Work Done 2023

[Caw]

The family and I split about half a cord yesterday in the nice weather. Gordon wanted to hang out with us so we tied him to a 24" locust round to keep him out of the way. He could absolutely drag the that round across the yard but he's way too lazy to try.

 

[thewoodlands]

We put in a few smaller loads of beech today before the worst of the wind chill moves in.

 

[Stove Cricket]

Filled the old rack with a single row of fresh cut red oak, currently burning the old red oak that’s now in the shed. Some white oak behind:

Filling a new stack with cherry, oak on the back row and some ash on the front row (south), still one quadrant to fill up on the front:

A new single row stack of black locust and shagbark on the back of the wood shed:

A new stack of white oak in the wood shed:

New stack of black locust in the wood shed, more shagbark behind it:

Ash and miscellaneous chunks in the wood shed:

Good start to the forum standard 12 cord stockpile…? All CSS by hand in the last 5-6 weeks. Lots of good info on the forum threads, some of it is simply stuff out there to see, which helps to level set.

 

[NickW]

Yesterday I split about a cord worth of maple, oak, birch, cherry and aspen. Today I spent the day down in the swamp dropping some dead black ash and cutting a couple that were already down but still mostly solid, then humping the logs up to dry land by the trail to cut to length and haul up in spring. Started to go numb and was stumbling around punch drunk, so I quit for the day. More ready to be hauled and more that still needs cutting or dropping.

 

[Stove Cricket]

Yesterday I split about a cord worth of maple, oak, birch, cherry and aspen. Today I spent the day down in the swamp dropping some dead black ash and cutting a couple that were already down but still mostly solid, then humping the logs up to dry land by the trail to cut to length and haul up in spring. Started to go numb and was stumbling around punch drunk, so I quit for the day. More ready to be hauled and more that still needs cutting or dropping.View attachment 309059View attachment 309060View attachment 309061View attachment 309062

I was looking in the pictures for signs of cranberries from the swamp!

 

[NickW]

I was looking in the pictures for signs of cranberries from the swamp!

Never seen them here. Don't know that I'd realize that's what they were if I did see them. Not too far from Crandon which has a big cranberry festival...

 

[Caw]

Filled the old rack with a single row of fresh cut red oak, currently burning the old red oak that’s now in the shed. Some white oak behind:

View attachment 309053

Filling a new stack with cherry, oak on the back row and some ash on the front row (south), still one quadrant to fill up on the front:

View attachment 309054

A new single row stack of black locust and shagbark on the back of the wood shed:

View attachment 309055

A new stack of white oak in the wood shed:

View attachment 309056

New stack of black locust in the wood shed, more shagbark behind it:

View attachment 309057

Ash and miscellaneous chunks in the wood shed:

View attachment 309058

Good start to the forum standard 12 cord stockpile…? All CSS by hand in the last 5-6 weeks. Lots of good info on the forum threads, some of it is simply stuff out there to see, which helps to level set.

Holy crap those are GIGANTIC pieces. What are you putting those in? Great looking stacks.

 

[NickW]

Holy crap those are GIGANTIC pieces. What are you putting those in? Great looking stacks.

I split that big too for at home when I can. I can usually fit 6-8 big splits in the NC30. Up in the Northwoods I don't have many big tree's and I cut to 12" long to fit N/S in the Stratford II, but some of the ash I am getting out of the swamp right now will yield some nice big splits. 6" & under will stay as rounds, 7-9" halved, 10-12" thirds, 13"+ take a slab off one side then what's left will go thirds. Nice long controlled burns with big squarish splits. Play Tetris with the gaps. You know how it is, I think you've commented that you split in a similar way.

 

[Stove Cricket]

Holy crap those are GIGANTIC pieces. What are you putting those in? Great looking stacks.

My Quadra Fire is only 2.0 cu. ft. , so some of those end blocks being used to support the stack will definitely have to be split again, into some blocky splits. …Although the various comments about OWB’s seems kind of interesting, maybe they could could take bigger pieces.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

You fellows have been busy this year so far.

We got hit by the southern edge of a big ice storm earlier this week. It was beautiful and devastating.




We had numerous branches down or broken and still hanging in the trees as well as a number of uprooted trees. Many of the trees are evergreen down here, and the weight from over half an inch of freezing rain was just too much.

Our first priority today was to get this broken oak limb (still hanging by a hinge) off our old pergola (we had to take the roof off a couple of years ago after the 2021 snow storms). It was still hanging by a sapwood hinge. I’m sorry for the bad picture. I took it from a child’s bedroom window when it was still too dangerous to venture out under the trees. Oak wilt is spreading fast in our area, and this is the time of year that disease-carrying beetles start to fly, so we needed to attend to the wounded tree (and we didn’t want the danger of a hanging branch in our back yard.)

Pretty amazingly we were able to use our 8 inch electric pole saw to cut it down carefully. We were able to work at a safer distance and the pergola sustained no further damage. Once we got the branch down and the area cleared, we wanted to take the remains of an older branch that had broken off on the other side five years ago. Once we cut into that, however, we discovered that the whole main trunk was rotting out, and we felt that we had no choice but to take the whole tree.

My little pole saw did all the branch work. A sixteen inch electric saw did a little bit of the main trunk, but my husband finished it off with the 20 inch bar on the gas-powered chainsaw for the last couple of cuts. The trunk was just over two feet in diameter.



After that job, we headed to a strip of land that’s our property but had trees that fell over into the neighbor’s yard. While my husband worked on the two uprooted cedars, I used the pole saw (the neighbors kindly let us use their outlet for it) to take down broken branches on five different trees. We hauled a lot away from the area but couldn’t quite finish it all.

It was a good start on the cleanup, but there’s a lot more of the same still to do. Thankfully we addressed the most urgent/dangerous stuff today, so mostly there aren’t too many branches still hanging in the air.

My husband has already arranged a day off of work on Monday so that he can haul and lop branches and perhaps start running them through the chipper.

 

[trailrated]

I got to get this Maple ....

UP HERE

 

[Stove Cricket]

I got to get this Maple ....
View attachment 309243
View attachment 309244
UP HERE

View attachment 309245

Nice trail. I’ve never seen a maple in the wild. Seen few Live Oaks on trips to NOLA though- (none here). I read LO’s lose their leaves in ththe spring when the new ones come out, not quite nascent like beech, but almost?

 

[NickW]

I'm done down in the dang swamp. Dropped 13 black ash, cut up 3 others mother nature had dropped that were solid, and 3 pine in 1 full day and 2 half days. All the logs are humped up to the trail. 100-250' through the snow & swamp. Figuring 1 1/4-1 1/2 cord of good ash firewood, pretty good pile of campfire ash, maybe 1/8 cord of pine. First pic is all of it, other 2 are better close ups...

 

[trailrated]

Nice trail. I’ve never seen a maple in the wild. Seen few Live Oaks on trips to NOLA though- (none here). I read LO’s lose their leaves in ththe spring when the new ones come out, not quite nascent like beech, but almost?

I've got quite a bit on the lot. Weather took this one down, otherwise I tend to leave them be. Got plenty of beech too. That is my firewood of choice

 

[Caw]

I split that big too for at home when I can. I can usually fit 6-8 big splits in the NC30. Up in the Northwoods I don't have many big tree's and I cut to 12" long to fit N/S in the Stratford II, but some of the ash I am getting out of the swamp right now will yield some nice big splits. 6" & under will stay as rounds, 7-9" halved, 10-12" thirds, 13"+ take a slab off one side then what's left will go thirds. Nice long controlled burns with big squarish splits. Play Tetris with the gaps. You know how it is, I think you've commented that you split in a similar way.

Square split life is definitely the best. The ones above just looked humongous in the pics. 4" give or take is pretty good on average for me.

 

[Caw]

Finished off the rest of the first log drop. Ended up with almost exactly 1.5 cords for the stove and about 0.5 cords for the fire pit of primarily maple plus some red oak and black locust. Almost no waste this time which was great. Also bucked up a fallen ash that was too far gone for the stove but good fire pit wood. My 7 year old is almost 75% through it already he's a machine.

I'm going under the knife tomorrow so it was good to get this all done today. I'd like to get one more delivery this spring but we'll see how the shoulder heals up first. Leaving it in the driveway for now, I need to adjust the rack it's going on once the ground thaws:

 

[Caw]

My 7 year old is cruising through the downed tree. All I did was buck it for him!

 

[Gearhead660]

My 7 year old is cruising through the downed tree. All I did was buck it for him!

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My son enjoys splitting by hand also!

 

[Dieselhead]

I stopped by a local who had listed some already cut up blowdown free for the taking. Ended up with about a half to 3/4 cord of red oak and ash.
Went to split and splitter would pop but not start, not even on ether. Turns out spark plug died overnight. I can count on one hand the amount of times a plug actually went bad and I’ve been using power equipment 30 years. I guess my preventative maintenance slacked on the splitter as it was the original still in there!

 

[TomMcDonald]

Got hold of a bunch of free ICBs and there are 2 with damaged bladders so I'll use the cages for supplementary wood storage.

2 more trips to the forest and I'll be done for the summer.

 

[Caw]

Got hold of a bunch of free ICBs and there are 2 with damaged bladders so I'll use the cages for supplementary wood storage.

2 more trips to the forest and I'll be done for the summer.

View attachment 309340

Very nice! Its a great feeling being done processing for the year. Can have a morning coffee and stare out back at all that money in the bank.

I need one more log delivery myself, need to get another 2 cords racked. Probably won't be until April or so though with this damn shoulder. If it's not better in time I'll probably just buy 2 cords of green splits and call it good. I never buy wood but hey if you need to you need to. I'm not processing firewood in the summer heat and humidity it's torture. This is all for 2026 so it's not a big deal I just don't want to fall behind in my 3 year cycle.

 

[NickW]

Very nice! Its a great feeling being done processing for the year. Can have a morning coffee and stare out back at all that money in the bank.

I need one more log delivery myself, need to get another 2 cords racked. Probably won't be until April or so though with this damn shoulder. If it's not better in time I'll probably just buy 2 cords of green splits and call it good. I never buy wood but hey if you need to you need to. I'm not processing firewood in the summer heat and humidity it's torture. This is all for 2026 so it's not a big deal I just don't want to fall behind in my 3 year cycle.

I hear ya... I fell behind both at home and up north last year with the build going on in the Northwoods. Every time I was home in '22 we were doing wood. 12 cord css from January to December at home plus probably 5 or 6 cord in the Northwoods between campfire and fireplace wood... Luckily last summer wasn't a real hot one here. I'd split a cord in the relative coolness of the morning, my son would put off stacking until latein the afternoon when it was hot 🤪.

 

[TomMcDonald]

Our Summers are hot and dry but this is the third Summer in a row that's been relatively cool and wet. We even got some snow in the mountains the other day - Mid Summer snow!
So considering the cool summer I'm getting all my wood done now rather than waiting till Autumn.

 

[mrc]

Gont in 1st scrounge of 2023. Buddy that has a ranch is letting me scrounge his (goatwoods). First time in my life I've had a cow watching me buck trees. She was nice. Got full load of shagbark hickory and mulberry. I've never split or burnt shagbark before but gotta say it's on my top easiest woods to split now. Hoping to take some more outta there

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Keep trying hickory and you’ll find a tough one.

 

[Dieselhead]

I hit up a local scrounge, what a pile. Been there a few years. Oak, beech, black birch, ash, hickory..quite the smorgasbord!