A family farm is putting in a 3.5 acre pond & I got permission to cut all I wanted on it. There is quite a smorgasbord of timber. The list includes: Osage ( they need fence posts to fence off the pond ), HVBW, Honey Locust (several thornless/minimal thorns), Ash, Hackberry, Cherry, Mulberry, a few smaller Oaks, a couple decent sized Kentucky Coffee trees, Elm, Silver Maple & Cottonwoods. Most of the Silver Maple, all of the Cottonwoods & Elms will be dozer fodder along with the worst of the Osage & smaller other trees. I have several down now & currently working on cleaning up brush & staging of what I have down. They had 2 different loggers come in to look at the trees & both said there was nothing worth logging. I was surprised as there are several 18”-20”Ash trees plus the HVBW & Cottonwoods. I currently have the Cherry, Honey Locust & most of the Osage down & limbed up. I have most of the Mulberry done with about 3 more to get. I started at the dam area & there were a bunch of HVBW’s there & they are down & limbed up also. I will try & get some photos tomorrow. As a side note, I got my arse chewed on this evening by an uncle because a cousin came in & whacked down a large Hackberry that wasn’t in the pool area. I simply told him I didn’t cut it & had no idea why they didn’t cut the Ash in pool area. I got told I was in charge there. That was news to me…
Some of it is mill worthy but most will be firewood. There are always campers looking for firewood & it puts off a nice blue flame in open air fires. After 2 years of drying it will ready.
Congratulations on your promotion! You're able to load and take out the wood with equipment I hope/think? Hopefully in long wood/log form...
This is great news! Look forward to the pics of this project. I'm picturing load after load of premium firewood. Hoard on!!
I am using a track loader with grapple to move tops/bush & the main stuff. The original plan that approved was to just stage everything in rows in the pasture & get it when I have time ( like I did with all the Osage last year ) but I am thinking that the plan may get changed just to prevent headaches & sore ears on my part.
Ah, the joys of working with family. It can be both a blessing and a curse. I'd like to see some pictures of the area and job (if possible).
Nice on both counts. Hopefully the uncle tells everyone you are running the show there. But, you'll have it pretty gone by the time others get around to showing up?
No, I will only have it about 1/3 felled & trimmed up, I have another cousin coming in tomorrow to get some Ash. I will not be getting shorted on wood quantity from this deal though. They only cut for immediate use or ti start on next years pile.
Here are the only pictures I got today & they aren’t very good. I didn’t get started until around 1:00 & most of my day was spent cleaning up tops & trimming up missed limbs. Cherry, same puke different view Honey Locust, same pile different views One of the Osage piles
I’d take it all and use the lower quality stuff for a firewood stand. It’s wood, it’ll burn for them.
Up until that last picture, I was thinking "Hmmm, they picked the only place with trees to put the pond....."
Would it be worth your while to stage a big pile and get someone with a log truck to haul it out to your place just to make it easier for you ?
I gave some thought to that before I started but wasn’t sure the the expense was worth it but it may come to fruition before I am done. I didn’t give much thought about headaches… It will have to dry up & firm up a lot before trailers could be pulled in/out of there or ruts will be made & that would create more issues.
