Been doing well good sir. Cold seemed to hold on this year and I burnt a good amount through the stove. Now it has been a bit warm but wet. I finished splitting and stacking about the 1st of May.
That's good to hear. Everyone in this area was sick of the colder/rainy weather since our summer is so short. I'm behind on the stacking because we took down a good size white pine that would've took out anything that was stacked in that area. I was hoping all the ash was stacked by the end of June.
This ash was one of the ones I felled across the gully and then pulled out with the 4540, this was the top half, I had the forks on the tractor so once I cleaned most of the dirt off the bottom I lifted it up and then bucked it up.
That ash is still nice looking. Get all you can! Good to see you back on the forum. It's been a long time.
I never wanted to fell the ash but that nasty little bug is in our county so it's time. When the company who clears under or around the powerlines came and said they were dropping any ash near the powerlines, that also got my arse in gear. Yes, I think maybe October was the last time. How has your family been? If you can please convo me your phone number, when we bought new phones and ditch the old ones, I never put your number on paper. The bigger ash are up the hill so come this fall, we'll drop one cherry that's in the middle of the gully so we can get the tractor in there to help out after felling more ash. I'm thinking we'll get 10 face cord out of all the ash I cut starting last fall and I'm hoping for another 10 this fall which will fill our stacking areas.
After supper the wife was telling me she would like two more benches made, years back I milled a Hemlock in half and that's out front. I think there's enough of this Ash left that I can do the same.
You'll have to start the conversation because you have your end blocked so nobody can send you one. We got through the winter okay and still fighting with spring. Not only me wondering but Judy keeps asking about you and your lovely wife. As stated, glad to have you back on the forum. We are just about at the end of our ash trees. A sad day for sure when the last one is cut. However, we do still have a few live ones or at least they were alive last fall. I have not checked them yet this spring.
I took the splitter back down through the gully to start splitting the ash rounds, after being there about 10 minutes a wind gust came through that had me second guessing my decision. At the moment I only have one way in and out so I unhooked the splitter, turned the rhino around and hooked back up and got out. In the attached picture is the area I was in but to the right of the rounds. Backwoods Savage , it should work now. We never had an ice storm but we had lots of ice which made things tough along with the cold coming in early in September with it still here. I went through the pics from your GTG, the boss is still wearing shorts and you had another great turnout.
The winds have calmed down some but it's raining pretty hard again, the spring of 2017 was just like the one we're having this year.
Just before supper you could see the sun coming out and the big guy stopped the rain so after eating I did some splitting of more ash rounds. Pics 9203 & 05 are the rounds left to split in the gully and pic 9204 is everything I split tonight.
Good to have you back. I am looking forward to your outside burning pit being fired up. I really like the looks of your woods. So much clearer than ours.
I still have some ash logs that will need to be bucked up along with some rounds on the ridge that will need splitting.
His woods is very nice especially where the brook runs through. Not much level ground in the woods and some really nice hills. I could have lots of fun playing on an atv or snowmobile! It's been a couple years since my wife and I visited but we do want to return some day.
Yes, the gtg was wild with that many people. We got through it in good shape though and made many new friends.
It looked like everyone did a ton of work and enjoyed themselves. I made a new friend today too, is this EAB? I pulled it out of a hole from an ash split today.
Here are some pictures of the splitting I did this morning of the ash rounds. Pic 9206 are the rounds I had left that went onto the pile from yesterday, pic 9208. Pic 9209 is after I cleaned up more of the gully and pics 9211 & 19 are a new pile of splits from a smaller tree.
I'm not sure how much we'll use it, with all the rain we received we're due for a long dry stretch. It was a long winter with lots of ice here but we made it through without falling. The tractor moved a bunch of snow this past winter, you have to shift it but's been a workhorse, we plan on putting the backhoe on tomorrow. How is everything going out west?
Welcome back thewoodlands , really great to see your pictures & property! Looks like you'll have some excellent firewood in the future. I seem to remember you burning Cherry for about one full Winter, now it'll be Ash. Backwoods Savage get together was truly one for the books. We had a great time!
It has been a busy winter. Weather wise it has been dry and sunny. Very unusual for us. Even now there isn't much rain compared to a normal year. I have a feeling summer will be hot with wildfires burning everywhere.
Not sure that is the ash borer. Looks close though. I don't remember when they change but they surely look different then. I've not found many live ones but have found a few. Regardless what they look like, just keep on killing them!
