Work Done In 2020

[EODMSgt]

On Thursday I bucked all the logs I had stacked from the three trees I hauled down the hill on Wednesday. Went back out Friday and took down three more trees that were dead at the top (2 beech and one birch). Got those bucked and brought the rounds home.

 

[EODMSgt]

The first two pics are the rounds I've scrounged over the last couple weeks. Mix of beech, white birch, silver maple and red oak. The stacks are about five feet high at the center so it's a good start to the year. The other two stacks of rounds in the third picture were bucked last Nov/Dec. Between what's in the shed and the four-plus cords that were CSS last fall, I have enough for this next season so all this is for future use. Just trying to take advantage of the cool days with no bugs to get as much timber back to the house as possible. I'll get all this CSS between May-Oct.

 

[kennyp2339]

Made an ugly bin

 

[heavy hammer]

I was out in the woods for a little cleaning up a pile of logs I had cutting here and there and stacking some of it to clean it up. It is the last pile of logs I have not up on blocks or cross arms to keep it out of the mud. I have spent two Saturday afternoon's on it and I'm only about half way through it. There is definitely more wood there than I thought. I'm hoping this weather breaks soon. I'm ready for spring and not these cold rainy snowy days we had last week.

 

[thewoodlands]

I snapped a few pics with my cell while I took the dogs out this morning

Funny looking firewood, nice work.

 

[SpaceBus]

Funny looking firewood, nice work.

Indeed! There's a pile of rounds we still need to split, plus a pile of logs. Once I finish up with this retaining wall we will get hot and heavy into the firewood.

 

[thewoodlands]

Here are the pictures of the beech I split today. Picture 0220 is getting setup, 0222,0223 and 0226 are three beech that will be felled, 0225 and 0229 is the beech split and 0228 is what I need to buck up.

 

[kennyp2339]

Made a second one, for both I took out the x27 and had some fun, now it’s fire pit and miller time

 

[SpaceBus]

Here's the current progress. It's going to take a decent amount of wood chips/mulch/soil to back fill, but the basic structure of the retaining wall is done. The plan is to make this area into a vegetable garden.

 

[kennyp2339]

Here's the current progress. It's going to take a decent amount of wood chips/mulch/soil to back fill, but the basic structure of the retaining wall is done. The plan is to make this area into a vegetable garden.

Get some cloth behind those rocks before back filling

 

[SpaceBus]

Get some cloth behind those rocks before back filling

What fabric do you suggest? We have a some clay and gravel that we can backfill against the large stones if that works instead of fabric.

 

[kennyp2339]

I just do a double layer of landscape fabric, keeps all the sediments from permeating through the gaps, clay works but the draw back is very slow drainage, you want the garden to be able to shed water once a certain moisture content of the soil is reached

 

[thewoodlands]

I felled three more Beech today, I promised the wife that I would cook some Braciole so the splitting will have to wait. I'm hoping we get three face cord out of all the Beech from this area.

 

[kennyp2339]

Started digging out a stump that’s been bothering me for years, paying attention not to stress my little machine I was digging around the stump with the intentions of rolling the stump over in the hole to scrape the bottom before dragging it out on a dirt ramp, I didn’t get that far, ended up snagging a hydro line and shearing it off the fitting connection, no big deal, just a delay of work.

 

[SpaceBus]

View attachment 259542View attachment 259543
Started digging out a stump that’s been bothering me for years, paying attention not to stress my little machine I was digging around the stump with the intentions of rolling the stump over in the hole to scrape the bottom before dragging it out on a dirt ramp, I didn’t get that far, ended up snagging a hydro line and shearing it off the fitting connection, no big deal, just a delay of work.

That's a bummer. I am jealous of the hoe.

 

[Medic21]

Restoration from the boiler and patio install last summer and fall.

 

[kennyp2339]

That's a bummer. I am jealous of the hoe.

Its a great tool, but one to use in reason, its not a full excavator, or anything close to it.

 

[Diabel]

This sucker came down late last fall. I cleared what was blocking the laneway then. Last Monday i had a go at it. Bucked most of it with exception of a 15’ section. It was jammed between several small rocks (you cant see it). Almost impossible to roll over. Tue morning we got 4” of wet snow. Then last night it got cold (-8*C). Hopefully, i will finish bucking it today or tomorrow, then on to a massive hemlock that got blown over last fall as well.

 

[kennyp2339]

Won the war

 

[kennyp2339]

Round 3 commenced yesterday afternoon, decided that in the end I was going to take the box blade to re-level the whole slope, so first I would have to take a little rock out and then the sister stump about 25ft away from the original stump, ended up getting my monies worth of action, the "little rock" was a boulder, the second stump grew above more shallow mass rock and had huge Arnold Schwarzenegger roots.

 

[SpaceBus]

Judging by your retaining wall most of your yard is stone.

 

[EODMSgt]

Went to the 'gym' again Tuesday morning...60+ foot beech that came down in a windstorm a few miles up the road. This was a fun one as first you had to drop down a 50' embankment and then hump uphill another 200+ feet to get to the tree. Got about 45' worth of timber out of it for firewood. Not sure how much 45' worth of beech weighs however I carried it three times (cut it into rounds, carried them downhill and made a pile, carried them the embankment to the truck, and then unloaded at the house). Good dose of vitamin D and some cardio before the rain and snow came. And yes, everything hurt like hell when I was done however I enjoy this stuff and get some perverse pleasure out of thrashing my body to get my own firewood. Sooner than later, I'm sure I won't be able to do it anymore so some additional pain to be somewhat self-sufficient is worth it to me. Things are starting to get a bit tight in the yard though... Taking a couple days of from scrounging firewood but I did pick up and install a quick hitch on the tractor yesterday.

 

[thewoodlands]

It was a cold morning (17.2) but the sun was strong so I took the splitter up to split the beech....done.

The first four pictures are of the first rounds I split, 0249 is the part of the mess I cleaned up so I could haul the splitter down to the last rounds, 0250 is after the cleanup, 0252 is after I split the rounds that were left and the last picture is more beech I'll need to buck up and that will be a new trail to the main trail.

I'm hoping we get two face cord out of all the beech that is split.

 

[EODMSgt]

View attachment 259499View attachment 259498
Made a second one, for both I took out the x27 and had some fun, now it’s fire pit and miller time

Kenny, just a comment on your use of garden/engineer stakes for the ends of your stacks. I used to do that for every stack (and still do it sometimes) however I can't dig more than a few inches without hitting some of our good NH granite, so a lot of my stakes were loose and would lean out when the stacks were made. I see in the pics that at least one of yours is canted out. Have you thought about running a line from one end to the other? You can use pretty much anything. When you build your stack, once you get up about halfway, run a line from one stake down the length of the stack to the stake at the opposite end. Continue to build your stack on top of the line. The weight of the wood along with the tied off line will help keep the stakes in place. Just an option I learned from many years of dealing with falling over stakes.

 

[kennyp2339]

Kenny, just a comment on your use of garden/engineer stakes for the ends of your stacks. I used to do that for every stack (and still do it sometimes) however I can't dig more than a few inches without hitting some of our good NH granite, so a lot of my stakes were loose and would lean out when the stacks were made. I see in the pics that at least one of yours is canted out. Have you thought about running a line from one end to the other? You can use pretty much anything. When you build your stack, once you get up about halfway, run a line from one stake down the length of the stack to the stake at the opposite end. Continue to build your stack on top of the line. The weight of the wood along with the tied off line will help keep the stakes in place. Just an option I learned from many years of dealing with falling over stakes.

That's exactly what I do, I guess I hammered in the stake crooked lol, but there are lines ran at the half way point and the stakes are held tightly to the wood pile due to the downward force of the splits on top.