Pine clearing for the new garage build

Yeah, ideally (with bigger machinery) I like to push the tree over on the stump in one shot.
But yes, cut them as high off the ground as you feel you can safely. Leverage is a wonderful thing.

 

We hit 50 today with some heavy rain that lasted for about five minutes.

 

I had a few things that I did inside the house this morning and then we put in half a load of firewood. We received about 2 to 3 inches of snow so I back dragged the driveway.

After I was done with the driveway I put on the forks so I could get some of the ash branches along with the pine branches cleaned up before felling another pine.
Picture 1330 & 31 are logs from a pine we felled about three or four days ago we'll use for milling, picture 1333 is the pine we felled today,1335 are some pine branches headed to a holding area until we chip it, 1336 are some smaller pine branches I'll split for kindling, 1337 is a small dead pine the wife informed me about that was down across the trail and the last picture should be the two pine that will come down tomorrow. Number 1 will go to the right and number two will be felled straight out and then the cleanup will begin.

 

Especially if you don't have a hand full of 12-15 year old son's running around the house!

 

Big project you have going woody! I hope the weather cooperates for your early May start date. It’s just beginning to get better here finally.

 

We had an early snow cover, so when the prolonged deep cold came for a few weeks, the ground didn't get frost in it. Only plowed or uncovered area got frost in them.
Good to see those pines come down. I don't trust any of them. Esp. ones that are newly exposed. Only those that grew without the support of others have any strength to them.
I am looking forward to seeing the pictures of your build. thanks

 

They're a huge help Well Seasoned , they will really come in handy when I start milling again so I can get the log up higher off the ground.

 

It keeps on snowing almost everyday Maina but the biggest trees should be down by Tuesday. The area the garage is going has been done for about a week so we're doing the backside and west of the garage next.

The crazy thing about having all this pine is I'll need to clear more pine so we'll have a stacking area for all of it!

 

I think that it was last Friday that I could only drive the scrench in the ground about two inches but I'm sure that has changed.

 

We felled two trees with the first cleaned up, we decided that we would run into town today instead of tomorrow morning so I'll take care of the second tree in the morning.

After I take care of the second tree we'll fell another pine tomorrow. I did move the utility trailer out of the woods so we would have more room for pine logs.

We'll either have a guy come in with a big chipper or rent one so we can use the chips on the trails.

 

I took the logs from yesterday to the firewood pile and two over to the milling pile but before that I took three loads of branches to our holding area for branches until we chip them.

We felled the tree with a cable attached ( in pic 1351) and then I limbed it up so I can move the logs to the bucking pile.

We had 28 for a low with another 1.5 inches of snow overnight.

 

Today was a day off before we fell the last trees, about the only thing that I did was check for frost and it's still holding strong in certain areas where I'll be removing stumps. Hopefully with the trees out of the very front which will let more sun in and with the warmer temps the frost will be gone by Friday.

I think we have about ten more trees that will be felled but all are outside the area the garage will go. We're taking them down because they could hit the garage if the wind took them down.

 

Better to be safe than sorry.

I left three medium hemlocks about20" away form the garage. They are doing well, but I also keep an eye on them for any signs of stress in case they start declining. I have room to drop them away from the garage if needed; decided to keep them since they are an evergreen and the only hemlock I have on the property.

 

I move the pine logs to the pine pile from the tree we felled a couple of days ago and then cleaned up some pine branches.

After doing the above we decided to fell three trees to the east of where the garage will be, I limbed them up and called it a day. I'll move the logs tomorrow morning before we clean the area up again before we fell another five trees to the west of where the garage will be which will leave us with 3 or 4 more before the job is done.

In picture 1359 you can see the trees we felled later this afternoon.

 

We're pretty sure that we'll chip everything with a big chipper, we're just waiting for some snow to melt so we have room on the north side of the driveway. We'll use the chips on the trails.

 

Same old chit just a different day, I moved the logs from yesterday and took some pine branches to the pile and then we felled two more trees in picture 1363 and took the logs to a new pile.

In picture 1364 there's about 3 to 4 trees that will come down tomorrow (bad picture but a great day) the tree behind the pine branches in picture 1365 & 66 we want down before we start digging the stumps and the last tree to come down (I hope) will be the pine behind the stacks in picture 1367.

 

Looking green and dry at your place thewoodlands . Around our house and the fields are coming a long but still some snow and pretty wet in our woods. Beauty day yesterday to work up the garden in a t-shirt

 

It's about to get wet around here which we need, AccuWeather is calling for around an inch of rain Wednesday & Thursday.

Today I spent time cleaning up the area, in pictures 1369 & 70 you can see we still have ice underneath the chips. The last thing we did was fell three smaller trees that were to the west of the garage, all were limbed up and two were removed along with the branches.

Tomorrow will be a wet one but I'll be out cleaning up the area so we can get ready for the last 4 or 5 trees that we plan on felling.