Finally got back into the woods today and cut 5 dead standing Red Oaks. Was a bit hot but what FUN. Tried out a new synthetic wire rope to pull them out with and it worked great . Got it at Harbor Freight it's rated for 3500# and is made to replace your wire winch cable. It comes with a hook on one end and I put one on the other end to use it as a rope to pull the trees out with the tractor. I hope to buck them up in the morning and start to split and stack.
Yes but with the Harbor Freight label on it $24.99 for 3/16 x 50' makes it .49 per foot. That's almost half what the rope stores want for the same size and load rate. Think I will pick up another one next week and try it on my winch.
Yes our little home in the woods just five minute ride to town but over a mile of woods out back and to the side. Hunt,cut wood,go for a hike in the woods and never see or hear anyone else.We bought 22 acres that landlocked over 200 acres of conservation/forest land.
I also bought a 40 acre that landlocks a total of 210 acres. The other 170 acres is only accessible for agriculture using a right to trespass across my land in a 30 foot wide strip. Nobody has any rights to do anything else legally with their land. The local electrical utility has already been told I will not give them any right of way over my land. The jerk that owns the next contingent piece of land to me had told them the access was a public road. I had to correct that mis-impression and refuse to give them any right of way to serve him. This is the guy who told me early on that he could build an ostensible agricultural building on his property and just put his house inside it. The only way that bas**rd will get a building permit and electrical power will be across the farm land that I do not own to the north of him. Even then I will turn him in for building without the required road frontage, since he has none. I paid a premium for road frontage so that I could build a home and have no desire to see this guy bypass doing things as required by local rules. This is the same guy that scraped all of top soil off of his property to a depth of about 8 feet, sold it in the local market, then did repairs on the access road that we all use that he had torn up with his trucks. He then presented me and the other landowners who have a right to trespass on me with a bill to pay "our share" for the repair costs of his commercial activities. Needless to say, I was not impressed. The other landowners had told him to get me to pay "my share" and they would consider it. I am the only one with road frontage since I am the one who owns the part of the land next to the road. In the end none of them gave him a nickel to fix the damage he had done with his dirt mining.
Split and stacked the first load. Then bucked the rest and loaded it out to be split. Only thing left to do is cut up the tops and bring them out.
Is it splitting well? Red usually comes apart ok, but some of the Elm species can be so stringy and tough to split.
All I cut is dead standing Red Oak and this stuff splits nice and clean. Even the crouches usually pop with out much effort by the splitter. I think this could be because its so dry. The tops and branches in the last pic. are 3-4-5" and will not be split as they are dry enough to burn today.
