$10 a tree for nice straight ones I’d do all day. What you showed pictures of, not so much, unless I was desperate for wood.
I did the same thing before I started burning wood. I am only using between 100 and 150 gallons of HHO per winter.
I hear ya. Desperate I am not. A hoarder though, I am. JimBear has the right idea. Pole saw to get rid of the thorny bits, then proceed as normal.
Nice! I almost bought oil this year, but since the price is up, I'll wait till mid summer. We've been using about a quarter tank per year.
If you are only going for the log then roughly speaking a 32’ log at average of 2’ in diameter will get you a cord. That’s going to be four 8’ logs.
If I were you, I would run the numbers….you just have a supply now that costs you x per stacked cord. If you assume 10 per tree ,at an average diameter, what are your costs all in? I paid a guy $20 per 7x14x3 trailer heaped…..cherry and ash. I left everything under 4 inches. It was a small job. If you get real technical… compare both options in. $per btu level assuming you get certain trees. I say this because the $20 trailers I was getting did not add up as I could have been cutting maple and hickory at home with the hassle of moving it. If you simply want to tackle, screw the numbers abs go for it. I don’t know what your current source is, but if you are good at math and do it honestly the numbers will tell the tale.
Some are tangled pretty good. Most not so bad. Cut em down and pull them out with the truck and a long rope etc.
You called it. I got two down today. One limbed, bucked and loaded. The other down and limbed. Dropping both of them did not go as planned. First one actually had a dead limb that stayed on the stump after the rest of it fell. Took to more cuts and a cant hook to drop it. Second one i was actually happy with my notch, but missed a tangle up top. Thing didnt even move when i did my back cut. Tried some wedges to no avail. Tried a rope and my big butt, that didn't work. Luckliy when the rope gave and I ate dirt, no one was driving by. Rigged rope and hooked to truck and finally got it to pivot over. Main take away was I didn't get hurt(my pride a little during my fall), got a trailer load of hedge and more to come back too. It was a good day.
I have to admit, you guys confused the Heck out of me, talking about burning “Hedge “, I thought that couldn’t be worth the effort. This is what I always understood “Hedge” to mean: a fence or boundary formed by closely growing bushes or shrubs. "she was standing barefoot in a corner of the lawn, trimming the hedge" I had never heard of any kind of Tree referred to as “Hedge” before joining AS and FHC. Doug
I have had to cut 4-5 at a time to get them to come down. Those witches fingers up top are an absolute bearcat to get apart.
I forgot to mention all these trees have a barb wire fence on one side of then so trying to get the back cut and have an escape path is a little tricky.
I watched a you tube video a while back about "hedgers" men and women who used to cut, fold and lace the hedge trees up to form a fence to keep livestock. Barbed wire made "hedgers" a thing of the past.
Osage orange (hedge) is the heaviest wood per cord and the highest btu wood. Wish i could find some to burn. I have one split here in the basement that came from Baker's Mansion museum for turning. My BIL made some pens out of his pieces. He knows the curator of the museum.
Yep, I would LOVE to have some to burn as well. I hadn’t heard of Osage Orange before joining AS and FHC, if I have seen it, I didn’t know what it was. In my area Conifers predominate, with Douglas Fir being our Premium Firewood. Further South around Cottage Grove, Buzz Benton’s neck of the Woods, you see more Oak and Madrone. But around here Hardwoods are more likely yard trees than natural growth, especially at the higher elevations where we normally cut As I have said before, for us HARDWOOD, is either Too Far from the trailer, Downhill from the trailer, or all too often BOTH. I have seen more Unicorns sitting on my wood sheds, than pieces of Oak in my wood sheds As much as I wish that we had more Hardwood available where we cut, I sure Enjoy being out where we cut, the scenery is beyond Beautiful, and we truly enjoy being out in the woods, and being able to heat our home that way is a nice bonus The “Grandogter” ready to go wood cutting A rare score, these trees were cut, creating fire breaks for the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire, and the Forest Circus opened the decks for wood cutters in 2019, the top layers were 9-15% MC and stove ready, further into the decks needed some time to season. We were able to park the trailer between the decks, it doesn’t get much better than that I definitely feel Blessed to live where I do Doug
Funny you mention too far from the trailer. I moved the truck and trailer 3 times to save steps loading today. Got to thinking about all you diehards that use wheelbarrows or sleds to haul to the truck. I'm not sure if I would be that dedicated or not. My hats off to y'all that can't pull the truck right up to it.
Yep, cutting in the National Forest, all too often, the wood isn’t convenient. A lot goes into deciding what wood to cut. The species doesn’t vary too much, we see mostly White Fir, D Fir is Better, some Tamarack, Alder and occasionally Lodgepole, which is usually further East than we normally cut. How good the access is to the wood, uphill from the trailer rather than below the trailer, and how much is in a relatively small area come into play, as we are required to do a one hour fire watch, after the last saw is shut down. I try to find a spot with enough wood that I can fill the trailer, or at least cut enough, that the time loading rounds and gear uses up most of the hour long fire watch. I can load weight wise about 2.25 cords (Full Cords, 128 cuft) on my 6x12 tandem axle trailer. Making too many stops to cut wood ends up “Burnin” a lot of time, between unloading and loading gear, and fire watch time, that I have passed up a lot of great wood, it just wasn’t worth the time and effort for the amount of wood there. As I said, we Enjoy our time in the forest, and a forced air electric furnace is a Budget Buster, so wood cutting is a n enjoyable way to stretch the finances, and a great workout as well Doug
