Started in on the big red maple Saturday. I chose poorly where to drop these logs in relation to where they would be split. Saturday was the bigger rounds. Only had to roll them about 20 feet. This wood is all for the stand. Proceeds Back at it yesterday. Had to roll some a bit further. What I had when I'd had enough. Got a few shorties out of it. And more Jenga pieces. What I staged before quitting. It's there wiating for me. Whittling it down. Will be starting on the blowdown mess soon. Probably after the ground gets hard I hope. It'll be worked in the lower yard. I've mentioned log editing when bucking before. Here are some examples of edits. They aren't really worth the fight to me. Sometimes I'll mash them up in the splitter but sometimes they get rolled over the hill. I make plenty of chuglies even after edits already.
I like burning gnarlies, shorts, and uglies when it's questionable if a fire is really warranted. Then I don't feel as wasteful.
I like that term...editing logs. Thinking I'll start doing the same. I try to flush cut knots and split so they can stack up well but some are knot pretty after they go through the hydro. Sorry for the bad pun!
Around here big gnarly sugar maples are a dime a dozen. Popular yard. sidewalk planting years back. The main trunks are a knotty, gnarly mess. Great dense firewood if one puts in the effort to turn it into firewood sized pieces. Ill noodle them to size rather than try to use the hydro. Have a few hanging around I need to get done.
PITA for stacking and haulage is my beef with them. I need to see if the guy who bought a truckload last year wants any this year. Gaining on a cord of them at the moment. Half of that is stove dry. I used to chuck all of them. Started keeping for personal 'camp wood' but don't burn enough to keep the pile at bay and it continues to grow.
It sounds kindof lazy to me but I do take out the obvious junk so I don't need to spend all the time wrastling on splitter just to have some uglies when done. This is why my logs are surveyed and painted for rounds. I guess I'm scaling my firewood logs. lol I realize that I am living a life of 'luxury' being able to do so. Sugar maple is my personal nemesis when speaking of a maul or axe. I have been defeated by quite a few sugar rounds in the past. Not had any of size lately. I usually only make noodles when I know quartering with the maul is completely futile. I have a Chestnut oak that will likely need a lot of noodling. I might get lucky because chestnut is amicable for splitting, but it's a pretty good sized trunk...as big as I ever run into really.
The couple times I've had CO it split real easy fresh cut. My favorite oak smell. I like nice stacks so I avoid gnarly logs to begin with and if it makes us wood snobs so be it.
Got back to the woodyard Friday. Finished off the red mapo and added a touch of red oak and sugar mapo to the sell stack. After finishing what I left staged I cut up this branch wood. Been doing a lot of carrying lately. Ah well. Net proceeds minus some shorties and chunklies. Saturday was spent at the new worksite with all the blowdowns. This piece was a real pain. Trying to get this old trail open so I can be on some flat ground. Working on this slope is for the birds. This was fun. Took first branch off the Chestnut oak. It decided to rest teetering on the branch below it. Was going to pull it off with tractor but noticed I could do so by hand. Moved the tractor forward a bit before and that was a good decision. It'd rolled on down the hill if not for the tree blocking. Couple more sketchy cuts and I'll have it to where it's 'easy' to work. Might leave the small poplar behind...already has mushrooms on it. What I ended up dragging out so far. Spotted a frost thingy yesterday while deer stalking. Seen 4, two buck and two doe. One buck was a little 4pt. The other was the big boy seen in prior pics. He saw me first though, so all I got to see was his horns running full speed directly away from me. He never even stopped to look back. I'd gotten lazy on the walk back out and he got my wind.
As of just now, a new saw is coming to me. It is to fill an empty redundancy spot. I came across a deal that I could not pass. Will I be able to resist duty commission until it's actually needed? Hmmmm.
I chose free shipping so it may be a little while (7-10 days). I was doing good at fighting it off too. It's been a couple years. I still have one hole in my double (at least) redundancy plan. LOL
Well it is Christmas...good excuse for a self gift. Which reminds me...I "need" to look for another saw! Wishing the Stihl 400.1 was around. Even a Husky 564! Cant wait to see it. The anticipation is killing me, as I'm sure you as well!
I find the 400.1 intriguing. I didn't spend nearly that much dinero though. I do think they will be excellent farwood saws. I'm interested to see some head to head betwix 572 & 564. I could be wrong but it seems like they are shooting themselves in the foot?
The Wood Wolverine posted an interesting video comparison in my thread on the 564 between it and the 400.1
