Back in Business - Fencerow Cleanup

Finally found some wood to process after not running the chainsaw since last fall. Friends of our family own a farm near us and know that I'm always looking for firewood. They have provided many loads of wood in the past and are cleaning up some fencerows. He gave me the green light to take any downed trees.

I couldn't pass up this tree. Off the ground with very few branches. These pics were from last week (snow).


I got 35 nice rounds out of the tree. It was still green and very easy to cut. The largest were just under 18 inches.


The wood from the fencerow was mostly small stuff. They dropped the trees. All that I had to do was cut them up and clean up the brush.


This is what is left of the first wood haul from the farm from two or three years ago. I cut up three trees that were about this big with my first saw, a Craftsman with an 18 inch bar. After having the saw die on me (scored piston), I bought my Stihl 290. I don't know what kind of wood it was but I still have some that I haven't burned yet. It had thick, wet bark and took forever to dry.

I found two large trees that had uprooted and blown down in a small patch of woods between some fields. This will make cleaning up the small stuff and removing the brush from along the fencerows worth the effort. I counted over 90 slitable rounds from this tree. I wish that I could've seen this tree come down. It took out a few smaller trees when it dropped. Spring cutting sure beats the heat and humidity of summer. Long sleeves protect me from the thorns and there are no bugs.


Yes, that is poison ivy. Fortunately, I knew what this area looked like last summer. Some of the trees are covered in it. Last weekend, I removed the vines from some smaller trees before cutting them. I showered during lunch and again when I was done cutting. The weather was cool enough that I could wear long sleeves. I threw away the gloves since they had been duct taped multiple times and got away with only two poison ivy blisters on my wrist. I removed all of the vines from this tree after taking the picture and will cut it up soon.

I finally got most of the wood hauled. There were two large cherry trees and some small locust. The cherry has a dark orange color.

Time for wood ID.


Locust


Cherry (this picture doesn't show the dark, orange color as well)


Maple?


?? Dark yellow, smelled bad, glad I wasn't splitting by hand.

Scotty Overkill said:

I was wondering where you've been and what you've been up to. How's the ticks down there in southern Blair? I can tell you up here in northern Blair, they are terrible! My 8 year old daughter was bitten and got the bullseye rash, she's on antibiotics now. And just the other evening, I pulled one off of my wife's collarbone......
I've had several on myself (none were burrowed in, just on my clothes). Anyway, didn't mean to sidetrack your thread. You look like you got some good stuff there, and you're right on track with your hoarding duties!!

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I haven't been in the woods since the weather warmed up but I've heard several stories from work about tick problems. Over's Country Store has the tick twister (http://www.ticktwister.com/) at the checkout counter. I didn't buy one, at least not yet. It's good that you found the bite and treated it right away. I know two guys who had serious health problems for months and then found out that the problems were related to Lyme disease.

Over the past few weeks I finished cutting up the two cherry trees in the photos in the April 13 post above as well as a large oak tree. Hauling the wood turned out to be more difficult than expected. About a third of the oak rounds were heavier than what I should've lifted but I didn't want to leave the big stuff in the woods when I had access to a truck. I had to place a couple of rounds behind the end gate, lift a round onto one of the rounds, stand on the other rounds and then lift the rounds onto the truck. I had one large round roll down the hill through a couple of fields. It was so heavy that I had to split it to get it on the truck. I was exhausted and sore by the time it was over but it will be worth it.

Heavy Oak


Mostly Cherry


Cherry

I spent some time over Christmas vacation splitting some cherry. This was some of the easiest wood to split - lots of one strike splits. The weather was warm enough that I had to take off my Penguins hat.