A replacement tire is $1800, but I think this one just needs a tube. There is 6 skidders in the family so there is always a replacement tire and rim ready to go at the shop. The mechanic just has to get time and bring it over and fix it. He is tied up at the moment putting a new frame under one of the tractor trailers. It is not a big deal to me since I won't be cutting wood for awhile. I get my throat slit on Monday and will be recovering from surgery. They are tubeless tires, but we put tubes in them to keep them rolling as long as possible.
I must have a pot bellied stove and sallied up on you guys (and hardened gals like Kimberly and Scavenger). I am not saying this in jest at all, but if you look at the first log on the ground in the pile, you will see that it is a big crotch tree. If I was to cut real firewood and not pot bellied stove sized firewood, I would cut that section out and push it onto the rock wall, I would not struggle with that. Some of the other bigger ones I would not mess with either. I put arrows on a few knots and crotches that I would not mess with. I might not toss the whole log out because it has a crotch, but I would limit it to the easier sections to deal with.
Yea, guess I shoulda been more specific. That ugly stuff I knock out of the logs & pile it up. When I have a couple trailer loads I haul to a friends place, He's got an OWB. I haul him firewood & he provides me with pork & beef when the animals are ready. He's got a couple of strapping young boys that get to deal with that stuff. Works out well. I'm on a management project on a 100 acre piece that hasn't been touched in decades. Bunch of blow downs & cull trees that shoulda been cleaned up 50 yrs ago. Growing in every direction but straight, & not tight enough together to self prune the lower limbs. Everything from 8" to 4' dia. All uphill & sideways to boot. Nice long term wood supply, but some real work involved.
LodgedTree , you underestimate how sick we really are. I would (wood?) take that off your hands in a heartbeat!
I am doing something similar. I need more farm land to raise more sheep so I selected (2) spots, a 30 acre spot and a 10 acre spot and converting them into field. I have cleared 20 acres already and turned it into tillable land. Not that I am in any hurry. I have been cutting these 40 acres now for a year and a half and only got half the wood off them. I do not get excited though. This week was one of my best weeks, and I only cut 30 cord of wood. Normally I cut 4 cord and then call it a day. I am retired so there is no real hurry. My days of slogging out 100 cord per week are LONGGGGGGGGG over! These two spots are interesting though in that they have never been cleared. Most land here was field atone time and grew back, but these two spots have always been woods. You can tell because there is a lot of iron in the soil. That iron would have long rusted away if it had been used as pasture or tilled. There are other ways to tell (rocks and hummocks), but that is a sure indicator it has always been forest. The old duffers said when they first got here grass would grow over a mans head the soil was so fertile, so it will be interesting to see if that happens here. The biggest challenge will be the rocks! I tried employing the wife and 4 daughters in helping me pick rocks, but it did not go over well. I envision a mechanical rock picker in my future!
How much per cord delivered ? I could get $300 per cord here , Very easily. And that in the 4' log. Processed it would be even more.
Not Canadian Border VT of course, but here green firewood tree length is $125 a cord delivered; to the specifications I mentioned earlier. $220 a cord cut, split, delivered and seasoned.
I cut too much firewood growing up. My father burned 12 cords, and my Grandparents burned 25 between their house firewood, the basement firewood and their greenhouse. We did not have the equipment we have now, and it always seemed we were always in one stage of the operation 365 days a year. That is either felling, limbing, or twitching it out. Blocking it up. Splitting it. Hauling it. Stacking it. Looking back, the number of steps it took from stump to stove was so many that it boggles the mind. I have a pot bellied stove now and a log loading trailer. I have found the dump body works the best because it ends up being a two step process for firewood now. I fell my trees, then with the grapple swing the tree over my dump body and block the wood right into the body...no lifting. I limb the tree as I go, letting the limbs fall off right on the ground. That is it. That is all I do for hand work. I cut saplings so I do not have to split my wood, so it is just a matter of driving to my firewood shed once my trailer is loaded, backing up, dumping it then pushing it inside with my loader or bulldozer. But I volunteer at a children's camp, and they burn 80 cord of wood per year and do a firewood weekend to get it all done. There are people that LIVE for that sort of thing I know. I love cutting wood, just tree length wood or logs.
here its about 100 cord log length anything up to 20 feet long 5 to 6 cord minimum 225 cord cut split AND dumped in your yard 3 cord minimum ... wettest stuff or 450 cord kiln dried palletizing and stacked and shrink wrapped and delivery where you want or 50 bucks for gas chain wedges mall drinks an advil per cord so pick what ya can afford
Yes Dennis it works out well. Mike's done plenty to help me in years past. Top notch carpenter. He's gotta have a surgery this winter, hernia & knee. No problem on my end helping out a bit. What goes around comes around, and I love to get outta this joint & into the woods. I really love homegrown bacon & steak too LOL.
Gotcha. I guess I have a different definition of useless. I would love to be able to just work off a big pile like that, and not have to wander through the woods looking for trees to cut. The knots and crotches are no big deal. I cut just before and just after the crotch and the ugly bit in the middle gets noodled up later. That way I always have nice straight stuff to work with. Not worth the effort otherwise. I will say though, I am working up some 24-34" diameter beech butt logs now, and that is a lot of work. Not so much the cutting, but just moving and processing those monsters afterwards.
