Our wood yard has been at the top of the hill at the edge of our field project for 3 yrs now. It was also the landing site for when we had the property logged. It has been on the way back burner on list of things to deal with as the field and orchard project have taken priority. I have thought of it as an eyesore and unorganized since its creation. I’ve been hauling downed tree logs up there and stacking throughout the year and just dealing with them when I had time. Piles of split firewood everywhere, and sometimes even in the way. We had been stacking 6 cord on pallets down by the house, but a barn project has been slated for that area. We also switched to ibc totes this past spring, which makes things easier as my wife hates stacking wood, but loves the heat. There’s also two big stacks of red oak logs that the loggers left as they had bends, crotches, or heart rot in them, roughly 15 cords. I’ve had them up on dunnage for 2 years now, and really need to get them cut up and split. There is also a big pile of red oak cut offs, that are all odd sizes to deal with at some point, and a 30 cy pile of wood chips. I spent some time planning things out and thinking about this coming winter. Figured out I wanted to have 3 rows of totes 6 deep on dunnage in a newly smoothed up area. That meant I needed dunnage, so not wanting to waste much, I set out and yarded out some small leaning poplar trees in one corner of the field. I have been ignoring this corner, as you can’t see it from the main field due to elevation change, and it’s been a mess of leaning and downed trees since last springs storms. This picture is deceiving as there’s 8-9 leaning poplars in that area behind the saplings. After spending a few hours winching logs in 80 degree weather and high humidity. They are 16’ and 24’ lengths, I like to cut in multiples of 8 for hauling and calculating quantity.
The next afternoon after running errands I got more logs winched out of the area. Not completely done yet, but I need to take the mini excavator down there and do some stumping to get closer, as I’m maxed out on length of cable at 185’. There’s a couple 12’ lengths in there as some had to be cut shorter to swing around the trees to get winched out. The not dunnage pile of poplar logs that will become shoulder season firewood. There’s already a 3 cord pile of poplar at the other end of the wood yard all split. The 18 totes on dunnage for this seasons firewood. I’ve got room for another 6 totes deep behind these, but don’t have the totes yet. I’m happy with the way it’s coming together as well. I’ve got the plastic pallets and t-posts that I staked 6 cord on for the last couple years and covered with truckers tarps. Planning on making a 3 cord stack of red oak, a 3 cord stack of mixed hardwood, and then however big of a stack I need to make one to hold all of the poplar. I can’t see letting it rot in the woods, and what’s down isn’t big enough for lumber, so firewood it is.
Looks nice a nice piece of property there. Yes trying to figure out the logistics of firewooding can be stressful at times. Looks like you thought it out well and it will work well for you. I love the IBC totes off the ground. Cant say I've seen that before.
Thanks! It will be a slowly evolving area as time goes on. I’ll see how this works for this winter and adjust from there. As for the totes off the ground, a friend mentioned them freezing into his lawn area and having issues getting them out. So I figured I had the trees, and why not use them and see how it goes.
Had to clean out some saplings and do some stumping to reposition the tractor to winch out the tops without damaging too many trees. Made a quick and dirty access loop with the mini ex around the red oak that will remain, and will come back later this fall and finish that area off, grade it and seed it. Spent an hour winching out a few remaining logs and 5 tops of the poplars. Got the cut up to 8’ lengths and moved to the wood yard. In talking to a buddy over the weekend he wants a good amount of the poplar logs to make charcoal with. Apparently it’s really good for making black powder, who knew. I just didn’t want to waste the wood, and see it rot.
Spent sometime stacking red oak today. Setup a pallet rack that’s 24’ long, 4’ wide, and I’m stacking 5.5’ high. That gives me about 4 cord per stack. Need to setup another rack to stack poplar on as well, as I keep poplar and red oak separate from all the other wood I cut.
Got all of the red oak stacked, and moved the last pile of red oak logs from yard trees we took down. Just need to get them cut up, split and stacked before winter. Also helped the wife mulch the raspberries we transplanted into rows.
Thanks, I’m working on getting this area cleaned up and organized. This area was the landing when we had our property logged, and the pile behind the red oak is loam mixed with small sticks. The pile to the right is a massive brush/log pile, and there’s a stump pile behind that, all from this little acre of ground. The tractor is a great tool/toy for our property, had it 4 yrs now. It’s hauled a lot of brush, stumps, and debris out of our 10 acre field project. It’s small enough to fit in the garage, and to be nimble out in the woods.
Spent some time in the woods yesterday cleaning up storm damaged hardwood trees. Started yarding them out to the wood yard for firewood. So far it’s a mix of maple, beech, white birch, and yellow birch. Shortest log hauled out is 16’, besides the small pile of 8’ limbs I used the grapple for. The wind picked up while I was working on an 18” DBH sugar maple that uprooted. Of course it fell toward the trail, so most of the limbs have to be removed to winch it out. Cut a 16.5’ log and a 9’ log out of the trunk, really straight, it might have to go for boards. I’ll make the decision when it’s in the yard and I can see it better.
Some fantastic work there Krackle_959 . Wish I was that organized. I put my totes up on cinder blocks for more air flow but don't have a way to move them once they're full.
Thanks! That’s some full totes! It’s a work in progress, I need to get more things cut up, processed, and put into stacks or totes. Problem is right now the ground is frozen and snow covered, so it’s the best time to skid logs, and not get them covered in dirt. I put the totes up on poplar logs to keep them from freezing in at the advice from a friend. For next year I’ll probably use some small hemlock logs, since there’s a ton of them down in the woods. Being able to move the totes is key to me, otherwise I’d end up with a wood shed. The wood yard is 800’ behind the house. When we moved here there was a 20’x20’ wood shed that was almost falling down, and I tore it down. Should have checked with the town as now a wood shed can only be half that size. I’ve already warned my wife about the amount of logs I’m going to be skidding out and piling in the wood yard this winter. She always sees it as chaos, and doesn’t like piles, but she does like no heating oil bills.
Impressive work, sir. You have done some amazing work on your property. I did try setting the totes on plastic pallets, which were light weight, several were crushed over time. Good idea to use logs.
Managed to cut the logs in the yard to 8’ and pile them up before we got snow on Wednesday. Didn’t get pictures of the pile. Got to spend yesterday out in the woods retrieving the 2 maple trees that had blown over. Somehow thought I cut a 16.5’ log but it was two of them, and a crotched 12’ log. The tractor moaned a bit while winching a 33’ log and 12’ at the same time through the tops of the tree. Cut the 33’ log in half to make skidding easier and hauled them out. Saw another maple that had lost half of its top, and left a nasty crack in the tree, so it went too. Got a grapple of limb wood as well. My supervisor of the afternoon, it would fly up to this tree from a lower branch when I came though the trail. Called it a day a bit early to give it some space to hunt. The days haul to add to the firewood pile. The two 16’5’ logs on the left were the ones I was thinking might go for boards. Not sure what I would use them for, wife is trying to decide if she wants something made from it.
Didn’t really want to go out in the woods today in 40mph winds, so I took the mini ex up to the wood yard to uncover the maple logs since it’s snowed a couple times since I skidded them out. Took no time at all to clean them off, cut them to 8’ and add them to the stack. Had planned to buck up some other wood, but the wind was raw, and it will be there tomorrow… The pile is getting there, it spilled over the back a bit, oh well. It’s 12’ long, 8’ wide, and averages 3’ tall so far.
Cut down 5 yard trees at the edge of the lawn to slowly release more light to the old apple trees that have been shaded for the last decade or two. Ended up being 2 maples, and 3 black cherry trees and a small ash sapling that was 5” in diameter. There’s a couple more to take down, but the sky was turning dark to the West and snow was coming. Got them up to the wood yard as snow started coming down, so early day today. Supposed to get 6” today, and another storm this weekend with another 4”-8”.
