2016 Trail Work

One thing that really helps with maintaining your property is a winch on a tractor. When I say a "winch is half your tractor" I mean it. Mine has 150 ft of cable which means you can cut a remote tree and suck it in even if its pulling it between closely spaced trees. You can even make corners if you use a snatch block and a pulley to change the cables direction. And of course with winch lines that long, it also means your trail network can be 300 feet apart and still get to every tree.

I am all about quality trails because without easy access you just don't do the work that should be done. I say this from experience and by mistakes. The area I am logging now has never been logged before my time...ever. Its just too remote, across a swamp and teaming with cradle knolls. So I cut the places I could easily get to with my tractor more often then I probably should and not up in there at all. It was not ideal forestry that is for sure. Now that I have bulldozed a road in there, including making cuts and fills and installing culverts across streams, I am finding out all the wood is rotted. It does not matter if it is 6 inches in diameter of four feet, its hollow-hearted from a lack of management. That is why I am a huge proponent of good trails.

 

It's 66 degrees this morning and the humidity reading we have is 99 %. It does look like the rain will stay away long enough to do some trail work.

LodgedTree , the lot the house is on should've been thinned out years ago but it wasn't so we'll do what we can when we can.

 

We put a cable on it just to make sure it came through the tree tops. I took two bucket loads to our shoulder season wood for 2017, the first week of October I'll get it stacked.

I think the whole pile we'll be two face cord if not more, we already have two face cord up for the shoulder season of 2017.

I still have that small dead crab apple tree to take out that was behind the Pine.

 

Last night it started to rain but we never received enough for it to measure in the rain gauge, it looked like all the heavy rains stayed well south of us.

 

Good job Woody and a nice pile of split

 

LodgedTree , it seems my trail work around the house

Thanks HDRock , after cutting up the stump, the 310 is ready for a sharp chain.

We better get a bunch of snow this winter, that will allow us to burn a chit load of so so pine in the outdoor fireplace.

 

Just be wary of that crab tree. Not only is it just plain hard wood, it also has twisted grain so its really difficult to cut...a lot of tension in the wood.

 

That crab tree was all rotten, even the base.

 

After checking the property, I think the trail clearing will continue but in a different area around the house. We'll start off with two dead (no needles) white pine which will go in the winter burn pile after it's split.

This area doesn't have a completed trail but I'm hoping after today it will be.

 

Once I get the rounds out of the trail and some cleanup, it will be rhino ready and a few more pines cleared out on one end and it will be tractor ready.

Pic 0476 & 0477 is the first tree I dropped,0479 is the mess after it came down,0480 is after the limbing,0481 is the new trail and pic 0486 is a pic of three pines we might clear out because they're not in the best shape and the propane tank is close by.

 

Here are two more that we want down before the second week of October, both dead.

Pic 0482 & 83 are the same tree and 0484 & 85 are the same tree. We'll need a cable on 0484 because it's near the propane tank and leaning away from the direction I want it to go.

Just north of this we have around 6 trees that will need to come down, 3 or 4 are dead.

 

It's not a huge tree and the lean isn't that bad but with the propane tank within reach, I just want to make sure.

 

Yeah, I could see that tree coming down in a good blow someday, especially if the soil is saturated from heavy rain. I will be around to see you soon as we discussed earlier.

 

With the utmost respect, I don't think they are going anywhere only because they are pine. White Pine, like Ash have a tap root that extends southward to hades and maybe even beyond. I clear a lot of land and dread Ash and White Pine stumps no matter what I am using for a bulldozer because of this reason. If you are not inclined to believe me, take a look around out in the woods and you never see a white pine or ash uprooted by the wind, they are always snapped in half. I have no way to confirm this, but I think Ash and White Pine might have roots like that of alfalfa where they can penetrate even ledge by finding the fissures and working their roots inside it.

 

Come to think of it I don't remember seeing a White Pine blowdown either. My only concern was the erosion and the one already exposed root, being on the slope erosion could expose more. Thanks@LodgedTree,