Work Done 2023

[thewoodlands]

Fully reloaded, 2 years worth in the shed, another 2 years stacked and top covered in the yard

View attachment 312993

That's always a good feeling, nice work. 👍

 

[Woody Stover]

We finally got the remainder of the hard Maple for my buddy with the new PE Vista. He hauled a load back home in his van yesterday, I stayed and sawed up the rest of the gnarly trunk. He went back today and got the last load.
As mentioned, we got him a couple of steel wedges so he'll be able to handle pretty much any stuff we get for him, even stuff that's tough for a maul alone. He also picked up the 6# Fiskars IsoCore to fill in between the cheap Fiskars ax and the 8# maul, and the 6# working great for him.
He's getting ahead on his stash, and should have three years' worth stacked and drying before too long. I've got a couple more small off-site scores he can pick up on his way home from work.

 

[thewoodlands]

We finally got the remainder of the hard Maple for my buddy with the new PE Vista. He hauled a load back home in his van yesterday, I stayed and sawed up the rest of the gnarly trunk. He went back today and got the last load.
As mentioned, we got him a couple of steel wedges so he'll be able to handle pretty much any stuff we get for him, even stuff that's tough for a maul alone. He also picked up the 6# Fiskars IsoCore to fill in between the cheap Fiskars ax and the 8# maul, and the 6# working great for him.
He's getting ahead on his stash, and should have three years' worth stacked and drying before too long. I've got a couple more small off-site scores he can pick up on his way home from work.
View attachment 312994

Some nice looking chunks in the picture. 👍

 

[Woody Stover]

Some nice looking chunks in the picture. 👍

There's another dead hard Maple that you can see the bottom of, past the front of the van. Most of it is just a big, straight trunk, so it'd be easier than the last one.
Maybe we'll get that later, but I've got other stuff I need to do first--car repairs and such.
I'm also doing some work on my stacks, processing that 'shroom White Oak, and laying down a new stack base where that presently is.

 

[Woody Stover]

Here's the stack he started on the other side of the yard, with the quick-dry Silver Maple we got him a couple weeks back. I told him he could go three rows wide if he overhangs the edges of the pallets a bit, so he'll continue on with that.
Speaking of drying wood.. unbelievable weather so far this spring; 80° and breezy for the last several weeks, with humidity under 40% every afternoon. Doesn't get much better than that, around here anyway. Many years, we're already in the steamy doldrums by now..

 

[Garbanzo62]

Finally finished splitting and stacking another dead standing Ash. The Black Top cover is some roofing membrane that my Bro-in-law gave me. Gonna see how that works out.

 

[Enplater]

Some white pine from a down tree on my property. I usually use it for campfire wood but sometimes in the stove if it’s fully seasoned.

 

[Enplater]

Black Birch, Ash and Beech, needs to be stacked. Some of my favorite wood to burn. Around here you’re usually stuck with oak which seems to take forever to season.
I finally got a splitter this year, I like the workout the axe gives me but I’m starting to get old and can’t be beating myself up anymore.

 

[thewoodlands]

Today I watered flowers at a cemetery and then took a small shrub stump & roots out with a cutter mattock for a lady in my old hometown. It had seen its best day and the company that plows their driveway in the winter made sure that it wouldn't survive another summer.

Once I made it back closer to home I watered a few more plants at a different cemetery, the 10 Norway Spruce we planted earlier this spring and some flowers around the house.

A tire on a persons gas grill broke so I called a neighbor up here that had a really old grill that was shot and he let me take the wheels off that for free but I'll surprise him with some homemade spaghetti sauce once the temps get back in the 70's.

Attached are two pictures but they're only two tires, I cleaned them up yesterday before I took them to my old hometown.

 

[Woody Stover]

I like the workout the axe gives me but I’m starting to get old and can’t be beating myself up anymore.

I'm in the same boat--the old goat boat. 😆
I also like hand-splitting, but just the easier stuff these days.
One thing that's helped is improving my technique. I don't try to muscle the maul head down into the round. From the top, I just picture trying to pull the end of the handle into the round, and let centrifugal force pull the head/handle into line with my arms by the time it gets to the round. That gives me more speed.
I also use grippy gloves that allow me to hold the handle as lightly as possible, which reduces the shock transmitted to my hands and arms, and also increases speed. These gloves last a long time.

Cordova TOWA ActivGrip Glove, Nitrile Coated AG581

Cordova TOWA ActivGrip Gloves (AG581) are nitrile coated for oil and wet grip hand protection. The nitrile coating protects the hand from liquids penetrating the glove.

www.indsafetyequipstore.com

 

[Woody Stover]

Black Birch, Ash and Beech, needs to be stacked. Some of my favorite wood to burn. Around here you’re usually stuck with oak which seems to take forever to season.

So what's the stuff in the grass--Black Walnut?

 

[NickW]

So what's the stuff in the grass--Black Walnut?

I don't think that's going to catch very well, but if you threw it on top of a hot bed of coals it would radiate for a long time...😂

 

[Enplater]

So what's the stuff in the grass--Black Walnut?

Flag stone, doesn’t burn very well.

 

[thewoodlands]

I mowed at the beginning of May and then let everything grow, today I mowed the grass but left most of the wildflowers.

 

[thewoodlands]

I finished the face cord of pine I had started (unlucky 13) and started on our 14th face cord. I did move over to a different pile of logs and c/s/s most of the bigger pine on the bottom.

Picture 3779 are the rounds from the first pile I started on, 3781 is the last load of pine splits from that pile, 3783 is the unlucky 13th face cord finished, 3784 is the new pile of logs I started bucking up today (these are pine logs from 2018 clearing for the garage I did, 3786 is a round, still pretty good, 3788 is the start of the 14th face cord of pine and 3789 is what's left of the pile.

 

[Gearhead660]

Still picking away at the pile. Have processed about 1.5 full cord of it so far.
Got the shed filled and ready for '25-'26.

 

[thewoodlands]

I finished the face cord of pine that I started yesterday. I put the forks on the tractor for lifting and then brushed off what dirt I could then bucked up some rounds.

14 face cord of pine up with more logs in that area so I'll do more c/s/s for a total of 15.

Picture 3788 is what pine I stacked yesterday and finished today. It took 1.5 loads in the trailer (1 pictured) to finish the stack.

 

[thewoodlands]

Still picking away at the pile. Have processed about 1.5 full cord of it so far.
Got the shed filled and ready for '25-'26.
View attachment 313127

Those are some nice size logs @Gearhead660 , nice work. 👍

 

[Gearhead660]

Those are some nice size logs @Gearhead660 , nice work. 👍

For yard trees, they were straight and tall with minimal branching. should be easy splitting.

 

[thewoodlands]

No work outside because of the smoke but after sharpening three chains on the grinder, I took a walk down the driveway, yesterday we had a chit load of swallowtails on this, today not so many. What type of bush or whatever is this?

Took a few of the sun but didn't come out that great.

 

[Woody Stover]

I mowed at the beginning of May and then let everything grow, today I mowed the grass but left most of the wildflowers.

Yeah, that's what we did this year. The clay soil here is very erosive and we figured we'd just let the stuff that wants to grow, grow. Grass doesn't do well in our shady yard, except some zoysia that crept over from across the lane.

An older guy that I've been helping get OTA TV, so that he can cut the cord, called me. I've been involved in some other stuff, so haven't got back over there to tweak the temporary setup I left him with so that he could check it out and decide if he wanted to definitely get rid of pay TV. When I was last there, he showed me a Shingle Oak that had fallen in his woods, and the top came into his yard a ways.
He finally needed to get it out of the way so that he could mow the slow-growing area.
I met my buddy Vista Guy over there, and he took a load home in his van, and there are a couple more loads yet to get, part of which you see stacked in rounds here. There was a broken Assafras next to it, but the guy's shop is right there so it looks like a tree-man job..

Top of the Shingle Oak, rounds we cut, and the remaining trunk of the uprooted tree in the woods. We'll get a bit of the trunk, but Vista guy is getting close to having three years' worth stacked, so we won't go after the rest of the trunk, which is on steeper ground. Trunk down close to the root ball is maybe two foot diameter, so it would be a bit of work getting it up outta there.





Busted Sass, snapped about 10' up.

 

[thewoodlands]

Still working on some pine, we still have seven logs left in that area but before I do that, I'll s/s the rounds in the picture.

I only wanted one more face cord but decided on getting everything cut & split. I'll need more stacking room but the splits will be moved out of this area since we have a rotting cherry that will come down this summer that is just in back of the logs that are left.

 

[qwee]

I went up into the Sawtooth mountains a few days ago on a scouting mission. I wanted to see if I could find enough dead-standing Lodgepole pine close to the road to justify buying some tags. No problem - I found at least 10 cords in dead standers (the maximum in tags) in 4 or 5 spots. I found most of it in some new locations. I startled a young moose as I was driving up the mountain, and he jumped right out in front of me - cool I got to see him up close.

Yesterday, I bought the tags (and a needed new fire extinguisher) and headed out. Where to go? I headed for the most obvious tree, first. It was a big tree - that appears to have died of old age. Oddly it forked about 2.5 feet up the trunk, with 65% of tree going straight up and 35% branching a couple of feet to the side. Lodgepole usually just has one main trunk. Good news, the smaller rounds will be easier to handle.

The tree was leaning back and to the side in the wrong directions. I tried my new Makita 7900 for a few pulls and it didn't start - damn. So I grabbed the Echo Timberwolf - of course it started like it always does. The smaller saw did ok but I started the cut too high on the back. Result the tree fell about 20 degrees from where I was aiming, so grade = C- on that first tree fallen of the year.

I got the rounds cut. The Makita started the second go around. It didn't matter much, the smaller 60 cc saw was almost as fast in this soft wood. The biggest problem were all of the limbs in the top half of the tree - the lighter saw was easier in this mess of limbs. I was wondering how much cordage from the one tree? I did the math during a downpour - trailer is 12.5' x 6.5' x 2.7' = 1.7 cords or so.

I loaded the rounds and the trailer was almost full so I figured 1.5 cords. I screwed in the tags to one of the back rounds. I figured I was close enough to 2 cords to call it a day. Though I still had an empty pickup bed - oh well I was tired.

The next tree is another big one about 100 feet from road. It appears to have died of old age, too. I'll follow the same routine but attempt a better tree fall - it is another back leaner. Also, there should be about 1/2 cord right down the road from a tree I felled last year. So, 2 cords maybe?

 

[qwee]

Woodlands, what kind of pine is that? Are you in Maine of the Northwest?

 

[thewoodlands]

Woodlands, what kind of pine is that? Are you in Maine of the Northwest?

I'm in the Northeast (New York State) in the Foothills of the Adirondacks, it's white pine.