Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[LondonNeil]

Nice pics s Always Dan

I just did a scrounge. Cowboy won't believe me , no pics. I've found if I wait til the girls are in bed its easier on the home front, plus the traffic is gone and I save 10-15 minutes, this means its dark so no pics. Anyway, for those that trust my word, 3/4 cube of silver birch. Some of it large enough to exercise the 365 Postman tried to deliver that yesterday....I was at work and the fiancee had taken the girls to the park. poo. I headed off to the post office to collect it today...google said they were open 'til 5....google lied and it was firmly shut at 3.30 when i got there. Its also a bank holiday weekend here.... poop poopidy poopy poop.

 

[chipper1]

Nice pics s Always Dan

I just did a scrounge. Cowboy won't believe me , no pics. I've found if I wait til the girls are in bed its easier on the home front, plus the traffic is gone and I save 10-15 minutes, this means its dark so no pics. Anyway, for those that trust my word, 3/4 cube of silver birch. Some of it large enough to exercise the 365 Postman tried to deliver that yesterday....I was at work and the fiancee had taken the girls to the park. poo. I headed off to the post office to collect it today...google said they were open 'til 5....google lied and it was firmly shut at 3.30 when i got there. Its also a bank holiday weekend here.... poop poopidy poopy poop.

Sounds like a nice scrounge.
I don't think I've worked with silver birch before, looking forward to the pictures .
Hope you get the 365 soon, great saws they are.

 

[LondonNeil]

I've had a car load of silver birch once before, about a year ago now. It split really easily, and Although I've yet to burn it I'm fairly sure its dried very well. Supposedly its reasonably dense, ~0.65 RD at 12%mc and i read it lights easy...the bark makes a good fire lighter. It does need splitting quickly, or else the waterproof shiny bark traps the water in and it rots very easily. The stuff I've dried all seems very sound though, moved some recently to my parents...looks like it'll make a great fire. I'm not sure i cut any of the last lot, but birch is supposedly a very easily worked wood. I have a couple of cube of larger wood needing cutting....all stuff that could be ms180d with patience...but my patience ran out. Some of that stuff should exercise the 365 nicely. some merely moderate sized but dry and hard as nails Apple and quince, some large and dry oak, some large Ash, some moderate to large and dry locust, some sycamore....much needs noodling as its unsplittable crotches....so I'm very much looking forward to getting the 365 and giving it a test.

 

[rwoods]

I am told we got 13 or 14 dump trailer loads out of those trees. My chores took up most of the day so I only bucked tree #4 along with a small maple. A fellow cutter bucked tree #5 and a large stem that some other cutters left as being too large to cut - it was cut to bucket length instead of 10'. Here are pictures of some of the haul.
Ron

Orange paint indicates the ones that are to be stacked. The short pieces are not part of this scrounge.

 

[svk]

Looking like this fall I’ll be working in the town beteeen my house and cabin. 26 miles from the cabin, 11 miles from the house. This is going to make getting scrounged wood from cabin to home much easier as I can alternate evenings and cut/load one evening at the cabin, then unload/split/stack the next evening at home. The only cost of getting wood home is the incremental 30 miles of mileage for going up to the cabin (52 mile round trip) and back versus just driving home each night (22 mile trip).

 

[woodchip rookie]

Serious questions...

My gf has 45 acres near Tar Hollow st park just east of Chillicothe, OH. We are lookng into selling some of the valuable timber off the property but we know nothing about the real logging industry. We can rent equipment like trailers and skidsteers. I have saws. Getting the timber out and loaded on the trailer will be tricky in some cases but no big deal. How do we know what types of wood are even worth cutting? How big they need to be before we cut them? How do we know what the value is? What length do we cut the logs to before we load on the trailer or how short can we cut them?

I have seen alot of white oak, sugar maple and cherry down there. Unfortunatly the elusive highly valuable black walnut is thin where she actually has ownership, but biggins arent far....I just need some advice on a direction to go in selling timber.

 

[svk]

Serious questions...

My gf has 45 acres near Tar Hollow st park just east of Chillicothe, OH. We are lookng into selling some of the valuable timber off the property but we know nothing about the real logging industry. We can rent equipment like trailers and skidsteers. I have saws. Getting the timber out and loaded on the trailer will be tricky in some cases but no big deal. How do we know what types of wood are even worth cutting? How big they need to be before we cut them? How do we know what the value is? What length do we cut the logs to before we load on the trailer or how short can we cut them?

I have seen alot of white oak, sugar maple and cherry down there. Unfortunatly the elusive highly valuable black walnut is thin where she actually has ownership, but biggins arent far....I just need some advice on a direction to go in selling timber.

Great topic. I’d almost suggest you make this a dedicated thread.

I’ve looked at doing a select cut of my family’s 35 acre tree farm and ultimately chose not to do it myself. I don’t want to discourage you but here’s why I decided not to:

-needed to build an approach from the highway which required permits, a contractor or rent equipment, a culvert, and several loads of fill
-need to build a skid road across low ground to reach the main section of land; again more gravel and equipment costs.
-need to dedicate several weeks of my time to cut and skid timber
-need to rent equipment to skid
-need to hire someone to haul logs to a mill
-I’ve heard that most mills give absolutely terrible prices to small sellers. Probably a combination of the fact that buying from an amateur is more risky plus they know you need to sell and probably won’t shop every mill around.

In the end, if we hired someone to do our select cut, we’ll get a check for about 8-12k. For me to do all the work, make $ for my time and still come out with that kind of $ to split with family members wasn’t probably.

In full disclaimer if you have high grade hardwoods you may be looking at a lot more $ so it may be worthwhile.

Your best bet is to see if your state forester will do a timber management plan for you and see what they recommend. Our local forester did a great job for my former property.

 

[farmer steve]

Serious questions...

My gf has 45 acres near Tar Hollow st park just east of Chillicothe, OH. We are lookng into selling some of the valuable timber off the property but we know nothing about the real logging industry. We can rent equipment like trailers and skidsteers. I have saws. Getting the timber out and loaded on the trailer will be tricky in some cases but no big deal. How do we know what types of wood are even worth cutting? How big they need to be before we cut them? How do we know what the value is? What length do we cut the logs to before we load on the trailer or how short can we cut them?

I have seen alot of white oak, sugar maple and cherry down there. Unfortunatly the elusive highly valuable black walnut is thin where she actually has ownership, but biggins arent far....I just need some advice on a direction to go in selling timber.

here's a link for Ohio.https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/f-37. whatever you do make sure you have a contract!!!!! there are some private companies out there that will look at your woodlot and tell you what you have and then put it up for highest bid and they do most of the leg work. not sure what they charge to do this.

 

[Philbert]

+1 on hiring a forester to advise you, before talking to timber contractors who may put their own interests first.

Philbert

 

[Deleted member 150358]

free screen capture
My cousin brought me some cherry yesterday. He does this every once in a while sometimes its nothing or a small jag. But this was by far the nicest load. The rounds are bigger then they look in the photo.

 

[Picaso]

free screen capture
My cousin brought me some cherry yesterday. He does this every once in a while sometimes its nothing or a small jag. But this was by far the nicest load. The rounds are bigger then they look in the photo.

Excellent.. now make some lamps

 

[dancan]

Sure wish I had a cousin like that !

 

[Ryan A]

Cut some wood for hunting camp today, hung our stands. Up state Pa, season starts 9/29 and I can't wait!

 

[Multifaceted]

Cut two small leaners, both dead ash with 6" maple and ash saplings to boot. Felt bad about the young ash but it was choked up by the wild grape and other thick underbrush, it probably wouldn't have survived that or the inevitable EAB. One was on a fence, the other suffered from hill erosion and was close to the road. Simple enough job for me in my current 3/4 of a man state. It was hot as hell and had to clean up all of the limbs. Not bad, got a truck bed full of 6' ash logs for a few hours work. Could have gone faster if not for my knee. My orthopedist would **** a brick if I told him about this...

 

[95custmz]

Cut two snall leaners, both dead ash with 6" maple and ash saplings to boot. Felt bad about the young ash but it was choked up by the wild grape and other thick underbrush, it probably wouldn't have survived that or the inevitable EAB. One was on a fence, the other suffered from hill erosion and was close to the road. Simple enough job for me in my current 3/4 of a man state. It was hot as hell and had to clean up all of the limbs. Not bad, got a truck bed full of 6' ash logs for a few hours work. Could have gone faster if not for my knee. My orthopedist would **** a brick if I told him about this...

He does not need to know exactly what you were doing. Just tell him you were out exercising that knee so it wouldn't get stiff (physical therapy).

 

[dancan]

I was back to the Mineville houselot today to get it finished up , I met with Paul the contractor to see what he wanted done .


The left side is just what he wanted

More cutting on the right .
But not anymore lol

 

[Multifaceted]

He does not need to know exactly what you were doing. Just tell him you were out exercising that knee so it wouldn't get stiff (physical therapy).

I like the cut of your jib

 

[Deleted member 150358]

Sure wish I had a cousin like that !

I try to stay on his good side. He farms around 1200 acres in my neighborhood. Never know what he might show up with.

 

[dancan]

Less than 1/2 a tank to drop those spruce , fir and juniper , almost 2 tanks to delimb and junk into 8' lol
There should be another 3 to 4 cord from the backyard and septic field cut , only a bit of hardwood but the trackhoe operator will have it all plucked out and stacked for me

 

[farmer steve]

Cut two small leaners, both dead ash with 6" maple and ash saplings to boot. Felt bad about the young ash but it was choked up by the wild grape and other thick underbrush, it probably wouldn't have survived that or the inevitable EAB. One was on a fence, the other suffered from hill erosion and was close to the road. Simple enough job for me in my current 3/4 of a man state. It was hot as hell and had to clean up all of the limbs. Not bad, got a truck bed full of 6' ash logs for a few hours work. Could have gone faster if not for my knee. My orthopedist would **** a brick if I told him about this...

where's the axe(s)?