Felling for Firewood

[rwoods]

Got to be careful chasing cuts to fix a Dutchman as it is easy, at least for me, to go too deep. If you are short on one side, it is sometimes easier to fix it by correcting from that side. You may end up with a peak in your face cut but you can whittle on it; a less than flat face at times may be better than an over cut face.

Ron

 

[Jere39]

A tree service started cutting these mostly Tulip Poplars this morning, saws running at 7:30 am. This is a small (less than 2 acre) lot at the end of my driveway. I had a busy day, but watched them take down several of them while mowing my side of the driveway. They put steering lines on all the big trees and pulled them with the small skid steer. My grandson was with me on a couple of the early cuts and provided his commentary for them:

Each video is shorter than a minute



While making the face cuts, another guy was burning a hornets nest in the background:



A second poplar hits the ground:



A six year old gets pretty excited to watch equipment running, trees falling, chainsaws operating

This third tree, was a Hickory I believe, not sure, too far for me to be confident, but not a poplar:



And finally, I launched my drone to survey the result of a day of sawing:



That's me standing in the middle of my own driveway where I launched. This is about 1500' from my house, so I won't have to actually stare at this clearing from my home. But, every time I drive in or out the driveway, or walk down for my mail, I'll be reminded of these 20 or so big old trees that no longer shade this lot.
I guess next I'll be watching a house being built.

 

[Captain Bruce]

Well said. 40 yrs. on, I still hear of smart woodsman, "almost" having a bad fall.....

 

[mountainguyed67]

Got to be careful chasing cuts to fix a Dutchman as it is easy, at least for me, to go too deep. If you are short on one side, it is sometimes easier to fix it by correcting from that side. You may end up with a peak in your face cut but you can whittle on it; a less than flat face at times may be better than an over cut face.

Ron

If you were referring to my post, I don’t cut far enough for that to happen until everything’s lined up. I’ve been experimenting with different methods, including cutting just enough to see where the cut goes. Being on the side of a hill doesn’t help, going from one side to the other feels different.

 

[rwoods]

Saturday between rains, I cut a small white oak and a decent size beech. Last two before I move to cut at another site.

White oak.


Hopefully my last chest high cut for awhile. Beech.


Ron

 

[tfp]

Felled a large Stringybark (Eucalyptus tindaliae) that had been struck by lightning a few years ago and died. It had a large ants nest behind the bark which dulled my chain pretty good. Used a crow bar to peel off the bark and brushed the ants nest off, then bucked it up with the trusty old MS250.


Moisture reading a few days after bucking. Burns real good.

 

[Brufab]

I like your boom. Is that home made or you buy it some where?

I have a similar boom I bought at TSC for around 150$ but that was before inflation. Definitely worth the money. We use it to move equipment around like plows, discs plus wood.

 

[Jere39]

Had this dead Red Oak with a strong bowed lean toward my house (though my house is not close enough to be in the reach of the fall.




Although I've never had, nor even seen a dead Red barber chair, this one had me very cautious. This 3 minute GoPro shows me sawing face and back then stepping back and letting gravity finish the fall:



And, the after action photo shows the line was pretty much dead on, but short of my house. I had intended this photo to show how fat the hinge was, but I set my saw in front of it.

 

[Brufab]

Nothing wrong with dolmar pics that was a crazy leaner? Any chance of a moisture meter reading?

 

[Jere39]

Nothing wrong with dolmar pics that was a crazy leaner? Any chance of a moisture meter reading?

Well, as close as this one was to the house, it was no problem to grab the meter and carry it down for a reading of 39%



And while there, I took an unencumbered picture of the hinge:

 

[Brufab]

Well, as close as this one was to the house, it was no problem to grab the meter and carry it down for a reading of 39%

View attachment 1046459

And while there, I took an unencumbered picture of the hinge:

View attachment 1046460

We cut up a blowdown at the end of December. Tree fell in summer of 21 the whole tree was off the ground and that's about the same reading we got. I was shocked. But I had a live oak tree cut by my house in April and the wood was around 25 or less. The tree still had about 45 days or so till it leafed out.

 

[Kdawg]

Red oak has open “straws”, not only in its sapwood but also in its heart wood. White oak has closed straws. So red oak will suck itself full of water if end grain is touching down to earth. Cool test in the shop is to take a 2” cube of white oak and red oak and put it end-grain down in 1/4” of solvent, like denatured alcohol, in a dish. That solvent will be coming to the top of the red oak cube in seconds.

Nice job taking that dangerous one down. In the woods I have cut ones like these with a 1/3 wedge to front and back faces and let the next wind storm take it down.

 

[Seachaser]

There are mills in the area. Last year I took about 4 or 5 Chestnut Oak logs and an equal number of Red Oak logs to a local mill. But trees came down in heavy winds, so they were green trees. This one:
View attachment 954901

I have two problems. I don't own a trailer big enough to move logs, and I don't own enough indoor space to store it while it dries. I have a friend who kindly exchanged loading. hauling and storing services for half the wood:
View attachment 954905

And now we wait:

View attachment 954906



I have been really impressed with my 4wd Deere x728 in ability to pull with my log arch. But yesterday with the snow, and the lay of the land, I just couldn't get a pull started. But, it is a great machine for snaking among the trees and not making a rutted road:

View attachment 954907

This Deere GT weighs more than my ATV plus the rear tires are loaded, applies power to the wheels smoother by virtue of the hydro vs CVT transmission, and with grapple or blade on the tractor can move things out of the way better.
Thanks for watching and commenting.

Put some real tires on that JD filled with liquid and it’ll surprise you. Nice looking dog!

 

[Jere39]

Put some real tires on that JD filled with liquid and it’ll surprise you. Nice looking dog!

Tires were a compromise for traction in the snow, and kindness to the lawn we mow. They were filled with Rimguard. I have a small grapple for the front, and the tractor has regularly surprised me. But, it isn't a big do it all in the woods tractor. And the dog has been a constant companion for 14 years now. We just celebrated our 14th anniversary of adoption date:

 

[user 187887]

A Norway spruce I took down the other day.


Cut to a little over 1meter lengts(4 feet?) and split into 4 pieces with a few swings of my trusty Billnäs axe.

Stacked in a sunny place until spring. Then I haul them home to be cut and split once again into smaller pieces and stack them in our woodshed so we'll survive next winter too.

 

[Bearcreek]

I was hoping the snow would make the drag easy, it didn't - my log arch isn't big enough for the bottom section, and my tractor wasn't getting enough traction to move the second section.

Tire chains make a huge difference in those kind of conditions.

 

[Jere39]

Tire chains make a huge difference in those kind of conditions.

But wouldn't have stretched the opening on my log arch to accommodate the log anyway.

 

[user 187887]

Spent a day in the woods again. Sunshine, temperature a few degrees below freezing. Couldn't be better.



Here's a video for you so you can laugh at my tuning and dull chain

 

[Jere39]

The dead Oak in the center of this picture was once a double trunk, but first trunk came down in an October snow storm several years ago. Then this other half died. It is close to one of my equipment sheds, and though leaning away, that left most first large branch could hit the shed. So, I decided to take it down and saw it up for firewood.



I decided I'd throw a line on it and come-along the tree away from the shed. There were plenty small tree limbs and vines in the area, so I pulled out my line sling shot and made a perfect shot on first try. These slings are almost like cheating.



I've got a new GoPro and an old PC so some of my video segments are either too big, or have too much resolution or something, so I don't have useable video of the face cut. But, here is the back cut with my Dolmar PS 6100 and a 24" Husqvarna bar:

 

[Brufab]

The dead Oak in the center of this picture was once a double trunk, but first trunk came down in an October snow storm several years ago. Then this other half died. It is close to one of my equipment sheds, and though leaning away, that left most first large branch could hit the shed. So, I decided to take it down and saw it up for firewood.

View attachment 1137891

I decided I'd throw a line on it and come-along the tree away from the shed. There were plenty small tree limbs and vines in the area, so I pulled out my line sling shot and made a perfect shot on first try. These slings are almost like cheating.



I've got a new GoPro and an old PC so some of my video segments are either too big, or have too much resolution or something, so I don't have useable video of the face cut. But, here is the back cut with my Dolmar PS 6100 and a 24" Husqvarna bar:

Nice work!