First firewood trip of 2011

[Garmins dad]

Great kids you have to do that kinda work.. the boy next door won't even ride the riding mower to cut lawn for his ole man..

BTW Great vids and pics.. Keep em coming.. :msp_smile:

 

[ts39136]

Whew... Finally (!) got out for another, and maybe our last load. Left at 0600 knowing that we'd be scrounging for wood this late in the season. Got there at daybreak. I stopped to look at a few trees just off the road, and I found a spot that had a BUNCH of stormblown bettle kill pine with some standing dead just far enough off the road that noone had touched it. We really lucked out and saved a climb over a mountain on single track dirt roads.

We were able to back into a 6 foot deep gully, then drive forward out the other side and back up right to the spot (permit says 400ft from road). Felled about 3 trees and just cut the rest off of downed trees. Tried a new technique for loading the trailer. Smaller stuff got cut in 6 foot lengths. Larger stuff loaded across the trailer. I used to load the trailer in a series of stacked pyramids going across but that was too much work.

I'm very happy with this load. Didn't seem like it took everything I had to fill... Didn't overload the truck or trailer... Could drive 75mph the whole way home without worry. Should amount to 2+ cords. I had the kids watching the trailer tires as we pulled out very slowly making sure a stick wouldn't go through my sidewall (again). No problems.

On the way out I saw a log on the side of the road. Already debranched and ready to go. Thought, "They must have filled their truck and couldn't fit it." So I got out started up the saw and made the four cuts to get it to firewood length. Then as I was picking up the pieces I noticed a series of 1/4" nails poking out :msp_scared: I lucked out and didn't hit a single one.

I started to split the stuff right off the trailer. Much easier than lifting it off the ground, plus I need to get it some air time before winter.

View attachment 201411

 

[s219]

Cool!

 

[zogger]

Lotta good wood!

You maxed out that truck with the first load.

You hand splitting? All that pine would be fun!

 

[ts39136]

No. I hand split for a year, then my wife brought me home a splitter. I never would have bought one, but I'm glad she did. It might look easy to split, and is probably easier than some, but there are branches in every round that like to hold things together until the end. I'd say about 50% of the time it splits clean, otherwise it's full stroke.

 

[ts39136]

Continued... The small to medium ones split great!! But I've found my nitch. Getting the bigger trees that the hand splitters don't want. It's easy (for me), to take a lot of wood home in a hurry with the bigger rounds.

 

[zogger]

That makes sense

Continued... The small to medium ones split great!! But I've found my nitch. Getting the bigger trees that the hand splitters don't want. It's easy (for me), to take a lot of wood home in a hurry with the bigger rounds.

That makes sense when you have to drive that far. the smaller stuff will go back into the forest soil anyway..if it doesn't burn up in wildfires.

I think the governments policies with some of those huge areas of trees out west are a little nutso. They could be letting folks harvest a lot more of that beetle killed wood, and help to offset things like coal burning powerplants, etc, or set up biochar factories where they would make outstanding long term buried fertilizer for farmers all over the nation. They also are nutso with the fireroad and logging road closures.

Biochar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There's potential for who knows, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands more rural jobs and factory jobs going begging there.

 

[EXCALIBER]

Sure wish I could find me some helpers then I could take the truck and the trailer and fill both. As it stands I'm all in after just filling my truck. ts39136 where you at in Idaho, I was born and raised in Bozeman, Montana. Sure miss being there, all the trees and mountains, plus people up north are just different then they are here. Seems they are willing to get up off the coach and help, get their hands dirty. Great pics but can you ever have enough wood? Better make another trip and remember the camera!

 

[ts39136]

In all actuality, I've been really impressed with the forest service policies at the local level. The forest service's mission is to supervise the utilization of the forest, not protect it to death. They let you harvest fence posts, firewood, live trees for transplant, and christmas trees, minerals, gravels, etc.. I've talked to some of the rangers and really like 'em. Even when I've driven my truck across virgin soil to get wood, they are happy to see it gone.

Mostly, I think, they have to balance the policies between those that have common sense and those that don't. Their main concern is tearing up the forst floor, compaction, haphazard road construction, etc. I've seen some messes, people dragging logs out and leaving deep scars (hence the no skidding rule), obviously fires (hence the 5 gallon bucket, shovel, and water jug rule), and people leaving an absolute eye-sore mess behind, (hence the two foot rule - all slash cut to within two feet of the ground).

Last year when I was cutting, I ran into a few bus loads of forest ranger students. When I stopped for lunch I talked to them a bunch and they're really pro-utilization. Another time I stopped and talked with a guy unloading a track-hoe. He was dismantleing an unauthorized trail. It was good to talk with him about their reasons for the closure. Erosion and water quality equally balanced with the fact that access to the acreage behind was already established through other trails. In fact, this last trip I cut on that very trail (allowed by the firewood permit), and I purposely dropped the trees across and left the slash to deter any furture trail makers.

I've NEVER got the feeling that my cutting was unwelcomed, even by the mountain bikers - who are sometimes a tough crowd to please when your driving or carrying anything gas powered.


Now "winderness" designation is done at a political level . It's where they close everything. That's utterly abused by the environmentalists. There is a place for "winderness", but it's turned into a convienient solution.

Thanks for the comments...

 

[ts39136]

I have to retract my statement that I "never" felt unwanted cutting...

There is a cross country ski center close to town here (about 8 miles from my house). This nortic center is owned by the city (I think), but the land is being leased from the forest service. During the "fuel reduction" projects, it was determined that they should cut down a bunch of timer within the cross country ski facility. When I was getting my firewood permits, they lady behind the counter told me of all this wood, then quickly followed by a disclaimer. They will try to stop you, intimidate you, or block you out, but this is our land and we are telling you to cut there, if you have any issues call ***-****. The gate should be open from x time to x time, let us know if you have trouble. Ummmm... okay.

I made many trips up there. Because it was local, I just brought my truck without the trailer. Oh the evil stares, and down right obnoxious behavior of some of these people. Not public people, but the employees of the nortic center. Not once did I get a warm cosy feeling, but it was kind of fun knowing that I had the right to be there.

I stopped to talk with one lady on my first trip. She says, "There is a whole bunch of pine cut down right over there (500 yards through swampy scrub maple)." Me - "Is there a way to drive to it?" Her - "No, but you could carry it (insert evil I'm better than you scowl followed by raised eyebrows of curiosity as to my reaction." Me, cheerfully - "You gonna help me load it?" Her, evil - "No." Me - "Thanks, I'll keep looking."

I mean these were big ponderosa pines, probably 30" rounds. I'm sorry, but to expect a single individual to carry a truckload of 120lb rounds 1500ft through scrub maple and sticker bushes is quite unreasonable. I understand their need to clear the wood, but let me drive up a little closer or make some accomidation to give me reason other than inspiring her pure selfish joy of watching a man suffer.

I did get quite a bit of wood out of there, each time with the evil stares.

 

[ts39136]

Dang it! I ran out of gas. Might take me a while to find the gas tank.