It was 63F here today so I got after it. A very productive day but I dorked around a ton. I started on a white oak and 2 small no bark elms. Got em loaded on the trailer cuz I can’t hand split white oak and elm. I split that load with my electric hydro in the shed. This is what the above load looks like split: Green white oak splits like elm, we’ve all been in this camp: Then I dropped 2 small no bark elms that had tipped over my trails. I have to cut them to clear my trails so I might as well firewood them. Then I dropped a perfectly fine shagbark hickory for a buddy who smokes meat. He told me 16 inches then he fine tunes the length at home. Sure glad I don’t have to split shag,,,,
My DNR guy wants me to “put on the forest floor any black locust you have”. It’s in my management plan so when they get some meat on them I drop em. Found this one close to a trail and he fooled me. He went about 30 degrees from where he was spose to. And hung up in a small walnut. I shut the saw down and removed my ear muffs and I heard him talking/creaking. I was about to leave when down she came. Took about 3 minutes. Gravity won, again. Got 23 nice rounds out of her and she had 28 growth rings. I will split this by hand in place. Back at it Monday if it’s still cool.
I had a pair of visitors at my monster woods pile this afternoon. It was nursing when I first spotted them. Shut the Honda off and walked up and that little bugger went flat. It was a doe fawn. I picked her up and carried her off the trail with momma not 5 yards away watching my every move. Its head was wet I think momma was licking her as it nursed.
I think it is time for me to say I am done cutting. Unless a tree falls across one of my trails. I am out of pallets so it’s a good time to stop. Today I dropped 3 dead reds and a black locust. Most of them were near my woods pile. This red had hundreds of ants in the first cut off the stump but the rest was good and solid. Small black locust for Brad! Spose to rain here tomorrow man we really need it. The national drought map says Rock County Wisconsin is in a “moderate drought”.
ole You should be getting lots of rain today. It started to rain sometime during the night and it is still raining steady.
Yeah, I got .6 inch so far but man we need some more. I hauled a bunch of red oak rounds into the shed yesterday so I could split under a roof. It’s almost cheating to split red with a hydro it splits so nice by hand.
It stopped raining here now and the rain gauge measured 1.8 inches. Low 40's which is a bit cool. Fuel oil is keeping the house warm.
Yes Red oak is usually pretty easy, but I have gotten into some that fought me hard when hand splitting. Slow growing trees that had limbs and knots every 6". Had a couple this spring that helped me decide to buy a hydraulic splitter. Good luck with getting more rain. We here in my part of PA were in same drought situation end of April, but got 5" since and more on the way.
The end of my firewood procurement program spring 2025 is nearing its end. I can see it feel it and taste it. I split the last oak and black locust that I had cut in the rain today. I have two loads of split oak in the shed. After the holiday weekend I will haul everything to the pile and maint 3 saws. It was a good run and I lost 11 pounds of winter fluff off my waistline! Looked for morels did not find any.
Got the last 3 loads hauled to the woods pile this morning. Does and fawns are like everywhere. The main pile is 48 feet long. My wife will hold the tape measure for me after supper but it’s going to be hard to calculate cords because it has various height and width. I hope for 20 cords.
Wife and I measured the woods pile. We had to measure four different areas. 19.77 cords. I was so close when I said I wanted 20!
Tremendous work, my friend. Especially when most was hand split. I don't think I could have done that.
Got some more of last seasons firewood moved to new stack for driveway expansion. The old girl is ready for her first big weekend this year! 15 trees getting taken down and logs hauled back to my place, chipping all the brush back to the forest floor and grinding a total of 70 stumps!
