...until i started my chain saw that is. Wind was calm, no birds and could barely hear the river. Took a walk a couple weeks ago after one of the wind storms and found a downed red oak that took a basswood out as collateral damage. Both raised off the ground which make bucking a lot easier. Ran a tank through the 194 to limb and clear the oak off the basswood. 261 then finished it off. Started bucking bigger oak and chain got thrown. No scrench with me. Walked back to the house and opted to go back and split some rather than cut. Split all the oak and some of the basswood maybe a face cord total. Forgot the camera when i went back. First pic is the trail. NOTE: stack of covered splits ahead of the wheelbarrow from a year ago CSS. You can see the river on the right. Trees were another 200 yards up and 100' off the trail. Wish i had a quad and trailer. Deer droppings right next to wheelbarrow when i parked it. 16" DBH basswood. My marking stick on top. Sugar maple blow down close by that i cant get safely. The hill slopes close to 45* and on loose rocks. Oak will get CSS and left there for a year. Basswood ill pull ASAP. The oak was 24" DBH but had a weird knuckle at that height so ill say 20-22" DBH. Cord and half for the two trees.
Yes, get that basswood processed quickly. It's nice wood to burn down coals from all the heavy hitter woods.
For sure. Not something i aggressively seek but decent sized plus nice and straight. Reminds me of a "hardwood" version of Eastern white pine (which is very plentiful around here) in terms of color, weight, grain texture, ease of splitting and seasoning time.
If you are going to keep doing that, you do need a quad. Are you going to wheelbarrow the basswood out?
I've also found that the ATV yard trailer is the perfect height for rolling large rounds onto the splitter. I like to only lift big rounds up one time. After that, they get hopefully half as heavy.
Beautiful woods and quite the terrain! I admire your commitment in getting that wood. Sounds like it was no easy task! Well worth it when you’re warming yourself with its heat!
Man I sure could use some woods time! That looks like a target rich environment too. Have fun and be safe Brad.
Yup. Ive done it a lot in the past but not in recent years. Ill split it on the spot. Good exercise and have to figure where its final stacking spot will be...you know how that goes.
If i was able to harvest a couple cord annually out of there id get one, but its kinda hit or miss. There are a few decent standing dead ash (couple years dead) right next to this and id like to cut those down too. The trail comes to a clearing for power lines. More trails on the other side. Ms. buZZsaws son used to ride his dirt bike through there. Rather than scrounge roadside id hunt firewood.
Some one's in trouble, looks like they spilled a can of black olives on the ground, lol Nice bunch of future firewood.
Works pretty good once i got used to it. Sometimes a single wheel would be easier in certain areas. In this case i wish it had a motor.
Truth be told, the truck hoarding is far more efficient. With the ATV, you have to load the rounds, then get them to where you can split them, then they have to get loaded into a trailer and then to home, where I stack them. Lots of handling on my part. Ideally, I haul the splitter into the woods, and split right where the rounds lay. When there's more than about 5" of snow, or if the trail isn't packed down to haul the splitter, that's just not possible. The splitter mess then stays in the woods and the rounds are only picked up 1 time as a full round. Now if you can "hunt" for firewood on your own property, where it's stacked, then that cuts a lot of handling down. Exactly.
I made a measuring stick out of electrical plastic conduit as well. It didn’t stay well unless the tree was perfectly straight and I kept hitting it.
