Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[farmer steve]

Burning already, eh? I have yet to fire up the stove.... still very comfortable inside and outside - but I'm ready!

Wife says "I'm cold" - but I'm outside sweating! Maybe I'll make a fire outside tonight

The shop cats were cold. I was down to my t-shirt today splitting but the flannel came back on when I started mowing.

 

[MustangMike]

It warmed up this afternoon, so I finished up the Hickory Work Bench I built for the Cabin.

Only 2' X 4', but with 2+" thick top and shelf, and 4" thick legs, it has some serious weight!

It is all drilled to mount the vice after I get it up there.

 

[MustangMike]

We had our first frost this morning. High 50s (and back to a T shirt) by the end of the day.

 

[svk]

We had gnats actually biting today. Damn things. And we’ve had a few frosts already.

 

[svk]

Three tanks of fuel through the 142 today on trail maintenance. Sunset was at 6:15 and I finally threw in the towel at 6:10 about 300 yards short of the trailhead when I encountered a jack pine that had side pressure and ended up with the saw stuck. I’ll rescue it tomorrow with a different saw. Cleaned several tangled messes like what’s pictured below, I think one of them had 7 trees in it.

I did break the chain brake band towards the end of the day. Had one kickback where I was bucking a log and as I was cutting through the log rolled away from me and the saw started to shoot back towards me. Brake locked up and unlocked but didn’t work the next time I tried it. I’m wondering if the band is the same as a small Poulan or of Husky is difficult and it has its own.

 

[Benjo]

I didn't recognize and this maple I wasn't familiar with, anyone know what it is, the leaves weren't real large.
View attachment 766562 View attachment 766563

Looks a lot like black maple to me, but it's hard to define the leaf edges from the photo. If the leaves are more 3-lobed, red maple can get very rough bark over time, plenty of large rough reds in the swampy area behind me.

 

[U&A]

All day my 4 year old boy put me to work (he helped). Father son day (mama is gone) he helped fill the bed with one full load. Then climbed in the truck to help throw it out. Then we split wood, then stacked.

All his ideas.[emoji1787][emoji847]





Sent while firmly grasping my redline lubed RAM [emoji231]

 

[steved]

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/528561221215662/


These are the logging hooks we discussed a few days ago...for sale in Somerset, PA.


Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[chipper1]

View attachment 766867 These are by far the best. You can bend the vertical part of the trigger in or out to increase or decrease sensitivity. And smear the peanut butter into the bait catcher on the trigger so they have to try and chew it out.

If you aren’t having any hits in the trap you could have shrews which are smaller than mice.

Those are my favorite. I bent the part you're talking about so that you can hardly set the trap down without it going off. I need to get another trap, this one has caught hundreds of mice between here and the trailer I lived in.

My former cat got a glue trap stuck to his ass and freaked because he must have assumed the dead mouse in it was attacking him. Never seen a cat move that fast. I think he did two laps around the house before he was able to stick the trap to something else. Funniest thing I’ve ever seen.

I did break the chain brake band towards the end of the day. Had one kickback where I was bucking a log and as I was cutting through the log rolled away from me and the saw started to shoot back towards me. Brake locked up and unlocked but didn’t work the next time I tried it. I’m wondering if the band is the same as a small Poulan or of Husky is difficult and it has its own.

It is a poulan in an orange wrapper, sorry but I don't know which model.

 

[chipper1]

The leaves didn't have sharp edges like a red or silver. I have a bunch of different sugar maple rounds that have different bark. That was my guess.

I was looking at some sugars as I was driving today, the leaves look similar, and they were yellow so that must be it lol.
I've never seen a maple that had bark like this, I'll have to go back there when it's good and bright out and take some better pictures with my flip phone .

Looks a lot like black maple to me, but it's hard to define the leaf edges from the photo. If the leaves are more 3-lobed, red maple can get very rough bark over time, plenty of large rough reds in the swampy area behind me.

I've never heard of a black maple, gonna have to look into that as it looks similar.
Thanks for the response.

 

[chipper1]

Had a neighbor using it to poison squirrels, and took out another neighbor's dog.

Maybe are the antifreeze would work?

Philbert

I was going to try it tonight, couldn't get it to stay on the trap.

 

[MustangMike]

Sugar Maple is known as "Hard Maple", Black Maple is known as "Rock Maple" Black Maple leaves have fewer lobes. Black Maple wood is use for bowling alleys and gym floors.

It gets worse, the two can cross breed!

On the block in back of me, there is a Sugar Maple (close) right next to a Black Maple (further back). Then a close up of the Sugar Maple leaf, and the Back Maple Leaf.

The bark is almost identical, except the North side of the Black Maple actually seems to get black! Sorry, it is hard to see in the pic, more obvious in person.

 

[MustangMike]

More helpful info on Black Maple:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_nigrum

 

[svk]

Spent several hours working on saws this evening.

Stihl 290 has to be the most piss poor designed saw that I’ve ever worked in. I could have fully rebuilt any other clamshell I’ve ever worked on TWICE in the time it took me to get that bastard apart.

My 268 is ready to cut tomorrow after new bar tensioner and kill switch.

Gull darn Chinese sent me the wrong brake band for my friends 630. New one in order from the US.

Also ordered a new brake band for the 142.

 

[Cowboy254]

Finally got out for a scrounge today. My goat farmer/plumber/chef mate wants to clean up one of the treed slopes on his farm. There are some good logs there and he also has some logs piled and a big blue (or white - he's not certain) gum of a few feet diameter that he doesn't want. I said I'd start on the slope, doing the PITA work first then the easy stuff later as it's easy to lose motivation if the easy work is done first. There is a serious amount of wood there all up that he is happy to see gone.



All MS241 work today. It was at its limit at the bigger ends but some of the wood was dirty underneath and I figured I might as well only re-sharpen one saw. I did the main cuts in the clean wood with just the finishing dirty cuts all at the end.





1st load back home, all peppermint and virtually all solid apart from the odd burl.



2nd load was smaller and a bit ordinary. Stihl peppermint but was partly charred and some bits partly punky. I'll split off the charcoal and burn it in the firepit. Each round needed to be nursed down the hill to avoid damaging my mates goat fence so on the way back I'd pick up a few sticks and made a junk pile that he can burn at his leisure. When he saw how clean it was there he said I could come out anytime I liked. All of this wood will go down to my brother in a few weeks.



It was great to get some 2-stroke up the nose and saw chips down the crack.

 

[al-k]

Finally got out for a scrounge today. My goat farmer/plumber/chef mate wants to clean up one of the treed slopes on his farm. There are some good logs there and he also has some logs piled and a big blue (or white - he's not certain) gum of a few feet diameter that he doesn't want. I said I'd start on the slope, doing the PITA work first then the easy stuff later as it's easy to lose motivation if the easy work is done first. There is a serious amount of wood there all up that he is happy to see gone.

View attachment 767153

All MS241 work today. It was at its limit at the bigger ends but some of the wood was dirty underneath and I figured I might as well only re-sharpen one saw. I did the main cuts in the clean wood with just the finishing dirty cuts all at the end.

View attachment 767154

View attachment 767155

1st load back home, all peppermint and virtually all solid apart from the odd burl.

View attachment 767156

2nd load was smaller and a bit ordinary. Stihl peppermint but was partly charred and some bits partly punky. I'll split off the charcoal and burn it in the firepit. Each round needed to be nursed down the hill to avoid damaging my mates goat fence so on the way back I'd pick up a few sticks and made a junk pile that he can burn at his leisure. When he saw how clean it was there he said I could come out anytime I liked. All of this wood will go down to my brother in a few weeks.

View attachment 767157

It was great to get some 2-stroke up the nose and saw chips down the crack.

Cutting rounds on a slop like that is a pain, I'm surprised the fence is still up. LOL

 

[MustangMike]

All day my 4 year old boy put me to work (he helped). Father son day (mama is gone) he helped fill the bed with one full load. Then climbed in the truck to help throw it out. Then we split wood, then stacked.

All his ideas.[emoji1787][emoji847]





Sent while firmly grasping my redline lubed RAM [emoji231]

That is a great little helper you got there!

 

[panolo]

I was looking at some sugars as I was driving today, the leaves look similar, and they were yellow so that must be it lol.
I've never seen a maple that had bark like this, I'll have to go back there when it's good and bright out and take some better pictures with my flip phone .

I've never heard of a black maple, gonna have to look into that as it looks similar.
Thanks for the response.

@MustangMike echo's what the MN DNR states about black maple. Basically saying it's a version of sugar maple. I know I have never seen one but they say there is a definite distinction if you can find a good clean leaf. Which honestly when I look at your flip phone artistry seems to lean towards black maple.

 

[svk]

Crisp one this morning. I didn’t check the temp but we had a hard frost even by the lake. The summer weight bar oil was a bit thick as I topped the saw off.

Took out the 268 for it’s first wood cutting and finished up the last leg of the trail. Drove the proverbial golden spike when I rescued the 142 from the pinch I encountered yesterday evening.

I’ll tell you though....swinging a 15 lb saw around on trail duty isn’t for the meek. I think I’ve sweat more in the last half hour than I did all day yesterday with the 142.

The 268 ran well for its maiden voyage although the oversize swishy rubber gasket on the Chinese replacement oil cap leaves something to be desired. May have to see if I can get a better fitting o-ring from the hardware store.

 

[svk]

Done with cutting on the loop trail. Including the other spur its 3 miles, close to 5 tanks of fuel to get the job.

Have to pitch brush on about 2 miles of it next time.

The resident doe and fawn watched me run the saw from 40-100 yards away for much of the morning. I suppose they were hoping I was cutting stuff down so they could eat the buds. Not this time.