Amazing what a wood lot can produce without ever having to cut anything live! Sounds like you had a fun day
The stuff I split today was from a tree we had taken down in 2018 by an outfit not far from us. My plan was to have all the pine from two areas gone by winter but we had a dry spring/summer and the month of August so I couldn't burn but I did get some new areas cleaned up along with creating some new trails and getting rid of seven stumps. It was 12.9 when I went out this morning so it wasn't that bad, tomorrow I plan on getting some Yellow Birch and then zip off the stumps even to the ground which will give me more room for plowing snow. The house lot has a bunch of smaller White Pine that are dead or dying so I have enough work ahead of me that I might need a new saw.
I'm not sure yet but it would be something smaller, I do have an older 028 Wood Boss that's in great shape but doesn't have a chain brake, I would have to sell something before I buy another. I did buy a Stihl 290 parts saw which I used the carb out of for my first real saw I bought, a 310. I would need a bunch of parts to see if it starts, it was a brand new saw before a guy smashed some of it up. We might have a new roof going on this coming summer so I doubt that a new saw will happen, we're getting a price on a metal roof.
I'll make a list of parts that I'll need to buy for the 290 so it will be a working saw, we'll see how much that will run before I think about going ahead with it.
We had 1.9 this morning so I changed my plans from getting some Yellow Birch to cleaning up the edge of a bunch of trails around the house, I got rid of 8 or 9 loads of dead pine branches and some maple.
I pretty much finished cleaning up a new trail I started earlier this year, another five or six loads went over to the fireplace. I also was able to burn a bunch of pine splits. The other area I worked (not pictured) was limbing up some dead branches off some pine trees, I'll use this area to push snow into from our driveway.
is your woods largely comprised of pine trees, intermittently scattered or just certain areas with the pines? My in-laws have a spot with two ponds and there are probably 6 rows of pines a couple hundred yards long. Amazing the amount of limbs continually falling from those trees! I can see they keep you plenty busy too!
"self pruning" "As any walk in the woods will show, lower branches die young on shade-intolerant trees like aspens, paper birch, red pine, elms, ashes, and cherries. They're known to be good at self-pruning." .........
The house lot is mostly White Pine until you get to the southeast side and the backhill then it changes to hardwood. The White Pines keep me busy around the house but after you clear an area of dead White Pine, you can see what a big difference it makes which keeps the old body going along with coffee. I should be using the dead White Pine branches for kindling, they're better than any fatwood you can buy. Our bigger lot down the road has a whole bunch of hardwood. We do have hills that I would never cut on that are loaded with Hemlock but just like most trees there are bugs killing them.
I hadn't been back in on our other lot since the last high winds we had so I went to check on the trails, not much was down just a few branches in different areas. The first four pictures are of some trails, pics 1332,33,39 & 40 are the Brook freezing up early due to our colder weather we've been having, 1336 is an old rotten tree I've been driving around on a turn so I finally took it down, 1337 was a stump I had been driving around just above 1336 which I zipped off and 1338 is in an area we call Hemlock Haven which needs a good two months of trail clearing that's not in the picture. Since I hadn't used or started the Rhino for what seems like a good week, I ran the hills with it. The battery was fine but it took its time getting to run like it usually does. After letting it warm up, I did around three laps on the house trails before I geared up the back of the Rhino.
This was our Christmas Eve meal, braciole browned and then baked in the oven, add some pasta with this and we had a nice meal. The two smaller ones in the dish that weren't browned were two pieces of prosciutto with the bread crumb mixture rolled up inside and baked with the rest. Like they say in the U.P., it was gooder. I cooked the sauce the day before.
I haven't done squat lately but I'm dealing with something going on with my right shoulder, I won't go for an x-ray with our county seeing an uptick in Covid cases so I'm putting up with some pain. I think it's getting better but time will tell. I do have an appointment scheduled with the doctor in early January, it was scheduled in June so we'll see if he can look at it or if it will have to be a separate appointment. Tomorrow will be a small test when I try and put some 60 pound bags of sand in the back of the RTV for weight when plowing.
Well, you certainly have been busy, just getting caught job with your thread. Hope your shoulder heals without any problems. It probably needed a rest. Your areas look really nice. Gooder job...
The crazy thing is it never hurt after running the pole saw, many years ago I did have bursitis in that same shoulder. The first two nights when the pain was the worst, I was only sleeping a couple of hours a night, that has increase between 4 and 5. Today was the best day since it started, maybe the heat three times a day is working with some stretching exercises.
For some reason in NYS, if your appointment has already been made and something else happens, you have to call or email the doctor so you can find out if he can stick that new chit in with the old appointment. I'll wait until near the end of next week before I do that, maybe it will be gooder by then.
I had told the wife that I would let her help with the bags of sand today but by the time she got out to the garage, I had four in the back of the RTV, she wasn't happy. The shoulder doesn't feel any worse tonight so that was good. I'll give it until Thursday of this week before I do anything with a chainsaw.
Yesterday I thought it would be a good day to test out my shoulder so I grabbed the bow saw and cut five loads of dead pine branches from certain areas. From the feeling in my shoulder this morning, it needs more time. The two pictures are from the fire yesterday, it really took off after I packed it full of pine and came into eat. Because I didn't charge the batteries and the cold, what juice was left in them the cold took care of.
