Snow and woodcutting

[tfdchief]

Firewood Bandit, Beautiful pictures. I love the woods in the winter and that is mostly why I cut all my wood in the winter. It has its challenges, but well worth it IMO. The only problem is, I spend a lot of time drinking coffee, talking with my son and grandson, and just enjoying the day in the woods. We really don't get in a hurry. Last weekend we did push a little when we cut the big Shingle Oak because we were afraid to leave it in the woods for fear the rounds would be frozen down and covered with snow. So we worked pretty hard to get it all out in one day. Here is my son's victory photo.

Hope you can get in there and get some of that out. It certainly looks like a great score!

 

[billb3]

last weekend cut in 12 inches of frozen crusty smush.
Got two and a half cords.
Had a fire going all day to warm up.
Decent boots and winter clothes helps.
Was able to plow a spot for the splitter and that helps stay a little drier.
Didn't get it all stacked though - try to keep it dry so I don't have to beat on it with w sledge hammer just to stack it and get it out of the way.


Was hoping to get at a half dozen cherry trees this weekend but it rained all day, if that freezes and everything is coated in glazed ice , that's worse than snow.

 

[WiscWoody]

This winter the snow is deep up here. When the snow goes past my knees just to get to the tree and the ATV bottoms out, cutting will have to wait until later when the ticks are waiting for ya!

 

[ArsenalDon]

my 96 Suburban turned wood hauler.

I love the fact that you felt the need to put a mat down in that beast.

 

[Firewood Bandit]

This winter the snow is deep up here. When the snow goes past my knees just to get to the tree and the ATV bottoms out, cutting will have to wait until later when the ticks are waiting for ya!

Hi Curt,
A week ago A buddy of mine bought a saw from that dealer in Holcombe. I was amazed how much more snow there was around you guys.

 

[Firewood Bandit]

I love the fact that you felt the need to put a mat down in that beast.

I suppose that is kind of funny, but that truck hauls my dogs too. Actually there is a rubber mat with a blue tarp on top of that.

 

[Firewood Bandit]

Firewood Bandit, Beautiful pictures. I love the woods in the winter and that is mostly why I cut all my wood in the winter. It has its challenges, but well worth it IMO. The only problem is, I spend a lot of time drinking coffee, talking with my son and grandson, and just enjoying the day in the woods. We really don't get in a hurry. Last weekend we did push a little when we cut the big Shingle Oak because we were afraid to leave it in the woods for fear the rounds would be frozen down and covered with snow. So we worked pretty hard to get it all out in one day. Here is my son's victory photo.
View attachment 127474
Hope you can get in there and get some of that out. It certainly looks like a great score!

That's good having your son out with you.

I have another spot that was logged that is 5 miles away but it is way to steep with the snow and I have to wait until the snow is gone for access now.

 

[Woody Stover]

Pretty hard to pull a trailer full of wood up these slope with the quad, but we finally got a day that was warm enough for the SILs and I to split and stack some Red Maple rounds that I took over to their places a while back. It's going to warm up next week, but when the ground thaws it will be a sloppy, muddy mess so it was good to get this stacked yesterday. We put up about a cord.
We also came across several 8" Pignut rounds with the bark fallen off that I forgot was over there. I didn't look too close, and thought it was Maple....until I tried to split it by hand. After taking the hydraulics to it, I tossed a split in her stove, and it burned well. Great, less wood I'll have to take over there to finish the heating season.

(broken image removed)

 

[BEConklin]

This winter the snow is deep up here. When the snow goes past my knees just to get to the tree and the ATV bottoms out, cutting will have to wait until later when the ticks are waiting for ya!

and around here - the deer ticks are the first crawly things out and about. I've gotten them stuck in my hide when there's still snow on the ground in the shady spots.

 

[TimJ]

very good Woody...............stay at it

 

[Coach B]

This is what my wood area looked like yesterday:
(broken image removed)
Snow cover for more than a few days at a time does not happen very often here, so we use it as time to put our feet up by the fire. Oldtimers claim it used to stay on the ground a month at a time on occasion. Longest I've ever seen a snow lay on the ground here is about two weeks. The wood pile can wait til the ground is bare.

 

[WiscWoody]

Hi Curt,
A week ago A buddy of mine bought a saw from that dealer in Holcombe. I was amazed how much more snow there was around you guys.

Yep, this year I'm missing my snowmobile... I foolishly took the dogs for a run on the lake with the ATV the other day and I was fine riding on packed snow from sleds riding on the lake but I figured I'd be ok when I rode off of it to catch up with the dogs but not! I really got buried in snow good! It took awhile to get a shovel and get going again and I could only go forward... For about 100' then I was buried again. I had to leave the ATV on the lake overnight and a neighbor pulled me out the next day with his sled. Of course if I buy another snowmobile it's sure to not snow up here for years! Lol

 

[WiscWoody]

Just looking at those nice new splits that Woody has there makes me want to start refilling my racks but for now I'll just have to keep it in my dreams. Ho hum...

 

[Adabiviak]

No snow here this year (in my neck of California - apparently everyone else got our snow pack this year, and we'd love to have it back)

Still, I'm a few years ahead on the firewood, so I don't bother going out in the snow for wood anymore. When I first started getting into woodburning, I'd go get a poplar in several feet of snow at 1am just for the adventure, but now, unless I have an opportunity to get my hands on some tree that I've never burned before (wild apple, blue oak, tanoak, maybe madrone), snow is for playing.

 

[Woody Stover]

very good Woody...............stay at it

I gotta stay at it...working on next year's wood for the girls. I've got another half cord soft Maple still on my trailer, and another trailer load to pick up. Those two houses use two cords each, so I'll be half way done on them. Then I'm gonna hit the woods heavy for small Mulberry, Dogwood and Red Elm with the bark off....should be ready to go. Need to get that done before the overgrowth comes in. Then I can work up some dead Red Oak and Ash where the top branches should be close, and stack the trunk splits for the following year. That's my plan to finally get a couple years ahead on those two. Right now I've got enough banked for another two seasons at least for my stove, and for the Buck. Gotta keep going, though. Then the third SIL/BIL is only set for next year..... Hey, Tim, you got anything going on next weekend? I could use some help!

I was going to use those concrete half-blocks in the background to put under the pallets but the ground never thawed to where I could get the old pallets up! I ended up throwing the new pallets on top of the old for now. I really needed to get this batch stacked ASAP. There are another three rows of old pallets in this stacking area....maybe I can get those out and use the blocks in the spring.
I'm gonna start another pallet row along the side of the drive that you can see in the background, but will stack single-row there this year for quick drying. Those White Ash rounds will go there soon. I figure the soft Maple will be OK in that double row.

This is what my wood area looked like yesterday: The wood pile can wait til the ground is bare.

Still, I'm a few years ahead on the firewood, so I don't bother going out in the snow for wood anymore.

I needed to get that stacked while the ground was still hard in the processing area. The woods isn't as bad with mushy ground, so that can wait.

 

[BoiledOver]

Yep, same here. My Ash rounds are frozen to the ground. Its kinda hard to split them when they wont move.
I am tempted to down a few small trees around the farm though.

Frozen to the ground is awesome. Get your maul or fiskers and go to town. All of my splitting is done by hand without a splitting block while the wood is froze. Frozen wood explodes easily through even the narliest stuff. I have raced hydraulic splitters and smoked em bad in single digit temps at the age of 57. Lucky me just finished bucking bout 9 cords of red oak and will commence splitting when the temps drop this weekend.

 

[tfdchief]

I have raced hydraulic splitters and smoked em bad

I used to do that to boiled over. I won 20 bucks racing hydraulics once. Enjoy, the day came when I had to buy hydraulics

 

[Sinngetreu]

Frozen to the ground is awesome. Get your maul or fiskers and go to town. All of my splitting is done by hand without a splitting block while the wood is froze. Frozen wood explodes easily through even the narliest stuff. I have raced hydraulic splitters and smoked em bad in single digit temps at the age of 57. Lucky me just finished bucking bout 9 cords of red oak and will commence splitting when the temps drop this weekend.

Good point. I will have to brush the snow off and have at it when I get a chance.

 

[WiscWoody]

There is so much snow on the 696 acre lake here that the 2' thick ice use sinking and water is forced to the top of the ice under the snow. That kills the ice fishing season!

 

[Craig S.]

I have a mountain of Maple under about 18" of ice & snow waiting to process. My processing area is buried by a higher drift. Probably will be a month before its reasonable to start on it.

 

[mstoelton]

2 feet of snow on the ground, can't access my woodlot - it will wait.

 

[jillybeansisme]

I have 14 trees on my lot that need to be felled. The excavation guy was going to give me a discount in trade for the trees for his sawmill. I'm thinking maybe I should ask my nephew to come down and cut them up for me and give him a truck load to take home and store the rest at the back of the lot.

 

[Flatbedford]

With over a foot on the ground, I am shut down for a while. I can't get to my scrounge spots in this much snow. Looks like I may be working into the warm weather this year.

 

[Seanm]

I think it will be months before I can access the back country and the wood in my back yard is getting to be a pain in the _ss to access.

 

[JrCRXHF]

I don't process in the winter because i use the wood as a work out. Plus this winter the snow is deep enough i would have to plow my way back to the wood pile with the kubota. Plus i have been on the road so much for work i have not been able to burn much wood.