Places to cut wood

[c5rulz]

During the Winter cutting wood is my hobby and excercise. I am always looking for places to cut. A couple months ago I put an ad on CL stating that I would assist landowners trim fencelines cut brush or what ever they wanted in return for access to hardwood. A level spot that had been logged recently would be ideal and within 20 miles of my location. I had 3 calls, one was way too far away , the second guy had boxelder :msp_ohmy: which amused me since I have a plethora of boxelder we make huge bonfires out of and the 3rd was success.
This Landowner had his place logged 5-6 years ago but the tops were still real solid and there are trails every where so removing wood was easy. I have been cutting here 3-4 days a week.
While I was cutting the guy next door came over and starting chatting. He commented how the woods looked good where I had been working and noted that I removed some trash trees, (boxelder & cedar) to make room for the regenerating oak and how I had limbed up the new young oaks so they will be straight and make marketable timber some day. This landowner then said I was welcome on his place too.:msp_

Anyway, I took some pics on the second place today. I focused on a single 25" tree that had the top broken off last summer, it still had leaves. I spent an hour and 45 minutes stacking the brush from the oak and 3 pines that got trashed when this came down.

Here is the tree with the top broken out.

The top.

Brushpile afterwards.

 

[tld400]

good for you. you took the time not only to get wood but to make the place cleaned up. Once the word gets out Im sure you will never have to look for wood again. rep to you

 

[c5rulz]

These rounds make a lot of wood in a hurry.

I can't say enough good things about the 562XP, I now have about 2 gallons through it.

My Suburban was the dog hauler, it is now a wood hauler too.:msp_unsure:

 

[c5rulz]

good for you. you took the time not only to get wood but to make the place cleaned up. Once the word gets out Im sure you will never have to look for wood again. rep to you

Thank you.

I told the guy I clean up like the place was my own.

 

[lmbrman]

Looks good Ron and it sounds like you have your choice of places to cut wood on account of how you treat the woods and owners :msp_thumbup:

Sometime in march I will come down and we can work/play/visit

-dave

 

[Hinerman]

What do you do with the brush piles?

 

[Steve NW WI]

Thank you.

I told the guy I clean up like the place was my own.

Words to live by, whether cutting wood, hunting, riding ATV/Snowmobile, or what have you. It's attitudes like that that keep landowners letting people on their property. The opposite attitude is what gets gates closed and locked.

Rep sent!

What do you do with the brush piles?

Not sure what the case is there, but I'll leave most of em in my woods for critter habitat. If they're in the way, they get burned. I've helped friends with yard trees and hauled the brush home with me, it gets piled out in the side yard for a big party bonfire one summer evening. Nothing wrong with cutting the brush down a little so it's laying out mostly flat and letting it fertilize future tree crops either, if the owner is OK with that.

 

[Iska3]

:msp_thumbup:

Words to live by, whether cutting wood, hunting, riding ATV/Snowmobile, or what have you. It's attitudes like that that keep landowners letting people on their property. The opposite attitude is what gets gates closed and locked.

 

[c5rulz]

Looks good Ron and it sounds like you have your choice of places to cut wood on account of how you treat the woods and owners :msp_thumbup:

Sometime in march I will come down and we can work/play/visit

-dave

Good, I'll put you on the end of the X27 and see what you are made of.

FWIW, I attribute much of my golf game to swinging a maul. That's how I developed finesse and touch around the greens.:msp_rolleyes:

 

[c5rulz]

What do you do with the brush piles?

Normally I would burn them, I don't know if this landowner will or leave them for critters. When I drove in yesterday, there were two grouse walking around on the ground. They have become rare in this part of Wisconsin.

 

[c5rulz]

Words to live by, whether cutting wood, hunting, riding ATV/Snowmobile, or what have you. It's attitudes like that that keep landowners letting people on their property. The opposite attitude is what gets gates closed and locked.

Rep sent!

Thank you!



Not sure what the case is there, but I'll leave most of em in my woods for critter habitat. If they're in the way, they get burned. I've helped friends with yard trees and hauled the brush home with me, it gets piled out in the side yard for a big party bonfire one summer evening. Nothing wrong with cutting the brush down a little so it's laying out mostly flat and letting it fertilize future tree crops either, if the owner is OK with that.

When I make brush piles I try and cut out all the forks in branches so it will lay flatter and then cut all the biggest stuff up when it's on the pile with the saw. I neglected to make a few cuts in the pile when I took the pics. But I am going back today and will, and then throw some heavy stuff on top. Most don't understand there actually is technique to making brush piles, particularly if you want them to burn. Being a pyromaniac I feel I am good at it.

I find a well built brush pile should be consumed in less than 15 minutes, granted it will burn a couple days, but most is gone very quicklly.

 

[Butch(OH)]

Good show!
As both a land owner and wood cutter I hope that this thread stays near the top for a long time or gets made into a sticky. Land owners seem to have a rep as the A holes but I can tell you boys that in the real world there is reason for it. I know of many, MANY farmers that would dearly love to have somebody like this fellow on their property and would even gladly help him out. People who do like this are 1 -100 the rest just want the gravy and scat. Personally I have more places to cut than I can possibly ever use and wood is rotting in the ground on most of them because they wont let anybody else cut. At every place I am welcome to use the farm skid-steer, or loader tractor. Just last week a big time real estate agent I barely know stopped by the house and left a note with several parcels I can cut on. I dont say this as brag but to make a point. The guy across the road cant find a place to cut, but he also has a reputation, a "slightly" different one than mine. All a person has to do is what the land owner asks him to do and maybe just a bit more. Dont cut ruts with your truck. Stack and burn the brush. Ask the farmer if hed like somewood for the fireplace. You may have to grunt it out and take sycamore or wood you dont want or get it up a grade or carry it a few feet or cut brush all day to get a trailer load but the word will get around, believe me and you will be buried in places to cut in due time.

 

[c5rulz]

Thanks Butch,

My golfing buddy has a 50 acre hobby farm. I have cut volunteer hardwood trees that have fallen or about to for several years. This winter we cleared a creek bottom of box elder and cedars that were interfering with visibility for his deer hunting stand. We cut/treated with Tordon and made burn piles out of about 50 full sized box elders. I did all the saw work and he was on his 45 HP 4wd bucket tractor. It went real fast as he could snake the whole tree to the burn pile, I then cut all forks out and he pushed into the pile. I spent 10 full days doing this. He likes running his tractor and it's not hard to talk me into cutting stuff down like a madman. Especially when I didn't have to stack brush by hand.:msp_tongue:

 

[H 2 H]

That's best way is keeping everything clean so you can get back to the same place and cut more fire wood you just never know when someone will come visit ya when your cutting and ask you to come to his place and do the same thing.

Heck I like getting a little Cedar every year for starting the fire just in case the fire place goes out at night

Stacking the brush by hand is the worst part of fire wood cutting having a tractor there with a bucket is the best way period :cool2:

 

[c5rulz]

Stacking the brush by hand is the worst part of fire wood cutting having a tractor there with a bucket is the best way period :cool2:

Amen on stacking brush by hand.

 

[c5rulz]

Well this saga isn't over.

When I was hauling out the last load of wood I noticed the landowner had fruit trees in his yard, and yes they were in dire need of pruning. So today I went out first thing to meet him and teach him how to prune fruit trees and I did all the pruning for him explaining where and why cuts were being made. He was quite pleased with this and again said I could cut pretty much anything I wanted but said I wouldn't do that without cruising the wood lot and marking trees with his approval.

Then he says, BTW, I have a 40 & 140 acre parcel nearby and we have to do some clear cutting on one and the other has some logging that was done and a bunch of storm damage. WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED?

I told him that, YES, I would be interested.

I am going to call him in a few minutes and set up a time to see the new sites and offer to clear a bunch of crap cedars and brush that is crowding his driveway. His wife wants this stuff gone.:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[zogger]

Well this saga isn't over.

When I was hauling out the last load of wood I noticed the landowner had fruit trees in his yard, and yes they were in dire need of pruning. So today I went out first thing to meet him and teach him how to prune fruit trees and I did all the pruning for him explaining where and why cuts were being made. He was quite pleased with this and again said I could cut pretty much anything I wanted but said I wouldn't do that without cruising the wood lot and marking trees with his approval.

Then he says, BTW, I have a 40 & 140 acre parcel nearby and we have to do some clear cutting on one and the other has some logging that was done and a bunch of storm damage. WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED?

I told him that, YES, I would be interested.

I am going to call him in a few minutes and set up a time to see the new sites and offer to clear a bunch of crap cedars and brush that is crowding his driveway. His wife wants this stuff gone.:hmm3grin2orange:

Youre rolling in it man!

 

[Lovewood33]

Nice pictures c5rulz. I will be running out of trees to cut and have thought about putting an add on craigslist like you to offer to clean up and cut down some trees for a farmer. Problem is I don't have a truck to pick up the wood. Thats a nice score there.

 

[c5rulz]

Nice pictures c5rulz. I will be running out of trees to cut and have thought about putting an add on craigslist like you to offer to clean up and cut down some trees for a farmer. Problem is I don't have a truck to pick up the wood. Thats a nice score there.

Well I don't have a pickup either. In the past I have always used my 6x 10' trailer as it is easier to load than a truck but it is tough manuvering in the woods. Sooo.........my 17 year old Suburban is now the wood hauler rather than trailer puller. It will really haul a pile when the trailer is hooked up. I can get well over a face in the truck and over 2 face in the trailer.:msp_thumbup:

 

[c5rulz]

Then he says, BTW, I have a 40 & 140 acre parcel nearby and we have to do some clear cutting on one and the other has some logging that was done and a bunch of storm damage. WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED?

I told him that, YES, I would be interested.

I am going to call him in a few minutes and set up a time to see the new sites and offer to clear a bunch of crap cedars and brush that is crowding his driveway. His wife wants this stuff gone.:hmm3grin2orange:

Update.

I called him last night and we are going to clean up his driveway next Sunday. He brought up taking me to the other parcels and I said we'd make a day of it.:msp_w00t: He also gave me the go ahead to cut an oak that has a blown out top. This tree is bigger in diameter than my wedge ax. :msp_tongue: Here is a picture of me and the ax. I have lost 45 pounds since last year at this time.