Work Done in 2021

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Once this ice melts off, I'm back to Dad's for my trailer and Kubota. We skidded logs with my older brother for about 6 hours yesterday: almost 25 ash trees, 25-75' long, all pulled up to the buildlings for weather-independent processing. Dad has 10 acres of woods and we finally got some equipment out to drag out the dead-fallen ash. Lots of wood to be had, plenty more to be drug out, once the ground freezes up again. I keep pushing him to get a forester in to help manage the repopulation of his woods in absence of these monster ash....time will tell.
 
No pictures, but I got probably half cord or a little more of my oak rounds split up today. Got a little wet and cold working in the snow, but it was progress. Still probably have 1 1/2 cords or so to go on that pile then it's into the woods to fell the newly dead trees I marked this fall and get ahead on the woodpiles.
 
I ended up getting some large ash rounds from my neighbor. He dropped this large ash and didn't want the big stuff so I lucked out.
 
2 more loads of ash and a little birch hauled from the tree service today. Oldest son tested positive today so we're quarantining. Guess I get to process the 3 loads I have...
 
Started splitting today, broke the wedge on the power splitter (worse than it was...), fixed it, split some more...
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Real crap shoot with tree service stuff. Birch is an easy ID, ash too; but got some other stuff I'm not real sure about... Thinking some might be willow of some sort. Thought it was box elder at first, but none of the typical red streaks. Also ended up with what I think is some elm. Super stringy & twisted and the bark is fairly similar to the ash. Thought about doing a wood ID thread; but no leaves, no buds, just bark and split faces. I really don't care that much. Softwood to one pile, 1 year hardwood to another, 2 year hardwood (birch) to the maple & locust stack. What I'm splitting now won't be touched for 2-3 years anyway.
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I removed a bunch of dead pine from the property and had a nice fire. Some of the dead pine came from off the driveway about 15 feet in and three off a trail on the southside of the house.
 

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Split and stacked more today. Anybody who splits elm by hand deserves their man card to be validated for life!!! It sucks even on the splitter... More box elder in the loads than I realized, but it'll have to do. I started an ID thread about one I've never seen before if you're curious...
 
Elm definitely makes you work. I have had plenty over the years where it is a battle from start to finish. Good heat though.
 
My husband and I today cleaned up dead branches on and around a Red Oak on our property. Most of the tree is dead and isn't in good enough condition for us to consider sawing into the trunk to fell the entire thing. We leave it alone as a "wildlife tree" as it's in a far corner of our property, but some branches had fallen on our fence, and there was one we needed to cut before we really felt comfortable working in the area. There was a lot of wood already on the ground, and some of the really big stuff was rotting (probably from before it came down), but there was also a lot of nice solid dry wood that we were able to cut to stove length. Most of the good stuff was from smaller branches, so nothing needed to be split. We just use a Gorilla cart for moving wood (and this wood needed to be moved a good ways), but we got three heaping cart loads from it.
 
Decided I'd try to build one of those fancy round wood piles I've seen pictures of...turned out pretty good. It's a little shy of 3 cords, mostly Western hemlock. Was a fun project to do while stuck at home during these COVID times , although I now realize that I could have made good progress on a proper wood shed in the time it took to carefully stack and roof this thing. Oh well! Sure would make one hell of a bonfire...

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I was just telling the wife last night that I wanted to take this Red Maple down this week, we received another 4 inches of wet snow overnight and that did the trick, our trail is opened back up. Pics 1415 & 16 are the buds from the downed Maple.

In the back gully we had a Cherry that came down and took part of a birch down, just more work.
 

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To windy to hit the ski mtn today, so I'll drag the log splitter out and split / stack what I think is nearly a cord of ash I cut while off during x-mas break, I've been kinda of slacking in the wood dept lately, I have enough for the next 3 years so there isnt really a rush, but I want to finish my 23-24 splits.
 
Nice crisp morning. Loaded all 3 stoves up and started splitting some pine for next year. I am down to a third cord left for this season. Then went out and bucked some logs. Got snow in the forecast for next couple days, so topped off the wood boxes in the house. Ended the day with a nice porter by the fire.
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I filled the garage back up today while the girls were sledding. Me and the labs kept busy moving firewood while they worked on their retrieves. Then the whole family went sled ridding at a much bigger hill at a local park this afternoon.
 
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I ended up hand splitting the majority of this, being 26 deg out w/ straight ash, I was having to much fun with the X27
 
Even though it was cold this weekend, it was a good to spend some time outside. The family did some sledding and me and the dogs kept the garage full of wood. I'm hoping these cold temps stick around it would make it easier to get the tractor into the woods .
 
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finished splitting, I reverted to the x27 and a tire for splitting, straight grain frozen ash was a blast to split, felt good to get some fresh air and work up a sweat outside, considering it didn’t get above 26 deg out, stacked as I went along since I’m in no rush
 
Filled wood boxes and trailer up. Kiddos helped. Boy got some seat time on the tractor. More snow tonight... been windy all day, had drifts across our road and it wasnt even snowing!
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18-24" of snow is forecasted for my area, did a "light" food shopping last night, going to top off the garage wood rack and get the tire chains on the tractor today, first time doing chains on this machine so I'll post pic's as it happens.
 
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Working on this mess from the summer storms. Since Christmas I’ve cut, hand split and stacked probably 7 cord. Still have a ways to go. At least it’s off the ground so I can pick at it until the Spring/Summer. No rush, it’s only me. Can’t seem to get anyone in the warm house to help :) There’s a few other areas closer to the house I need to work on blowdowns but I wanted to start on the harder part first

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