The rain has been holding off today and I was able to get outside and play with 5 toys, both saws, splitter, Fergy, and the truck. I have some bitter hickory trees by the drive that are dying off and they've dropped a few limbs out of the top with a couple near misses on the cars. Time to go. Dropped the first one today and was able to get it cut and split before the rain came in. It will have to sit on the truck till it clears up and I can stack it on pallets over by the barn for the '23-'24 heating season. There are 5 more that will need to come down + another big Sugar Maple over on the other side of the drive. I fell right where I wanted it. I was happy with the hinge and the cut. I could have gotten the cuts a little more level, but the hinge was right where I wanted it. 16" DBH and was almost perfect firewood size. After putting a few of the heavy big end chunks up on the splitter I ended up noodling some of them. I'm not quite the brute I used to be when it comes to lifting green wood. It ended up being a nice truckload, probably about a half cord or a little less. Every split I kept day dreaming about an evening in January of 2024 of tossing some of these into the stove getting ready for a -4* overnight. Pretty well cleaned up. The big Maple logs are getting whittled on so I can get them over on the sawmill... just not enough hours in the day still... Overall a pretty good day, time for a beverage... and maybe some euchre with some friends this evening.
I got the MS362 just about a year ago. Just did a muffler mod this past week. MS362 mods It looks a lot cleaner in the pix than it really is. I don't baby my stuff, I take good care of it maintenance wise, but I use it hard. I have a skip tooth square ground chain on a 25" bar on it for this. I just got the light bar and I'm liking it so far. I'll try to be a little more careful with it than I was with the ES bar I had before. It was super tough, but it was heavy too. This light bar probably won't hold up as well with a lot of pinching and twisting.
I usually save straight stuff for the sawmill, but I have 5 more of these hickories that have to come down right here by the house. This was one of the smaller ones. I've not had great luck drying the hickory before without getting a lot of twisted slab firewood anyway. I figured this was a nice size for firewood so just skip the extra work trying to make boards. I'll probably mill one or two of the larger ones. Most of the Hickory around here is pretty straight. It is a pleasure to CSS straight stuff for firewood sometimes, usually I'm working the non-lumber knarlies to stuff in the woodstove. and hey, it wasn't elm... LOL I thought I would like a little of what all my family always called "the King of firewood". All the wood burners in the family when I was a kid made it very clear that hickory was a valued heating fuel. I respect those elders and respect / value their opinions and the knowledge they had passed on to me. The work ethic of the past generations... a thing to be admired and and strived after. I miss those guys and think of them often, then I get on this site and meet lots of good folks that remind me of them all over again...
I just looked at the first picture again and got to laughing at the sections that were rolled off the drive. Right after I dropped it, I was put in the doghouse because my crystal ball didn't let me know that the wife had decided to go shopping and I needed to clear the driveway so she could leave. Wondering if the Stihlership has an optional Crystal Ball gimble mount.
Best answer! Lol There was one wood dad always told me to be careful with, shagbark hickory. He over heated the furnace (when I was a young lad) and one of his grates drooped several inches. He was using SBH. Hickory seasons rather quick and produces excellent btu’s. There’s really nothing not to like about it.
Nice hinge work there. Noticed the Audi wagon in the background. Great cars and I don’t get why Americans don’t seem to embrace the wagon. Here’s the cousin to that, pushed into hoarding duty with the new car smell still in it.
We have 2 A6 Avant Quattros, a '99 and an '04. The wife loves them. Avant is the "wagon" style and the quattro is absolutely needed for our driveway. The wagon version is awesome and they look good too. But alas, the maintenance is starting to be problematic as the computers are starting to go on both of them. When we bought the Subaru in 2014 I would have liked to gotten a "wagon" version of the Legacy, but they weren't available in the US. Over Christmas 2014 we visited our son in Japan and while walking down the street in Kyoto, a Legacy wagon drove by, same color as our Legacy. Whole range of emotions. It was sweet. That body style is great and they haul a TON of stuff... If you ever watch the BBC show, As Time Goes By, Lionel and Jean drive an Audi Avant.
