I talked with my neighbor today and thanked him profusely for allowing me to cut and take the wood. He told me three times: “Take as much as you want! Take it all!” A really great guy. I told him in (using a bit of a different word) “There’s a poop load of wood up there!” He then went to on tell me about the last loggers that were there in the 1990’s when they purchased the land. He said another crew came in and pulled out 18 cords of wood from just the tree tops they left behind. Wow! I’m going to get a solid hitch for for our snowmobiles and hopefully do some winter wood hauling an cutting.
There’s a trade off when it comes to leaving the tops vs pulling everything off the site by chipping everything. While leaving the tops may appear to be wasteful, personally I’m a fan of leaving the small stuff. Sell the logs. Cut the tops for firewood. Leave the rest for the nutrients to be recycled back into the soil. When they chip everything into the back of a tractor trailer, the logging site looks nice, but it robs the soil of nutrients needed by successive generations for very little financial return.
So true! Opted to drive up yesterday to avoid the storm. About 8” of heavy wet cement snow! Ground still isn’t frozen. Unfortunately, a few chunks of grass came up from the driveway when it was plowed. Ahhh, New England!
Snow was so wet it was rolling off plow and taking out driveways markers Ahh the north; where men are men, and women don’t worry cause they can build their own damm fire!!
I ended up shoveling back one of the banks in the driveway. I was worried that after the cold weather, it would be a glacier that wouldn’t move until April….
I got back out there today! There was still snow on the ground and things were a little greasy…but the quad did great. Not bad for a 2003 machine that has a limited slip up front. Yes, the two Beech logs on the rock wall and the birch in the foreground will be cut and moved to the stacks. ; ) Next few pics are all round I cut a few weeks ago and didn’t get a chance to move out. These bigger rounds cut very easily, but had some heft to them when I lifted them. I thought Oak, but not sure: More rounds: Ready to load up: These were all buried under snow! I knew I had a few left to haul, but forgot how many. Pleasant surprise.
Here’s what I ended up hauling today. All these rounds were cut a few weeks ago along with the stack of Red Oak behind it. It took awhile to haul wood out today with the snow. Traction was an issue, so smaller loads were needed to make it up hills. Now to the cutting! I’m assuming this is Oak. With no bark, it’s been there for awhile. I was not going to let it go to waste. I was out cutting and hauling for a good 4 hours straight. I decided to take what I cut and pile it up for later. There may be a chance I get out there with the quad again or may have to wait until it snows more and use the snowmobile and tow behind sled. There are a whole bunch of stacks like this up there, didn’t take a pic of every one. So as mentioned, a little greasy out there today! This is the final hill on our property and I had to give it some throttle and move around on the quad to make it up later in the day. Had a few back up and try again moments. I then started making the loads in the trailer lighter. While conditions weren’t ideal today, I really enjoyed being outside and making some progress. I’m a self proclaimed people person and love being around people. Today was a nice day to be out in the woods solo; just plugging away at the task at hand. When I wasn’t running the saw, all I heard was the snow crunching under foot and the sound of a stream in the distance. It was peaceful and relaxing. The older I get, the more I appreciate moments like these. Now time for some cold beverages, some relaxing, loading the stove and a nice home cooked New Years meal with my wife.
Looks like you had a great day one of my customers uses his quad and this time of year he runs tire chains on his might be a option for you Happy New Year !! JB
Awesome all the way around! Nice to see the wood pile growing load after load for sure. I'm an introvert, I LIVE for moments like those! Being a city slicker is not me.
I couldn’t stay out of the woods today! Grabbed a few loads of rounds before moving splits from the lower stacks to the racks closer to the house. We lost quite a bit of snow from the fog the other night. Made moving full trailer loads possible. There’s a good amount of this type of Birch up there. Anyone know the variety? Black Birch? I was proud of this haul! Some nice straight Birch rounds along with some barkless Oak. Staging area is getting full! And I still have a few more trips to make to get the rest that’s cut and waiting on my neighbor’s land. Looks like I need to get splitting soon!
Looking at the bark it definitely resembles black birch with those thick plates peeling off the trunk, but the color of the wood is a little off. Of course, yours has been sitting a while as evidenced by the spalting on the end grain. If it’s not birch I’m at a loss for what it could be. That dead and barkless oak is the best of what you got
Sure looks like Black Birch. Getting a little overripe but still useable. I’ll be burning all overripe Black Birch and Beech next year.
