Amen brother! I ride as much as I can. The bike does nothing for wood hauling though. The best I can muster with the bike is riding out to split wood I've already brought to my staging area, aka my buddy's house. I hate bugs, and sweating. Yes, winter has short days, but I enjoy cutting in winter. Hauling logs in snow is a lot of fun.
With respect to comfort when processing wood, when the ground is frozen but not Arctic cold is best. There's minimal damage to my yard and its comfortable to work without sweating up bullets. As for when the wood processing actually happens here, its when I can get the tree guys to give me wood. Which sometimes requires constant harping and other times they just show up. If its snowy I can sit on a pile a few weeks, no problem. If its July it can really suck. As for the the thought that winter cut wood AKA 'saps down' has less moisture in it and therefore will dry faster; I think there is very little validity to that theory. Irregardless, since wood loses the first 1/2 of its water so damm quick, there's no difference if there even is one. (And even if you discover that winter cut wood can have more water in it, its still moot).
I've been dropping trees while it's colder and the sap hasn't run. I've seen on my mm that trees right next to each other of the same species, but one dropped, not bucked before the sap flowed, and the other dropped after it warmed up enough for sap to flow showed less on the meter. It was around 10% less on the mm felled before the sap flowed. Now, does that matter? Hard to say since split wood initially loses so much MC so quickly. I'll try to track the MC of these different beech trees I've been working on. I still have yet to fell a couple of the standing dead beech.
I cut any time during the year when work is slow. As long as it's not muddy. I hate working in mud. Tears up the yard too much also
Trees cut in the spring are laden heavy with moisture/sap and because of this, heavier. If that's all you do is cut them and let them lay, so what. But if you're like everyone else and start bucking them up and carrying them around, why not wait till they aren't so heavy? Up here, it gets very humid (unbearable as my age increases) and very buggy during the summer months. When cutting during the summer, I try to do it very early (first light) when the temps are down. Fall is a better time to cut also, but anyone who loves the outdoors will tell you there is so much other stuff going on at that time of the year! Winter around here is so cold and so much snow, you would beat yourself up for wanting to cut during it! It is not a silly question at all. I guess after a few times of personal experience, you will develop your preferences of when the best time for yourself would be. Be safe.
I have noticed that since I bought a motorbike I seem to get much less done in the summer...I think I'm ok with that though.
My favorite time is late October through early December. Leaves are off the trees, sap is down, ground not really frozen yet, no mud, and days are still reasonably comfortable. I can usually do most if not all of my wood cutting and processing between Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. Spring I like to cut wood as well, but the weather is less predictable and there's usually still snow on the ground and lots of mud. This year is a different story though - no snow in my area and the ground is not frozen, so it should be a productive season for wood harvesting. I want to get a full three years ahead. I have room for 20 cords under roof and I want to fill it up.
Late September thru the winter,,usually when the fishes start biting in early spring, I'm done with the chainsaws, the ground is usually too soggy to get out to cut anymore.
Moisture content rises after the winter solstice . Longer days= the awakening,,, photosynthesis. Sugar content is much higher from the winter solstice on also. Any woods timbered from Jan to June ,,,the tops will have a tendency to rot quicker due to higher sugar content than a woods timbered in fall/early winter. We always kept this in mind signing logging contracts that required cleanup and depending on whether firewood was in demand at that time we would target maple and beech first and let the cherry ash and oak set as it had a longer "shelf life" giving us more time for cleanup or vice versa.
Tree cutting for me is best anytime the phone rings with a message that something is available. Though if given the choice any cool, dry and non-snow covered day is probably preferred by me. But then again now that I think about it, I just ain't what you'd particularly call particular at all about the weather having spent my career mainly outside and on rooftops. Any weather and any day retired and cutting wood and/or working on or with a tractor is hand over fist better than the BEST day working for the man .....!!! Don't worry you youngsters out there, you'll be retired in no time and you'll be just like me a wonderin' where the heck did all that time go. CoachSchaller, I'm with you there on the poison ivy !!!! I have to be extremely careful, especially in the spring when it seems the toxin (?) is the strongest.
I will start after we change the clocks in a week or so, longer evenings still cool for working. Drop the trees over a couple of nights etc etc........no real rush just before the sap rises fully. Buck and split in the wood load the truck and bring home to dry. I try for a truck load each evening once I get going that three loads to a cord. A cord a week soon mounts up. bob
I'm either on the bike or the boat, so yeah, I don't get much wood work done. Unless you count cleaning and oiling the teak swim platform.
Feb and March are the best. No weeds. No leaves. No bugs. Cabin fever in full swing and you need to get outside.
Today was a beautiful day to be in the woods. Snow was falling with temps in the upper twenties. I added some cherry to the stacks. Production drops in the snow, though--didn't set any speed records. Felt good to swing the x27.
I'm in kinda a different situation. We have plenty of land 100 miles from home and I have a John Deere 540 I keep rented out there. I go for a weekend sometime during winter when the ground is frozen and cut 8-10 cord for me and enough for the in laws. It sits in a field until the next fall when I get someone with a self loader coming this way empty and have them haul it to my house. I get it processed in the fall and under cover at home and start the process again. The occasional stuff around home I do about anytime of year but come 60 degrees I start slowing and concentrate on beer not wood.
