I got off work at lunchtime today. Had some stuff I needed to do. This being foremost. I'm on top of around 3 feet. Almost 1 meter of settled snow. These were small enough and close enough to the road . That I figured it would be a good place to start pecking away at it. We jumbled up our tasks. My wife was the skidder operator ;-) . I was the chockers setter. There are some tricks to cutting on snowshoes. Plan out your moves. Think before you step. It was a lot funner having her there than doing it alone. Not much for real volume. But, a lot more than we had this morning. This area flooded a few years ago. So it's kind of a continuous supply of dry wood about every 2 winters . Get about 1-1.5 cord each winter I cut here.
Thats great! I looked at these pictures in the other thread you posted in and was surprised to see you standing so high up in the snow. It made me think you didnt have much snow on the ground but the snow shoes shed light on that. We have about the same amount of snow around here. I was out showing a house the other day and had a hard time walking around the property. Maybe I should have worn snow shoes! Glad you got into some wood!
Without the snowshoes, this would have been really un fun. With them It was fine. I've fell Lots of timber on snowshoes so it's pretty normal for me. I would VERY MUCH like a pair of modern decked shoes that was built more for our dry Interior snow. Meaning, the section from the ball of the foot to the tip of the snowshoe being 2.5 times longer than the normal aluminum framed ( mountaineering) snowshoes. A person has to be careful of ( noseing over) tips sinking much deeper in the snow than the heel. I have a pair of 11x56 Objibwe ash framed neoprene nylon laced shoes that are Very good . but, I don't want to tear them up doing firewood.
I have an old pair of Michigan style shoes I bought new probably 30 years ago. I used to hunt in them a lot, but I never cut wood with them.
I'm just jealous of all of you with snow. Winter croaked here back in January, I've been out cutting and splitting in a tee shirt, and I hate it ! I'm still carrying my cross country skis in the car, just in case ... You'd think I just bought a snowblower or something
Snowshoes are a great way to get around in the woods on snow in winter. But, if you have a need to quickly shuffle your feet to avoid anything, there's a good chance you'll be laying in the snow. Not exactly the best things to have on if finesse is required. That said, I've done my share of snowshoe wood cutting, while winter backwoods cramping over the years. Wouldn't be without them. Sent from my SM-T280 using Tapatalk
No snow here... As Katie quipped yesterday, "This winter sucks. There is ice everywhere, yet when you fall down, you get covered in mud." Our door yard goes ice...mud...ice...mud...ice...mud; every 4 inches. Its these fingerling like tentacles of ice and mud. It is the strangest thing. The loggers cutting my wood off took the whole week off because even at night it is 40 degrees here. Kind of sad because I know my town leaders and they did me a favor and never posted the roads so I can get my wood out.
It was 70 yesterday, I took my rowbike over to the salem, NH rail trail. I couldn't believe it, with all of the bare ground around here, the trail is still covered in ice right before the 111 bridge. Luckily the end past walmart is bare.
I was in the White Mtns of NH this past weekend camping in a cabin. When not snowshoe hiking, we were sitting outside in the sun. Even at the top of Mt Washington, it was above freezing. Go figure Sent from my SM-T280 using Tapatalk
Our Scout troop is supposed to be camping in the southern Adirondacks in a couple of weeks. Looks like we'll need to bring summer gear rather than winter gear.
I would not count on that just yet... My birthday is on May 8th, and many years it seemed like the boys would bust sod on this farm before my birthday; early spring, warm weather, etc...then.... Well in my 43 years of life, it has never happened yet. They bust sod during my birthday week.
My hat's off to you. I have done some snowshoeing, and have cut a lot of wood in my life, but never the 2 at once!
It's not a practice for the uninitiated. You pretty much HAVE to know what is going to happen before you stick a saw into a tree. And especially when on snowshoes. However. It's better than not having them if you are cutting in deepish snow. You want your escape trail all broke in and your shoes lined up with the trail before you turn anything loose.
Is that an early start on next year’s firewood or are you out and in dire need for some this winter?
It is even worse for wedding dresses... (This was something we did called Trash the Dress, which is the latest thing many brides do with their wedding dress. Rather than keep it in a closet where it yellows and gets moth eaten, they wear it one last time as pictures are taken. It can be in the ocean, in an old factory, or in our case; into the mud! We had just cleared 12 acres and got lots of rain so into the mud we went, and yes I got into the act myself. It was a lot of fun and included bulldozers, tractors and Katie getting REALLY muddy).
