Cleaning up tops after logging

[logeeland]

Work on the wood a half a Sat each weekend. Then the second half let your wife do what she wants and you and the kid have Dad time. Chipping away at it is what I do. I went through a 13 acre site after it was logged and between 3 of us we took out 20 full cords each from the tops. Most of it was maple, ash and oak. It lasted about 3 years without being cut and dried. The hardest part was finding it after 3 years. So much ground cover grew around it. If you can while the weather is good, at least try dragging some of the tops into one spot. That way you will not have to chase it all later on. Then you can go cut for 2 hours here and there and keep up with the pile.

 

[Woody912]

just a thought...

Buck em to stove length, stack em up in a hay pile type or just a mound and cover with some cheap tarps, should help them keep longer if you keep it dry. Split as needed later. Should get you a few extra years before things start rotting.

All this talk of skidding is probably more work then its worth, if the gator or truck can reach it, call it good enough cut and stack more or less in place, maybe keep it close to a road of some sort. Pulling logs with a pick up truck is hard on pickup trucks.

I cannot speak for Buffalo but around here you really need to get them out of the woods and into sunlight. Too much humidity and shade and if you are really lucky you can wade thru a 6' briar patch to gt them out

 

[chipper1]

Odd way of doing things.

We haul tree length and then cut saw logs in the yard. The "waste" is turned into firewood.

And yup, 100 hr weeks are cake. That's only 14 hrs a day, still leaves 10hrs for sleep and other stuff.

Wow, tree length.
We harvest the logs here and then the tops just lay there unless some sorry sucker decides to cut them up for firewood.
Edit: We was meant as us michigangsters lol, the biggest tree I have personally skidded whole is a 14" black locust. I have a skidder on my tractor and it won't even pull a 14" red oak top out of where we are cutting firewood at with the branches on it, or will the tractor

To the OP.
Some great advice in here.

Put what is most important first, family. That may mean getting the wife out to help while a friend helps with the kid if the finances are bad because you need heat.
If not, the money in fire wood is in the transportation and processing not in the wood. It takes a lot of time and hard labor to cut up and split wood for yourself. Not to mention the equipment which you already have.
I love to do all this and it sounds like you do as well. You will have to strike a balance in it all.
I have 5 kids and family is the most important.
Feeding them and keeping them warm is important.
Do you "need" everything cleaned up right away, or is that your personality type.
#1
Clean up what is an eye sore, or bothers you the most. This seems to be bothering you.
#2
Work the stuff that will rot first suggest above. You don't like waste.
#3
Take your time and have fun with it, your a young guy with many yrs ahead, enjoy life with your family. Your to stressed out, it's only wood relax after you tear the heck out of a top or two at a time, not during.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Mostly all I skid is hardwood. Maybe smaller dbh, I dunno. Average harvest worthy birch tree around here is maybe 14-18" dbh and 50-70ft long.

The majority of the branches fold back or break off as you pull it. Sometimes I run the skidder over a pile a few times to bust off some of the branches or cut off a few sticking way out there. Skid road is usually wide enough to pass 2 skidders without trouble so 25-30ish feet.

Also it certainly is easily to pull in the winter.

Hardwoods are a little different than wait you're used to. Fewer logs, a lot more canopy.

You can't skid a whole tree out when a 60' tree has a 60' spread.

 

[TheJollyLogger]

Mostly all I skid is hardwood. Maybe smaller dbh, I dunno. Average harvest worthy birch tree around here is maybe 14-18" dbh and 50-70ft long.

The majority of the branches fold back or break off as you pull it. Sometimes I run the skidder over a pile a few times to bust off some of the branches or cut off a few sticking way out there. Skid road is usually wide enough to pass 2 skidders without trouble so 25-30ish feet.

Also it certainly is easily to pull in the winter.

I spent a year in Fairbanks. The trees are totally different where he's at.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

The trees in Fairbanks are different than here too. I wish all the birch here was like what they have in Fairbanks, it's almost all perfect firewood processor wood. Have some patches here that are like that, but where we are cutting now it's mostly gnarly trees that could be used in a horror movie

I grew up in Northern Maine, prime timber harvesting area. Ran a 440 skidder a bit there too. Not to say I've done it all or anything, but a 648 skidder all chained up and with loaded tires pulls pretty darn hard!

CTL vs tree length is just a very different way of logging. I see alot of that in Maine with softwoods. Processors don't work all that good on hardwoods (least not in my experience). One of the guys I know ran a "rolly head" processor for a while, it worked great on spruce, not so well on birch or cottonwood.

 

[bitzer]

The trees in Fairbanks are different than here too. I wish all the birch here was like what they have in Fairbanks, it's almost all perfect firewood processor wood. Have some patches here that are like that, but where we are cutting now it's mostly gnarly trees that could be used in a horror movie

I grew up in Northern Maine, prime timber harvesting area. Ran a 440 skidder a bit there too. Not to say I've done it all or anything, but a 648 skidder all chained up and with loaded tires pulls pretty darn hard!

CTL vs tree length is just a very different way of logging. I see alot of that in Maine with softwoods. Processors don't work all that good on hardwoods (least not in my experience). One of the guys I know ran a "rolly head" processor for a while, it worked great on spruce, not so well on birch or cottonwood.

Nearly everyone here has gone to CTL. Lots of hardwood cut with processor. I don't know the specifics of better heads for this or that, but a lot of hardwood gets cut in this state like that.