Work Done in 2019

[thewoodlands]

On my ride around the lot today, I noticed (again) that I have a cherry that needs taking care of. In the second picture you can see where I'll come up through with the rhino, I have some clearing off the main trail that should take 20 minutes and then the trail should be ready.

 

[shortys7777]

Finally made a hearth pad. The blower was drying out my wood floor like crazy.

 

[Medic21]

Found a new place to cut. Not new to me, grew up camping, fishing, and hunting this property. Got a good chunk of wood that was down and dry already. And I good view for the day. Three loads cut, split, and stacked in Boiler shed.

 

[Woody Stover]

I keep stashin' Ash, and buildin' the cache. My aim this fall and winter is to finally get my in-laws on the three-year plan. Since my nephew has been scoring wood from a guy at work, my task is easier since I'm only left with two SIL stoves to feed in addition to ours. If the wood we're getting now isn't dry for '20-'21, I can supply them all with wood from my stash, but I'd rather not move it yet another time.
Over the last several weeks, I got a big yard Ash from neighbors, ~2.5 cords, the "ivy Ash," maybe .3 cords, and now this latest Ash which has been standing dead for several years on the edge of a neighbor's adjoining woods. I took some of the wood to his dad down the street, in exchange for a chance at the rest of the tree. It's a win-win! This one might be 3/4 cord..?
It was a "rotter," with considerable core damage at the base of the trunk. I was concerned about cutting it, but there wasn't really anything to hit with it, and it was leaning in the general direction I wanted it to go. But as you can see, even though I saw clean chips cutting the notch, the hinge got too thin on one side and it broke early when I made the back-cut. At that point only the other side of the hinge held and gravity took over, sending the tree a bit right of where I wanted it to go. It luckily missed a couple of small trees the guy had growing on the lot, so no harm done. Mistake I made was cutting the notch wrong initially, then trying to re-aim it by cutting more notch out of the thin side. If I'd cut the notch in the right direction at first, there would have been enough hinge left to steer it.
I sometimes take bucked wood to my SILs' stacking area and let them split and stack it. But it seems like less over-all work if I just go ahead and hand-split easy stuff like Ash on-site. In this case, I would have had to split most of the rounds at least once anyway to get them onto the trailer easily, the unload and stack 'em to be split later. Then they have to be handled again to split them. So this time, I just split them right there, loaded the trailer, and then got help to unload the trailer, "fire brigade" style, relaying the splits to me for stacking.
As you see, it was as tall as the surrounding trees, maybe 60-70'.

Here's the rotted trunk and failed hinge. You can see where I tried to correct the hinge direction in the chain marks.

I'd hoped for more dry wood but only the small top branches were dry.

The trailer was pretty close to being full.

Here's the "ivy Ash" plus the total Ash stack so far..still got five rounds left over there.

I'm going after another small Ash that's fallen and suspended off the ground, and then a large butt section of one I cut a couple years ago but never finished..hope it's still OK because that's a bunch of wood. Oh yeah, there's another dead Ash behind the house that's pretty close..that's gotta come down as well. Then I'll start cleaning up some of the Oak I've got lying around..probably 10-15 at least, down or standing dead. I've got my work 'cut out' for me.

 

[thewoodlands]

I keep stashin' Ash, and buildin' the cache. My aim this fall and winter is to finally get my in-laws on the three-year plan. Since my nephew has been scoring wood from a guy at work, my task is easier since I'm only left with two SIL stoves to feed in addition to ours. If the wood we're getting now isn't dry for '20-'21, I can supply them all with wood from my stash, but I'd rather not move it yet another time.
Over the last several weeks, I got a big yard Ash from neighbors, ~2.5 cords, the "ivy Ash," maybe .3 cords, and now this latest Ash which has been standing dead for several years on the edge of a neighbor's adjoining woods. I took some of the wood to his dad down the street, in exchange for a chance at the rest of the tree. It's a win-win! This one might be 3/4 cord..?
It was a "rotter," with considerable core damage at the base of the trunk. I was concerned about cutting it, but there wasn't really anything to hit with it, and it was leaning in the general direction I wanted it to go. But as you can see, even though I saw clean chips cutting the notch, the hinge got too thin on one side and it broke early when I made the back-cut. At that point only the other side of the hinge held and gravity took over, sending the tree a bit right of where I wanted it to go. It luckily missed a couple of small trees the guy had growing on the lot, so no harm done. Mistake I made was cutting the notch wrong initially, then trying to re-aim it by cutting more notch out of the thin side. If I'd cut the notch in the right direction at first, there would have been enough hinge left to steer it.
I sometimes take bucked wood to my SILs' stacking area and let them split and stack it. But it seems like less over-all work if I just go ahead and hand-split easy stuff like Ash on-site. In this case, I would have had to split most of the rounds at least once anyway to get them onto the trailer easily, the unload and stack 'em to be split later. Then they have to be handled again to split them. So this time, I just split them right there, loaded the trailer, and then got help to unload the trailer, "fire brigade" style, relaying the splits to me for stacking.
As you see, it was as tall as the surrounding trees, maybe 60-70'.
View attachment 249257 View attachment 249256
Here's the rotted trunk and failed hinge. You can see where I tried to correct the hinge direction in the chain marks.
View attachment 249259 View attachment 249258
I'd hoped for more dry wood but only the small top branches were dry.
View attachment 249261 View attachment 249262 View attachment 249263
The trailer was pretty close to being full.
View attachment 249265 View attachment 249264
Here's the "ivy Ash" plus the total Ash stack so far..still got five rounds left over there.
View attachment 249266 View attachment 249267
I'm going after another small Ash that's fallen and suspended off the ground, and then a large butt section of one I cut a couple years ago but never finished..hope it's still OK because that's a bunch of wood. Oh yeah, there's another dead Ash behind the house that's pretty close..that's gotta come down as well. Then I'll start cleaning up some of the Oak I've got lying around..probably 10-15 at least, down or standing dead. I've got my work 'cut out' for me.

Nice work @Woody Stover , plenty of firewood in inventory is always nice.

 

[Medic21]

Took a break from cutting and splitting...

 

[Woody Stover]

Took a break from cutting and splitting...

But not from work.

 

[Medic21]

But not from work.

LMAO, I’m not dead yet.

 

[thewoodlands]

We decided not to put anymore money in the 310 since it's still having problems so my Christmas present came early, a new Stihl 311. Once I came home with it and read some of the manual, I went outside and cut up the maple in the picture.

Picture 9700 is the maple and 9701 is after I bucked it up, 9702 is another area I want cleaned up before winter and the last two are a topped off maple that I'll get.

 

[Diabel]

Where is the picture of the saw?!?!?

 

[thewoodlands]

Where is the picture of the saw?!?!?

Didn't take one yet.

 

[HitzerHillbilly]

We decided not to put anymore money in the 310 since it's still having problems so my Christmas present came early, a new Stihl 311. Once I came home with it and read some of the manual, I went outside and cut up the maple in the picture.

Picture 9700 is the maple and 9701 is after I bucked it up, 9702 is another area I want cleaned up before winter and the last two are a topped off maple that I'll get.

I also have a 311! Great saw, had mine about 6 years now

 

[HitzerHillbilly]

Picked up a little tractor recently, 40hp with 36 hrs on it. Put it to work right away!

 

[HitzerHillbilly]

Sorry for the double pics [emoji2373]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SpaceBus]

Nice tractor!

 

[HitzerHillbilly]

Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[thewoodlands]

Picked up a little tractor recently, 40hp with 36 hrs on it. Put it to work right away!View attachment 249358View attachment 249359

Congrats on the new tractor, they sure do make work in the woods easier.

 

[thewoodlands]

I also have a 311! Great saw, had mine about 6 years now

I used it again today but only on some dead pine with one small elm that was damaged, I'm really liking it too.

 

[SpaceBus]

Stihl model numbers make no sense to me.

 

[thewoodlands]

Today I worked on getting some of this area cleaned up, I split some of the dead pine for kindling for the outside fireplace. I took a total of seven bucket loads of dead pine branches and pine to the fireplace and covered it so after it rains I can burn some.

Attached are some pics, 9706 is the area I split in today, 9707 is a before pic and 09 after the cleanup and 9710 is the small damaged elm.

 

[Diabel]

Excellent pictures!
Saw looks in its elements!

 

[thewoodlands]

Excellent pictures!
Saw looks in its elements!

It will be nice when I can start felling some ash with it, how much rain are you in for?

 

[thewoodlands]

Since NOAA is calling for some heavy rains the next two days, we put in more pine and some cherry. I made sure the saws were clean and they had sharp chains on them in case we get some high winds and I need to remove any downed trees.

I spent time cleaning the garage up getting it ready for when we store the backhoe in it for the winter, I'll need to find a spot for the sand we use in our 3 point sander and then things are ready.

 

[Woody Stover]

Got that Ash that was off the ground. I let it slide for a few years since it wasn't in contact with the soil for most of its length, and it was still in good shape. It was about 75', I bucked 60' of that. About 14" DBH, easy for this old man to handle.
This area is a bit more sloped than the pics show.

This is a nice area to work in. It's on a north-facing slope so the brush isn't too bad. Here's one pic shot up toward the ridge, the other shot down into the ravine further. Both pics are flanked by a Shagbark right, White Oak left. There are Pignut, Oaks, Red Elm, and this spot also has quite a bit of Sugar Maple, although I don't get many that are dead for me to take.

This tree was down for five years at least, slightly spalted but it still looks pretty "peachy" to me. The last few rounds low in the trunk had slightly more decay, but still good wood.

Coyote poo with a Persimmon seed?

Decent trailer load, all told, plus tonight's stove load, that I had to get out of the way before I could drive through . A small 4" Dogwood with the deep checks, and I don't know what the other one was but it was good starter wood to get the Dog burning.

 

[SpaceBus]

I'm jealous of you guys working on trees! I am going to clean up a dead windfall this weekend, but otherwise I'll be focusing on the house. We are so close!