cut everything into logs and stack it knowing it may take me a bit to get it all split. I have no problem with letting those rounds begin to dry out like that, especially with something softer like Tulip. Then I just locate the splitter near the pile and do it til it is done...

I think you get in a good groove working on one task til complete...

From that area I'd say it is all yellow or tulip poplar.

 

[firefighterjake]

I subscribe to Firefighterjake's Chaos Theory Method of Cutting . . . sometimes I'll cut one tree and work on it from the butt end . . . other times I'll start at the top . . . sometimes I'll cut a bunch of trees . . . sometimes I'll haul out the wood in 4-foot lengths . . . sometimes I'll buck it up in the woods and haul it out . . . sometimes I'll buck and split it right in the woods . . . sometimes I'll just haul the rounds back home to process later . . . fact is . . . I never really know what I'm going to do myself . . . I just kind of go along as the mood moves me.

 

[webie]

My situation is quite different . Some years I may only get 2 days to cut or 2 weeks or 2 months . Just depends How dry the swamp stays. My wood cutting involves timeing and speed . I have to start usually in August if the conditions are dry enough . Then its cut down and brush out and pull as much of the tree out of the swamp as possible with the tractor . Most cases its either all or half the tree at a time . This gets all staged in a 2 acre higher part of the land . Then when I think I have enough for another year or depending on conditions and what I have found determens how long I do this . After the felling and dragging I can slow down and take my time on the rest of the processing .
When its time to start bucking I have an area for that and I hook back on the trees and drag them to my area one at a time , I unhook the tractor buck it up and go get the next and push it on the pile with the loader . When I am done bucking all my rounds . They are nearly all in the same pile . When the rounds are all cut the splitter goes on the tractor and from there I split and it gets thrown on my 16 ft trailer to go home , at home it gets piled off the trailer and back to the swamp to split and haul another load .

 

[Wood Duck]

I do about the same thing as firefighterjake and danno77 - I switch tasks based on how I feel, how the work progresses, etc. I find that when cutting a tree into firewood length, I create piles of rounds that start to get in the way. So I switch from cutting to moving rounds, which usually gives me the idea to split a few. After some splitting I start to get tired, so maybe back to cutting or stacking... you get the picture. As long as I am making progress on one task or another I figure it is time well spent. Particularly with splitting, which I do by hand, I find that an hour or so per day seems a lot more efficient and safer than trying to do it all in a few days, so I start splitting as soon as I have a few rounds.

 

[forvols]

Yes tulip poplar. Nice tall straight almost limbless until the last 30ft or so at the top. I got them all cut into rounds and stacked what I could lift anyway. Just have to move the splitter from stack to stack. Still have some work to do on the tops. It just seemed like the first day of cutting I did not make much headway(worked mainly the tops with the saw). So thought I would ask to see how everybody else goes about it. Some good infor here and I appericate you'll sharing.

 

[WoodPorn]

I too am a fan of the chaotic method, However the mood strikes is the way it goes. See attached pic from this past Saturday's 70 degree glory, there are about 5 tasks going on at once!