Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[501Maico]

FWIW I know some guys used to use a balled up tire chain on the end of a rope and that supposedly worked pretty well too

That's how the fire service deals with chimney fires except no rope. We carry a chain on our truck but not many people around here burn anymore.

 

[501Maico]

Still around? Sticker from the 70's.

 

[JimR]

Could be, or maybe unintentionally. This was hunting property for the owner and a bunch of his friends. There are 6 wooden stands scattered around up in the trees, one of them is enclosed with a door and windows.

Friends of ours use to live near a lake. The houses were spread apart by a few hundred yards. The wife started feeding a deer one day. Within a very short period of time they had 6 - 7 deer there every morning looking for a handout. They use to laugh how a couple of them would come up on the farmers porch and stare in the windows. Last year we had a doe at our bird feeders several times.

 

[JimR]

Are crossbows legal?

I honestly don't know. If so I would probably need a doctors handicap letter to do that. I'm not handicapped and don't consider myself to be. I just quit archery because I couldn't pull my bow string back.

 

[JimR]

I know hunters that hunt high elevation, and some that go lower elevation. I don’t know their reasons.

As the day gets warmer the air rises along with the scent of humans. Deer can see and smell a lot better up on hillsides than they can down in a valley. I've spooked deer many times up on our hill during hunting season. I have never spooked them on the low sides of it. If I am on my tractor they don't even move up there. They will just stand there watching me go by. Another area I use to hunt that has some good sized hills was the same way. Anytime somebody in there pushed a deer out down low they always headed up the hills.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

As a stop gap measure you could try putting Slime tire sealer in the tires. If you put enough in, inflate the tires and flip them around for a while so all surfaces inside are covered, they will seal well in my experience: l stop gapped the cracked tires on my father’s zero turn three seasons ago and they are still holding air.

Something much better than slime is Tire Ject.

In time Slime is hard on the rims, Tire Ject isn't and works much better at sealing long term.

SR

 

[JimR]

My splitter has some old tires in rough shape that won't hold air fir very long. So I will not been using it that much until I get the new rims and tires on it.

These are the tools I've been using for the last couple of weeks to split my scrounge. I break the rounds down into quarters out in the woods. Then load'em and haul'em.View attachment 1033039

Remember this snag?View attachment 1033037

My neighbor didn't haul it all out of the woods. He's retired, starts sip'n early and naps a lot. Shortly after I got home from camp. I asked him if he got all this snag out of the woods. He told me "no, I haven't had the time" But I know he's just to proud to say his saw isn't big enough and he's to crippled up to do the work by himself. So I'll be scrounging the rest of it up for him as I can these next couple weeks. View attachment 1033043View attachment 1033045

I scrounged up this four round load fir him late this afternoon.
View attachment 1033047

Cut safe, stay sharp, and be aware!

Good for you being a nice neighbor. I use to help my father in law all the time with wood harvesting when he was alive. I use to enjoy splitting wood that way when I was young. Wrenching on trucks all day and splitting wood was taking its toll on my body. Hence the reason for building my first tractor 3pth wood splitter.

 

[WoodAbuser]

Heading to the cabin for a couple cold days. I'm wondering how many pages I will have to read when I return. Have a good weekend all.

 

[SS396driver]

Hey, there is nothing wrong with taking out a deer with a head on nose shot if that is all you have to shoot at. Our woodlot is a hill across the street from our house. One morning after work I huffed it up the hill with my shotgun. I get up to the crest of the hill and stopped to catch my breath. A doe runs right up at me and stops behind a bunch of Maples 45 - 50 feet away from me. All I can see is her head. She looked around behind her and I raised my shotgun. When she looked back around I dropped her where she stood. I gutted that deer and dragged it off the hill and down the driveway. My wife came out wondering what was going on because our Lab mix was going crazy in the house. I told her I just shot a deer. She laughed and said you just went out hunting. I laughed and said that was my best day of hunting. It was quick and easy. I have yet to ever do it that quickly since. That was about 40 years ago.

I took this one two years ago . I was sitting at my kitchen table having a warm beverage ,saw three doe and this guy behind the wood pile grabbed the gun off the deck walked about 200 ft and took the shot . First day rifle hunting and in twenty minutes I was done

 

[sean donato]

I only ever had one "easy" hunt. Was actually only about 3 years ago. I was at happy land, in the brush pile stand. The morning was deadsville. Saw deer but nothing legal or smaller then I like to shoot. My dad called and said to come across the field and climb in the ladder stand on the other side, they were going to come out from the back. I got about 3 rungs up the ladder and saw a nice buck running hard right for me. Grabbed the Tikka from off my back and shot it through the ladder. Just a scrubby 5 point. Nice bodied deer. He must have been a fighter his rack was pretty busted up. Walked back and grabbed the truck, came back and my dad's buddy had gutted it in the mean time. I aimed for the center of its chest, blew its heart and one lung out. Greg was pretty mad that I destroyed the heart, he's real good at cooking them up. Bet I'll never have it that easy again.

 

[MustangMike]

In 2019 I only went out twice. With the Crossbow I got a 7 pt buck, with the Rifle (30-06) I got a 8 pt buck.

I'm sure it will never happen again, and I'm kicking myself for missing that nice buck with the Crossbow this year my first real time out.

My Crossbow season is over for this year, and I'm leaving today to go to the cabin for opening day tomorrow.

I just hope my "blown" opportunity will not be the only one I get this year, but sometimes it goes like that!

 

[sean donato]

Heck I'm just hoping to get out this year. Work schedule keeps changing to the point I can't really plan anything. Next year when the new guys get to do shift work I should be OK.

 

[501Maico]

Friends of ours use to live near a lake. The houses were spread apart by a few hundred yards. The wife started feeding a deer one day. Within a very short period of time they had 6 - 7 deer there every morning looking for a handout. They use to laugh how a couple of them would come up on the farmers porch and stare in the windows. Last year we had a doe at our bird feeders several times.

I tried giving her an apple once, touched her nose with it, not interested at all. Her attitude was, you do your thing and I'll do mine.

 

[djg james]

Hey, there is nothing wrong with taking out a deer with a head on nose shot if that is all you have to shoot at. Our woodlot is a hill across the street from our house. One morning after work I huffed it up the hill with my shotgun. I get up to the crest of the hill and stopped to catch my breath. A doe runs right up at me and stops behind a bunch of Maples 45 - 50 feet away from me. All I can see is her head. She looked around behind her and I raised my shotgun. When she looked back around I dropped her where she stood. I gutted that deer and dragged it off the hill and down the driveway. My wife came out wondering what was going on because our Lab mix was going crazy in the house. I told her I just shot a deer. She laughed and said you just went out hunting. I laughed and said that was my best day of hunting. It was quick and easy. I have yet to ever do it that quickly since. That was about 40 years ago.

Let me clarify a bit. My BIL never picks up a gun until opening day. He get's buck fever real bad and slings lead at anything he sees. This is a small woodlot on flat Illinois ground. He's even shot at running deer. No attempt at waiting for the ethical quick kill shots.
This is opening day in IL, it's below freezing all day and a wind chill in the teens. They won't be out of the camper hunting long today.

 

[GrizG]

That actually crossed my mind and I'll probably end up doing just that to get me by until I mount the new rims and rubber. Thanks fir the reminder!

I found Slime at Tractor Supply for a very good price... no other stores in my area had it period and it was actually priced a little less than Amazon was asking (though their prices are not the same for everyone or every day!).

 

[djg james]

And here's how things are shaping up at the woodshed. Everything inside the shed and under the tarp is ready to burn this season. The uncovered stuff is the beginning of next year's supply. EAB is a *****, but it's sure been good for my woodpile. It's the majority of what I've been hauling lately, along with a lot of honey locust. Elm haul is down this season, which does not hurt my feelings a bit. Elm is good enough but not my favorite fuel. I even have some oak (burr oak)View attachment 1032394 in the mix which normally is hard to come by hereabout.

I'm scrambling to accumulate as much as possible, as I get a new right knee on Friday. Then my scrounging will be put on hold during the season when I normally am hard at it.

BTW, that's a treated canvas tarp from Chicago Canvas--12 or 16' by 24' if I remember right. It's now about 8 or 9 yrs old and has lots of life left. Patched where a bear tore a hole or pack rat chewed. I'll never have another vinyl tarp--that useless crap lasts maybe a season or two and goes to hell fast. The canvas, though it costs more at the outset, will outlast several vinyl tarp lives, and does not litter my yard with strips of nastiness.
View attachment 1032392

My neighbor messes with old tractors and engines. He's since built a shed and had no need for his tarps and sold a couple to me. The one I really like is a semi trailer tarp. Has tie down D-rings and is heavy duty. I use it to cover my main wood pile.

The other one I bought is a real heavy canvas tarp. Heavier than the other. I can't move it myself is so big. Neighbor said to just cut it up into usable portions but I can't bring myself to do it. Also I was wondering about how well it would hold up outside in the weather.

 

[Kodiak Kid]

There are better stuff out there then slime, that won't rot the rim out, but as a stop gap for short term use it does work pretty well. That diesel hustler mower I got off my old man and fixed up last winter was chalk full of slime. The tires were so shot I was amazed anyone of them held air. What a mess when I went to change them. I had to replace the main drive wheels, they were rotten from the inside.

The rims on my splitter are already rotten. They are actually the second set on the splitter. The first set rotted out about a year ago and the second set were pretty much done when I got them from a neighbor that replaced his old splitter with new. I just need to order some better quality wheels. I don't know why both sets of wheels were so cheaply made, because the splitter it self is STIHL in great shape! Plus it's ten years old and shared between two other neighbors and I.

 

[GrizG]

There are better stuff out there then slime, that won't rot the rim out, but as a stop gap for short term use it does work pretty well. That diesel hustler mower I got off my old man and fixed up last winter was chalk full of slime. The tires were so shot I was amazed anyone of them held air. What a mess when I went to change them. I had to replace the main drive wheels, they were rotten from the inside.

Decades ago I used something else in tires... I have no recollection of what it was but it was a similar product in the tubeless tire sealer category. When it came time to change the tubeless tires I cut a hole in the sidewall and dumped out as much of the liquid as I could and hosed it out before dismounting the tires with hand tools. That made things a lot less slippery to handle.

Slime is water soluble and contains rust and corrosion inhibitors so I don't worry about it, itself, hurting the rims. I had more problems with tube tires that apparently had moisture between the tube, tire and rim... I recall wire brushing rust off the "inside" of rims and also having several rim failures on outdoor power equipment and utility trailers when I was a kid...
https://slime.com/pages/5-tire-sealant-myths-busted

 

[Kodiak Kid]

I took this one two years ago . I was sitting at my kitchen table having a warm beverage ,saw three doe and this guy behind the wood pile grabbed the gun off the deck walked about 200 ft and took the shot . First day rifle hunting and in twenty minutes I was done View attachment 1033091View attachment 1033092

Good young eater!

 

[SS396driver]

Good young eater!

This guy was here last year during bow season . I don’t bow hunt as soon as crossbow started he was nowhere to be found . Figured someone got him but I saw him after the season ended . And again this fall . If it had been two days later this would have been the perfect shot with the crossbow . Again sitting at my kitchen table
View attachment IMG_2695.MOV