Time to hit the woods , need 10 cord next year

[mark cline]

Time to get out and start the season with 10 cord needed this year. My son is in the Air Force training for the RPA program and will not be able to help much this year , so its up to me . He needs 7 cord and I need 3 . Last evening I took a 2 beer walk and marked 30 dead standing maple , beech, ash and cherry on the higher , drier side of the property ,so between today and Tuesday , I need as many out as possible . So my son and I can work on it before he leaves in 3 weeks for Calif.
As usual , safety is the key, chaps , helmet etc , all the necessary precautions will be taken . At 57 , friends think I'm crazy to heat with wood because of all the work involved. The thing is , I'm 6 ft , 180lbs and always on the go, they are balding , overweight and complain when any physical labor is involved . Guess who will live longer , and they love the heat from the Mansfield when watching the super bowl in shorts and a tee shirt. Be safe out there.

 

[Woody Stover]

Wait, balding is caused by inactivity??! I have to show this to my BIL, maybe I can get him to work harder getting the wood out! Ten cords will be a good workout...

 

[Soundchasm]

If you'd have asked me how old 57 is when I was 16.... Now that the hammer has dropped, I may be stronger than I ever was. Far less flexible, though! Let's stay at it as long as we can, and if the work is too hard, we're doing it wrong.

 

[Lake Girl]

Last evening I took a 2 beer walk and marked 30 dead standing maple , beech, ash and cherry on the higher , drier side of the property ,

I love the description ... for myself, quantity is less than 2 Good luck on the C/S/S.

 

[smokinj]

10 cords one person and done before the end of May for seasoning. Your a Mad man!

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Get cracking......

 

[Mag Craft]

Keep at it. Use it or loose it. Just so happens I am 6' tall and weigh around 182, only difference I am going on 65.
Still heating with wood and no help from others. It's funny because they like to come to me to get help getting wood for them. 10 cord is ambitious. Good luck.


I almost forgot. I still have my hair.

 

[sportbikerider78]

Take care. Be safe. Work hard. Have fun.

All of those things can go together. I absolutely love dropping trees on my own property, knowing my family will be warm for my efforts. Keeps me active. Lets me sharpen my dropping skills and completely exhausts me after 7 hrs of hard work.

 

[Michael Golden]

I'm 28 and starting to bald, I better get active! If you have 10 cords to get you shouldn't be on here telling us about it. Get cracking!

 

[Woody Stover]

I don't need to hit the woods but my irons need work; No 10 cords for me this year.

 

[Woody Stover]

No 10 cords for me this year.

I will bank a few cords, though, and assist the in-laws in their quest to get ahead. Well, so far it appears to be my quest to get them ahead. Pics are lacking in this thread. I guess Mark's got his hands full, with the 10 cords and all. So here's something at least... First up is my BIL, who has burnt up all his wood. He needs something he can burn this fall, so we went on a scrounge foray for dead wood on the property behind his, whose owner said "Go for it." Down at the bottom of a valley, I found I couldn't get back up the hill the same way I got down, with the quad trailer loaded; We've had a ton of rain. So I had to bridge across the gully in a different spot to get the loads out. There was a bunch of small, dead trees lying around down there, and some standing as well. Red Elm, what I think is Redbud, Black Cherry, and a little Black Walnut and Dogwood. You can see a couple Cherry stumps in the foreground, and there were Cherry "cores" on the ground, trunks with all the sapwood rotted off, but the heartwood still in great shape. I didn't know we had a lot of Boxelder around here, and I don't think I've got much on my property. But here, about 1/4 mile away, this valley had a ton of it. It is some "weedy" stuff, sending off a ton of shoots when it gets a limb broken off. Looks like it rots quickly, too.

I also spotted a nice 20" White Ash that looks freshly dead...still a lot of small twigs on it. That will need 2 summers to dry well, so we'll get that later and concentrate on more stuff that's ready to go, or will be if we stack it now.


Here's a small row on the back of the stack. It's ready to go in the stove, and won't be split. Cherry cores, Redbud, Red Elm and a little Walnut and Dogwood.

This is in front of the small row. Cherry on the left, and a pretty big Redbud bottom/center, yellow in color. A couple Walnuts next to that. You can see that the big Red Elm on the right was down a long time; It's faded. Doesn't seem very punky, but maybe it won't burn quite as long. More representative is the Red Elm in the little stack in front...more of a pink color to it. All of this will be split. In the background you can see about 1/4 of a stack that seemed heavy so that needs to dry for 2 summers. We've got over a cord so far, for sure.

To the left of the rounds is a little bit that we stacked.

I tossed a couple grubs to ladies...they were all over 'em!

 

[mark cline]

I have been having a hell of a time in the woods. What ground I thought was dry enough to drive the tractor over, soon turned into mush . First day out I buried the tractor , had to head back to the barn to get the dozer to get the tractor out . Get the tractor out , move the log load with the tractor up about 20 ft and the tractor slides up next a big maple. Drop the logs , pull the tractor sideways with the dozer , move the tractor to solid ground, winch in the logs again and head for the log yard . Total, 6 mud covered logs in 6 hrs , not fun.
Took a walk out today to see how it dried up. NOT, running water across the logging roads . So tomorrow , I'll tackle a large white ash just down the driveway, mostly dead, but has a large limb hanging . I'll throw a rope over it and pull it down with the tractor. Close to a full cord in this ash alone .

 

[jaoneill]

Keep at it. Use it or loose it. Just so happens I am 6' tall and weigh around 182, only difference I am going on 65.
Still heating with wood and no help from others. It's funny because they like to come to me to get help getting wood for them. 10 cord is ambitious. Good luck.
I almost forgot. I still have my hair.

I am 67yo, 5'9, weigh in at 165 and blocked up half of the 12 cord I will need this weekend; two more days with the saw and I'll start splitting. That said, I had a head start. I dropped the trees a few weeks ago when I had someone to stand watch, and I won't fool with the tops (limb wood) until I have a years worth of the "easy" wood stacked and drying. Tops for me serve as "seed" for the next year out; I usually cut and haul when I get bored.

 

[BrotherBart]

I am 67yo, 5'9, weigh in at 165..

My evil twin!

 

[mark cline]

Well I finished the 10 cord today. with help from my son we CCS 3 cord, the rest I did myself.I think it will be November ,before my back gets back into shape .Now on to building the log home.

 

[Rebelduckman]

I will bank a few cords, though, and assist the in-laws in their quest to get ahead. Well, so far it appears to be my quest to get them ahead. Pics are lacking in this thread. I guess Mark's got his hands full, with the 10 cords and all. So here's something at least... First up is my BIL, who has burnt up all his wood. He needs something he can burn this fall, so we went on a scrounge foray for dead wood on the property behind his, whose owner said "Go for it." Down at the bottom of a valley, I found I couldn't get back up the hill the same way I got down, with the quad trailer loaded; We've had a ton of rain. So I had to bridge across the gully in a different spot to get the loads out. There was a bunch of small, dead trees lying around down there, and some standing as well. Red Elm, what I think is Redbud, Black Cherry, and a little Black Walnut and Dogwood. You can see a couple Cherry stumps in the foreground, and there were Cherry "cores" on the ground, trunks with all the sapwood rotted off, but the heartwood still in great shape. I didn't know we had a lot of Boxelder around here, and I don't think I've got much on my property. But here, about 1/4 mile away, this valley had a ton of it. It is some "weedy" stuff, sending off a ton of shoots when it gets a limb broken off. Looks like it rots quickly, too.
View attachment 157182
I also spotted a nice 20" White Ash that looks freshly dead...still a lot of small twigs on it. That will need 2 summers to dry well, so we'll get that later and concentrate on more stuff that's ready to go, or will be if we stack it now.
View attachment 157183

Here's a small row on the back of the stack. It's ready to go in the stove, and won't be split. Cherry cores, Redbud, Red Elm and a little Walnut and Dogwood.
View attachment 157184
This is in front of the small row. Cherry on the left, and a pretty big Redbud bottom/center, yellow in color. A couple Walnuts next to that. You can see that the big Red Elm on the right was down a long time; It's faded. Doesn't seem very punky, but maybe it won't burn quite as long. More representative is the Red Elm in the little stack in front...more of a pink color to it. All of this will be split. In the background you can see about 1/4 of a stack that seemed heavy so that needs to dry for 2 summers. We've got over a cord so far, for sure.
View attachment 157185
To the left of the rounds is a little bit that we stacked.
View attachment 157186
I tossed a couple grubs to ladies...they were all over 'em!
View attachment 157187

Woody,
What kind of hens are the black and white? I've got barred rock, red sex link, black sex link and Rhode Island Red hens myself.

 

[Woody Stover]

What kind of hens are the black and white?

I'll ask him, but I think they may be Brahmas.

 

[jebatty]

I'm another "67yo, 5'9," but will be 68 in less than two months, weight 154 lbs, same weight I had when I was 16 yo. I put up 8 cords a year, 4 for the shop gasification boiler and 4 for the house wood stove in the living room. I always start each heating season with 16+ cords on hand, 8 for that heating season and 8 for the next year. Kind of an insurance policy just in case something prevents me from being able to put up the full 8 cords the next summer. Last summer I finally wore out the gas engine on the splitter, so I bought and installed a new Honda replacement engine. Should be good for another 20 years of c/s/s activity. Will let you know when I'm 88 yo.

 

[blades]

63/64 - put up 16 cord ( css) last Sept,Oct. Mostly Ash and Honey Locust with a bit of Siver Maple and 2 cord of Elm. Little earlier start this year got about a cord worth of Silver maple to css that a tree service dropped off. I'm far enough ahead that I can maybe sell some this year for pocket change.