Red and black today. Also split some. Upper 60's in the woods, no skeeters, light breeze, perfect weather!
18.5" to be exact. As I measure up the tree, I cut small limbs that are in the way. I continued the black oak I started a couple weeks ago, but in order to make my way towards the crown, I needed to clear around the other side, from a lot of spring loaded stuff. This consisted of red oak. So what was cut today was mostly branches working down 2 oaks towards the trunk, and up the black oak toward the crown. Probably cut close to a cords worth. You are correct on tulip poplar. We have a generous amount of oaks mostly, a lot of sassafras, hickory's, maples, and poplar.
The area was a large blowdown area, I didn't want to mess with for awhile. Although the springloaded stuff is still dangerous, after 2 years now, it becomes slightly less it seems. There is areas that ill wait until it comes down, and other areas where its a bit safer to cut, or pull down with the grizzly and a strap. A prayer before cutting, and a thanks for the safety after worked well today!
Sometimes I use a measuring stick with a thick yellow crayon from lowes, or like today, my mini stihl cutter I score the bark and cut small limbs down off the tree. Good system, works well.
Anything would be better than my "eyeing it". My stacks are fine, but the lengths are all over the place and it makes the stacks look a bit rough.
Your woods sounds a lot like mine. I have mostly oaks, maples, hickories, sassafras and a few others, I have a few tulips also. No beech and no pine. I lost 10 white and red oaks from something in the past 2 years. Pretty alarming....
Lots of work there in some warm muggy weather Nice to have an ATV & trailer to get it all back home My stove likes 17" wood, so like you , I measure as I cut . I'm a bit anal but I accept it & move on . lol
Thx guys! Was a great day for cutting. Just pulled my sons suzuki LT185 for an evening ride later along with the honda and grizzly. Ill be driving the wife and tator-tot past the piles with a thumbs up!
Oh, now I get it. Here I was thinking that you had done all the cutting with that saw. They are handy little gadgets but would be a real bear bucking up that oak. Good work. Sounds weird hearing about no skeeters. We've had the worst time with them this year than any I ever remember. The Thermacells really are getting a workout and we've used about 4 times more stuff than we ever have. Hard to leave the house without one.
Looks great man. That's the perfect size to work with IMO. Not too big so it's fairly easy to handle but still produces some good splits.
They were bad here early in the season, but the lack of rain lately has kept them back. We had those I irritating black flies about a month ago, which is unusual, because they dont normally come this south. I usually dislike summer, out of all the seasons, but i must say, this one was pleasant.
I'll trade you for that weather...Just sayin'....But Looking good...like the measurement tool you got there...