Things have settled down after work, holidays, weather, and work all jacked up by holidays and weather. I was able to get something done today. It took about a half hour of blasting thru the crap to get a trail cut. All the snow had thawed, and the froze again, and it was wet underneath. Ended up cutting and hauling for about three hours. Not much of a tree, but nice hinge It hurt, but I cut this small honey locust. It was split about 15' up. They are really starting to take over for the dead ash and elm, and I really hated to cut it. There are quite a few approaching 12" DBH, and I was able to leave the other shoot off the same stump untouched, so maybe it won't be missed. It didn't hurt literally, as it had pretty much swallowed its thorns. Unlike a nearby sibling
Nasty looking spikes on that tree. You're serious when you said it "It hurt, but I cut this small honey locust." Ouch!!
The bigger dead one is white ash. The three small ones are elm. Never burned any locust before. I'm pretty sure that tree will fit in one load, but it will be a good one, in a couple years.
The cold weather has frozen the stream that runs thru our property to the point that I feel comfortable working on it. This gives me access to a lot of dead trees that I otherwise have only been able to wish I could cut. It isn't very deep, and usually freezes, but it is solid, except for the edges in spots. My day ended when I went thru halfway up to my knee (read: over the top of my boot ) Got a couple of good piles to truck up to the house tomorrow.
The bottom 10' or so can be kinda wet, and some is getting punky, but a lot of it is ~15%. It'll be really nice next winter. Cutting on ice does present some special concerns, but I don't have to worry about dirt
Jeff, when I looked at that first picture I thought you had robbed one of mine! Your little accident reminded me of one time we were heading back to make maple syrup. It had warmed but the old man said all was well. Just drive across. Whoops. Tractor broke through the ice. That was a nasty job getting it out then having to tear down the motor because it had set in the creek water. That was the end of crossing the creek that year.
I can't hardly walk through the snow here, I have no interest in trying to cut anything in it. I have a bunch of dead pines I need to clean up and take down, they will probably have to wait for some melt off to happen.
Ya, I have about 4' of snow in my back yard. Wide open field to the west is almost bare, becuase I have it all. I have been keeping my path to the woods blown open, so it isn't too bad. Gotta cut something, I'm feeling way behind.
I cross a shallow brook when driving from the house to the woods. Two weeks ago I drove out on of of those too-cold days and was pleased to see I didn't break through the ice when I crossed. I looked back over my shoulder and noticed a black cap sitting on the ice - took a second to realize I had not replaced the fuel cap and it finally fell off from the jostling of the crossing. Last weekend I was able to cross on the ice again all weekend, even though it got up close to 40 on Sunday. I am behind, with only about a third of the wood I need down on the landing. The coming weekend looks good, although a bit cooler than what they were expecting a couple of days ago. About 7" of snow from this last storm, on top of 5" of hard, dense crust, so still relatively good going, but that could change by Monday.
