Work Done in 2019

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I would be doing the same if we didn't have a bunch of trees that needed to come down anyway. I'm pretty sure Maine has a similar program with the forests for retrieving firewood. We don't have a lot of hardwoods, so it sounds like a good way for us to get some.

It should be fairly uniform for the National Forest permits, just go to a ranger station. As for the state-owned land, that obviously varies from state-to-state and you would have to contact your Division of Forests and Lands (or whatever they call it in Maine). Here it's $10 per cord on federal land (no limit I am aware of) and $25 per cord (with a 2-cord limit) on state land.
 
EODMSgt, nice job! Every little bit adds up. I have to scrounge a lot of my wood the hard way as well I don't get to use the tractor and grapple till I get to my house. The last locust scrounge I had was all big trees dropped over the side of a hill on our right away. I had to cut and get them up a 60+ foot hill then carry up to a parked pickup about 50 feet away the hardest I have had to work for some wood in a long time. Almost of all the big wood I come across I have to work the hard way to get it. It is only once back to my place the tractor starts to do the heavy lifting for me.
 
EODMSgt, nice job! Every little bit adds up. I have to scrounge a lot of my wood the hard way as well I don't get to use the tractor and grapple till I get to my house. The last locust scrounge I had was all big trees dropped over the side of a hill on our right away. I had to cut and get them up a 60+ foot hill then carry up to a parked pickup about 50 feet away the hardest I have had to work for some wood in a long time. Almost of all the big wood I come across I have to work the hard way to get it. It is only once back to my place the tractor starts to do the heavy lifting for me.

That sounds like a labor of love for those locust trees! Definitely don't want to be doing that in the middle of the summer.

I finally received my state permit so there is a large beech tree that came down in a windstorm last fall that I want to tackle. It's supported off the ground by boulders so hopefully it hasn't turned punky. I wanted to get it last year however when I finally had the time, the road was closed and snowed in. As it is, the tree is between one to two hundred feet from the road so it'll be a fun one. I might buck it one day and then move it a little at a time during the early morning hours before it gets too warm (and hope no one steals what I've cut).

I still have plenty to split and stack out back so no rest for the weary.

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I only stacked one small load of pine today which was split last fall (pic 9239) in the area (9240) that we'll burn from for this shoulder season, pic 9241 is whats left from the last shoulder season which will get stacked in the area that's left open in pic 9242.
 

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I didn't get any firewood work done today, I have something going on in my inner right ear but tomorrow I'll start splitting the pine in this picture. This pine we'll be for the shoulder season of 2020.
 

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We started to demo a shed the previous owner built on our house. I should have taken photos but forgot.
 
I stacked some pine and then grabbed the splitter so I could get going on the pile of pine rounds, pic 9251 is what I split after stacking.
 

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This is some ash,beech and maple I cut last fall which will get stacked with the rest of the ash from this year.
 

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I split more pine today, this should give me two face cord or 0.62 of a cord.

Pic 9253 is the start of my splitting after I split about 10 rounds, pics 9255 & 56 is all the pine I split the last couple of days.
 

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Today I finished up taking down some of the crazy redneck wiring from the previous owner. There was a shed here, I'll have to find the pic in my phone, but my wife and I tore down most of it, salvaged the roof, and made it into a lean to wood shed. Currently there's a half cord of seasoned maple I bought from a friend sitting there. I'm going to put another half cord of probably soft wood on the front side. It's not pretty, but it will last us one more winter until we can get some more stuff built. The existing shed that was tacked onto the house was totally rotten at the bottom and had to go. The decent material will be salvaged for other outdoor projects. There are some very colorful words I'd like to use to describe the previous owners of this house, but that's not for here.

I made great progress today on the trail into the bottom half of my property. This was full of trees a few months ago, then down to logs, then down to this somewhat graded path. I dug out as many of the larger boulders as I could with the grapple, chipped all of the unusable wood, raked the ground with the grapple and the tines at max depth on the grading blade, and then rough graded with the existing natural material with the grading blade without rakers. I've put a few days a week into this trail and another area I'm clearing. Next I'm going to build a rudimentary stable for an Alpaca we are adopting. DSCF0184.JPG DSCF0186.JPG DSCF0187.JPG DSCF0188.JPG DSCF0189.JPG DSCF0190.JPG DSCF0192.JPG DSCF0193.JPG DSCF0194.JPG DSCF0195.JPG DSCF0196.JPG DSCF0197.JPG
 
Here's a pic of the horrible shed right before we tore it down. I should have taken some photos of the inside after we took everything out but before we wrecked it. At this point I doubt any even exist, I'll have to dig. Also my new chainsaw sharpening rig. The vise is also handy for other things since I don't have anywhere really to work right now. One of our lofty goals for this warm season is building a 12x12 shed next to our driveway at the top, this will be a decent work space and lumber storage. Eventually it will be a garden shed after we build a workshop/barn, but that will be many years to come.
 

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Resized_20190609_154547_1112.jpeg Resized_20190609_153854_2803.jpeg Resized_20190607_183610_8504.jpeg Resized_20190530_160739_5092001.jpeg Resized_20190530_160732_390.jpeg I split these large locust rounds I have had for about 4 or five years to get this area ready to fill back up with this years winter's wood. My mother in law had a few trees trimmed a big red oak and a maple. No one wanted the large rounds so they are mine. The load on the driveway is one of two loads my buddy dropped off of ash that I moved into the woods I didn't get any pics since it was dark and I was in a hurry to get it done. The truck load of locust is the rest of the trees that were taken down the road from me that I cleaned up six total truck loads in all.
 
Nice work @heavy hammer , it looks like some nice firewood. We hit 86 today with a bunch of rain coming in for the rest of the week.
 
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Today I finished up taking down some of the crazy redneck wiring from the previous owner. There was a shed here, I'll have to find the pic in my phone, but my wife and I tore down most of it, salvaged the roof, and made it into a lean to wood shed. Currently there's a half cord of seasoned maple I bought from a friend sitting there. I'm going to put another half cord of probably soft wood on the front side. It's not pretty, but it will last us one more winter until we can get some more stuff built. The existing shed that was tacked onto the house was totally rotten at the bottom and had to go. The decent material will be salvaged for other outdoor projects. There are some very colorful words I'd like to use to describe the previous owners of this house, but that's not for here.

I made great progress today on the trail into the bottom half of my property. This was full of trees a few months ago, then down to logs, then down to this somewhat graded path. I dug out as many of the larger boulders as I could with the grapple, chipped all of the unusable wood, raked the ground with the grapple and the tines at max depth on the grading blade, and then rough graded with the existing natural material with the grading blade without rakers. I've put a few days a week into this trail and another area I'm clearing. Next I'm going to build a rudimentary stable for an Alpaca we are adopting. View attachment 244894 View attachment 244895 View attachment 244896 View attachment 244897 View attachment 244898 View attachment 244899 View attachment 244900 View attachment 244901 View attachment 244902 View attachment 244903 View attachment 244904 View attachment 244905
All the work you put in is paying off, it looks really good.
 
View attachment 244911 View attachment 244912 View attachment 244913 View attachment 244914 View attachment 244915 I split these large locust rounds I have had for about 4 or five years to get this area ready to fill back up with this years winter's wood. My mother in law had a few trees trimmed a big red oak and a maple. No one wanted the large rounds so they are mine. The load on the driveway is one of two loads my buddy dropped off of ash that I moved into the woods I didn't get any pics since it was dark and I was in a hurry to get it done. The truck load of locust is the rest of the trees that were taken down the road from me that I cleaned up six total truck loads in all.

I'm jealous of the Locust! Looks like some good firewood.
 
It is some dry stuff like I said Four or five years old. It's ready for those cold nights. Thewoodlands we hit 83 today but had a nice breeze. I like splitting when it is dry and warm out.
 
The MIL is coming over today, but after noon I plan on grading my driveway and parking area again and get all the stuff larger than one inch out.
 
Too many skeeters out there from me right now but I got to get a small dead Ash I cut the other day CSS before it starts to rot on the damp ground. Then that's it till it turns a little cooler in October. Lots of other dead Ash out there but I'll leave standing dead till Fall. It'll still be drying standing till I can get it CSS then.
 
My plan was to finish this stack today but the shopping day was moved up a day so I only did three loads of pine, this pine is from the tree we felled for more sun.
 

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It is some dry stuff like I said Four or five years old. It's ready for those cold nights. Thewoodlands we hit 83 today but had a nice breeze. I like splitting when it is dry and warm out.
We had 86 yesterday and 83 today but after having the cold and all the rain, it felt great. The skeeters weren't out earlier but there were some deer fly.
 
Supposed to have possible torrential rain tonight into tomorrow so I braved the black flies, mosquitos, ticks and heat to get three cord of mixed hardwood splits stacked off the ground. Ran out of energy before I got the slash pile cleaned up so that'll have to wait. Good news is I'm finally pissing clear again. I hate hot weather. (The 2+ cord under the tarps was previously stacked.)
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Supposed to have possible torrential rain tonight into tomorrow so I braved the black flies, mosquitos, ticks and heat to get three cord of mixed hardwood splits stacked off the ground. Ran out of energy before I got the slash pile cleaned up so that'll have to wait. Good news is I'm finally pissing clear again. (The 2+ cord under the tarps was previously stacked.) View attachment 244928 View attachment 244929 View attachment 244930 I hate hot weather.
Nice work on your firewood @EODMSgt , it's always nice when you're pissing clear.
 
I used to rent a splitter, twice a year. 3 cord or so each , 4hrs , 5-6 cord a year. Picked up a county line 25t a couple weeks ago. I always thought when the time was right, I would go ahead with getting it. With about 2-1/2 cord of uglies starring back that have piled up over a bunch of years, and no rental time to fool with them, it's time. Liking it so far. Split some, stack some, drink some, tomorrows another day. Lots of time now to get those done without walking away bent over 90.