Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

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Are these bears of the anterless type that NY allows you to hunt. šŸ¤£ Is bear meat any good to eat? I have a bear permit this year along with a doe permit.
We have had some mixed results. The Yogi Stew my daughter makes in the crock pot has been delicious, and if I told you it was beef stew you would not know the difference.

My bear was a 3-4 year old woods bear (not eating from garbage dumps), so it is better than most. One set of steaks we cooked were decent, another were good tasing, but so tough you could not eat them. Perhaps it was a change in the cut or cooking method, or both. The first set of steaks were pan fried (w/olive oil in cast iron), the second cooked on the grill, which may have dried them out too much.

The sausage they made is good, but then again, sausage can make anything taste good!

My advice: Keep it cool after harvesting, we put a bag of ice in the gut cavity.

Keep the meat moist when you cook it to prevent it from drying out.
 
I pre-fabbing the rafters, plywood roof and beams for my cabin bathroom at home because the cabin is off the grid. This way, we should be good with just battery-operated tools when we are up there.
 

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Started splitting and stacking the Black Locust I cut this Spring. A week of dry cool weather so I should be able to get it done. Laid down a new 10' pallet for it. Two loads done and probably 4-5 left. So far, I've gotten a wheel barrow full of bark which makes great fire starter kindling.
IMG_3008.JPG
 
Looks kinda like an oak. Can't get a clear view of the dried up leaves.

Regardless, it'll burn so I'd call it firewood! :blob2:
The plan was to go back Thursday (Tuesday night is Softball, Wednesday is retirement party) but then my nephew (the tree climber guy) swings by to help me spilt tonightā€™s load. We get done, I feed him a steak dinner and he says, hey if you want wood I did a tree job on upper road (5 min away!) the guy wants all the wood cleaned up

We drive out there and itā€™s all bucked up sugar maple (I think). I tell him Iā€™ll take it, but dang I need to teach this kid the difference between 22 and 18 inches

Theyā€™re all just a tad longā€¦..
 
Iā€™m half tempted to leave him my truck to haul it all and have him dump it in my yard. Also half tempted to buy him a cheap mason dump or dump trailer and let him ā€œborrow itā€ as long as the good wood always makes it to my house

My buddy that owns the body shop I send all my work to, found a cheap 2010 Silverado, we talked my nephew into buying it so he can stop borrowing my truck all the time. Itā€™s a little rough, but will make a good wood hauler

Hopefully by next weekend itā€™s on the road so

But seriously looking for a cheap dump trailer!!
 
The plan was to go back Thursday (Tuesday night is Softball, Wednesday is retirement party) but then my nephew (the tree climber guy) swings by to help me spilt tonightā€™s load. We get done, I feed him a steak dinner and he says, hey if you want wood I did a tree job on upper road (5 min away!) the guy wants all the wood cleaned up

We drive out there and itā€™s all bucked up sugar maple (I think). I tell him Iā€™ll take it, but dang I need to teach this kid the difference between 22 and 18 inches

Theyā€™re all just a tad longā€¦..
That last bit made me laugh. Those 2 trees I took down for my buddy last week, I bucked to 24" lengths. He called the other day to say his neighbor is furious I didn't buck them shorter. Lol.
 
Well I'm still a tree ID dumbass. Anyone use and can recommend a tree ID app?
iNatururalist (inat) does a pretty good job with community help and AI identification ... Credo statement: ... 'encourage local use and benefit local biodiversity.' And free for both android & apple format.
I've found it reliable. App will state if unsure the community can weigh in with focus. If you give enough pix of key features (leaf, branch pattern, bark,buds, root patern... ) you'll get reliable response...if you hope a single w/a pix will do you might be disappointed...
Best!
 
I have a big firewood skidding job tomorrow, so I'm all loaded up and ready to go,

Resized-20240820-142118-S.jpg


I'm bringing a helper along, so it should be a decent day for me. lol

SR
 
We have had some mixed results. The Yogi Stew my daughter makes in the crock pot has been delicious, and if I told you it was beef stew you would not know the difference.

My bear was a 3-4 year old woods bear (not eating from garbage dumps), so it is better than most. One set of steaks we cooked were decent, another were good tasing, but so tough you could not eat them. Perhaps it was a change in the cut or cooking method, or both. The first set of steaks were pan fried (w/olive oil in cast iron), the second cooked on the grill, which may have dried them out too much.

The sausage they made is good, but then again, sausage can make anything taste good!

My advice: Keep it cool after harvesting, we put a bag of ice in the gut cavity.

Keep the meat moist when you cook it to prevent it from drying out.
Thanks for the info Mike.
 

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