Quite the cornucopia of wood in that stack. Its a great feeling to be that caught up and cleaned I imagine. I get close now and then, but constant hoarding stops me from acheving that "goal". If grass starts growing in that area you may be forced to turn in your hoarders card.
LOL I know, I know... I'm debating making a dedicated processing "pad" of sorts. Sink some 6 x 6 PT into the ground a couple inches above grade, arranged in a rectangle, and fill the inside of it with wood chips from ChipDrop. Park the splitter on that, maybe even build a small roof on one end so the splitter and I stay out of the rain. Way in the back out of the way, and out of sight when I look out from my deck. Then I can still have grass, and not have my firewood fetish take up my entire back yard. That's what I'm honestly sick of. Every aspect of my entire life being consumed by this hobby. It's time to bring back some semblance of balance. And turf grass
Fetish? Hobby? I thought it was an addiction? Have you been going to hoarders rehab? If FHC sponsors one they're gonna get a piece of my mind!!! (if I can spare one) Having seen it in person I can understand why you want to do that. Luckily, (I think) I'm limited to the small areas in front of my stacks to mostly split wood. I've have been making it a point to not stockpile rounds.
What’s the saying, variety is the spice of life. After years of chestnut oak, and years more to go, I kinda can’t wait to get to the other species in my racks. But.. I do admit, after walking down in the basement today, I’ll take all the CO available.
I’ve given up on keeping the yard tidy. Sometimes I wonder how much I’ve raised the elevation in my processing corner with saw chips, splitter scrap and bark. When the saw chips and bark pile get deep I’ll grab it with the tractor and move it downhill. The downside is it can get kinda soupy in the winter and the wood trucks can’t deliver. The upside is it’s good for my trees. I’ll never win the neighborhood garden club award, but I will have the only SBH and AC.
Back in the late winter, the dead rotten half of a double trunk sugar maple next door to me came crashing through the right bay of my woodshed during a storm. I hastily cleaned up the area and life went on. A couple months ago I ended up planting grass where the end bay was, with plans to eliminate the stand alone stack to the right and plant more grass this upcoming spring. This is one vacuum I don’t abhor, and am looking forward to reclaiming more of my lawn for both turf grass and native garden space. I’ve been playing around with some stone work around my pawpaw saplings. The bare dirt areas around the stones will be full of native grasses and wildflowers next year. A micro prairie is the goal. This morning I started cutting up the other (good) half of that sugar maple, which had fallen into my neighbor’s yard. Lots of decent wood there, which I plan on sharing with another hoarder should he choose to make the drive up here. What I hauled up to my yard so far: There are so many branches and brush piles over there, so since it’s on my neighbor’s property and I’m cleaning it up for him, I may see if he’d be willing to rent a chipper for a day once everything’s ready. I could use some more wood chips for my landscaping projects anyway. Might as well use the materials that are already on site.
A little trigger time today. First time cutting with the 395XP. The 61/272 did the noodling, I forgot how heavy sugar maple is. Lots of trunk left still…
Yes it is heavy! Surprised you didn't chunk it down even more? Or is that the stuff getting returned to the Earth?
Nope, that's all cut to 16" and slated to be firewood. I already moved 7 rounds (14 halves) up close to my property line with the hand truck.
Cool! What's the diameter? Not that often I encounter SM that large and straight. Gnarly yard trees that size a dime a dozen. Passed a good score of such in New Haven last week. Fond memories of stopping and grabbing the Goldilocks sized limbs back in my younger days.
Somewhere around 24". I'll put a tape measure on it tomorrow once I start bucking the lower trunk. I already cut all the big stuff that was in my neighbor's yard 2 houses down, and now it's time to start working what's laying directly next door to me.
Big progress today in both cutting and moving the halves just over my property line with the hand truck: I’ll get another 4 rounds off of this log: My estimate of 24” was spot on: Look carefully and you’ll see I hit a metal pipe on the end of this log. Luckily it was aluminum and didn’t affect the chain much. This was a brand new Oregon factory square ground chain from Frawley’s. There’s still a bunch of small-ish wood (compared to what I’ve been cutting) from the upper part of the tree that I can salvage. The saga continues.
