After Five Days of Clearing...

[DanCorcoran]

I've owned the cabin for almost four years now, but finally found a crew willing to fell several large trees close to the cabin and to clear another acre or so of leaning/fallen deadwood. The "before" photo was taken in January without foliage, the "after" photo was taken last Friday. (This is only a small portion of the area they cleared, working 5 full days.)

I told them to leave one large hickory for me to buck and split. They then carted off tons of felled trees, chipping anything smaller than 8" diameter or so. The entire area is now covered with 3-6" of mulch. It feels like a national park in comparison to the way it was. Needless to say, I'm a happy camper.

(Click on the images to see full size).

 

[Wood Duck]

I am glad you like the way your woods look, but the part about the crew carting off potential firewood and chipping 8 inch firewoods I don't get. Why not keep that wood and burn it?

 

[DanCorcoran]

I am glad you like the way your woods look, but the part about the crew carting off potential firewood and chipping 8 inch firewoods I don't get. Why not keep that wood and burn it?

Because I have 7 1/2 acres of trees, at least two cords split and drying, and I'm only at the cabin 4-5 days a month. If it's snowed in during the winter, I can't get there even that much. The arborist said he hasn't even tried selling any firewood in the last two years, with all the trees downed by storms. I'd be glad to give away downed trees to anyone in need, but everyone around here is up to their ears in firewood.

 

[bogydave]

As my wife would say.
The woods look "Kept".
You can tell someone is working hard to keep the place looking nice
Great pics

 

[DexterDay]

Yep... Looks awesome.

We have about 4 cord at our Cabin and its about 3-4 yrs worth. Me and my Wife get up there far less than my BIL. But he goes up about every other weekend (sometimes every, but every other is a better average).

With no shed, some of the 4 year old wood is starting to rot. I burned almost a cord of Junk wood last month when we were up there (5 days).

Looks awesome.... A patch of woods looks much better when properly cared for. IMO

 

[osagebow]

Looks great - the "before" pic looks just like my view of short mountain.

 

[PapaDave]

I need someone to come manicure my woods.

 

[DanCorcoran]

Looks great - the "before" pic looks just like my view of short mountain.

The cabin is on the west side of Great North Mountain, near Mathias, WV. I'm only 1.7 miles into WV from VA, so not far from you.

 

[Highbeam]

What your willing to chip really changes as you become overloaded with firewood. I've been running an 8" chipper on my tractor for the last few weeks to clear 28 trees that I had fallen near my home. If I was short on firewood I may have saved all the 4" limb wood and cut more of the tops. I had a job to get done and plenty of firewood in the stacks so I chipped as much as possible.

The difference is between tree removal and firewood gathering.

 

[osagebow]

The cabin is on the west side of Great North Mountain, near Mathias, WV. I'm only 1.7 miles into WV from VA, so not far from you.

Used to hunt on this side of that ridge. You should check out the big schloss hike over at wolf gap - they had a large forest fire in April and the regrowth is pretty interesting. One of my former students swears she saw a cougar there, and she's twice the outdoorsman I am.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

One thing for certain Dan, that woods looks a whole lot better now.