Macho Mondays!

[blacktail]

I'm off on Mondays and it was pointed out to me that I usually spend it doing "guy stuff." My Mondays are Macho Mondays. Today and last Monday were spent cutting firewood.
Last Monday was a trip to my uncle's property to cut some birch. We dropped and bucked 6. My dad and I each brought home a truck load, plus we left nearly a truck load of rounds for one of us to pick up soon. As soon as I touched the trees with the saw, water was pouring out.

I'm not 100% sure if the birch will be ready by next year. I cut a bunch of it last winter/spring and some was ready this season, some was not. I wanted some softwood for next year, so today I got a USFS permit.

We've had a lot of wind this winter, so down wood should be easy to come by.
And there was a lot of wood down. As soon as I got off the pavement, there were trees down near the road. I passed a bunch like this that didn't have anywhere to park without blocking the road.

After a mile and a half of gravel I found a nice, clean, forked-top hemlock next to a wide spot in the road.

After an hour I was on my way back to the pavement with a load.

The real work was splitting and stacking at home.

Got it all split and stacked away with last week's birch. Heading back tomorrow for more permit wood.

 

[TheAardvark]

Sounds better than most peoples Mondays.

 

[heavy hammer]

That's a great way to start the week.

 

[AmbDrvr253]

Wishin I had some days off to do that!

 

[blacktail]

Headed out again today. My sister wanted to get out in the hills so she went along to help.
Ended up with a load of mostly hemlock and maple, plus one peckerpole worth of fir.

The hemlock rounds buried in the front of the load were pretty big.

The wind storms we've had in the last few months took down A LOT of hemlock.
No more cutting until at least next Macho Monday.

 

[blacktail]

My sister sent me a pic from Tuesday. She has turned into quite the outdoorswoman. Whether it's me, our dad, or her husband, she's always up for getting out in the woods for something.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Those Monday's will sure add to your balance in wood savings bank.

 

[ElmBurner]

Can you explain a little bit about how permit wood cutting works? In Iowa, people just cut on their own land or from people they know. Wood is generally a waste product, more than anything, so there's plenty of it just laying around.

I assume this is all federal land and it works somewhat like a hunting tag does (you have to tag and report the tree somehow)?

 

[kversch]

I'm interested in hearing more about the permit to.

 

[iron]

kind of looks like the suiattle river road based on that river in the background. is that where you were hunting?

 

[blacktail]

Permits are from the Forest Service. Rules are different for different National Forests, or maybe even ranger districts.
If you google a ranger district + firewood permits you can usually find the rules.

 

[blacktail]

I assume this is all federal land and it works somewhat like a hunting tag does (you have to tag and report the tree somehow)?

Where I'm at, the permit is $20 and comes with 4 load tickets. Each ticket is for a half cord and has to be attached to the back of the load.

 

[blacktail]

With a windstorm Sunday, this Monday was "monitor the generator Monday." But I took my girlfriend and her dog out looking for wood today. The windstorm didn't hit the foothills too bad, but we managed to find some Fir and maple. I may not fill the last load ticket of my FS permit as the rest of my racks will probably get filled with wood from my uncle's property.