Work Done 2024

[stoveliker]

Not significant, just a nice chore.

Last year around June we had to cut down three trees here, two red oaks and one maple.
My shed was already full, so I stacked them on racks, uncovered next to the shed.

I had now burned enough to put two racks in the shed. A stack of maple and oak of 6' x 7' was put in one bay.

 

[stoveliker]

Ok southerners, what are these. Woody like a tree but none have any branches on them. Covered on thorns and seem to grow in "clumps", they are all in the same general area. I have nothing in the woods with thorns except black berries and I've never seen anything like it up North.

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bumping this one as I'm also curious whether it's wilde roses or something else.

 

[danrclem]

I got all of my gnarly oak split up. Pictures in post 248. I'll let it sit outside until late this fall and then put it in the barn.

I've got a pretty good size elm that is dying and it needs to come down. I'll probably take it down the next time I go camping. It might hit the camper and I don't feel like moving it now.

 

[fvhowler]

Ok southerners, what are these. Woody like a tree but none have any branches on them. Covered on thorns and seem to grow in "clumps", they are all in the same general area. I have nothing in the woods with thorns except black berries and I've never seen anything like it up North.

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Devils Walking Stick...appropriately named btw.

 

[Pinesmoke]

Devils Walking Stick...appropriately named btw.

No doubt about that. I'm just glad the thorns aren't like the monster blackberry canes I have

 

[mcdougy]

With the little bit of surface frost this morning I loaded up the dog, bike, trailer and truck and trailer and headed over to collect a bit of the bounty from the past few weekends. I was able to get 2 loads home of all ash. I think it's pretty close to a cord each load. There is a couple cord of cherry to draw home as well.

 

[stoveliker]

Cut two truckoads of pitch pine today with my friend.
Some.was still alive but most had just died this year. Due to that beetle..

We'll have a high forest fire risk here the next decade as I see whole (pine barren) forests of standing dead trees (for those local, see near BNL on William Floyd).
If it gets dry it's a tinderbox... It's getting a bit concerning.

One load for my friend,. one load for me.
All bucked up.
I hope work this week allows me to split it before I travel again next week

 

[ctreitzell]

my hatchet was bouncing off the wet oak rounds I cut on fri/sat
goodness knows when splitting will be possible
2-3 years?

 

[stoveliker]

Huh, wet oak is the best for splitting here .. drying makes it harder.

Try a Fiskars x-27. Finnish brand, great.

 

[ctreitzell]

Huh, wet oak is the best for splitting here .. drying makes it harder.

Try a Fiskars x-27. Finnish brand, great.

white french oak? a very hearty tree
I have a Stihl maul that is pretty good
I'll look into this Finnish Maul you suggest which everybody loves on this forum

in California (long ago) I split plenty of green oak and it was fairly easy
this here is a different animal, trust me

I also tried splitting freshly downed madrone back then;
forget it! It took 2 years before that madrone

I have some siberian elm here and it has taken 5 years to be able to split it and with great effort, too

 

[stoveliker]

Yes,.many different oak types. I've done white and red (also white in the Netherlands). But I don't know what specific species they were.

The x-27 is not a maul (heavy head) but a splitting axe.
I used a maul before the x-27, and won't ever go back. Still have a maul that I can hit with a sledge hammer (can't do that with the the hard alloy of the x-27), but rarely use it.

Different reason why some.wood can't split easily; bouncy, or stringy for example.

 

[bigealta]

my hatchet was bouncing off the wet oak rounds I cut on fri/sat
goodness knows when splitting will be possible
2-3 years?

Noodle a piece and post a pic. I bet the grain is pretty wavy.

 

[Garbanzo62]

OK So got most of the Ash split and stacked into the Frankenstein shed. A few more rounds to go. Guessing it is a 65 / 35 mix of good solid stuff and various degrees of degraded wood. When a round has a 6 - 8 inch diameter core of solid heartwood surrounded by 1 - 2 inches of punky wood, You are going o get some splits with good deal of Punk on it.
My quandary now is the Ash will not take up two full bays. I had to start piling into the middle bay as the divider was starting to bend due to the weight and needed splits to add support. The Pine I have for bay 3 won't come close to filling that bay. What I might do is take some other ash that is just stacked on pallets and transfer it to the shed. Since it was CSS a while back, having it as the outer most (3rd) row, would make sense as it should be drier sooner. For Bay 3, I have the sugar maple to still split. I also have the wood from a large Oak limb that came down and a small tulip poplar that I dropped. I am thinking can stack the Maple, Oak and poplar towards the back as it will take the Oak and Maple 2 years + to dry and then put the pine in front of that. If anyone has a better idea, I am all ears.

 

[ctreitzell]

Yes,.many different oak types. I've done white and red (also white in the Netherlands). But I don't know what specific species they were.

The x-27 is not a maul (heavy head) but a splitting axe.
I used a maul before the x-27, and won't ever go back. Still have a maul that I can hit with a sledge hammer (can't do that with the the hard alloy of the x-27), but rarely use it.

Different reason why some.wood can't split easily; bouncy, or stringy for example.

Noodle a piece and post a pic. I bet the grain is pretty wavy.

Grain is pretty straight on the round I hit with my hatchet

I tried today with my Stihl maul and split a 10” round with a single hit and the round was on grass. It wasn’t light swing, tho…I put a lot into it

 

[thewoodlands]

I finally started on some topped off wind damaged pine today, 10 rounds that will get split after the winds & rain leave tomorrow.

 

[ctreitzell]

I finally started on some topped off wind damaged pine today, 10 rounds that will get split after the winds & rain leave tomorrow.

Which model Stihl?

I’ve been considering a bigger bar
BUT, I can work around cutting up a huge trunk with little saws and splitting

 

[thewoodlands]

Which model Stihl?

I’ve been considering a bigger bar
BUT, I can work around cutting up a huge trunk with little saws and splitting

I used the 390 with a 25 inch bar. If that was hardwood, the 660 would've had the 25 inch bar on it.

 

[yooperdave]

Took advantage of the nice day yesterday and burned up a brush pile we had. Also, fixed a handle on a snow scoop that had bent from overuse.

The weather took a huge turn back to winter around the same time the brush pile was done burning.

 

[Garbanzo62]

I finally started on some topped off wind damaged pine today, 10 rounds that will get split after the winds & rain leave tomorrow.

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With the wind and rain we are suppose to get, you might have more to take care of.

 

[Garbanzo62]

Since the Frankenstein shed is made from scrounged materials, I knew the roof was going to be leaky. The melting snow proved me correct. Yeah I could spend a hundred bucks or so getting asphalt shingles or something else, but decided to take a less expensive route. Problem 1 is that the roof is 12Ft 2 inches long by 6 ft wide, so a 12Ft tarp would be a bit short. (ok it is on the overhang part). So I first laid down 3 Dollar store Shower curtains. That covers the entire length with significant overlap of the sheets. Almost goes to the entire back. I then purchased a 10 X 12 Extreme duty tarp from Harbor Freight (20% off this week). Tarp covers all but those two inches, Which have the shower curtains there for coverage. Tarp is Attached using Wood screws with Fender washers through the grommets. From what I can see it seems to be doing the trick. Will know more tomorrow after the Wind and rain tonight.

 

[thewoodlands]

With the wind and rain we are suppose to get, you might have more to take care of.

I was thinking the same, it looks like our hills will be opened up early especially with the warmer weather coming in after this cold moves through.

 

[thewoodlands]

Took advantage of the nice day yesterday and burned up a brush pile we had. Also, fixed a handle on a snow scoop that had bent from overuse.

The weather took a huge turn back to winter around the same time the brush pile was done burning.

This is the first time that I wouldn't feel safe burning brush in the outside fireplace in our area in February, we do have rains coming in but everything is pretty much brown, we'll see if NYS starts the burn ban early this year.

 

[thewoodlands]

Nothing going on for work in the woods today so I cleaned up five chains and then sharpened them.

 

[thewoodlands]

These are the thuds I heard last night when the winds were strong, I bucked up the one on the ground first and then cut off two 60 inch sections on the pine in another tree, it never came back at me so I pulled the rest out with the rhino. Everything is bucked up and most of it is stacked ready for splitting & stacking.

I grabbed the rake from the garage so I could clean up the trail so I could get the splitter in there without dealing with all the branches. The main truck of the pine that was in another tree will need felling but that won't happen until these rounds get split & stacked.

 

[thewoodlands]

I split & stacked what I bucked up yesterday and then split & stacked some rounds from the topped off pine I felled before the wind event.

Picture 4402 is the first load, 4404 is the first area I stacked in, 4407 are some splits from the second area I split from, 4409 is 4404 finished and 4410 is the second area I started stacking in.