I thought I would share with you guys and gals some of my pictures of what Ive been harvesting in the bush over the last few weeks. Sorry I didnt think to include any scenery in my shots. This was from a few weeks back. This lodgepole died at least 2-3 years ago from the pine beetle and fell over early spring. Its a good thing the beetle isnt killing to many of our lodgepole anymore but its getting harder to find standing dead ones. I had to noodle a bunch of the bigger rounds since they exceeded the weight I like to lift. My truck before I took out my tail pipe. Theres no mistaking a beetle kill pine! I should have been more careful........ I didnt need this anyways!
This was a green fir I noticed from last year that was laying just out of sight. I figured I better get it soon so it has time to dry and also I didnt want to miss out in case others noticed it as well. It was pretty heavy but I had my kids along for some help. Ive touched out their faces as we have a rule in our house, none of us will post pictures of each others faces on the net without permission.
And then there was Friday night with some nice dry standing dead larch. These were up a slope from the road so I had to do some tossing to get the rounds to the road. I underestimated how far the truck was so I was extra beat when I was done. Its primo wood but I didnt get as much of a truck load as I would have liked. Thats ok though as we all know it isnt safe to work when you are dragging. The first picture isnt very good exposure but it shows the snapped off larch trees I dropped. The tall one is just in the shade center picture.
Thats the good stuff right there. Is there another fuel source that requires adventures in the wilderness to procure? Nice work! One thing - I like to cut the rounds first, and then noodle them. That way the bar tip can clear the other side and it won't "beaver tail" in the cut. [EDIT] Nice muffler mod too!
Looks like my wood, if you add a little Aspen in the mix. I still have a few dying lodgepoles, hopefully the beetle kill will be over before they are gone.
It's the blue staining. It's not actually the beetle that kill them, it's that fungus that gets in the wounds.
Thanks for the tip, Ill put it to use next time, this was the first year I tried it. Its interesting that after all these years Im still learning new things and that technique never occurred to me. I used to just leave the big stuff.
There is very little active pine beetle in our area these days. I saw a few reds last summer and its to early to tell yet for this year but nothing like the devastation of 4-5 years ago. I remember being told by forestry 17 years ago that we wouldnt have any lodgpole left. Something happened a few years back and it wasnt 40 below that did it. Forestry thinks it could be a number of things, disease in the bug, cool wet weather when they were taking flight. They certainly didnt run out of food.
as well when the eggs hatch the larvae mine the area right under the bark that ends up cutting off the trees ability to carry nutrients up the trunk. Makes for some mighty dry trees when they are still standing! Jeffrey Svoboda theres some very pretty furniture that has the blue in it. I remember contacting a company years ago that started incorporating it into furniture and gave them praise. It was nice to see something good come out of something so nasty.
