I am new to the club and am enjoying reading the posts of others. I would be interested in hearing some of your noteworthy wood cutting stories. One of mine goes as follows. Three years ago mid summer one of my co-workers who has quite a bit of land asked me if I wanted a big oak that had blown over on his property. He wanted it removed right quick so he could mow a pasture. This wood was an hour away, but I never turn away a good oak. I scavenge for wood; no acreage of timber that is my own. So, I hooked up the trailer to my Rubicon and headed to his home early in the morning on a hot, hot Saturday. When I got to his home and looked over the tree, I noticed the biggest 3rd of the tree was laying in poison ivy. So, what is a wood hoarder to do? Hmmmm. Decided this situation wasn't going to get the best of me; who wants to leave 24-30 inch oak laying somewhere to rot. So I begin throwing scraps of wood and bark onto the poison ivy to flatten it out on either side of the log. Wearing gloves and being as careful as I could I cut the tree up, including the big part of the trunk in the ivy. Ok, not to drag this story out longer, I ended up with a nice 1.5 cord stack of logs behind my home ready for splitting at some future date. I was elated. My elation was short lived after contracting a good old fashioned case of poison ivy all over my arms a few days later; lasted weeks. Also, the day I cut the tree it was hotter than blue blazes and got a touch of heat stroke. Being a true hoarder at heart, all I can say is bad day of wood cutting is better than a good day in the office. Next winter (2017) I will be burning that oak cut in the ivy and I am sure I will chuckle a bit every time I throw a log on the ol' fire. I will reconsider my options next time I run into this situation.
Welcome FHC Brett ...nice to have you aboard. Cool woodcutting story with the oak and poison ivy being kept at bay. which saw did you use to take that red oak?
You might be a little with that firewood stuff... Just kidding - you could have probably covered that oak with scorpions and I'd still be all over it. Great story. I accidentally started a 3' maple stump on fire one time. I was cleaning up my yard and I had a really nice brush fire going nearby - not huge but it had a great bed of coals and it was consuming the branches just as fast as I could drag them over there. After a while I saw some smoke coming from the stump, and despite my efforts to douse it with several 5 gallon buckets of water, flames started to appear on the side closest to the fire. There was still a good amount of wood left in that stump, and I was afraid it might get a little out of control. So I got out the MS460 and sawed a couple rounds off of it to take away some of the fuel. That was fun - had sparks and flames shooting out of the other side of the cut... I saved those half burnt rounds too - they're my "milling stumps". Most saw logs that I bring up to the house get set on them for slicing with my Alaskan mill. Your story reminds me of the time my neighbor offered me a nice piece of ash. Only problem was, I might develop a slight rash afterwards... But I wasn't worried. I call this technique, stop, scrape, and roll.
Great stories and pictures. Almost made me start itching looking at the ash tree! Nice job getting it extricated from the vines.
Just be careful you don't have any hangers-ons of the ivy on your logs. I've heard the hairy root parts have as much or more of the poison stuff and even the residual oils left on the bark after pulling the vines off can lead to a rash. And burning it in doors, even with a good draft? I get poison ivy rash just looking at it so I tend to leave those infested trees alone. But I do have a leftover Prednizone pack in my medicine cabinet just in case!
Really like the 441. I know the M-Tronic has its critics but I couldn't be happier with the saw. Very smooth running and decent on gas.
Mine will have seasoned for 4 years before burning. I think the oils deteriorate after 1-5 years so with being exposed to the outdoors for as long as this wood has been, I think I will be ok. I only stack two logs wide so my wood gets a good pounding by the elements. I also keep Prednisone around.
Not really a cutting tale, but a couple years ago I came out of my house after a good storm and found a 24" dia. silver maple, with the exception of about 20' of the trunk, sitting on the driveway. It had snapped off at a rotten section and came down during the night, right on a section of driveway that I always parked a vehicle. For some reason I had elected to park my car in a different part of the driveway the day before (still don't remember why) and the tree would have crushed the car flat where it landed. I had also been eyeballing the tree for some months, because it had a very heavy lean, and thought that it would make a big mess if it came down unexpectedly.
Back when I was 18, I was hired by a small farm near my parents to clean up a 60 acre woods after it had been logged. Aside from cutting some small stuff with my father, this was my first run at the hoarding game. They paid me, allowed me to use their tractor and wood wagon, and I got to take all of the wood home for my parents. It was the best score I have had to date for sure. I learned one day about loaded trees, as I cut a 1o inch maple it popped, shoved the power head into my chest and sent me flying. Aside from embarrassment I was not hurt. I bought a brand new Stihl 025 during this time, with a huge 16 inch bar. I also used my fathers McCulloch that had a 20 inch bar for the bigger trees mine could not manage. I carried rounds for several feet, and cut some hung up trees that many would never consider. Somehow I am still alive and love to cut wood. Not really a clean story, but this project was the one that started the obsession. My dad still uses that Stihl!!
The poison ivy stories reminded me of the the time I was at a buddies house hanging out and drinking some beers and he dared me to eat some green berries. Without hesitation I took a few and popped them in my mouth and washed them down with some beer. The look of horror on his face let me know something wasn't right, and he said "those were poison ivy berries, I didn't think you'd actually EAT them!!!" That was about 5 years ago, and I haven't contracted poison ivy since! I regularly cut and pull off vines like Shawn Curry posted bare handed and don't get a single rash anymore. Although to be fair, even before that I'd only get a rash about 30% of the time, and only if I was pretty much walking through a field of poison ivy in shorts and low socks.
Brett that stuff can be terrible and no doubt with such a hot day, you did not stay covered. I can picture removing gloves and pieces of clothing and that no doubt is how you got the poison. Lesson learned?! Next time take plastic garbage bag to put clothing in and also plenty of stuff for washing the body. If you can't use anything else, they have wipes you can buy that work extremely well and are very wet when you get them out. I keep some in the vehicle all the time. Only problem is they tend to dry out after a while but do last a long time. Once dried, you can put them into another container and wet them down, seal the bag shut and you'll be okay for a while again. Also having some Tecnu along will help a lot. Poison ivy can be as bad or worse than bee stings for many people and that is not funny at all. Fortunately everyone is not bothered by it. I was never bothered by it until one day I burned some. Didn't know any better as it had never bothered me. Well, it did then and it is the only time I've had it. Boy was I a mess for a few days. The worst part of it is, like most men, the bladder has to be emptied at times so where do you suppose the rash showed up first....
Brett welcome to the hoarders .. I would crawl through poison ivy for 1.5 cord of oak.. but then I am not allergic to it. I got friends that are..
Try taking a Tagamet before you delve into some more PI. At least take it after you've come in contact, and follow with a jag of Benedryl.
The poison ivy story reminded me of a fishing story, not wood cutting. I was out on a large lake fishing, with my teenage son and his friend, from a canoe. Yeh, I know but I like a canoe for fishing. We pulled into a small cove inside the marina and the boys decided they wanted to fish from the shore line. I let them out and they walked up and down along that shore casting out into the water and competing with each other on who could best hit a target area with a cast. The fishing was OK, not great, but the kids were having a blast. When they were ready to leave we got them back into the canoe and paddled over to load back onto the car and head home. The next day the world came to an end. I do not react to poison ivy and it seems that my son doesn't either, but the kid we had along is one of those who is very sensitive to it. He was a solid rash from head to foot. I did not know how to identify poison ivy at the time but the kids had been wading through some totally ignorant of what they were getting into. I actually learned what poison ivy looks like years later when I was out in my woodlot walking around and my wife informed me that no way would she be following me. It seems I was waist deep in the stuff and just not aware of it. I did take note of what it looks like so now I can spot it if I stop to think about it.
