Getting ready to drop a large Sugar Maple at the corner of the house

Ben.

 

Lol!!

 

That’s where my dad was from.

 

No, his sister Eileen.

 

Never heard that one before. Thanks!

 

Got ya....some of us are close to there...the actual town. Not Ben

 

Finally got back to playing with my wood...

I was able to get out this evening to cut the last of the dead pine trees up into mostly 3" to 4" discs. I got about 2/3 of a truckload and that should last me a couple of years for tossing a cookie in the stove and opening up the primary air to burn down a pile of coals quickly.

I'm sure most of our neighbors think I belong in a institution for the criminally insane since I didn't get started till it was almost dark out. The light bar on the truck sure is handy.


this pic was taken when I was about 2/3 done.

This is the load of mostly discs, there are a few pieces I'll split up cuz when they get too short they're just not safe to cut any more off of them.

I'll get them unloaded tomorrow.

 

Those are some big fire starters.
Neat idea for dropping the coal heights tho. Now ya got me thinking.

 

Uh oh! Are you gonna start hoarding softwoods?

 

we're not criminally insane here. That would give FHC a bad reputation.
We're a special kind of nuts!

 

I can't speak for Jo, but I like having some of the pine cookies just for burning down the coals that build up in the stove from the heavy hitters that I burn on cold nights.

I'm probably not going to get to that big maple this weekend either. Too much going on and I'm gonna want a couple helpers here for that.

But I did get a 3 large Honey Locust dropped that I had girdled 3 years ago. I cut them for saw logs and skidded them over to the sawmill to make some lumber to do some work on the porches on the MIL's house in town and a new walkway ramp from our drive to the front porch. 22", 20", 18" DBH. They are still solid and high moisture inside. The largest of the 3 had a straight 34' long saw log and Fergy wouldn't pull it so I had to cut it in half to take it over to the mill. The tops will make some great firewood for the 24-25 heating season. They went down right where I wanted them to go but one of them still got hung up cuz the woods is just too thick in that section.

The biggest and smallest were a double on one stump. The first picture is the double stump after it had been cut down and the bottom half of the largest log had already been skidded over to the mill. The second pic is the mid sized stump with the notch wedge setting back up on it. The stumps will make quite a few splits too. The big double stump took the 25" bar from both sides to get through it on the ground cut about 4" above the dirt. It was about 28" by 40" on the bottom cut. Hoping to get them cut into boards and stacked for drying tomorrow before the weekend parties all start.



As I have noticed before on these larger Honey Locust, there were no thorns on these 3 above 15' up on the trunks. Plenty of them below that point, but they were easy to knock off since the they have been standing dead a couple years. I was very careful cuz I didn't have my good boots on nor my thorn resistant gloves.

 

Thinking too much might lead to being institutionalized...

 

I took a better look at this big Maple and thumped it with the hatchet to find all the punky spots at the point where I'm gonna cut it. I decided to change the fall line direction so I can get more hinge in the live section of the tree. This new fall line had some dead and dying Maples in the way so I spent part of yesterday cutting those and skidding them over to the processing area. I have a better plan now on dropping this thing safely and will probably do it this weekend if I can get a couple helpers lined up. I need a driver for the truck on the bull rope and a safety spotter near me since there are a lot of dead limbs up in this tree. I would also like someone videoing this.

I ended up dropping and topping 11 trees and skidding them over to the field to be CSS'ed. Nothing very big, all under 16" DBH. Sorry, no pix as my phone decided to become a brick yesterday...

 

Not to hijack your thread but you can't get a dang thing done on an empty stomach, and fasting is NOT the way to lose weight and keep it off. Look into a ketogenic diet. I've been on one since August 31 and have already dropped 35 lb. And you eat well enough that you should never be hungry. PM me if you want more info, or there's all kinds of info online. Reddit sub r/keto is a great resource.

 

Working on an empty stomach is a horrible idea. Especially bad when you are doing dangerous work such as felling trees. Making firewood is dangerous and you need to always be in your toes. It's hard to do that when you are hangry or not thinking straight.

I was on a modified keto diet for a few months, and I too dropped 30 lbs. Now I'm off the keto, as really no diets are sustainable, and still I have kept most of the weight off. I'm very happy with the results of what I've done.

 

Actually, I'm not really trying to lose weight although I am a big boy. My wife and I both have sugar diabetes and she's been studying up with a couple of friends about fasting and diabetes. I'm just along for the ride. Actually it felt pretty good and I did get a lot done that week. I was ready for some serious vittles after that fast though.

 

Finally got back to the big Maple... Life has a way of disrupting plans sometimes.

Big wind last weekend got me re-motivated to drop this dying tree. Wife is getting good enough to allow me to get outside for a couple hours at a time now. I got the Bull Rope up and called the neighbor and my nephew to come help.




Got the neighbor's ASV track loader on the other end of the bull rope.


The stump was 34" across and I cut it at chest height because it had a lot of rot at the base. It was much more solid at chest height. I used a humboldt notch since I wasn't sure how much of the hinge was live wood and would hold well. The humboldt helps keep the trunk from kicking to the rear once the trunk starts tipping into the notch. The nearside of the hinge in this picture was dead wood and the hinge just snapped off as expected but there was more live wood on the far side of the hinge than I had expected. I had adjusted the fall line of the tree trying to anticipate getting as much live wood in the hinge as possible. I always try to evaluate my cuts and the hinge. I depended on the bull rope pulling this one over so I didn't have to cut the hinge till it started tipping. There were a lot of LARGE dead limbs up in this tree and I really didn't want to be standing at the stump if something came down when it started moving. We had pre-tensioned the bull rope and my nephew was near me to let me know as soon as the trunk started moving. I had wedged the the felling cut so it couldn't set back on the saw. Once the trunk moved a little, I stepped back away and had the neighbor pull it over with the loader.


All went well as planned. Safety first...


25" bar was enough no problem although it would be nice to have a little more bar for these big trees. I don't cut stuff this large very often so I'll live with it although a light bar would be nice. The ES bar is what came with the 391 that I had gotten used so I dance with the date I have...

Overall, I'm glad to have it down since it was so close to the house. Bonus, no hoarders were harmed in the process of dropping this dangerous tree.

 

Awesome job!

Let us know how much cordage this tree makes.

 

Boy, that's a gnarly ole tree...I'd be saying that's "knot" firewood if I didn't have a hydro splitter! (or could noodle it into OWB sized chunks)

 

I'll try, some of it will go to my neighbor and he never "has time" to really keep track.

We both have hydraulic splitters. He has an OWB and does large chunks. I'm sure some noodling will be in order for some of these rounds to be handled even with his loader. His splitter doesn't go vertical.