Getting ready to drop a large Sugar Maple at the corner of the house

I dropped a dozen dead and dying trees that are in the fall zone of the big dying Maple at the corner of the house. This tree has been dying slowly for the last few years. It is leaning slightly away from the house so I'm nott to worried about dropping it, but I will use a bull rope and the truck to ensure the proper fall path. The tree does have some rot near the bottom so all precautions will be taken.


It will be dropped straight towards where this picture was taken from. The basement footer tile drains out this dircetion down the hill and there are many red pine and sugar maples that have died since we built the house. I'm assuming the extra water from the drain may have had something to do with many of these trees dying. I have cut about a dozen trees out of the fall zone so they can't domino down the hill when this big tree is cut.

These are the trees that were cut this weekend and taken down to the field to be bucked and split.


I examine every stump after I drop a tree to grade myself on how well I got the hinge placed and cuts to match up. I'm getting better and always trying to improve. Only one of the trees I took down had a back lean that required a wedge to persuade it to fall in the right direction. Here's a couple of stumps. Not perfect, but I'm happy with the outcome of getting everything down safely, PPE for sure...


Dead Red Pine


Sugar Maple that was still alive but dying. I'll cut the stumps all down so I can get the tractor through the area plus they are BTUs for the woodshed too. The live stuff will get put in the 3 year plan and the dead stuff will get checked with the moisture meter and put in the proper stacks.

A few of the trees were 14" DBH but most of them were a little smaller than that. Nice firewood easy processing size.

I like the dead red pine for making 2-3" cookies to throw in on top of a bed of coals to speed up their burn and keep the stove temp up so I can put a full load in sooner.

 

Good luck with the big maple drop. Looks like you've prepped well. You'll have a lot of nice firewood when you're all done.

 

Good luck with the felling.

 

Thanks for all the support. I have several irons in the fire and may be a week or two before I get to the actual big tree dropping... I've got to get a couple helpers over here to help me be safe... I want to get all the sticks in the field CSS and the Honeydo list is kinda bulging as well...

 

I was able to get out to CSS the dead Maple trees that I had skidded down to the field Sunday. I wanted to get the dead stuff up off the ground right away. Medium size load of wood so far, probably another medium sized load of still green Sugar Maple to be split and put in the 22-23 stacks.



I had a couple pieces of the White Oak that I had brought up from down by the creek a week ago. I split them to see what they were on the moisture meter and they are good to go.

I've got a bunch of this back by the creek that I want to get CSS in the woodshed for use this coming season. The short knarly pieces will become firewood, but the nicer pieces will get quartersawn on the mill.

 

Any chance you near Dover?

 

We're about halfway between Mansfield and Marion. About 85 miles west of Dover by car.

 

I got out after work and split a truckload of green Sugar Maple. I'll get it back in the pasture on some pallets tomorrow with the other drying stacks. Too bushed this evening to unload it. My wife has my fat arse on a fast for 5 days, this is the 3rd day. This is the hardest I've worked on an empty stomach since high school wrestling practice... I'm so hungry I could eat two of those 16" deluxe sub's from Fast Eddies down by walt 's place...



I'm pretty happy with this hinge. I gave it a haircut while bucking up the log.

 

Some real nice splits! Great job on the hinge. Picture perfect. Wish all mine looked like that. Did you gnaw on some of those fresh splits to take the edge off? High in fiber from what i hear!

 

thx... All the boss is letting have this week is water and propel electrolytes... LOL Maple is too sweet for me, I prefer White Oak or Shag... I haven't even had a this week... about Saturday I'm gonna be chanting

 

If Ms. buZZsaw did that she'd get from me!
No felling big maples on an empty stomach!

 

I got that truckload of Maple stacked over at the big barn this evening and it came out to .85 cord. That was just two smaller trees. I still haven't dropped the big one yet. I'll be gnawing on that one for a while...

 

Nice 143! Dont forget the camera when the big boy comes down.

 

I'll only post pix if it goes well... If it doesn't, I post pix of the new house...

 

At my house, there's no doing anything that requires concentration on an empty stomach/ hangry state.

 

What's in Dover?

 

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