White Oak

[WellSeasoned]

Awesome flatbed! Plenty of work ahead. Great pics

 

[Flatbedford]

Almost 5 months later and I finally got back to this! Where did all the time go? We had a family event out of town in Septemeber, a couple weekends away in October and November, Mrs. Flatbedford was diagnosed with cancer in November, surgery and recuperation in December (Looks like she's gonna be fine, just needs time to heal from surgery), the holidays, My stepson broke his arm falling on ice requiring more surgery, and now at the end of January things have settled down enough at home that I can get out and do some wood cutting.
There too much snow and ice to do any more cutting at this location so I went over to start hauling home the wood that I cut and stacked in August and September.
No tractor this time. Did it the old fashioned way.

I miss the old flatbed. The F250 can only haul about 1/2 what the flatbed could.
I got about 1/2 cord of it. I busted all the bigger rounds into manageable size in August so it wasn't very hard work loading up.

This stuff split pretty easily. It will be 2017/18 wood. Even though the bigger ones are halved and quartered, I still won't start the seasoning clock until now when I split to size and stack.
I figure I have at least three more loads like this waiting.

Hopefully I'll get the rest home soon. At the rate I have been going, it may well be pretty warm out before I'm done here.

 

[mustash29]

Intresting.

I have access to a massive white oak that came down during Irene or Sandy. I don't think it is quite as technical as yours though. About 36" at the base, root ball is still in the ground. A few feet up from the stump it split into 2 massive trunks about 30" each, which is where it splintered and broke open. Both trunks are on the ground and each one is maybe 60 foot long. Super easy access just off a gravel path. I figure the easy way to attack it is to just start at the limbs and work my way down.

 

[1750]

Thanks for the great pics and narrative, FBF. I really enjoyed the time-series on this project.

Those trunks were much bigger than I thought from the first set of pictures. That's a lot of cutting!

You are really doing your friend a solid here. That would be a very expensive clean-up and haul-away for her.

(I'm assuming the 1.5 inch black jacket around the bottom of the back side is just irrigation hose???)

Regardless, watch your back with all that lifting and carrying, and have fun!

 

[gregbesia]

That is a nice score FBF . Good for you. Thanks for nice pictures.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Nice work Flatbed. Now if you can get the rest of the family healed you'll be fine. Sometimes when it rains, it pours. Wishing you the best.

 

[Flatbedford]

I got all of that load split and stacked yesterday. This will probably be 2017-18 wood.

 

[Applesister]

I bet when you burn that wood it will be sweet putting it in the stove.

 

[razerface]

if it has rained on it a lot,,,that stump is not going to stand back up. Look in the hole and see how much dirt has washed down into the hole, holding the stump up. Most of them i do,,,move some, but not much. If you get them fresh, you have a chance,,,but not after they set a while

 

[Flatbedford]

I'm pretty sure it won't be be standing up by now. Not really sure what to do. May cut as close as I can to it and tell her I did all I could. If the stump falls the other way it blocks a stream that drains most of her property.

 

[JustWood]

I'm a little jealous. We don't have a lot of oak nearby. 30+ miles in any direction and there is lots. I've been burning almost straight beech for many years and prolly many more to come due to the ease at which I can get it. I saw a few pieces of oak and hard maple in the last load I picked up and got a little excited!!

 

[Flatbedford]

More Oak than you can shake a chainsaw at around here. I know of at least a dozen downed trees that I could go cut from tomorrow if I wanted to. They are all roadside and available. One advantage to living in the somewhat affluent suburbs of NYC is that I have very little competition in my scrounging. Fallen trees are seen by most homeowners as a nuisance, not a heat source. Not too many folks around here burn seriously and I think most people who want firewood buy it. Of course a major downside to living in a somewhat affluent suburb is that it is an affluent suburb. It takes a lot of $$$ to live here. Not really sure its worth it anymore.

 

[Flatbedford]

I had to wait for the snow to melt before I could go back for more. I took another truck load home on Friday. Probably about 1/2 cord. The pickup fills up way too fast!

I spent a few hours splitting on Saturday.
Went from this.
to this and finished splitting yesterday.

There is still another 1/2 truck load cut and another cord or so to be cut yet. I hope to spend a few hours of each week day off over the next few weeks to work at this.

I Really want to finish this year's work before it get s too hot out. I think that once I get all this tree home I will have replenished most of what I burned over the winter. There is still tons of Ash at this property too that is a little bit less accessible unless I repair a small bridge for the tractor. It may be worth the effort.

 

[embers aplenty]

That white will be real inviting a few winters ahead while the cold wet white is flying. I scored a good load of white oak today that the tree service had cut. I was able to back my landscape trailer right up to the bank, lower the gate angled with the bank and roll it right in.

Keep chipin away at the stone. It will pay off for sure.

 

[HDRock]

Hell of a score man

 

[Flatbedford]

I moved the last of the rounds that I cut last summer and the pallets that they lived on home this week.

Making some progress on refilling my stacks.

Now I have to start cutting again and figure out how to drag the rest of this up to the driveway. Still hoping the root ball falls back into the hole.

 

[mustash29]

A job like that is SCREAMING for a winch. I have a Warn M-8000 on a home made removeable cradle that I can plug into the front receiver on my S-10 ZR2. I picked that winch up used off CL for 400 and it came with a brand new replacement motor and 4 new solenoids for the control box. Good unit but a bit slow on the cable speed.

I have a Smittybilt XRC-8 on the Jeep. Got that one for 269 shipped (from Winch Depot) shortly after they hit the market. Now a-days they can be had for 300 just about everywhere. Pretty decent unit & about 25% faster cable speed.

 

[Flatbedford]

I have lots of wire rope, shackles, and snatch blocks. I figure between the F250, the old Cub Cadet, and the big old come a long, I'get the job done. I don't want to invest in any additional machinery for this. If it gets too tough, there is lots of easier wood close to home. What would be real handy is a good sized excavator with a thumb, but that's not gonna happen.

 

[Paulywalnut]

Really nice pics. Is that John Deere any help to you?

 

[Flatbedford]

Really nice pics. Is that John Deere any help to you?

Not when I can bring an IH Cub Cadet.

 

[Flatbedford]

I have made some more progress in the last few months. I've been working alone and keep forgetting to take pictures. I have been cutting the trunk into about 9 or 10 foot logs and skidding them up to the driveway with the F250. Much easier than dragging the rounds up by hand or even with the tractor.
Here's one that I dragged up.


It was a manageable load.

This tree is full of crotches and knots and I have also learned that White Oak is not nearly as easy to deal with as Red Oak. The new MS362 has gotten quite a workout noodling unsplittables. I have to noodles to prove it!


Here's the last to come up easily.

They are getting much bigger now. The new MS362 has no problem running a 25" full chisel bar and chain through this stuff though.

One round makes more than a day's worth of splits now.

Another nice load.


Now comes the tricky part of the job.


Hopefully I can report on this soon. I have been working on this for nearly a year and a half now! I think that when I an done it will be just over three cords or nearly and average winter's total consumption.

 

[Woody Stover]

Lotta straight wood on that lower trunk. Can you wedge something in to hold it up, down by the root ball, and just slab those babies off? Or tie the truck to the trunk in a couple of spots and take most of the trunk in one cut? Do you think the root ball will try to stand up? I'm just talkin'...hard to tell much unless you're there looking at it.

 

[Flatbedford]

I am hoping the root ball stands up. There is a huge hole in the ground. I plan to use the truck to pull the root ball back into the hole while I cut the trunk free of it. I have a few hundred feet of wire rope,some snatch blocks, a bunch of shackles, and other assorted rigging hardware. I'll try to make a video.

 

[Flatbedford]

Well, the root ball did not stand up. I set up some rigging to pull it up with my F250 and with tires slipping in four wheel drive it wouldn't budge.

I came back with a friend and a bigger saw and we cut it as close to the roots as we could.

 

[Flatbedford]

It is quite a monster at the roots