Havent taken any wood out of my woods for a couple years now. Rugged terrain and only accessible with wheelbarrow from the main trail limit me. I only take downed trees. Sometimes standing dead. Usually a good storm will take down a tree or large limb. Ill take a walk now and then to scout for fresh stuff. Found these two downed ashes few weeks ago and got to work on the bigger one yesterday. First tree fell about 15' off the stump straight downhill. Over 30* slope where stump is. Rocky terrain to buck it up...was a bit tricky fighting gravity and avoiding hitting rocks while cutting, but the hill made it easier to roll them down to the trail. First pic of the tree i did yesterday. 14" DBH. The hill starts with a gentle grade and gets steep fast. Rolled all rounds to trail and split about half of it. Top limbs were not rotted yet so very recent EAB kill off. Maybe 10% of the bark came off as i bucked and split. Next two pics is of second tree. Farther down the trail and no hill area but still have to walk it out to trail. Have more pictures but cant load them for some reason. Ill update thread as i work it.
Amazing how those ash just seem to give up at some point. Lots standing dead in the 8-12” dbh around me
The tree i bucked up had sucker shoots coming out of the lower trunk. I took pics of it and cant post them. It didnt die without a fight. Only a sporadic ash in my woods and the few standing have EAB issues. One is gone right behind my shed and may drop it before Spring. The others will require wheelbarrowing out and i have access to easier scores. I do miss the sanctuary of my woods though.
I was in the same boat here...it's hard to wheelbarrow wood up a slope. The quad and trailer changed everything. Yeah, I still have to hump some rounds out of a ravine that's too steep for the quad, but basically the entire woods opened up for wood-gettin' with the buggy. I ran into problems too. Resizing the pic worked for me. And everyone, please post pics as a thumbnail; I'm wearing out my mouse and my finger, scrolling down all these threads with the jumbo pics. We can click the pic if we wanna see it bigger. Thanks.
Your woods is pretty identical to the wood lot I cut on. Steep and full of boulders. It's one thing to turn your ankle on one of those rocks when taking a hike, quite another ordeal to do it with a 80 pound round in your hand. Been contemplating buying a small winch that mounts in the 2" receiver on my Tacoma.
Got all the rounds split from the first tree yesterday. Stacked them on the trail and covered. Ill leave them to dry and eventually bring them out. Good breeze blows up from the river ravine. I was feeling old and tired today. Got my rear in gear and decided to go cut the other tree despite the conditions. A good wood cutting session seems to make me feel better. Wet, drizzly, foggy but upper 40's so just a sweatshirt and baseball cap. Pushed the new to me two wheeler wheelbarrow and got to work. Tree was over an area where the water table is high and it puddles in heavier rains. Guess what i had to contend with? Took limbs/bark pieces to make a "bridge" of sorts. Only wouldve sunk a couple inches but didnt feel like getting my feet wet. Took my time and finished bucking. Staged the rounds and was gonna call it quits, but started splitting and wheeled four loads of splits up the trail to the other stack. Last two loads of rounds. Wheelbarrow was able to get into the woods right up to tree so no carrying rounds to trail. Loving the new two wheeler and larger capacity. Some rounds left to split. It was past dusk. Maybe two face cords for both trees. I checked the area around the second tree and a few more dead ash. One was on the 45* hill, snapped off and hung up. May not bother as its too dangerous. All the others were fresh EAB victims so maybe wait til next year. Maybe ill fell one. Spied some other standing dead that werent too big. May take those too. Smaller limb near the first tree. Sectioned it and flip flopped to trail to buck. Dont think ive ever cut chestnut oak before.
Feeling "old and tired", guess I'll go cutting, splitting, and wheelbarrowing up and down steep muddy hills! It's been said before, but your motivation is inspiring!
My SIL has one. The only thing is, it's not as nimble as a single-wheel if you've got to dodge down branches, holes, etc. bringing the wood to the trailer.
