Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[MustangMike]

That big one was leaning toward the back deck of the house. The hinge just had to pull it some to the right, and Oak has real strong grain.

I used the wedges to force it over a bit early, as I wanted to leave as thick of a hinge as I could. As you can see, it went down right on the money, just like I told the homeowner, right along the tree line.

I had to thread the needle with the two Cherries I dropped last week also, but the only stuff in harms way were other trees and a light post. Luckily, my aim is usually pretty good.

 

[KiwiBro]

There are a few things I want to try when I next get back to the woods. Many of the gums I need to drop are a good size with quite brittle (but strong) fibres. In such gums, somewhere around 20 degrees off their lay is about the most I can swing 'em because I'm still learning and the hinge doesn't want to bend much before snapping. Dutchman, soft dutchman, open/block face, sizwheel. All tried but nothing beats one or two grunty bottle jacks to get 'em started. Am keen to try triple hinging a test tree and see if that helps.

 

[woodchip rookie]

Where's the fun in that? You haven't lived until one sits back, hovering over a house while the homeowners stand on their balcony watching the show from their vantage point in what is now the most likely impact zone, while you frantically grab and just as quickly get stuck, your back up saw and you use every single wedge you can find, pounding on them like your life depends on it, after you have already snapped , twice, the crap rope you thought you had thrown out but which happened to be the only rope that made it to the job site that day. Most people need a sit down after a small panic, but when it is a sustained panic of about 20 minutes, well, i for one needed about two weeks to get over that.
I'd need to take my socks off to count how many lessons that one tree taught me.

Most of the trees I cut can fall either way so I let them go which ever way they lean then pull them out of the tree line with the truck. Also most of the trees I cut arent big enough to fit a wedge behind the bar.

 

[MustangMike]

There are a few things I want to try when I next get back to the woods. Many of the gums I need to drop are a good size with quite brittle (but strong) fibres. In such gums, somewhere around 20 degrees off their lay is about the most I can swing 'em because I'm still learning and the hinge doesn't want to bend much before snapping. Dutchman, soft dutchman, open/block face, sizwheel. All tried but nothing beats one or two grunty bottle jacks to get 'em started. Am keen to try triple hinging a test tree and see if that helps.

Sometimes we try to get too fancy. I hope this is helpful, but it seems that good old fashion wedges are usually the best solution to your problem.

https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/logging/manual/felling/cuts/special_techniques.html

 

[KiwiBro]

Sometimes we try to get too fancy. I hope this is helpful, but it seems that good old fashion wedges are usually the best solution to your problem.

https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/logging/manual/felling/cuts/special_techniques.html

Duly noted, thanks. If you don't tell the authorities about this one, I won't either. It took about 5 minutes to finally come around, but not before popping and groaning like it was gonna give up and flatten that fence. Plenty of over cut on the far side, trying to reach around there to nibble compression wood and stay safe if it gave way wasn't easy. About 45 degrees off it's lay and I reckon about 20 degrees more than was safe. In the end, I did what my skills and gear at the time would allow and left it up to fate.

 

[JustJeff]

Today I was scrounging rocks. It’s an ongoing project. When I built my house, we used rocks to landscape different levels, rather than more dirt to slope everything. Partway through, we ran out of rocks. Forrest Gump said “Sometimes there’s just not enough rocks” lol.
So I wound up with 150’ of weedeater hell! So for the last 9 years, I’ve been pilfering stone piles. 2 years ago I hit the jackpot when the farmer behind me was removing a stone fence. And I managed to get a bunch and dump them over the fence. I am still moving them as I have time. This cuts way down on the weed whacking and I like the look.
A couple thousand dollars and I could have done it with a dump truck and a backhoe but that’s not what scrounging is all about.

 

[woodchip rookie]

free is free

 

[cornfused]

Scrounged this pile of hickory today. The tree was 26" at the back cut and stayed that size to the fork @ 15'. Two loads at 5 ,000 lbs each and one load of limb wood at 2,200 lbs (weighed on scale @ work). Part of the deal was I had to take down the dead, and a little punky, pine in his yard to get the hickory...Worked for me!!! The hickory will heat the house in 2 years and the pine will make fire pit wood for a long time!!!

 

[dancan]

No scrounging for me this weekend , yesterday I blocked up the remains of the selling wood

What a good kid !
Today I filled the shed with this winter's hardwood

Then I fired up the splitter and started working the last loads that I drug home , I've got to get them done and moved because they're in my snowplowing lane .

 

[H-Ranch]

Pulled 8 or 9 loads like this out of the woods over the last two weekends. Mostly deadfall that is still solid enough to go after, though I did drop a couple of smaller standing dead that were close to the trails. Still have a few hazardous leaners to remove - was hoping the wind last night would help me out there. No such luck.

 

[JustJeff]

Spruce and silver maple. The little saw was perfect for limbing and saw lots of work today. The bigger pieces were handily taken care of by the 460. Another nice load for my pile. I left some cut up for the land owner. Had a fox stand and watch me for a while but it was too far for a phone pic.

 

[dancan]

Nice spruce !!!

 

[JustJeff]

That spruce is sure some sticky stuff!

 

[farmer steve]

View attachment 606122 Spruce and silver maple. The little saw was perfect for limbing and saw lots of work today. View attachment 606123 The bigger pieces were handily taken care of by the 460. Another nice load for my pile. I left some cut up for the land owner. Had a fox stand and watch me for a while but it was too far for a phone pic.
View attachment 606124

keep an eye on that spruce Jeff. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[Cowboy254]

The Subaru had some problems with the front left sway bar and I took it in to the dealer this morning to get it fixed (this is 100km away). Naturally, I took the trailer and the saws because you just never know. There are designated public firewood collection zones scattered around the place and there just so happened to be one on the way home. It's right off the main road so I went up to have a look.



Nice, but nothing on the ground and you're not allowed to drop trees in these areas, and in any case, most of the trees up this hill were pretty small. These areas get hit pretty hard by scroungers. I drove in a few k's but didn't see anything of interest apart from this guy. A wallaby.



I turned around and went back down. Against my better judgement, I tried the other road at the fork and drove downhill about 500m. Turned out my judgement sucked in this case. Hellooooo!



It's a tree of some sort, don't know the species. Looks like it has fallen over in the last few weeks. Very shaggy bark on the main trunk but smooth upper limbs. At that point, a forestry guy rolls up to check to make sure no-one is doing anything illegal, which I wasn't. He didn't know what species it was either so he wasn't much use. I have a client coming in on Friday who knows a bit about trees in this particular area, he might be able to shed some light on it. In the meantime, I'll call it e.firewood.



The 460 did some work down the small end. I didn't take anything under 6 inches and over 15 inches, Limby got the call. He was wearing a brand new chain and made short work of this eucalypt. I worked back along one of the main branches to the point where it was 25inch bar length thick by which time I thought I had enough to fill the trailer.



Witchetty grub holes. The grubs are edible if you're into that sort of thing.



I seem to have lost a couple of photos off my phone but you've probably all had enough for one post anyway. In this case, my judgement was much better. Full trailer, about 1.5 cubes this time. Still a heap left in this tree, maybe another 5-6 cubes or more. Next time I'm down this way I'll pay it another visit.



Given that I nearly gave it away and went home empty handed, it turned out to be a great little session. I'm looking forward to burning this in three years time.

 

[Jeffkrib]

Glad you narrowed it down to being a tree cowboy. Can be pretty hard to identify trees some times

 

[Cowboy254]

Glad you narrowed it down to being a tree cowboy. Can be pretty hard to identify trees some times

I based my diagnosis on the fact that it didn't hop away from me or try to kill me.

 

[H-Ranch]

The Subaru had some problems with the front left sway bar and I took it in to the dealer this morning to get it fixed (this is 100km away).

Are you *sure* it just doesn't need new tyres???

 

[farmer steve]

The Subaru had some problems with the front left sway bar and I took it in to the dealer this morning to get it fixed (this is 100km away). Naturally, I took the trailer and the saws because you just never know. There are designated public firewood collection zones scattered around the place and there just so happened to be one on the way home. It's right off the main road so I went up to have a look.

View attachment 606193

Nice, but nothing on the ground and you're not allowed to drop trees in these areas, and in any case, most of the trees up this hill were pretty small. These areas get hit pretty hard by scroungers. I drove in a few k's but didn't see anything of interest apart from this guy. A wallaby.

View attachment 606194

I turned around and went back down. Against my better judgement, I tried the other road at the fork and drove downhill about 500m. Turned out my judgement sucked in this case. Hellooooo!

View attachment 606195

It's a tree of some sort, don't know the species. Looks like it has fallen over in the last few weeks. Very shaggy bark on the main trunk but smooth upper limbs. At that point, a forestry guy rolls up to check to make sure no-one is doing anything illegal, which I wasn't. He didn't know what species it was either so he wasn't much use. I have a client coming in on Friday who knows a bit about trees in this particular area, he might be able to shed some light on it. In the meantime, I'll call it e.firewood.

View attachment 606196

The 460 did some work down the small end. I didn't take anything under 6 inches and over 15 inches, Limby got the call. He was wearing a brand new chain and made short work of this eucalypt. I worked back along one of the main branches to the point where it was 25inch bar length thick by which time I thought I had enough to fill the trailer.

View attachment 606192

Witchetty grub holes. The grubs are edible if you're into that sort of thing.

View attachment 606197

I seem to have lost a couple of photos off my phone but you've probably all had enough for one post anyway. In this case, my judgement was much better. Full trailer, about 1.5 cubes this time. Still a heap left in this tree, maybe another 5-6 cubes or more. Next time I'm down this way I'll pay it another visit.

View attachment 606198

Given that I nearly gave it away and went home empty handed, it turned out to be a great little session. I'm looking forward to burning this in three years time.

nice scrounge cowboy. the bark is a bit different but the heartwood looks like our walnut here.

 

[Just a Guy that cuts wood]

Walnut ? Maybe a family of Drop- Bears did that to the bark