The slow road back

That looks great, well done ,sir.

 

X2!

 

Added a bit of future SS wood to the pile today after taking down a few standing dead white birch trees and a beech yesterday afternoon. These were in an area where it's tough to get close with the ATV and I wanted to get them down and out during what may be our last run of cool(er) weather. The trees are pretty close together here, and I knew there was a chance of ending up with leaners. Of course two of the birch went that route but it was relatively easy to section off parts of the trunks and then use the peavey to roll them until they dropped. The beech was more of a PITA. I couldn't even see the top due to the canopy, and I misjudged the lean a bit, so the tree came back on the saw bar when I was making the final cut. Not a big deal; I just ran the winch cable from the tractor through a snatch block to get the right angle of pull and the tractor did the rest. Came down right where I wanted it. Bucked everything right where it fell and called it a day.

Went out this morning to haul everything out before the 2-3 inches of rain comes in. Had to back the trailer in by hand and then back the ATV up to the trailer due to the confines of the woods, but it's done (well, other than the splitting and stacking part). Have to admit the LogOx I bought several years ago has been coming in handy these days. Still have four more birch to drop for SS wood but those are more easily accessible.

 

Awesome work, my friend. Job well done.

 

Birch is great shoulder season wood for me beech is a heavier hitter, but then I have no oaks to cut

 

You only have white/paper birch up there Lyle? Black birch down here rates very high on the BTU scale

 

Yellow birch and silver birch along with white
White is most common but on my land monstrous yellow in wet Areas example of

my daughter on a yellow birch round

 

I've always been a fan of white birch and had over half a cord for SS wood last season. I normally wouldn't put beech in the shoulder season category, however this standing dead tree was past the point of being prime firewood. If I was out scrounging, I wouldn't even have bothered with it, but since it was on my property, I'll use it for firewood as opposed to having another dead tree lying in the woods. Beech was always my favorite firewood, and I was always able to get recent blowdowns at my favorite scrounging location. I haven't been able to get there in a few years since the road washed out and the USFS doesn't have the funds to repair it (would be the third time in the last 15 years). Thankfully I have all this red oak now to fill the void. Funny how that cycle works...when I had access to beech, I didn't have any oak; now that I have plenty of oak, I don't have beech.

 

I've got two of the totes filled with red oak chunks and uglies with a cord or more of limb wood left to go. Liking the totes so far but will probably stick with stacking for the bulk of my splits.

Appreciate it. And sorry again to hear of the issues with your NH property; I was looking forward to seeing your progress there. As for doing the best we can, I think it's all relative. I see other member's posts on here and catch myself sometimes thinking I wish I had more land, or I wish I could process more, and so on. Then I remind myself I'm lucky to have what I have and be able to still do what I can so I'm content for the most part. I agree that the whole process to me is (mostly) enjoyable, and once again being ahead of the game with seasoned firewood allows me to enjoy 'firewooding' even more without the pressure of rushing to have enough for next season. And it's fun to try new ways to do things (like the IBC totes) or experiment with new 'toys'. Things like the splitter with the hydraulic log lift and the skidding winch have been game changers.

 

I admire the way you neatly packed that tote. You can always tell the neat stackers by the way they load a tote or bin. Mine are similarly loaded. I also noticed the skinny cookie on top too. I've been known to buck an inch or two off a round if its too long! Why I like cutting it myself. I've turned down so many scores of precut wood ad is cut to random in the ballpark lengths.

Good luck with that pile of limb wood. Some reason bucking those is a task I don't like. Probably as I will mark them before cutting!

 

With the cost of the totes, gotta get the most use out of them! As for the cookie, I'm a stickler for having the splits in my stacks as close to 16" as possible so I'll still lop off even a couple inches at the end of a round. Those cookies are great when first starting a fire in the woodstove. I'm with you on the limb wood...it's close to being my least favorite thing to process. But this is all from trees taken down on my own property and it's all good red oak, so I'll suffer through it.

 

Well if you cut 1" off so your splits are exactly 16", no wonder your stacks are a work of art. After felling, I take a lumber crayon and tape and mark off 16" pieces and still somehow end up with pieces an inch or 2 off. Also I take limb wood down to pretty small diameter, on the standing dead oaks I usually cut, most of it is ready to burn dry and goes right in the stove if it is that time of year or goes into the outdoor fire pit pile. They are a lot of work for the return though.

 

I've tried several different methods over the years (tape/marker, mingo marker, etc.) but found those magnetic measuring sticks just work the best for me (like the one shown below). Regarding limb wood, I do the same as you and try to use as much of the tree as possible, especially if the tree is from my own property (as opposed to fighting and dragging limb wood out of the forest when scrounging). I think a lot of it goes back to my early years of wood burning here where I didn't have an excess of firewood and scrounged everything I could. I would often end up with a lot of smaller diameter pieces, so it kind of became ingrained in my firewood processing mentality to use limb wood. A couple seasons ago when I was running very low due to not being able to process firewood, during my regular forays into the woods with the dog I would bring back long-dead oak limbs and slowly build up a pile. Over the summer/early fall I cut pieces here and there with a hand crosscut saw and ended up with about a cord of decent red oak limb wood pieces which then got me through about the first month and a half of that burning season (I continued to add to the limb pile up until the snow was falling). So, like you said, a lot of work for the return, but those limb pieces (along with the chunks, cookies and uglies) allow me to keep my 'good' splits for the heart of winter, it helps clear up my woods of detritus, and I just hate wasting perfectly good firewood.

 

Just FYI, limb wood is denser than trunk wood, and therefore more BTU dense too...if that makes anyone feel better about scrounging down to X" sized limbs

 

Never knew that. Makes sense though as its slower growing thus tighter growth rings.

 

Picking up small limbs and bringing them in to burn is standard procedure for me when coming in from my property when hunting or hiking. It adds up.
This habit goes way back for me. My father, who was a WW II veteran told me when he was in Germany, the forest floor was like a lawn because every day the women would go out and scrounge every stick to heat and cook with. He did the same at our farm, which had a wood cook stove. During the summer when maintaining the yard and such, he would pick up EVERYTHING and cut or break into 10" long pieces. By fall there was 1/4 cord of sticks neatly stacked in the barn. I wish now I would have a picture of his efforts.

 

Some do because their grandparents beat it into their kids who beat it into me gen X however it was not passed down after Gen X in most cases