Got out this morning to finish up that red maple I had started to work on the other day. Barely got in the woods and my trailer decided to finally give up the ghost. I got 11+ years of hard work out of that trailer so not complaining, just glad I wasn't going down a hill with a full load when it happened. Borrowing a buddy's trailer now until I get a new one (I'll fix up the old trailer and use it for limited work but it's definitely on its last legs). Finished up the red maple and while I was there, scrounged a couple small fresh birch blowdowns and a small standing dead red maple. I've got a couple beech blowdowns to tackle next; the bases where they snapped are questionable, however I will at least get some good upper trunk and limb wood off of them.
Things never break when close to the house. I hope it wasn’t an ordeal getting it back. Zip the bark along the birch logs before cutting to length. Easier to do on longer pieces, to let moisture out and head off it becoming punky. Nice looking wood!
The trailer is sitting at the trail entrance (on private property). I'll have to go over with the truck and utility trailer at some point to bring it home. Thanks for reminding me about the birch bark. Both of the birch blowdowns I grabbed today were green and with a base diameter of only around 6-7 inches. I have never had a problem with the smaller green ones going bad while sitting in the rounds/log pile so I did not unzip them. As you suggested though, I do unzip the bark on the larger birch rounds (like the ones below). Looking at my map, I have eleven more hardwood blowdowns/standing dead marked out and several standing dead hemlocks. Been a lot of fun to be back in the woods over the last few weeks.
Heard your voice in the back of my head this afternoon Mike when I took down this standing dead white birch. I was getting ready to buck it when I remembered what we had just discussed yesterday. Definitely easier to unzip the bark when in log form rather than doing each individual round (some of the bark was already coming off between the time of bucking the rounds and loading them in the trailer). I didn't know what the quality of the wood would be until I dropped it (standing dead birch is always dicey) however this tree was in good condition and didn't even break when felled. 16" at the base so a decent amount of wood for a fairly easy scrounge.
Finally grabbed those two beech blowdowns. The bottom of the trunks were shot however there was a lot of decent upper trunk and limb wood. Spotted a standing dead beech and ash while I was out so added those to the future scrounge list.
I had to make a list this year because the trees up for scrounging are spread out over the acreage and I couldn't remember where they all were. And they get a lot tougher to spot once the leaves come in. Last month I found a standing dead birch I had flagged a couple years ago but forgot about and unfortunately it's too punky now. Scrounging with the ATV is more of slow and steady approach (as opposed to scrounging with the truck) however the rounds pile is starting to add up. About 2/3 of this stack is 4' in depth with the rest being 32" deep. I have two other piles of wood to CSS as well. Not done with my Spring scrounging but will have to start splitting soon.
Beech is definitely my firewood of choice. This evening I took a drive up a forest service road that just opened a few days ago and someone was nice enough to leave me a present right on the side of the road (either the forest service or the snowmobile club cut up a blowdown blocking the road). I didn't even have a chainsaw with me (sacrilege, I know). Grabbed the pieces that would fit in the truck and will go back tomorrow for the rest. Spotted a few more beech blowdowns along the road (none as easy as this) so will be adding to my beech stockpile through the following months.
About keeping track of trees you might get, taking pictures and keeping them on your computer helps out.
Well, based on recommendations from other forum members in an older post, I ended up getting a Polar HD1500TA trailer with the side rails to replace my old Agri-Fab. A little wider footprint than I wanted, but it'll work. Thanks to Horkn, SloMoJoe, JRHAWK9, Joe P and System for the reviews/recommendations in that post. (1) Good firewood trailer for ATV or UTV | Page 2 | Firewood Hoarders Club
Hey EODMsgt, what trailer is that? Looks like one I can get on Amazon up here in Canada We can’t get yutrax or polar trailers.
It's the Polar Heavy Duty 1500 tandem axle. I did get the side rails as well as shown in the picture below (not my pic).
Thanks. I meant the one with the steel mesh sides and yellow railings. Unfortunately can’t get Polar up here.
