Nice! I have a few outdoors-themed items hanging around but I always liked this one (and not to brag, but I did have a bull moose right by my deck a couple months ago...so awesome):
I'm an aristocrat, don't chu know?? Really I'm just blessed with stewarding a piece of land that happens to produce some top shelf firewood as a byproduct. Spoiled, I am. I'm aware, and appreciative.
Thats great you have the primo stuff. Is there much in the way of lower BTU stuff available in your lot? Do you leave it behind?
You'd probably vomit if you saw everything I've left to rot over the years. lol Sometimes it's a logistical thing...difficult to get at. I've seen just about every type of desirable specie melt back into the forest floor. I wouldn't say that I 'leave behind' the less dense stuff. I mostly have more of the good stuff than I can get through, so it becomes a thing where I will step over some sass/silver mapo/boxelder/aspen/etc to get to some hickory. My now gone Friend was expected to start taking some of the less dense stuff. We didn't quite make it there, but had started. I will always have without knocking them over myself, enough wood down on the property for my heat and some leftover. Certain years that's all there will be of 'the good stuff'. If you go back to early part of this thread you'll see a 'boon' year where I had a couple dozen mature trees go down in storms that I could mostly get to. This year is an 'up' year also but not on the order of 2022/3. The wood I'll make just from the multi stemmed Honey locust and Bitternut will replace a good amount I will burn this year...at least 1/2 anyways in my estimate if I can get it all. Have a broken off still attached red oak (minus top) and another whole bitternut over across the crick yet, both of which are on/close to my trail there. Have a beech down on a trail up out of the crick that I keep forgetting about. Unknown what lies between there and the top of the hill yet. I think there is a sugar maple down in the crick (little one..8-10"). Those are the known targets up to now. Composition of my woods is actually fairly good, so when something goes down it's usually at least 50/50 that it'll be something I want if not better odds. blah blah blah....given more time I would likely end up processing the less dense stuff I can get. Mostly to sell. My stand customers don't know it yet, but rather than raise my price, they will be getting slightly less dense wood than has been available in the past. It's a drying time thing and I'm gonna bet hard on red mapo to keep the stand stocked for next couple years. Right now the lowest BTU wood they are buying is sugar maple because the stock was all pulled out of my regular wood making for home. They been getting 3 year + dried oak and hickory...they don't know how spoiled they are for $5! lol
Took a little walk on break...noticed something. No smell of smoke from wildfires! Been a while. That's all.
Been trying to take advantage of this nice weather after work. Done some weedeating last night and finished bucking. HL was feeling pretty hard through the cuts. Tight grained.
That's some terrible looking wood... We need that in Goat Town to dispose of it properly...it needs to be cremated...
I'm sure you would, my friend. Thanks for the offer...... A friend of ours up the road has a clump of HL...said we might could cut them down...just haven't decided to tackle the thorns yet...
Been pretty happy with this stuff. Got a 6 pack pretty cheap some time back. Back into the honey locust Saturday. Most of the tops are now pulled from the neighbor's back yard. Still brushing to do yet. Swampin. Rode back into the creek to go checkout the known sugar maple and look at the downed beech... Uh oh... Sigh. I know you all think this is a boon. I got two normally usable trails under there. Already got as much wood as I can get after, so this is sortof a pain. It all started up there somewhere. This isn't wind damage. One tree up the hill dominoed the rest. Tried to work around the rain a little yesterday. Not much done other than prepping some wood. Log Edit. I think the images are self explainatory. I see this round heartwood often in HL Only one I've found so far inside. This tree didn't have many thorns at all. Pretty wood.
Lots of work ahead. Being right on the trail makes it easier hopefully. You take your log editing very seriously. I like that term and use it often now. HL is some pretty wood. Glad it didn't have the thorns.
One of the benefits of measure and mark. Allows me to best use the straight grains and fight less knotty wood. If you just went down in normal increments you'd end up with a bunch of ugly splits. I'll 'lose' one round, but gain straight grains. I don't have a great place to yard all those trees that are down. Being in the crick means everywhere else is 'up'. I'm not gonna get in a tizzy over it. Will continue working the HL then move to the hickory. It's laying in a spot I normally mow. I gotta figure out where I can orient more rows. The space I'm clearing soon is taken by the stacks uppina woods that will be brought down...because I got more up there to make and dwindling room to stack. I know...what a problem to have.
Im already picky with what ill take and wont take in terms of yielding pretty splits. Current cut I'm working has a few yard trees. Lots of limb wood. Ill try to edit where I can. Mostly its cutting the limb flush with the trunk and carefully splitting hoping I get a decent split.
I usually try to split right down the middle of a branch. Used to try to peel off the 'back side' but down the middle seems to work better overall. Usually can split the knot off both sides leaving some nice straight wood, depending how deep/large the knot is. Hitting it down the middle will allow a peek and whether or not there is any 'good' wood. The hickory I'm starting on soon has a bunch of wonky branch wood. The SBH I got last weekend has a ton of 'warts' on it.
I have a huge Norway maple log at the other cut I'm working. Several cut off limb knots and "knuckles as I call them. Ill edit that the best I can. Primo splits for bundle inventory, lesser quality for general cordage. Speaking of bundles, how is your wood stand faring?
