Another beautiful day in the woods

[Backwoods Savage]

One really hates to miss out on a beautiful day like today, so I head back to cut some wood. On the way back I took a couple of pictures. Someone asked if we have many deer here. Take a look at some tracks. The first 2 are at the back end of one of our gardens.

Then I just took a couple other pictures on the way back to where I was cutting.

Now we're finally back to the cutting spot. Lots of dead ash in this area.

After cutting is is stacked and then waits until Spring to get split.

Now if I turn around I can see what I did last winter. You have to look through the trees to see the stacks. If memory is right there should be a little over 6 cord in those stacks.

 

[davmor]

Very nice, good day in Michigan, not so tomorrow. Dave.

 

[Mcbride]

Beautiful, thanks for posting the photos.

 

[smokinj]

Very Cool set-up!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Thanks fellas.

I should have posted that the wood in the stacks is ash, elm, cherry and red oak.

 

[SolarAndWood]

Looks like it was a beautiful day. Send some of that sunshine our way.

 

[loon]

those are great pictures savage. man there are alot of deer around you

loon

 

[Thistle]

Great stacks & beautiful scenery.

 

[golfandwoodnut]

Nice dennis, how did you get those open fields? Did you make them or buy it that way? Do you have to cut them in the summer?

 

[thewoodlands]

Sav, nice looking pictures also I like your drop off area. Looks like you had a great day for cutting and no use for that new plow so you can send it east, ;-P looks like the warm weather has started here so the wood usage will go down.


zap

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Thanks fellas.

Golf. It used to be a lot more open when we pastured cattle here. It has grown up a lot since that stopped. I have a couple of areas that I work for food plots for the animals and also a vegetable garden along with some raspberries. I do cut a little grass but usually only once during the summer. It then grows back better to make good fall food for the deer.

Zap, it got warm today. Temperature right at 32 all afternoon. I just looked and we are at 27 right now. A little rain and ice moving into SW lower MI. Looks like southern Indiana is getting some good rain.

 

[andybaker]

Very nice Dennis, I love the outdoors in Michigan, reminds of the land we had up there at one time. Nice set up you have there, man I'm jealous.

 

[Lukas060606]

So here's a question from someone who's rusty when it comes to cutting wood. Any advantage to stacking it now and splitting it later?

 

[firefighterjake]

So here's a question from someone who's rusty when it comes to cutting wood. Any advantage to stacking it now and splitting it later?

My own take . . . not really . . . it may start seasoning . . . but not a whole lot. I suspect Dennis is like me . . . likes to get the wood in one spot and then in warmer weather fire up the splitter to do the splitting . . . Dennis is not like me in the fact that I tend not to work on wood in the winter as I don't care to work in the snow (especially when I could be playing in the deep snow) and Dennis does not split his wood correctly . . . well horizonatally.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Lucas, pay no attention to Jake as he still has not learned the proper way to split wood.

The advantage to me is that I found it actually takes more time for me to take the splitter back into the woods and move it from one tree to the other. I also have never changed the hydraulic oil so it gets pretty stiff in the winter months. I like to do all the cutting during the winter months so I simply stack the wood somewhere and then late March or early April get the splitter out and do all the splitting at once. When that is finished I do all the stacking. Even though I actually means handling the wood an extra time I find it to be an over-all time saver. I can also just put the splitter beside the pile, set it up properly (not like Jake) and sit down to do all the splitting.

Back when my body was in better shape and I split by hand I used to do the splitting off and on all winter whenever I found some free time or else I'd do the splitting right where I cut the tree (like quads does). However, when the back went south on me, I graduated to the hydraulics and found this system works really good for me. As far as I know, there are not other benefits to doing it this way. It won't work for all but works fine for me.

 

[bogydave]

Awesome pictures.
Lots of deer like to visit too, very nice.
Looks like fun!

What is the chain for? (on the ground behind the trailer)

 

[Cluttermagnet]

Beautiful scenes, Dennis- thanks! I always enjoy seeing how others do their harvesting.

It's been slow, steady work here, a little at a time, year round. Well, except for when
some free borrowed hydraulic splitter time comes available- then I wear myself out
for 2-3 days at a time.

Finally got all my rounds split a couple weeks ago. Posted photos here. See post #36.

It was a little disappointing to learn that my estimates of how much wood I have
were on the high side. Still, it looks like I now have next year's wood stacked plus
maybe a little more. Thanks for your encouragement. I'll get to the 3 year reserve
soon now, I reckon.

 

[quads]

Great pics Dennis!

 

[IPLUMB]

Where about are you at in the mitten Backwoods? Muddy today!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Awesome pictures.
Lots of deer like to visit too, very nice.
Looks like fun!

What is the chain for? (on the ground behind the trailer)

Dave, your back might be a bit off right now but your eyes are just fine!

What you can not see in the picture is that I had a bad leaner. The stump of this leaner is what the saw is sitting on. Most leaners I just tackle with the saw but this one made me nervous because of the way it was hung up. That is why you see the chain. I thought about posting a picture when I cut it but decided against it because of how this thing was and I did not want a rookie to think it was all easy; it is not! Anyway, I got the tree down by cutting it in 4' lengths. When the picture was taken, the top of the tree can still be seen directly behind the trailer. I finished cutting it yesterday and got 3 full loads from it.

That tree is one I knew without a doubt would hang but it got into a worse position than planned. But there are many ash in that area that need to come down and the trouble is, they grew odd in that I can't seem to cut any without hanging. I have someone coming in to cut and thought if I could get that one tree out then the rest would not be so bad to get down. I'm glad I got to do it rather than someone else.



Clutter, that is great to get 3 years ahead on the wood supply. That pretty much assures you won't have any problems with the fires in the stove and chimney cleaning will be easy and not often.