Work Done in 2021

[Caw]

It's always interesting how different the forests are even so close by geographically. The 30 acres of forest across the street from me is largely red maple, oak, and birch. Some pine stands mixed in but almost all hardwood and we aren't that far apart!

Fun project. I'm also pro big livestock but not something I can really have. Maybe a goat or two if we decided to. Chickens and quail would be much more feasible.

I've been out grinding on the multiple cords of red maple rounds in my driveway. The red maples in my yard have given me terrible sap volume this year so I'm cutting up their cousins right in front of them as a lesson. More sap next year or this could be you!

 

[stoveliker]

Lol, teach them a lesson; either you warm me from the inside (sugar) and you'll live, or you warm me from the outside.

 

[SpaceBus]

It's always interesting how different the forests are even so close by geographically. The 30 acres of forest across the street from me is largely red maple, oak, and birch. Some pine stands mixed in but almost all hardwood and we aren't that far apart!

Fun project. I'm also pro big livestock but not something I can really have. Maybe a goat or two if we decided to. Chickens and quail would be much more feasible.

I've been out grinding on the multiple cords of red maple rounds in my driveway. The red maples in my yard have given me terrible sap volume this year so I'm cutting up their cousins right in front of them as a lesson. More sap next year or this could be you!

View attachment 276386

We have three alpacas and a small flock of chickens. I am planning on a small herd of dwarf dairy goats. 3-4 adults and 2-4 kids at any time. Right now I have six chicks about to join the flock and 15 eggs in the incubator. I love the chickens and the culled rosters are delicious. I give my dogs boiled eggs for snacks and they aren't eating as much dog kibble now.

I am pretty jealous of all the red maple though. We have a few maples that kind of look like reds and kind of look like sugar maples. I had to prune back a few large limbs and they made nice firewood. All of the birch, tamarack, and maple that makes it into my stacks become a precious resource. One that allows me to sleep through the night without getting up to load the stove. I only use hardwoods at night in other words.

 

[Solarguy3500]

So, yesterday I sharpened my chain.

Started at about 1:30 and finished around 4:00. No kidding. I have never had so much trouble sharpening a chain before. It was like it was made of diamond or something. I went through 5 files. That is not a joke or an exaggeration.

As background, I'm not new to hand filing chains, my dad who was a logger for his professional career taught me how to file a chain when I was a kid and that is how I have always sharpened my chains.

This was a new chain that I had around as a spare for several years and finally put it on the saw recently before I cut up that apple a few weeks ago. I must have hit metal or a rock when I was cutting the apple because the chain was really trashed. Yesterday I had to bring my kids to the ski area and I had planned to go out and sharpen the chain (a task that usually takes me about 15-20 minutes) and then spend the rest of the afternoon cutting up some sugar maple logs the town had taken down along the road in front of my property last fall and dropped them on my lawn where I had a few other logs.

Obviously, I never made it to cutting up those logs yesterday after my ordeal with that chain.

 

[NickW]

Spent the last 2 days finishing taking down tree's for my brothers cabin building site. All oaks this time. Couple of monsters.

 

[heavy hammer]

Solarguy3500 maybe you hit something in the tree that rally messed up the chain more than you though. A friend of mine runs those old gear driven saws and he hit a steel pole or a large piece of metal in a tree and tore off all the teeth. Sometimes you run into some bad hidden stuff in trees.

 

[heavy hammer]

Starting moving the locust logs to the woods and the first pic is the trees we removed from my brothers place yesterday. We dropped 3 trees some kind of locust that were all messed since they were around the power lines, they were butchered by the tree guys. He rented a JLG and we ended up getting them all cut down. I moved 10 tractor loads today.

 

[Solarguy3500]

Today, with my freshly sharpened chain, I got into those maple logs.


My old IHC Scout plow truck was doing double duty as a skidder since I don't have a tractor.

I got the logs cut up and started splitting some of the rounds.



At the end of the day, I also stacked the apple I had split last weekend but hadn't had time to stack at the time.

 

[Gearhead660]

Finally able to get out in the woods and do some cutting. Bucking and stacking along trails to be loaded later. Too soft for truck, only able to use atv. These pics are from last 2 weekends. Amazing how fast all the snow melted.

 

[MissMac]

Bucked!

 

[MissMac]

It will take me some time to pick through this pile and get it split and stacked, but it feels good to have it all bucked up to be sure. My goal is to have it stacked by April 1, but I don't know that it will all be done by then. My driveway is still covered in snow and ice, and this is where I want to stack it. I'm afraid that if I get it all set up on top of the ice-pack that when it melts the racks will inevitably shift/settle and the stacks will topple. So, I may be at the mercy of the weather a little while longer. Although it means handling it an extra time, I might just split it and make a heaping pile to be stacked once the snow is gone.

I'm also seriously considering buying 2 cords of cut and split jack pine from a local firewood dealer ASAP. It is $750 delivered, 16" lengths. It was standing green 18 months ago, and has been split and sitting in a heaping mound of firewood for approx. 6 months. Although I have close to 12 cords here, I unfortunately am not sitting well for properly seasoned wood to burn next winter (a variety of factors, not to mention that I've been pulling some of next years driest wood and using it the last month). Although it pains me to think of spending $750 on only 2 cords, I think I might go for it just to be done with worrying about next winter, and getting something laid up that will be useable without hurting myself trying to rush to process (I've been pretty much useless for the last week from the wood hauling - both shoulders are out of commission at present). When I compare it to how much propane I can get for $750 and the heat that propane will produce (and how long it will last), the expensive pine firewood is the better option of the two. I just find it challenging to pull the trigger and pay so much for wood, but that's my stubborness mostly I suppose.

 

[NickW]

It will take me some time to pick through this pile and get it split and stacked, but it feels good to have it all bucked up to be sure. My goal is to have it stacked by April 1, but I don't know that it will all be done by then. My driveway is still covered in snow and ice, and this is where I want to stack it. I'm afraid that if I get it all set up on top of the ice-pack that when it melts the racks will inevitably shift/settle and the stacks will topple. So, I may be at the mercy of the weather a little while longer. Although it means handling it an extra time, I might just split it and make a heaping pile to be stacked once the snow is gone.

I'm also seriously considering buying 2 cords of cut and split jack pine from a local firewood dealer ASAP. It is $750 delivered, 16" lengths. It was standing green 18 months ago, and has been split and sitting in a heaping mound of firewood for approx. 6 months. Although I have close to 12 cords here, I unfortunately am not sitting well for properly seasoned wood to burn next winter (a variety of factors, not to mention that I've been pulling some of next years driest wood and using it the last month). Although it pains me to think of spending $750 on only 2 cords, I think I might go for it just to be done with worrying about next winter, and getting something laid up that will be useable without hurting myself trying to rush to process (I've been pretty much useless for the last week from the wood hauling - both shoulders are out of commission at present). When I compare it to how much propane I can get for $750 and the heat that propane will produce (and how long it will last), the expensive pine firewood is the better option of the two. I just find it challenging to pull the trigger and pay so much for wood, but that's my stubborness mostly I suppose.

That ash should be decent by fall. Maybe not prime, but decent. Ash burns pretty well even if not perfectly seasoned. I'd burn 25% ash before 22% maple...

 

[MissMac]

That ash should be decent by fall. Maybe not prime, but decent. Ash burns pretty well even if not perfectly seasoned. I'd burn 25% ash before 22% maple...

Ya, i was flirting with the idea of trying a solar kiln with some of the ash, but i don't think i have the time to execute and tinker with it proper, and I am fully committed to only putting properly seasoned wood through my stove. All that ash that I hauled home this year will be four really nice and really seasoned cords for me to burn in 23/24, and if i buy these 2 cords of split jack pine that i was talking about, then i am all set for my 3 year plan of 4 cords/year with a proper 3 full summers of seasoning on each cord going into my stove (excluding next winters which will be less but should still be <20%mc)

edit: sorry i should note that the ash is green and very heavy/wet. with the drying conditions on my property i would have a really difficult time getting it dry enough for next fall

 

[NickW]

Ya, i was flirting with the idea of trying a solar kiln with some of the ash, but i don't think i have the time to execute and tinker with it proper, and I am fully committed to only putting properly seasoned wood through my stove. All that ash that I hauled home this year will be four really nice and really seasoned cords for me to burn in 23/24, and if i buy these 2 cords of split jack pine that i was talking about, then i am all set for my 3 year plan of 4 cords/year with a proper 3 full summers of seasoning on each cord going into my stove (excluding next winters which will be less but should still be <20%mc)

edit: sorry i should note that the ash is green and very heavy/wet. with the drying conditions on my property i would have a really difficult time getting it dry enough for next fall

Not a bad plan, but the ash should probably be ready for 22/23 even without ideal conditions. Moisture wicks out of it really well.

Whenever you decide to get to it, I suspect you will be very happy.

 

[MissMac]

Not a bad plan, but the ash should probably be ready for 22/23 even without ideal conditions. Moisture wicks out of it really well.

Whenever you decide to get to it, I suspect you will be very happy.

For sure! I already have 4 cords of birch in the wood shed for 22/23, so the ash will be the following year. Since I started burning (on my fourth year now), I was splitting and stacking straight into my wood shed. It is set back into the tree line on my property, faces east and doesn't get a lot of sun (it was really the only place I could put the shed). I have found now that I have rotated wood out of it for the last number of years that it takes a really solid 2 years of summer in my shed to be ready for the stove, unless it was already dead/dry going in there. Not prime seasoning conditions in the shed, but there's lots of venting and ways for air flow to move through. That's why my 3 year plan is important given the conditions here at my place.

Now with all that being said, I started a new approach last summer where I will have my splits stacked in a more open and sunny spot for a summer (the year they are split) and then over-winter before going into the shed following year (after getting some more drying out first). I already noticed last year with the birch that this made a nice difference before i put the wood in the shed. So moving forward, my splits will have a year in the sun/wind top covered, then spend 2 summers in the wood shed before they hit my stove.

 

[kennyp2339]

@MissMac thats a lot of money for 2 cords, I get it though, but I would take the risk and go on the scrounge looking for standing dead for the 1st quarter of the wood drying season, if no luck then I would resort to buying the 2 cords and still have from mid June on to finish drying the jack pine.

 

[MissMac]

@MissMac thats a lot of money for 2 cords, I get it though, but I would take the risk and go on the scrounge looking for standing dead for the 1st quarter of the wood drying season, if no luck then I would resort to buying the 2 cords and still have from mid June on to finish drying the jack pine.

I know it is, sigh. Unfortunately I don't have the capacity right now to go out and harvest and get enough with enough time to get it dried out. My shoulders just will not allow it.

 

[sweedish]

This past weekend I dug a dead ash out of the ditch that had fallen over and cut it up and added it to my pile. Today me and help split stacked my 6 ish cord pile, got about a third done, hopefully continue on tomorrow.

 

[kennyp2339]

loads 5&6, started splitting, got at least 2 and a 1/4 truck loads split, trying to keep the splitting area debris free, on fire pit loaded and ready for the weekend

 

[thewoodlands]

After having some surgery done earlier this month, today the Doc gave me the ok to start working again with a common sense approach (listen to your body) so once the snow softens up and we lose some, I'll start up on this cherry and birch in the back gully. The surgery should also take care of any pain I had in the shoulder.

Tomorrow I'll get the 310 and the 311 ready for cutting and take the Rhino for a run since I use it in the area I'll be cutting. In pic 1417 you can see the cherry across the gully and in 1418 is a birch (not sure what kind) that was broken off by some wet heavy snow.

 

[kennyp2339]

@thewoodlands you ever consider get the track conversion for one of your side x sides? Seen a lot of people do them for the winter snow and spring mud season.

 

[thewoodlands]

@thewoodlands you ever consider get the track conversion for one of your side x sides? Seen a lot of people do them for the winter snow and spring mud season.

I never have looked at any but the new roof (this year) and a possible standby generator come first.

 

[MissMac]

After having some surgery done earlier this month, today the Doc gave me the ok to start working again with a common sense approach (listen to your body) so once the snow softens up and we lose some, I'll start up on this cherry and birch in the back gully. The surgery should also take care of any pain I had in the shoulder.

Tomorrow I'll get the 310 and the 311 ready for cutting and take the Rhino for a run since I use it in the area I'll be cutting. In pic 1417 you can see the cherry across the gully and in 1418 is a birch (not sure what kind) that was broken off by some wet heavy snow.

I hope you're having a good recovery from your surgery, and I hope the outcome allows you to putter and carry on with your wood hobby. My best advice from my own experience is do the exercises, whatever they give you to do.

All the best in your recovery

 

[thewoodlands]

I hope you're having a good recovery from your surgery, and I hope the outcome allows you to putter and carry on with your wood hobby. My best advice from my own experience is do the exercises, whatever they give you to do.

All the best in your recovery

Thanks @MissMac . The first three days were the worst but after that things got better each day. The only thing that I did for exercise was walking each day inside the house since outside was all ice.

Tomorrow I'll get on the treadmill just too get my legs in better shape and maybe I'll feel something different in the area they did the surgery.

 

[kennyp2339]

progess is being made, doing a little cutting and splitting after work.
the 1st pic was this morning, 2nd pic yesterday morning just to show the pile slowly creeping along. Last pic is my setup I’m trying out, using the landscape bucket, loading rounds in and then bringing them to the splitter, slightly higher to save on back stress, it’s working great, now I’m going to build a bucket rest so I’m not working near loaded hydros (could be dangerous if a line breaks)