Well it 5 am... My plan for the day, or at least until the snow storm moves in around noon, is to get into a patch of Black Locust and drop some trees. It's been to muddy to get to it the past two weeks, but temps in the 20's so I'm good to go now. Grabbed an extra new chain yesterday, filled the gas can with premium and Stihl HP ultra. Just gotta load up the MS362-CMR, axe, log lift and ppe, then ready to head out... well after the little misses wakes up to take over watching the little guy. Now... don't any one freak out on me but most of the Black Locust will be cut for fence posts. I'll be bucking into 9 ft logs for posts, but I can also cut those into 6= 18" rounds for splitting. I'm gonna try to get a cord of firewood along with the posts! ~Nathan
Growing up on a farm with plenty of locust growing in the woods we used locust fence posts almost exclusively. Some are still there today. And that was a good many years ago. The only problem is driving fencing staples into them. It's 5 degrees here right now with wind chills well below zero. Unfortunately no outside wood work for me today. Snows pretty deep in the woods too. Enjoy.
Yeah locust is tough to drive staples into... but it's easier then Hedge... and straighter! I pulled some old locust post when clearing fence this fall, tops had big weather splits in them, but under ground they looked like they had just been set... The gentleman that set those post stopped by one day, in talking to him that fence was built in the 50's or 60's!!! If these last 50-60 years I'll never have to worry about them! ~Nathan
I'm heading out shortly as well. It's warmed up from 13 last night to a balmy 19 . I've got a bunch of dead ash I've skidded out to the field and need to get it cleaned up before maple season
Have fun and be safe. No cuttin' wood here, too much white stuff on the ground. This weekend is perfect for burning wood
I saw the title of this thread and cringed. I'm with you Dascro , too cold for any outside activities for me too. Maybe the temps in Iowa are better than here this morning
It's mid 30s, that part is actually good. Spitting rain and getting muddy. Got about 2 hours of C/S/S in, can't complain about that!!
It still makes me laugh seeing the snow you have. I also talked to a friend north of Lapeer and he said they have about 6" on the level. I don't think you could find a spot on our place where there would be more than an inch on the ground. Perhaps that will change tomorrow.
I see we have a winter storm watch out Dennis, is the 4 wheeler all ready for the lovely Judy to plow the driveway ?
Had a good morning in the woods! After breakfast with the family and loading up the truck I was on my way to the timber at 8. I met up with my father in law to see what he had cut and how he wanted Mt to attack it, as normal it was the basic cut what you want, leave me the big stuff. He has been taking firewood logs, so he had a good little logging road cleared out with the skid steer... I got started bucking up posts from the trees to small for the FIL... Then got started dropping my own trees... Ended up getting 15= 9 ft posts 5-12 inches around... Then the ground started to get greasy and a sprinkle of rain, I decided I better get things wrapped up, so I bucked up close to a truck load of rounds and headed for the house. Didn't get a chance to do any splitting, had a cow/calf conference to go to, but all in all a good day... now where did I leave my muscle relaxers? Hope you'll had a good day to! ~Nathan