Four big oaks down, now what?

[neverbilly]

I bought some land and find that high wind from a nearby tornado toppled four giant oaks. I need to go back and identify but probably red oak. These are tall, mature trees, probably 30" DBH or so and they are fully intact, with huge rootball plucked from the ground. The leaves are still on the trees. I guess they could have fallen a year ago, but more likely, two years ago. I bucked a larger limb and the pieces are a bit lighter than I expected, but since they have dried some, I guess that is normal? The wood is not rotten at all, just lighter than I expected.

Wondering what should I do to harvest these as firewood. I hate to see them just rot. If I cut, split, stack and leave it in the woods, would that be a mistake, as there is a forest canopy and other than the 'hole' left by each tree falling, there is limited sun and wind. Do you ever stack in the woods until you are closer to using the firewood?

As for hauling it out of there, do you think it's easier to carry rounds out, or take a splitter in there and split it up to haul out? I would think I could get my 1/2 ton pickup in there. I also have a 5x10 trailer. I also have a JD Gator 850D, but if I have to use the latter, that will be a lot of loads!

 

[SeanBB]

Oak will last for many years if left as complete trees. If it were me I would cut the branches for firewood at a convenient time and ask around if anyone with an Alaskan mill wanted to buy the trunks for lumber. If you can get the firewood out with your pickup and trailer you can put it somewhere that it gets wind and sun. But it sounds as though the branch wood is partially seasoned already.

 

[jatoxico]

The leaves are still on the trees.

I've read that trees with leaves left on dry a bit quicker since the leaves wick out moisture before drying. Guess that makes sense, IDK.

If I cut, split, stack and leave it in the woods, would that be a mistake,

If you can keep it well off the ground it would keep for a good while. Storing in rounds would be OK too.

they are fully intact, with huge rootball plucked from the ground.

On the off chance you never heard this, be real careful around root balls. Once you begin cutting and weight starts coming off they want to stand back up.

 

[sportbikerider78]

If your plan is to CSS eventually, do it now! Drag some pallets out into the woods and stack them there. Or cut some saplings and make a nice base for the wood to sit on. No tools other than the chainsaw necessary.

It will dry in the woods in the shade...it will just take a while.

 

[Longstreet]

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[Rangerbait]

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Don't die a caveman death!

 

[sportbikerider78]

You can always tell an experienced chainsaw operator if they manually move the saw back and forth in a sawing action.

 

[johneh]

What moving it back and forth like that doesn't make it cut faster ?

That oak cut and stack in the round in the bush off the ground will last a long time
We do that with late winter cutting only because it is easier to get out of the bush
in the late spring or summer .
Big Oaks like that I am jealous !!

 

[jackatc1]

I have always thought a root ball would be a great place
to hide a body, with a bag of lime of course.

 

[neverbilly]

I have always thought a root ball would be a great place
to hide a body, with a bag of lime of course.

If I take a pic and show you, you'd confirm your idea as valid, the hold is huge. It'll make a nice deer watering hole, lol.

 

[Allagash350]

Once you get a peice of trunk, if it is red, you'll probably be more inclined to split it where it is. That is a really heavy wood. I guess my opinion is if you can't drag it out of the woods with a tractor or something you're going to be handling it twice no matter what it will just either be in the form of splits or rounds.
Me personally I wouldn't want to split and stack then have to move the stack again.
Maybe you could split the larger peices in halves or quarters so it's more manageable and get to it when you can. That will help it season a bit faster than in rounds.

 

[Hasufel]

Congrats on the oak score! My personal preference is to move the rounds before splitting and to split on location only when needed to make the pieces transportable. But for me the splitting and hauling are all manual, and I like doing the bulk of the work closer to the house for the sake of convenience. If you have to haul your splitter to the site to break up the big chunks anyway then you may just want to finish the job there.

All of my stacks are under the tree canopy but for half the year they get sunshine and lots of wind. Down south where you are that might not work so well if you have a short winter and lots of precipitation/humidity. But the wood isn't going to rot overnight--just getting the rounds or splits off the ground already makes a big difference.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Cut, split, and stack. If you don't want to stack it in the woods (I wouldn't want to), start a pile by leaning three peices together so only a small portion of the peices are touching the ground, and build your entire base this way. Then you can just throw peices on top randomly. This mound of wood will get lots of airflow, and can stay there for a while without rotting. When you have the time and energy, haul it out of the woods to its final stacking location, using a wheelbarrow or ATV cart to get it to your truck. Worry about it just enough so you get it out in a reasonable amount of time.

I really don't like wrastling 30" rounds of oak any more than necessary. Lots of opportunities for debilitating injuries.

 

[firefighterjake]

If you can get your truck or Gator near the trees . . . me . . . I would buck them up, haul them home, split them whenever you get a chance and stack them . . . and then let them season for the next two or so years . . . and then enjoy the fruits of your labor many years from now.

I have tried many ways of processing wood . . . hauling out tree length . . . splitting on site . . . stacking the wood in the woods . . . my own preference is bucking up the wood and then processing at home vs. hauling the splitter over the road to the site. I also like the ability to just putter away on the splitting and stacking so I can take a break whenever I want vs. feeling compelled to get the job done in one charge. Plus . . . there's just a great feeling of looking at your stack of wood while standing on your back porch and thinking "Bring it on Winter. I'm ready for ya!"

 

[mstoelton]

I have handled 30 inch rounds of red oak. They are a b*&ch to deal with. I had one roll back onto my ankles and it sheared the skin off my anckles through my pants. took several weeks to heal. Even rolling them around can be hazardous. Cut and split in the woods and move it in split form. YMMD.

 

[maple1]

I tow my splitter right to trees like you have, and process it all from where the rounds lands as I cut them.

No issues really with stacking in the woods, as long as you stack it off the ground on some poles or the like. I had to do that here this winter when I ran out of time before the snow hit.

Cut it up from the top down. You will have to do some back & forth, getting all the limbs off - work it as it needs worked & pay very close attention to what things will do when you make a cut. It will at some point likely stand back up like the vid showed up above - but it might not if it's been there a while. It shouldn't happen in a hurry though if you take one round off at a time - you should be able to tell when it's getting close if the trunk inches up a bit when you take one off. Two schools of thought there - once you get to that point, cut what's left of the trunk off close to the root ball, or, let it go back up & fall what's left of the trunk. I prefer the latter - things happen in a hurry if you try to cut it at the root ball and you're standing right at it when it does happen. Last one I did like that, of that size, there was about 15' of trunk left when it stood. But all kinds of variables. That one is still standing, haven't gotten back there to get the rest of it. I toss splits into an ATV trailer right off the splitter, then unload the trailer right onto pallets after I get out of the woods. Really cuts down on the handling. There's a few trips involved, sure - but I can move right along on the ATV once I get a decent head of steam up, so pretty quick turn-around. With the size of my trailer, I think I am about 5 trips per full cord.

Cutting something up that is on a root ball goes pretty good - a lot of the time what you are cutting will be in the air, so no pinching worries, just cut right thru & it falls off. Plus it's easier on the back, not as low. But if you don't have any yet - get some wedges. They will keep or get you out of all kinds of jambs.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I like to bring log lenth home and cut and split.. i get to work on it when i can. Its easier for me. I take the logs put them up on pallets. No benging over. Push the rounds into piles. Then start to quarter them up and split away..

 

[Hasufel]

I have handled 30 inch rounds of red oak. They are a b*&ch to deal with. I had one roll back onto my ankles and it sheared the skin off my anckles through my pants. took several weeks to heal. Even rolling them around can be hazardous. Cut and split in the woods and move it in split form. YMMD.

I guess this is a good time for a public service announcement about the dangers of what I like to think of as "Indiana Jonesing." Working with big rounds be like...

 

[mstoelton]

Unless you have heavy equipment to move the logs - large equipment, you are not going to do any more than roll the rounds on the ground. 30 inch diameter 18 inch long oak round weight hundreds of pounds each - especially when wet.

According to my calculations a 30 inch diameter red oak (not seasoned) round cut to 18 inch length weighs ~ 646 lbs. unless you are an Olympic weight lifter, or Hercules, you are not going to do much with that by hand except roll it on the ground!

 

[Montanalocal]

Which is why I invested in a tailgate lift. I have a Larin tailgate lift from Northern Tools. Roll on big 2-3 ft rounds, lift, roll off. Best $500 bucks I ever spent.


http://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...&type=search&gclid=CMfi3tSEhtICFQ5Efgod8NMMdA

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Which is why I invested in a tailgate lift. I have a Larin tailgate lift from Northern Tools. Roll on big 2-3 ft rounds, lift, roll off. Best $500 bucks I ever spent.


http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/NTESearch?N=0&Ntk=All&Ntt=larin+tailgate+lift&Nty=1&D=larin+tailgate+lift&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&cmnosearch=PPC&utm_source=google_PPC&utm_medium=Auto,+SUV+++Truck+Accessories&utm_campaign=Generic&utm_content=larin tailgate lift&mkwid=sUqrBh2vy&pcrid=14369620751&mtype=e&devicetype=c&storeId=6970&langId=-1&type=search&gclid=CMfi3tSEhtICFQ5Efgod8NMMdA

View attachment 194474

Looks like a real fun toy, er, I mean, tool.

I do have to question what you've been spending your money on, if this is the best $500 you've ever spent!

 

[Montanalocal]

Best, in that it has saved my aching back huge amounts of pain. I used to put planks down leading up to the tailgate and push and roll the heavy rounds up. No more. I am 71, and if I did not have this I would not be still cutting firewood.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Best, in that it has saved my aching back huge amounts of pain. I used to put planks down leading up to the tailgate and push and roll the heavy rounds up. No more. I am 71, and if I did not have this I would not be still cutting firewood.

Whatever keeps you going at 71 and still doing what you love, is aces in my book!

 

[Mark N MO]

It's been my experience, that no matter what species of tree it is, the quicker you can get it processed the better. Once it's on the ground the bugs and rot start working on it. I take the splitter and a 4' x 8' trailer to the site. When the tree is cut to length, I split and toss on the trailer. When the trailer's full, I haul it up to the woodshed. My preference is to handle it as few times as possible. If I had to leave it in the woods, it'd be cut, split, and stacked up off the ground as much as possible using a couple of 2 x 4s or smaller limbs. Maybe cover the top couple of rows with a tarp. I don't like doing it that way, seems to increase the bugs, and always the risk of a big yellow jacket nest. At least around here, anyway. Processing on site leaves the mess in the woods.

 

[iamlucky13]

On the off chance you never heard this, be real careful around root balls. Once you begin cutting and weight starts coming off they want to stand back up.

Apparently not when you actually want them to.

I had a willow blow down right next to my driveway, leaving a nearly vertically-sided hole at the edge of the asphalt. I didn't want it to wash out underneath, so my plan was to buck it carefully back until it tipped itself back into the hole. I envisioned it going pretty much like in the video upthread.

I worked my way from the top down to as close to the rootball as I was comfortable. It barely budged. Then I got a stout branch to lever with and rolled a round underneath the trunk as a fulcrum. I managed to get the rootball halfway back into the hole after probably an hour of trying every different angle I could. I ended up filling the hole halfway in with a shovel to get a reasonable slope and called it good.