How do you get to your firewood?

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How I get my wood: Some I cut and scrounge from my property. But most I buy.

What I buy, I now buy pre-split. I realized that purchasing logs and splitting myself was actually not cost effective for me. At least for now.
 
I can buy a "load" of mixed hard woods (oak, ash, beech, maple, birch) cut split and delivered for about $250.00. this equals out to about a full cord. Or I can get a load of mixed hard wood logs dropped off for $750.00 and get ~8-9 full cords from it. The exercise, time spent outdoors with my boy and more wood for less cost more than make up for the effort i put into css'ing it myself
 
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I have access to log landing and take log cut offs. A little hard to handle but make a lot of wood in a hurry.

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I move most of mine with the BX and trailer. Sometimes I pull the trailer with my Honda ATV or use the old pickup if it is easy access.

I ended up building trails in the woods for access. They are narrow and hard to navigate, but work well for me. Use the tractor to push out brush and deadfalls and cut my way in and use the firewood along the way if the trees are large enough. Now that I have some trails cut it is much easier and I also have trails to ski, snowshoe or atv. I have a lot of hills so I have the 'upper' and 'lower trails' with a farm road and a couple goat trails to get to.
 

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Ashful said:
Your trailer is a lot like mine, but it’s missing a winch! Get a winch and a pair of log tongs, and kiss your “hard to handle” problems goodbye.
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Ahh......................I have something a little better than a winch. This is when my logger buddies are in the area.

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I have two 3/4 ton diesel pickups and a brand new 40 hp mahindra tractor.
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Bwhunter85 said:
Have a lot of dead fall in the woods. The problem I'm having is getting close enough to it with the truck. Looks like I will have to start cutting an access trail, which means a lot more work, but should pay off in the end.
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I'm still getting our wood with our UTV (Rhino) but in August of 2016 we added a Mahindra 4540.
 

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Thewoodlands is your mahindra 4540 a 40 hp tractor. I just got my 2540 last October, the grapple I just got this spring. I absolutely love it great machine tons of power. I used it all day to haul wood today.
 
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rhino is really nice, they are twice as fast as my tractor, and dont tear up the trail as much. i normally get my wood in jan and feb leave it two widths long and stack it end up. thing is a tank with the right tires handles the snow and mud no problem. the gears arent low enough though, would be nice if low was way lower i could haul a trailer full at a time. that and pulling trees around with a chain is why got the tractor, have to see still if it works better ground isnt froze here yet, dont want to try doing that till it is
 
heavy hammer said:
Thewoodlands is your mahindra 4540 a 40 hp tractor. I just got my 2540 last October, the grapple I just got this spring. I absolutely love it great machine tons of power. I used it all day to haul wood today.
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It's a 41 hp and so far we love it, we haven't had any problems with it except for a code update and a restrictor put in so the tractor would warmup quicker.

The two tractors we looked at were the 4540 and the 2540, I'm glad it's been a good tractor for you.

We have the backhoe,FEL, snowplow and the pallet forks for it, the thing will push some snow.
 
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I have the FEL, grapple bucket, and a 6 foot finish mower. I would like a snow plow or three point snow blower. They make so many attachments now, the list of useful attachments to get is endless.
 
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I even looked at that 4540 a very nice utility tractor. It seems like the 4540 and the 2540 are about the same. Motor, pto power, etc. the 4540 I think is a bigger chassi. For some reason to get my 2540 up to 540 to run implements it's like 2600 rpm. Doesn't quite make sense since the 4540 is at a much lower rpm, but that engineers for u. Anyways I'm very impressed with mahindra, I'm glad u like the tractor. Post some pics! If interested Quick Attach.com is having a implement give away 25k, 15k, and 10k. You don't have to buy to register, might end up with some cool after Christmas presents drawing is Jan 16 check it out!
 
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I used to only get a limited amount of deadfall, pruning cuttings and dead elms off my own small woodlot (5 acres), I mostly pulled from my father's or father-in-laws farms which have an abundance from fence lines and wood lots. At either farm there are various types of equipment to help with the job.

Nowadays, between EAB, Dutch Elm disease, and clearing out some encroaching and less than desirable trees (Manitoba Maple, Buckthorn, sumac) I'll be pulling off of my own lot exclusively for the next few years, At home, unless I borrow a piece of equipment, I'm currently limited to an ATV or old front mount Kubota tractor. Either way, I go into my wood lot, soil conditions (one half can be wet depending on the weather) and snow levels pending, and usually drop and buck the trees in place, and bring out the rounds on my little garden trailer. I've skid logs out with the aforementioned machines as well, but it usually makes more sense to buck the trees in place.

Recently, as I thought I might want to save some of the ash logs for the sawmill rather than feed them into the stove, I borrowed a friend's homemade "skidder" to help get them out of the bush. While it was a little wide for my trails, and the tractor had it's work cut out for it with the turf tires and no chains on, it hauled a couple good sized logs out (not the one pictured) and it did the trick.

I'm currently shopping for a compact tractor or TLB...

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Most if it is from my own property. It is not sustainable as I only have 8 acres and a pretty hungry stove. I'll have to buy at some point.
 
I do a lot of cutting in fence rows, so I can normally drive my truck right up to the cutting area and load it. I do have a black locust grove at my parents house that is 40yds into a well established wooded area. I don't want to cut down live trees or disturb it too much so I wheel barrow locust rounds out to my truck. It's pretty easy though because there is a single track trail that is well packed. The locust is worth it.
 
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those things are pretty costly
Longknife said:
I used to only get a limited amount of deadfall, pruning cuttings and dead elms off my own small woodlot (5 acres), I mostly pulled from my father's or father-in-laws farms which have an abundance from fence lines and wood lots. At either farm there are various types of equipment to help with the job.

Nowadays, between EAB, Dutch Elm disease, and clearing out some encroaching and less than desirable trees (Manitoba Maple, Buckthorn, sumac) I'll be pulling off of my own lot exclusively for the next few years, At home, unless I borrow a piece of equipment, I'm currently limited to an ATV or old front mount Kubota tractor. Either way, I go into my wood lot, soil conditions (one half can be wet depending on the weather) and snow levels pending, and usually drop and buck the trees in place, and bring out the rounds on my little garden trailer. I've skid logs out with the aforementioned machines as well, but it usually makes more sense to buck the trees in place.

Recently, as I thought I might want to save some of the ash logs for the sawmill rather than feed them into the stove, I borrowed a friend's homemade "skidder" to help get them out of the bush. While it was a little wide for my trails, and the tractor had it's work cut out for it with the turf tires and no chains on, it hauled a couple good sized logs out (not the one pictured) and it did the trick.

I'm currently shopping for a compact tractor or TLB...

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pretty impressive for a lawn mower,lol. the PO of my house had one just like that, he used a 8n for brush mowing and wood out back though. they had an auction and it went for 2k more than i paid for my new holland and you can do way more with that
 
jwfirebird said:
those things are pretty costly

pretty impressive for a lawn mower,lol. the PO of my house had one just like that, he used a 8n for brush mowing and wood out back though. they had an auction and it went for 2k more than i paid for my new holland and you can do way more with that
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It's a beast (for what it is). Never fails to start regardless of the weather (and no block heater), and pushes snow like a bear. I felt bad beating on it back and forth on the hydrostat the other day, in and out of the ditch, etc., so I decided to ask the neighbor to hit the driveway with his big blower and 200hp tractor (until I get my own tractor) from now on. The Kubota is up for the job, but it's time consuming and I think I'll try and leave it to cutting grass for now to help preserve it.

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im sure thy are usefull or they woulnt be so expensive. my yard and everything else gets a few feet and that makes it a swamp first few months you try to mow. that thing would be great for that. why he had it probably. but i would rather have the ground clearance of a c.u.t. i think. plus you can do everything with one machine, mow, brush mow, wood, level ground, snow if you want etc

the woods i cut in normally has a foot or two by the time i want to cut, i built the bridge and trails wide enough for my rhino which is the same size as the tractor anyway
 
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Holy carp... 200 hp tractor? Must see!
 
jwfirebird said:
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im sure thy are usefull or they woulnt be so expensive. my yard and everything else gets a few feet and that makes it a swamp first few months you try to mow. that thing would be great for that. why he had it probably. but i would rather have the ground clearance of a c.u.t. i think. plus you can do everything with one machine, mow, brush mow, wood, level ground, snow if you want etc

the woods i cut in normally has a foot or two by the time i want to cut, i built the bridge and trails wide enough for my rhino which is the same size as the tractor anyway
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I have about 3 acres of grass to cut, which is where it really shines and what it bought it for. Once I figured out it pulled better, and pushed snow around better, than the ATV, it started filling that role. Machines of this vintage are getting really rare but they hold their value mostly due to their durability I think. Kubota diesels are amazing, and the rest of the hardware surrounding them is pretty decent and built for commercial applications.

It's greatest virtue as a grass cutter though is having that big deck (72") out front. I've looked at a lot of CUTs and TLBs lately, but I don't think I could ever go back to a belly mower, or even a zero turn for that matter. The front mounted deck is super maneuverable and reaches under trees and bushes. For what I have into this machine, I will keep it around for grass no matter what I get for a CUT. I'm actually not that thrilled with the quality of the cut (it seems to windrow with longer grass) but have been thinking of upgrading to a more modern/efficient deck or a whole machine of the next generation. Hard to find a good, clean low hour example that wasn't abused by minimum wage landscape company employees though (where I first grew to love these things).

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i used to have to cut the grass at some of the places ive worked, tried all the things. zero turns get stuck too much, as do tractors with under mounts, they dont have the room and end up hung up. 4wd doesnt work if only one wheel is touching. all my stuff is rear pto, i have a woods 72 for finish and the po cut the back out of it probably same reason you are talking about so i left it.

before i had the tractor i did everything with the atv, brush mowing, wood etc.really tears up the grass when its wet though.i got a big craftman tractor for after it dries now. i like snow blower better than a plow because it doesnt ruin the grass when you make the pile off the drive a few feet
 
jwfirebird said:
i used to have to cut the grass at some of the places ive worked, tried all the things. zero turns get stuck too much, as do tractors with under mounts, they dont have the room and end up hung up. 4wd doesnt work if only one wheel is touching. all my stuff is rear pto, i have a woods 72 for finish and the po cut the back out of it probably same reason you are talking about so i left it.

before i had the tractor i did everything with the atv, brush mowing, wood etc.really tears up the grass when its wet though.i got a big craftman tractor for after it dries now. i like snow blower better than a plow because it doesnt ruin the grass when you make the pile off the drive a few feet
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The rear of my property can flood after a big storm. I could probably drive the Kubota through it but I just elave it until it dries up. A great all-terrain (and versatile) machine would be something like a Ventrac. BIG money for a new34 diesel with a few attachments though.

I've looked for a front mount snowblower for my current machine (I really don't like plowing, but I'm making due right now). All of the one's I've come across are too pricey as they only ever made commercial units to fit this machine, and anything affordable is a rusted out mess. It's nearly impossible to find a conventional blower I can adapt, partly because of the PTO speeds (1100 or 2500 RPM) and mainly because of the PTO direction (counter-clockwise).
 
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