You have your process really dialed in. The landowner appreciates that and hopefully will tell his friends and neighbors! Brad
Welcome to the club, lots of great folks here sharing knowledge and humor. Glad you're here and able to share your story.
Back to the honey hole today. I had more than a load on the ground already. Just noodled some big ones. Cut all the small stuff to 16” for my parents. 2 loads out and I dropped 2 more trees. https://youtube.com/shorts/RsrPmqPIC1g?feature=share https://youtube.com/shorts/owpNXVKZwis?feature=share Had to do some serious wedging on #2 as it was leaning a different direction, right into a nice what looked like black birch. Didn’t want to wipe it out. Dropped where I tended so all was well. First load was light due to chasing a wild goose that was selling a SuperSplit for 1000. Got screwed like never before so I’m moving on
Great to be out cutting again ill bet. Nice that is wasnt rainy and sloppy either. Ran some of the chestnut oak i cut through the splitter today. I sniffed several splits. Ive been through some wild goose chases myself. PITA and aggravating
Definitely nice getting some saw time, on normal size wood! I didn't break my back moving pieces around. I got home about 5:30 or so and it was completely dark. I just pulled the truck into my ShelterLogic carport. I'll unload tomorrow.
Dang. The 48” bar is gonna start gathering rust. Nice wood. Any idea how many years those chestnut oaks remain viable once felled (but off the ground) I’ve had my eyes on a couple large straight trees that were felled down the road from me and left there. It’s been at least five years and the bark is still holding. My guess is they’re chestnut oaks. I get the impression from the political signage in the yard they’d never allow a wood burner to take them but you know how it is. Drive past them almost everyday. The force is strong
Great to see you out in the woods again. I get nervous too when we have a leaner and have to leave a thick hinge.
Not sure on that but, this 2 leader has a lot of rot under the bark. I'm talking a good bit so I'd think that soft sap wood would hold moisture pretty well on down side. Heartwood is solid as can be, so if yours have some size to them, I'd guess they could hold out pretty well. I'll get a better pic of that today, and there's a log laying that I didn't cut so it's been there for at least 3-4. I'll buck it and take some pics. Yeah, I initially backed wedges out just enough to cut a little more of the back cut, and ended up only saw a very small amount. I just felt I needed that holding wood. Wouldn't have mattered where it went but it was an exercise in making it go where I wanted.
Fun to cut the BIGGUNS but not fun to move them or any sized round. Been splitting, stacking and moving splits the last week or so and really feel it. I forget how close to home this score is?
Another load full today and I fell a big problem tree for my friend Tony the land owner. This was top weighted towards his garage so I threw a line through the first crotch and tied off on an industrial strength ratchet strap. This was technically on his neighbors property so we could get the Bobcat to pull. All went as planned. 24" bar on there. Needed every inch. Notched, back cut, wedged a little then used the ratchet strap to pull it over. I used another tree so I was pulling off to the side. The top exploded as I figured it would. Backing up a bit, after I finished loading I was taking Mountain Dew break and I hear a Bald Eagle. Look up and it flew in and landed on the cell tower that's very close to me. Sun was just a few inches below so I had a hard time getting a pic. I stood still for about 2 minutes watching it. Then I move to get my phone and it must not have liked my size? It flew shortly after. I got some great views of its white head and tail Glorious!! Wish I had a better camera! So leaving his driveway, I had to admire his neighbors piles:
I'm going to say many years! I forgot a pic but the small tree that uprooted has been laying for a long time. The sap wood has totally rotted off and I took my axe to it today and saw all solid heartwood. I'll be bucking it for dad in the future.
