Done cutting....till fall that is.

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lukem

Minister of Fire
Jan 12, 2010
3,668
Indiana
Spring is here in Central Indiana, and the woods are getting weedy...and I hate messing with weeds. I've decided that I'm done cutting till fall. Much more important things to work on now that the weather is decent (mushroom hunting, turkey hunting, garden, landscaping, mowing, baseball for the kids, etc).

I split my last few chunks of oak last night and stored the wood processing gear, cleaned up the debris.

Totaled it all up today and I have 15 cord total c/s/s...about 3 winter's worth based on last winter. Could be more since I've got some pretty high quality stuff in the stable:

7 cord red/white oak
1 cord hedge
1 cord black locust
3 cord red elm
1.5 cord white ash
1.5 cord misc odds and ends

My BIL's mother might be getting a monster red oak tree cut down and I've been offered the wood. Probably 2-3 cord just in the one tree. I suppose I can make the 15 minute drive and pick it up if it comes to fruition.

See y'all in the fall. Will put up another 2 cord of hedge and 2 cord of black locust when the leaves come off.
 
Same here one more weekend after the holiday and the rest will be done this fall.
 
I said the same thing yesterday morning to my wife.

To get to my wood processing and storage area I drive across my back lawn. With the amount of trips I make hauling wood in gets beat up and the repair is an annual event in the spring. So, yesterday morning I made what I thought was my last scrounge run(s) and then cleaned up, raked and reseeded the lawn.

Then...

wife and I went out to dinner last night and passed a pile of oak rounds with a "free wood" sign. I resisted the temptation to stop and grab it then but couldnt help myself and ran out this morning and filled the truck up.

Lesson learned.... scrounging season never ends
 
If I stumble on a load I will grab it but it is going to get too hot real quick.

I still have a day of cleaning up the mess before the farmers need to get in the fields.

I have picked up some good truck loads of Black Locust, Hickory, Hackleberry
(thanks to the nutty Hoosier boys) to go with a nice supply of Mulberry and Cherry I grabbed over the winter
cutting close by fence rows. that totals about 5 cord.

I also have just better than 2 cord of Cottonwood I have to get rid of... we will see how that goes.

We'll see how far that takes me.
 
Got Wood said:
I said the same thing yesterday morning to my wife.

To get to my wood processing and storage area I drive across my back lawn. With the amount of trips I make hauling wood in gets beat up and the repair is an annual event in the spring. So, yesterday morning I made what I thought was my last scrounge run(s) and then cleaned up, raked and reseeded the lawn.

Then...

wife and I went out to dinner last night and passed a pile of oak rounds with a "free wood" sign. I resisted the temptation to stop and grab it then but couldnt help myself and ran out this morning and filled the truck up.

Lesson learned.... scrounging season never ends

I have to drive across my lawn too. Last year I burried my truck in the yard when I had a 1/2 cord of wood on the F-150. Still bumpy in that area when I mow.
 
Got Wood said:
scrounging season never ends

No words ring truer than these.....

Shawn
 
shawneyboy said:
Got Wood said:
scrounging season never ends

No words ring truer than these.....

Shawn

Yes a good downed tree close to the house I am all in.... ;-) But its going to have to be an Awesome stick! My avatar was done that way 44inch red oak and that was my very first cut on that tree.
 
I'll cut when the opportunity presents itself....constantly browsing Craigs List and Freecycle, but since I'm fairly well stocked compared to a year ago so I doubt I'll spend any time cutting when it's hot & humid out.
I agree with the weeds comment...there are several trees I have "tagged" to come down but after my walk yesterday they may wait until autumn. I'll be cutting for a few more weeks on a person's property that she wants "thinned out" and it's EZ access.....my trees will still be there in Ocotber.
With all the unsplit wood I have on hand I think splitting will be a regular activity this spring/summer as soon a my splitter arrives(hopefully this week).
 
I might fell a few trees in the next month, but wait to buck and split till late fall - I hate bucking and splitting in the heat and bugs! Cheers!
 
One more cord of fast seasoning Ash, Cherry, or Black Locust and I should be done scrounging for the year. Unless something comes up that I can't refuse. I still have about 2 cords to split and stack that have been on the driveway and on the old truck since the first week of April.
 
Apr14_0006.jpg


I was done for the years 13-14 and the guys that are clearing the job I'm on were about to finish up which made me start thinking, what if I'm a little short on this years scrounge? So I ask them to put aside 3 little oaks that were laying out in the field. Well, they set aside four trees like this instead. After I finished splitting last weekend I turns out I'm not short. So now I have about 2 more cords to split and stack that will burn in 14-15. I'm done until next winter, I swear %-P
 
Joey, that is the easy way of getting them out. Nice going.

Normally I don't cut past March and most times stop once March gets here. I was a bit late this year but still have some splitting and all of the stacking to do. I'm now hoping I can get it all done before the skeeters hatch.


lukem, that is a nice stash of wood. I wish everyone could get that far ahead.
 
Yea, you can't beat being around when someone is clearing a job site if you are a scrounger like me. These same guys cleared a job I was on last year and put aside my 13-14 stash for me. And they work cheap, buy the crew coffee a few times and they are more then happy give me more then I ask for. I have to say I owe them one, any time they need something I'll do anything I can to help them out. All totaled I got about 4 cords of different oaks and some mulberry this year.
 
I have about 20 cherry trees from a treeline that was removed to make room for a gas pad, so I guess I'll be busy for a while. It's been so wet I can't get near them to load them on the truck but I buck some up when I can. They were pushed up in a tangled mess of a pile to get them out of the way so the cutting goes a little slow.
 
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