I put the Kubota to use cleaning up and regrading this part of the firewood stack area. Forget to take a before picture but it was quite a mess. Since this area this is a natural drainage spot, it gets pretty mucky as you can see. I'm planning to do asphalt millings over geotextile to keep the water, mud and weeds down.
We're having a real nice stretch of weather. I pulled the dock off the river today for the winter. Hard to think about winter at 70*.
Hey folks.. been a bit MIA for a while.. but always pray for the best for the FHC family. So.. as Chazsbetterhalf made apparent.. I've been working on piping the second well to the house, as our well went dry for the first time in the 10 yrs we've lived here. I've put the baby tractor through its paces.. and possibly beyond.. in the past few days. But.. the ditch is finally complete. The ground is extremely rocky, which slows down progress.. And then there are some that nearly bring the project to a halt.. Project still requires a few more hours of digging, then plumbing everything together. Of course, any project worth doing doesn't come without additional work.. solved that today by digging up our grey water line from the washing machine. So far I have about 14 hrs into the trenching, and around $600 in materials.. but the company I contacted wanted $2400 to do the job. I'm sure they'd have had it done quicker.. sometime mid to late November. Just figured I'd throw out an update. Be well all.
I took my tractor out to fell a recently deceased chestnut oak today. MS461 for felling and MS361 for backup. Then lots of PPE and my ever handy rope and come-along setup. Dandy tree gave me 3 logs, two @ 12'and one @ 8'. The twelve footers are very straight and clean and should make excellent lumber. The top 8' log will probably wind up as firewood. The tractor skidded them all out with zero complaints. At this pace, I'm gonna have a dandy whack of logs when the sawyer gets here.
Some nice logs there mike bayerl I hope you have some projects lined up for the lumber. Thx eatonpcat Yeah, I really do need to check in more often. Just been "less than" positive for a bit, and see no reason to bring negativity to the forum. I'll get straightened out soon. Thx brother
No projects lined up. I just can't see these prime trees die and rot without utilizing them for lumber and firewood. I'm currently sitting on a couple thousand bf of lumber here, even after selling about 2K bf last year. So, if anyone wants custom milled oak lumber, maybe flooring or for furniture, etc., then send me a dm. I'm happy to sell small or large amounts at a very favorable price. I can supply it green or kiln dried. I also know a local custom millwork shop that can make tongue-and-groove flooring. They did over 1000 sq-ft of flooring for my house and it came out awesome.
Looks great Chaz. The baby tractor is earning it’s keep for sure! I’d need a big excavator to do that here in glacial boulder country. There are plenty around here bigger than my L2501. Digging anywhere is a nightmare and why I didn’t bother with a backhoe.
Thx Maina Fortunately that's the largest I came across. Had to manually bust up a couple others, but no way I could've busted that one up. Will do Canadian border VT Some days all you can do is grin & bear it. Life's that way sometimes.
Kubota got a little workout today skidding more chestnut oak logs. Today's tree gave up a 17' log that went from 28-21" o.d. and an 8' log that was 21-18" o.d. The tractor skidded both logs, up hill, no problem. The log pile for the sawyer continues to grow, not to mention all the firewood out in the woods ready to C/S/S.
We dont have any chestnut oaks on my place. Whats the wood look like? Thats awesome you got that much log.
Cut down a tulip poplar for saw logs this weekend. It was about 25-30" on the butt end. Tree was 113' tall. I got two 12 foot logs and three 8 foot logs out of it. I actually hung the tree up and had to get out the winch and the snatch block to pull it down, hence the trench next to the stump.
We have lots of chestnut oaks, but many of them are dead or dying around here. They are a species of white oak. It looks similar to typical white oak, but maybe a little darker brown. Also, it's not quite as rot resistant as typical white oak, more similar to red oak in that regard. It can be spectacular when quartersawn.
Oh wow! That looks great, i would be cutting up every piece of that i could find. From the pics it looks very similar to the white oak around here, but bark is completely different.
Yeah and it dries quick too. The first two logs i cut up, i got 15"x15" cants. For now, i just cut boards 1 9/16" x 15" and will re-saw them after they dry some to 2x4 and 2x6. I am building a "office" in my backyard due to working from home so much. I am working out of my bedroom right now and with a 6 month old at home, its not working great.
I've totally used poplar as a substitute for standard softwood framing lumber and for siding for several of my sheep shelters. It is very similar if not stronger.
