I thought I had made my big tree drops a few years ago on my house lot but I need to revise the driveway plan to access it. That means I needed to clear out several maples. Some of them were leaners into the street so I had to get my tree slingshot and Dynema rope out to put them under tension with a power pull so they fall in the right direction. It is definitely prime sap season and these trees are still loaded so when I cut them I could see sap pouring out of the chainsaw cut. I normally drop them earlier in the winter so I do not see sap flow as the trees are still frozen, but today it was definitely running. I hate dealing with leaves so I want them on the ground before they leaf out. Some folks avoid cutting firewood this time of the year as the wood is so wet but my experience is that the once its bucked the "easy" water in wood escapes quickly so If I let it sit for a couple of weeks, its loses a lot of weight. There was some recent snow on the ground and lot of junk underneath so the trees sat up off the ground to keep the chain out of the dirt and away occasional rocks. I have cut a lot of it into rounds but still have another saw session and havent started moving it. Its a mixed load, a lot of nice rounds but one of the bigger trees was rotten in the center for much of its length. It looks like a victim of the ice storm of 1998 that broke off the crown but it managed to grow a new crown and form some nice solid outer wood but the core of the tree is rotten out. I was expecting ants but didnt see any. One plus is they were shaded out by a large white pine so the trees are tall and skinny, not a lot of crown or brush to deal with.
The road bans are on so it will be few weeks before I bring the Unimog over to haul a load or two. I need to clean out the area and get the transit out and start setting out some stakes where the driveway needs to go to have contractors take a look during mud season while they are not busy.
I am already two years ahead without it but will find somewhere to get it split up and under cover. I am supposed to be concentrating on getting rid of beech in the woods but I had already thinned that out of this area a couple of years ago. If some plans line up, I may end up with a big pile of hardwood logs that someone else is going to cut and stack at the lot next year as its in the way of their work . It will probably get me to the point where I might end up finding someone who needs it more than I do.
The road bans are on so it will be few weeks before I bring the Unimog over to haul a load or two. I need to clean out the area and get the transit out and start setting out some stakes where the driveway needs to go to have contractors take a look during mud season while they are not busy.
I am already two years ahead without it but will find somewhere to get it split up and under cover. I am supposed to be concentrating on getting rid of beech in the woods but I had already thinned that out of this area a couple of years ago. If some plans line up, I may end up with a big pile of hardwood logs that someone else is going to cut and stack at the lot next year as its in the way of their work . It will probably get me to the point where I might end up finding someone who needs it more than I do.
![[Hearth.com] Squirting Sugar Maples](/talk/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F3vJkzBth.jpg&hash=7934746e106a744a210769c4f6058389 "[Hearth.com] Squirting Sugar Maples")
