Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[chipper1]

I got two small Dead Oaks Tuesday, was going to go back today except the rain and wind. I have at least 6 more, all bout 1 cord each. But, I'm afraid to go in the woods with this wind, my head is not as hard as it used to be when I was younger.

Sounds like a good plan!
Pretty windy here today too. After all the storms we've had this summer I'm constantly looking up in the woods here, lots of hangers, and even though many are under 2" they could mess your day up from 40-50'.
Sounds like you found some a nice little honey hole. Oak wilt kill them? I've got two customers who wanted some oaks pruned, should be able to get after it soon as it's supposed to be down to 31 by morning.
Loosing a good amount of the leaves that are left today, sure many more will fall after the snow, wind, rain, and cold into the weekend.

 

[James Miller]

Got the rear handle swapped around on the 3700. Have good spark after cleaning pounds of gunk from around the flywheel and coil. Fuel lines filter and new breather tomorrow. Hope to try it out some time tomorrow. I'd like to thank @Modifiedmark for saving my sanity trying to put this thing back together by my self. Cut the heads off some spare screws to hold the internals in place.

 

[Cowboy254]

I got a free load of wood the other day at a Farm Festival we have each year, they had chainsaw racing and at the end of the day they were giving all the wood away (Green Stringy Bark and Squiggly Gum) so I loaded up on as much as I could get on the ute.

It should be dry and ready for use next winter with a bit of luck (the fence posts - long pieces are Stringy and the big rounds are Squiggly Gum). It's all cut up and split now and half way through stacking it on pallets.

Nice! No bark to mess with either. What have you been up to BFS, haven't seen you around much recently.

 

[rarefish383]

Sounds like a good plan!
Pretty windy here today too. After all the storms we've had this summer I'm constantly looking up in the woods here, lots of hangers, and even though many are under 2" they could mess your day up from 40-50'.
Sounds like you found some a nice little honey hole. Oak wilt kill them? I've got two customers who wanted some oaks pruned, should be able to get after it soon as it's supposed to be down to 31 by morning.
Loosing a good amount of the leaves that are left today, sure many more will fall after the snow, wind, rain, and cold into the weekend.

I'm assuming they are Oak Wilt victims. Something is killing all of the Red Oaks. I have several farms I can cut dead Oak on. This little Honey Hole is flat and right off the driveway. It's about 7 acres of Oak woods. There are several dead Oaks that still have all the limbs on them that are big, in the 30" range. The 5-6 I can get by myself are about as big as the steering wheel on a truck, and all the limbs and most of the bark are gone. Probably a bit better than half a cord in each tree, but I can use my friends loader and get a full trailer load each trip. I have the side boards on the trailer made for 1 full cord. I was mowing leaves with my Cyclone Leaf Vac, and the PTO sheared off the bolt that mounts it to the engine. As soon as I get it out of the shop and get the last couple lawns swept, I'll be into firewood mode. I've cut back on my wood customers. I only sell about 10 cord. Everything I'm getting now is for next year.

 

[rarefish383]

It was the PTO on the JD X540 that sheared, not the Vac. When I bought the tractor from a friend, it had the Leaf Vac on the back and a 4' snow blower on the front. I want to see what that snow blower can do with 27 HP

 

[steved]

I'm assuming they are Oak Wilt victims. Something is killing all of the Red Oaks. I have several farms I can cut dead Oak on. This little Honey Hole is flat and right off the driveway. It's about 7 acres of Oak woods. There are several dead Oaks that still have all the limbs on them that are big, in the 30" range. The 5-6 I can get by myself are about as big as the steering wheel on a truck, and all the limbs and most of the bark are gone. Probably a bit better than half a cord in each tree, but I can use my friends loader and get a full trailer load each trip. I have the side boards on the trailer made for 1 full cord. I was mowing leaves with my Cyclone Leaf Vac, and the PTO sheared off the bolt that mounts it to the engine. As soon as I get it out of the shop and get the last couple lawns swept, I'll be into firewood mode. I've cut back on my wood customers. I only sell about 10 cord. Everything I'm getting now is for next year.

We have something killing all our white oak, and it's not wilt. The logger adjacent to us thinks it's a root disease...it's killing trees on his adjacent property as well.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[chipper1]

I'm assuming they are Oak Wilt victims. Something is killing all of the Red Oaks. I have several farms I can cut dead Oak on. This little Honey Hole is flat and right off the driveway. It's about 7 acres of Oak woods. There are several dead Oaks that still have all the limbs on them that are big, in the 30" range. The 5-6 I can get by myself are about as big as the steering wheel on a truck, and all the limbs and most of the bark are gone. Probably a bit better than half a cord in each tree, but I can use my friends loader and get a full trailer load each trip. I have the side boards on the trailer made for 1 full cord. I was mowing leaves with my Cyclone Leaf Vac, and the PTO sheared off the bolt that mounts it to the engine. As soon as I get it out of the shop and get the last couple lawns swept, I'll be into firewood mode. I've cut back on my wood customers. I only sell about 10 cord. Everything I'm getting now is for next year.

I lost a couple at my place, but I'm almost 100% that it was because I got into the roots when I was building my wood shed, then we had a very dry summer(they may have survived if I watered them ). I was bummed we lost them, but it worked out well as I would not have been able to have the approach paved if they were still there, at least not the way it was done.
I've had a few people this summer wanting pruning or removal of red oaks, I won't mess with them until the bugs are down or in the early spring before they come out. There are many guys who will be more than happy to take the risk of killing a bunch of trees, I don't want to be that guy so I don't take the chance.
Bummer about the vac. When I did a good bit more yards I really "cleaned up" on the leaves . It paid very well, and as long as I had a place somewhere near to dump leaves I could keep some good money coming in. What wasn't good is that I always ended up having a bunch of people I needed to take care of after the time change and there just wasn't enough time to do them and everything else in the fall .
I delivered another cord today, my big pile of splits is less than half of what it was when it was maxed out, I'd guess it's around 15 cord now.
How many cord do you use in a yr.

 

[bigfellascott]

Nice! No bark to mess with either. What have you been up to BFS, haven't seen you around much recently.

Hi Cowboy, haven't been up to much to be honest, just puttering around at home and helping a mate fix a few mowers and chainsaws and whipper snippers, rebuilt a few chainsaws in the last few weeks which was a bit of fun. I've cut a few loads of wood too here and there and have found a few nice trees to cut up when I'm ready in prep for next winter.

 

[chipper1]

We have something killing all our white oak, and it's not wilt. The logger adjacent to us thinks it's a root disease...it's killing trees on his adjacent property as well.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Wonder if it's what got my parents tree.
What roots . There is a lot of rot on the cherry too so it may be the ground here has been to wet since they stopped farming and built the homes?
Sorry if I shared these pics here, I know I did somewhere, but I can't remember where.

Getting a nice pile of wood over there. When things dry out a bit I'll head over and get a load of rounds and cut more of the cherry up,

 

[chipper1]

It was the PTO on the JD X540 that sheared, not the Vac. When I bought the tractor from a friend, it had the Leaf Vac on the back and a 4' snow blower on the front. I want to see what that snow blower can do with 27 HP

Hope you can get it sorted for a reasonable price, it doesn't sound cheap , JD colors lol.

 

[rarefish383]

We used to have a lot of Shoe String Root Rot, pull the bark off and it looks likes wads of shoe strings under it. Even though I had my Tree Experts License, Dad was the one that could ID any tree or disease indigenous to MD. I have to look stuff up in books. I had one farmer tell me I could have all the dead Ash on his farm for free, and he had loaders to load me up. He said he counted over 90 dead Ash. Another farmer overheard us talking and said he had at least 60 dead Ash I could have. But, I have more Oak than I can handle, so, I just walk past all of the Ash. If any body had a truck and trailer, I could probably get them all the Ash they could haul free.

 

[rarefish383]

Hope you can get it sorted for a reasonable price, it doesn't sound cheap , JD colors lol.

It's a single bolt that goes through the PTO into the crank. I've had it happen before, and when the bolt shears, it takes all of the torque and tension off of the threads, and some times just turns right out. My shop is really good, and they go out of their way to take care of their customers. In the spring I put my walk behind in for it's annual service. The Kawasaki muffler cracked and was over $300 for a new one. They called and asked if I wanted the factory one, or could they just make me one, it would be cheaper. They found a factory muffler that had the correct Y pipe on it, but the mounting bracket on the wrong side. They cut a bracket off a used muffler and welded it on the correct side, where it bolted up like new. Charged me $9 for a "used" muffler and $20 to install. It's not like they work for free. With every thing in the spring service, belts, blades, filters, oil, etc, the bill was almost $500. But when they have an obsolet part they can make fit, make the customer happy, and get it off the shelf, they kind of just throw it in. I take all of my small engine stuff there now. Except my chainsaws!

 

[James Miller]

I had considered giving the 3700 to my brother or BIL. Having second thoughts now as neither one has much experience with saws. No chain break or even hand guard. Probably keeping this one for my self. I'll find something for those two eventually.

 

[rarefish383]

I had considered giving the 3700 to my brother or BIL. Having second thoughts now as neither one has much experience with saws. No chain break or even hand guard. Probably keeping this one for my self. I'll find something for those two eventually.

Better safe than sorry. When I was 18-20, we were doing a big lot job, I was bucking big Tulip Poplars with a Super 1050 with a 36". My hands and fingers were getting numb from cutting all day. I let my palm rest on top of the handle bar, wiggling my fingers, as I cut. The tip of my bar hit a log on the far side and shot back and clipped 3 fingers. I was too afraid to tell my Dad, so I just wrapped a hanky around them and kept working. It's been over 40 years and those three fingers turn yellow when it gets cold out and won't move at all.

 

[rarefish383]

I lost a couple at my place, but I'm almost 100% that it was because I got into the roots when I was building my wood shed, then we had a very dry summer(they may have survived if I watered them ). I was bummed we lost them, but it worked out well as I would not have been able to have the approach paved if they were still there, at least not the way it was done.
I've had a few people this summer wanting pruning or removal of red oaks, I won't mess with them until the bugs are down or in the early spring before they come out. There are many guys who will be more than happy to take the risk of killing a bunch of trees, I don't want to be that guy so I don't take the chance.
Bummer about the vac. When I did a good bit more yards I really "cleaned up" on the leaves . It paid very well, and as long as I had a place somewhere near to dump leaves I could keep some good money coming in. What wasn't good is that I always ended up having a bunch of people I needed to take care of after the time change and there just wasn't enough time to do them and everything else in the fall .
I delivered another cord today, my big pile of splits is less than half of what it was when it was maxed out, I'd guess it's around 15 cord now.
How many cord do you use in a yr.

When Dad was in business we only kept Oak, Cherry and Locust for a few regular customers. All the rest we sold wholesale to a farmers market. At the most we only sold about 30 cord a winter. Dad hated messing with wood, it was loose, loose situation. We were making an average of $85 per man hour for 3-4 man crews back in the late 70's-early 80's, so about 2K a day and we only got $100 a cord then. He used to guarantee his top men a half days pay if we couldn't work due to weather, but they had to show up to work. he'd put them on the wood pile for a couple hours waiting to see what the weather was going to do. They hated splitting wood so bad, if it wasn't really nasty out, they would rather work in a light rain all day, than put time on the wood pile. In 79-80 I bought a $4000 Bliss wood splitter. it took 40 HP to run it. After that Dad gave me all of the wood and I worked on it in my spare time. Now I only do about 10 cord a year.

 

[James Miller]

Better safe than sorry. When I was 18-20, we were doing a big lot job, I was bucking big Tulip Poplars with a Super 1050 with a 36". My hands and fingers were getting numb from cutting all day. I let my palm rest on top of the handle bar, wiggling my fingers, as I cut. The tip of my bar hit a log on the far side and shot back and clipped 3 fingers. I was too afraid to tell my Dad, so I just wrapped a hanky around them and kept working. It's been over 40 years and those three fingers turn yellow when it gets cold out and won't move at all.

I'm comfortable running a saw without a brake. Not so much giving it to someone else. I've also always wanted a 3700/4000 so that might have a bit to do with it to.

 

[James Miller]

Tree just fell on the old dodge. May be the end of a trusty old truck.

 

[Bobby Kirbos]

Tree just fell on the old dodge. May be the end of a trusty old truck.

Can the tranny from that old Dodge be made to fit in your "new" truck?

 

[James Miller]

Can the tranny from that old Dodge be made to fit in your "new" truck?

Won't fit but might survive if I cut off 2 cylinders and deleted the turbo .

 

[James Miller]