I just LOVE logging operations...

[Pat53]

Especially when they leave LOTS of nice hardwood tops, and when the logging is done adjacent to your property, and when nobody else has access to the wood !!

90% maple, 10% oak, white birch and cherry. Picked up about 6 cords so far. Probably at least 50-60 cords available, but only about 12-15 cords that are easy to get to. I need some kind of trailer with good clearance I could pull behind a tractor or my ATV, or some kind of mini-forwarder to crawl around in the tops. Unbelieveable what these guys just leave behind. Even picked up some aspen, but only if it was in the way. If a guy wanted aspen, you could pick up another 40-50 cords of it. I probably will take a lot of it, after I pick the cream off first LOL

The other nice thing about wood that is cut with harvesters is that they skin the bark up nice which will aid greatly in the drying process, altho I won't be using this wood for at least 2 years. Unfortunately, we are supposed to get 3-6" of snow tomorrow night, so the rest of the wood will likely have to wait till spring before I get to it, but it will be waiting there quietly and undisturbed nonetheless.

Pat

 

[Joey]

What a gold mine that is.....wow.......congrats

 

[brogsie]

Wow great score,
Is that picture of the wood left behind or what they are taking?

 

[bogydave]

SPOILED**SPOILED***SPOILED
A "great score" don't even come close to what you have , Better than Awesome::
Close to home, 50 to 60 cords, 90% maple, 10% oak, white birch and cherry.
Stacked & limbed & FREEEEEEE! (almost fit into the "To good to be True")
That just looks like fun cutting.
Good thing happen to good people, have fun making a really long fence out of stacked split wood
Congratulations

 

[Pat53]

Wow great score,
Is that picture of the wood left behind or what they are taking?

Thats what they are leaving behind ..... and is now mine !

Actually, now that I think about it, the total cut was about 70 acres, and I've scrounged around just on the edge behind my house. Probably covered about 5% of the area cut, so there may actually be closer to 100 cords of wood potentially available to pick up. I'm only cutting it down to about 3-4" on the small ends, too much work for what you get, to take the really small stuff. I just need to figure out how to get around in the middle of the cut to take full advantage of whats there, but I'll figure out something by next spring. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing all that good fierwood is just going to go to waste if I didn't go after it.

Pat

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

 

[woodchip]

Really awesome sight there.

Make sure you don't forget how to scrounge before that lot runs out.......... ;-)

 

[Pat53]

SPOILED**SPOILED***SPOILED
A "great score" don't even come close to what you have , Better than Awesome::
Close to home, 50 to 60 cords, 90% maple, 10% oak, white birch and cherry.
Stacked & limbed & FREEEEEEE! (almost fit into the "To good to be True")
That just looks like fun cutting.
Good thing happen to good people, have fun making a really long fence out of stacked split wood
Congratulations

That stack of wood is what I piled up after picking it up and loading it onto my pick-up. Most of it is tops that have to be cut off, but some are allready cut and limbed just laying there. I cut them about 9-10' long and still have to haul them from 10-50 feet to the truck, so it still takes some work to get it, but not bad.

 

[brogsie]

Wow great score,
Is that picture of the wood left behind or what they are taking?

Thats what they are leaving behind ..... and is now mine !

Actually, now that I think about it, the total cut was about 70 acres, and I've scrounged around just on the edge behind my house. Probably covered about 5% of the area cut, so there may actually be closer to 100 cords of wood potentially available to pick up. I'm only cutting it down to about 3-4" on the small ends, too much work for what you get, to take the really small stuff. I just need to figure out how to get around in the middle of the cut to take full advantage of whats there, but I'll figure out something by next spring. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing all that good fierwood is just going to go to waste if I didn't go after it.

Pat

That is awesome Pat.
Almost better than sex.

 

[Pat53]

Wow great score,
Is that picture of the wood left behind or what they are taking?

Thats what they are leaving behind ..... and is now mine !

Actually, now that I think about it, the total cut was about 70 acres, and I've scrounged around just on the edge behind my house. Probably covered about 5% of the area cut, so there may actually be closer to 100 cords of wood potentially available to pick up. I'm only cutting it down to about 3-4" on the small ends, too much work for what you get, to take the really small stuff. I just need to figure out how to get around in the middle of the cut to take full advantage of whats there, but I'll figure out something by next spring. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing all that good fierwood is just going to go to waste if I didn't go after it.

Pat

That is awesome Pat.
Almost better than sex.

Yup, almost ! LOL

 

[JustWood]

Go after the beech ,maple and birch first as they will be the first to rot. Leave the oak and cherry for latter. You may extend your scrounge time by doing it this way.

 

[Pat53]

Go after the beech ,maple and birch first as they will be the first to rot. Leave the oak and cherry for latter. You may extend your scrounge time by doing it this way.

I hope to be done with this massive scrounge by next fall. Will hit it hard after the snow is gone and again when it cools off. I do not fool around with wood in the summer, too warm for me.

No beech, unfortunately. I'm not even sure why there is oak, they were supposed to leave it. they left all the big oak, but for some reason just cut down and left lay a lot of small 4-6" oak trees. Almost all maple, but one area does have a lot of birch and a little cherry. There was a lot of big popple throughout the entire cut area, so there are lots of popple available. Some places have almost whole popple trees just laying there. they would only take the straight pieces, as soon as the tree got twisty they just left the rest of it. they also did a red pine thinning adjacent to the clear cut, Tons of tops there too, but lots of branches to deal with too. Not going to mess with those.

My goal is to get at least 40 cords out by next fall. I think the best way is to walk thru the cut with the chainsaw, cut up the sticks, and pile a dozen or so up in one spot. then mark that spot with survey ribbon and then get something to crawl around with and pick them up.

Pat

 

[wishlist]

Come on Pat, you better get the snow shovels out and work on that pile all winter. I'm sure you have some yooper friends to help you out!

 

[Pat53]

Come on Pat, you better get the snow shovels out and work on that pile all winter. I'm sure you have some yooper friends to help you out!

Working on the "pile" is easy, but hauling it out of that slashing is work. Updated forecast is for 4-8" of snow tomorrow night so it looks like the "super scrounge" will be on hold till March.

 

[steeltowninwv]

im jealous..ver nice supply of wood u got there

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Great Pat. You should keep warm.

 

[Pat53]

Great Pat. You should keep warm.

Thanks, I've got 5 years worth of mostly red oak cut and stacked allready, but like they say, you can never have enough firewood.

Yes, I know, I'm a greedy SOB when it comes to wood, and I wouldn't have it any other way .. LOL

 

[Backwoods Savage]

But that is a good greed. Better than money in the bank.

 

[bpirger]

Think about what folks might be paying for oil in 5 years....yikes! If you have access to a tractor, a winch is really useful for dragging those tops out....and in a few inches of snow, I think even better. Logs won't get dirty...looking forward to trying that. Hopefully we won't get 2' all at once....gets hard to work in that depth!

 

[bpirger]

So these are all tops left by the logger? And you cut them into lengths and then carry them out by hand? I find dealing with tops very time consuming...makes me think I'm doing something stupidly wrong. Even with the winch, going around and taking off anything smaller than 1" typically, and winching out the entire top, seems like it takes me quite a long time per top, and not a whole lot of wood really. I find myself wanting to cut everything I see that's big, and winch out three or four big trunks...that's some good wood!

Maybe my 1" size is the problem...has you walking in all the branches and a real PITA and somewhat slow.

So just what are you doing? How long did it take to collect the pile in the picture? Seems like that must be many days of work....

 

[Pat53]

So these are all tops left by the logger? And you cut them into lengths and then carry them out by hand? I find dealing with tops very time consuming...makes me think I'm doing something stupidly wrong. Even with the winch, going around and taking off anything smaller than 1" typically, and winching out the entire top, seems like it takes me quite a long time per top, and not a whole lot of wood really. I find myself wanting to cut everything I see that's big, and winch out three or four big trunks...that's some good wood!

Maybe my 1" size is the problem...has you walking in all the branches and a real PITA and somewhat slow.

So just what are you doing? How long did it take to collect the pile in the picture? Seems like that must be many days of work....

Yes, these are mostly tops left, but they also just cut down a lot of small hardwoods and left the whole tree. I can get 2 or 3 9-10' sticks from those trees. Most of these tops have been at least partially run thru the harvester and only have a branch or 2 left on them.

It is a little cumbersome walking thru the tops, but most of them have been pretty well flattened by the harvester and the forwarders. Most of the tops are about 6-8" on the end, some smaller. I'm only taking them down to 3-4" on the small end, so some tops I get 2 sticks and some only one, but there are LOTS of them.

I only brought in one pick-up load today, had too many other things to do. Took me a little over an hour to collect the wood, bring it back to the house and unload it. It took me about 8 hours so far to collect the 6 cords. Once I get all the easy stuff around the edges, I'm going to need another way to get the rest, becuase I'm not hauling them more than 50' away from the truck, thats too slow and too much work. they really aren't that heavy, but after 2 loads in one day I've had enough and need a cold suds and a shower.

Pat

 

[bogydave]

What is the optimum size for your boiler? & how much wood do you load in for a burn cycle or is the burn cycle just load morning & evening ?
Some boilers take some long wood & the smaller tops may just need cut to length since the bark was a bit chewed but the processor & should dry with being split.

 

[flyingcow]

Can't believe they didn't bring in a grinder or whole tree chipper for the tops. Gets turned into biomass up here. Good luck with the "scrounge".

 

[weatherguy]

So these are all tops left by the logger? And you cut them into lengths and then carry them out by hand? I find dealing with tops very time consuming...makes me think I'm doing something stupidly wrong. Even with the winch, going around and taking off anything smaller than 1" typically, and winching out the entire top, seems like it takes me quite a long time per top, and not a whole lot of wood really. I find myself wanting to cut everything I see that's big, and winch out three or four big trunks...that's some good wood!

Maybe my 1" size is the problem...has you walking in all the branches and a real PITA and somewhat slow.

So just what are you doing? How long did it take to collect the pile in the picture? Seems like that must be many days of work....

Yes, these are mostly tops left, but they also just cut down a lot of small hardwoods and left the whole tree. I can get 2 or 3 9-10' sticks from those trees. Most of these tops have been at least partially run thru the harvester and only have a branch or 2 left on them.

It is a little cumbersome walking thru the tops, but most of them have been pretty well flattened by the harvester and the forwarders. Most of the tops are about 6-8" on the end, some smaller. I'm only taking them down to 3-4" on the small end, so some tops I get 2 sticks and some only one, but there are LOTS of them.

I only brought in one pick-up load today, had too many other things to do. Took me a little over an hour to collect the wood, bring it back to the house and unload it. It took me about 8 hours so far to collect the 6 cords. Once I get all the easy stuff around the edges, I'm going to need another way to get the rest, becuase I'm not hauling them more than 50' away from the truck, thats too slow and too much work. they really aren't that heavy, but after 2 loads in one day I've had enough and need a cold suds and a shower.

Pat

Good excuse to buy yourself a new toy

 

[Pat53]

What is the optimum size for your boiler? & how much wood do you load in for a burn cycle or is the burn cycle just load morning & evening ?
Some boilers take some long wood & the smaller tops may just need cut to length since the bark was a bit chewed but the processor & should dry with being split.

Depends who you ask. Some guys swear that the Seton likes big rounds, but I prefer well dried hardwood splits or small-medium rounds. As long as its good and dry I guess. Right now I'm just burning popple and birch and some other junk. I burn oak mostly when its really cold, but so far its been relatively mild. I can put a 28" long piece in the firebox, and I ususally cut all my wood about 24-26". A burn cycle for me is about 4 hours. I ususally burn in the morning and after supper. Lately just 1 burn every day or so with the warmer weather.