thewoodlands Do you use pine needles to cover exposed roots on your trails? I have lots of exposed roots that the wheels on the mower deck are constantly hitting even when the deck is up as high as it can go. I use my garden tractor to haul wood out of my woods.
Mine are mostly ruts cause by the tires going up the hill, but I do use them allover our property. The original owner who put in most of the trails on the part I do most of my cutting on did a great job removing any of the roots so I really don't have many areas that the exposed roots are giving me problems. Around our house where I put in the trails and have a bunch of pine still standing, there are exposed roots that I'll use pine needles or chips on which helps. All the trails around our house I made and pulled the stumps by digging them out by hand and the pulling them out with the Rhino but after we bought the tractor, I'll use the backhoe. The pine needles will turn to dirt after a certain amount of time.
We have one area that holds 12 face cord of shoulder season wood, we usually burn six face per year but we only burned a touch over four this year. In the one area is two different spots that hold six face each, I'll move what is left to the area for this year which will open up the second area for another six face of pine that will be done before the end of July. That will put us two years ahead on the shoulder season.
I moved some shoulder season wood (white pine) from the area we burned out of this year to the area we'll burn from this year. I'll finish the stack tomorrow with some pine that has been split and covered for a year. I'll also clean up the area ( pic 1907 ) and get another six face cord in there which will put us two years ahead for our shoulder season wood. We have 51 face cord of hardwood stacked with hopefully another 3 that needs splitting and stacking. We should have room for another 12 face cord of hardwood. Once I'm done with the shoulder season wood, we'll have 12 face up.
Since we had another night and morning with rain, I decided to clear a trail (picture 1909) that had Ash and Cherry tops blocking the end I took the picture from. I took seven or eight loads over to the fireplace from different areas on the house lot. Picture 1908 is starting the fire with kindling and fire starters, picture 1909 is the trail I cleared, 1910 is and Ash top the deer have been chewing on and 1911 is the fire burning down.
Yesterday when I was burning in the outside fireplace, the wife came out with the dog and made a comment on how I should clean the chit up laying on the ground in front, so today I took one load up to the trail that goes up top. Pictures 1916,17 & 18 will be a new trail that is actually a dead - end but there is some hardwood in that area including one nice Ash.
After this weekend, I'll start back up on c/s/s. First up will be bucking up two face cord of Pine that was cut in 2018, after that is done, I'll split and stack that. I'll get some pictures Monday. When I'm done stacking the two face cord of Pine, I'll start splitting and stacking the rest of the Beech (1894 ) and Maple (1895 ).
I thought that today was the day I would start bucking up some pine logs but the rain moved in early, we had heavy rain when I was getting the flowers under cover but after I was soaked, it turned to a nice soft rain.
I've done that before but once Loon harped on everyone getting three years ahead the equipment stays dry unless there is a tree blocking the driveway.
I can empathize. I put off moving some topsoil yesterday (to fill the last of my raised garden beds) since the weather forecast did not call for rain until later this evening. Woke up to rain which turned into torrential downpours. The rain has stopped for now, and I still want to work on the garden today, however everything is a sloppy mess. Weathermen were wrong (again).
If we get enough rain this afternoon and tonight, my plans for tomorrow will be getting rid of some pine in the outdoor fireplace.....unless we have tree damage from the storm, that will come first. I think the worst of the storm will hit between 5 & 7 today.
The White Pine I bucked up today is from the clearing we did for the new garage in 2018. I'll start splitting and stacking out of the pile of rounds, not all the rounds in the pile came from today. I'll stack six face cord of Pine by the end of July which will be for next years shoulder season wood.
I started splitting and stacking the Pine, hopefully by the end of next week, I have four face cord up.
I flamed up nine or ten loads of dead branches today and then washed the Kubota. The last time I used the Kubota, it was a heavy pollen day so the orange had some green on it. Picture 1688 is a new trail going in that I started months back that will give us another way to the sandpit, 1689 are some branches that were from 2018 clearing for the new garage, 1934 was another area full of branches from dead pines or maple, 1935 & 36 are from the backside of the new trail that will hook up with 1688 and the last picture is the very last load burning down.
The wife wanted these down long ago so when she said something two days ago, it moved up to number one on the schedule. The pine in picture 1940 & 41 was dying, the three in picture 1942 were dead and the smallest one I pushed over. All the rounds I split with some of the branches are over by the outside fireplace waiting for the next rains.
I started cleaning up this area last year and just finished this part of a dead pine that has been down for years, they say we're in for some good rains so everything is over by the outside fireplace ready to burn. In the last two pictures you can see the dead standing pine without bark and another dead pine that still has its bark that I plan on taking down.
Today I burned most of the pine from the stuff I c/s a few days ago. We had a nice rain overnight and again today so things were wet, the heaviest of the rain will come in later this afternoon.
I started on what was left in picture 1969, the worst of the stuff went in a different pile in picture 1972 which will get burned in the outside fireplace, picture 1973 is what's left of the pile, picture 1974 are the rounds I'll be splitting and stacking for next years shoulder season firewood and the last picture is another bunch of logs that I want cut and split before winter hits. I used an old scraper/snowbrush to clean off the pine needles and dirt with a timber jack for lifting the logs off the ground. I counted the piles of pine I have left, it's six after today. Hopefully we get another wet stretch coming up so I can burn some in the outside fireplace.
