Burning large pine

[ktm250rider]

Sometimes I feel a little guilty cutting up my large pines for my OWB. My neighbor thinks I should get a logger in here and sell the wood. I dont want to deal with the mess that they leave afterwards. He also thinks Im foolish for burning them and that I should cut them, and skid them to the road and sell. I barely have enough time to cut for heating, let alone cut for selling. My property was logged years ago before I bought it, and you can still see the mess of branches left all over the place. Ive got about 35 acres of mixed wood. Most of the largest stuff is pine and hemlock with the hardwoods being smaller size.
The latest one Im working on gave me two logs 16 feet long and my 20" bar was just enough to get through them from one side. Biggest problem now is splitting them. No splitter here, just a maul. The tree has been down since spring, but Im having no luck splitting by hand.

My feeling is to get through one more year splitting by hand and then looking for a splitter in the spring time. I may also rent one just for the big stuff. I kind of foolish in the fact that I like to split by hand. I know splitting is a waste of time with a OWB but I like to be able to have the wife load if Im away. Any thoughts?

(pardon any rambling, pleathora of killians are setting in)

 

[clearance]

Pine really gets light as it dries, like really loses a lot of wieght. I can pick up chunks three times the size when its dry compared to wet. So, bring it back yourself and your woman can probably throw it in when it dries.

 

[mga]

pleathora of killians

ok...ya got me........... ????

 

[JeffHK454]

ok...ya got me........... ????

Irish Red....

 

[ktm250rider]

I look at the pines as undesireable. dont like the look of them. surprisingly, there isjnt much dead stuff. Well, at least what my engineer mind can find. sure, the couple trees with no bark on them are easy to tell are dead, the rest, no idea. I did grab a couple nice (maples?) this past weekend that were almost blown over. so far Ive also gotten lucky. The live ones I have cut were dead in the middle. They looked great on the outside.
Ive got some crooked pines that I can work on and Ill leave the nice straight ones for now.


Oh yeah, plethora = excess ( got the spelling correct this time)
Killians = beer

 

[savageactor7]

The price for logs has cratered...loggers up here are chipping everything for a co-energy plant. Land owners get less than half of what they did a year ago. I agree with you cutting the pine for FW...that'll open more space for hardwoods. but like the other poster said that dead stuff on the ground will burn in an OWB too plus help clean up your wood lot for trails and new growth.

 

[chainsawaddict]

ugh! splitting wet pine by hand is not fun! I hear ya, I finally borrowed a hydraulic splitter from my grandpa to finish the two cords I cut this summer. If its dry it isnt too bad. I like splitting wood, too, but I just didnt have the time to split all that! I'd rather be able to spend time with my two year old, and she's not ready to use a maul:greenchainsaw:

I have to split wood for my wife, too:monkey: