Spent the day out in the Walnut planting area getting rid of invasive species. Went through 6 tanks of gas on the 250 and 1 tank on the 391. There is a ton of Honeysuckle, Hawthorn, and Crabapple in that area. I'm piling it all up to make "nature piles". I'm saving anything over 4" for firewood and a couple larger trunks to put on the sawmill. There were a couple nice Honey Locust crotches that will make nice coffee tables and benches. I even saved a small one to make a tea serving tray for the wife. Should get some nice grain patterns out of those. Also dropped close to a dozen standing dead Ash and HL for firewood in the 8" to 14" DBH range and a couple HL in the 18" to 20" range. I'll sleep good tonight and will do it all again tomorrow. Hoping to drag all those trunks out to the pasture tomorrow for processing later. I got snowed on most of the day but not very hard and the ground was warm enough so nothing was sticking. Overall a pretty nice day to be in the woods. There are a lot of Crabapple and Hawthorn that are nice single split firewood size. Lots of smaller apple trunks laying in the background that are worth saving for cooking fires and some firewood. Whenever possible, I try to drop them so the tops land on the "nature piles" so when I limb them the movement is kept to a minimum. I dropped six Ash trees on the pile at the left in the background. Makes limbing them go pretty quick. There were a couple larger HL here that I couldn't drop on piles because I wanted to avoid hitting some native trees I want left in the Walnut stand. I had to thread the needle with these and they dropped right where I needed them to go. This 20 incher had a pretty good back lean and I was able to persuade it over with wedges and a 1-1/2" hinge. I had double wedges into the hilt before it finally came over. I'm thinking this crotch may make a couple nice coffee tables. My sister is wanting a nice outdoor bench(s) and I should be able to get a slab or two for that as well. There had been a ton of vines in this one that had been cut over the last few years but I double checked and cut them again to make sure there was nothing connected. I don't need any surprises getting yanked from behind when it goes over. Safety first. Darn, I never took a picture of the truck...
They come in pretty handy, these 2" ratchets work great too, no more fumbling with straps and hooks when loading up the rack.
We had a great day yesterday, and will be back at it again today. Sorry for the lack of details. There will be a thread to come this week with the wrap up and plenty more firewood porn!
Got a load of Tulip Poplar for the SS burns yesterday...went back and got this load of Beech too...probably go back for a load of Pig Nut Hickory next week.
More Taco abuse with white oak. How many times can you see this truck overloaded?!? You probably don't wanna buy a used truck from me!
Got another load before the shut down Forklift operator said you really want all that and you need a bigger truck I said when it runs off the sides we’re done.
