Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[dancan]

Just remembered that I was talking to a fella I know from Quebec , he's working here during the summers and back to Quebec in the winter and he has a small logging operation that he runs while there .
We were talking and comparing notes , he asked "Coup tu du quatre pieds ?" which means "Are you cutting 4' ?" He knows what the whip is for lol

 

[dancan]

Another large and sunny day up here , being caught up on the selling wood I made it to the scrounging wood
Last week .

Today

Got plenty of wood down

Hey Ben !!!
Hard to see but there's a squirrel at the end of the logs close to the tractor lol

 

[Wowzer]

I've got it set at 4' with the 14" bar , it makes for blocking up wood at 8' fast and no tape or measuring stick required .
Back in the 70's pulpwood was sold in 4' so one length then cut .

So you cut the log to 8' and then you, cut it up to 12" pieces?

 

[dancan]

8' , 16' or tree length in the woods , if it's firewood I usually cut mine at 16" in case I have to give some away , my furnace can take a 26" stick .

 

[Haywire]

I've got it set at 4' with the 14" bar , it makes for blocking up wood at 8' fast and no tape or measuring stick required .
Back in the 70's pulpwood was sold in 4' so one length then cut .

So that's what that is! I thought it was one of those new radio controlled Stihls

 

[svk]

Put 7 hours in the woods today. Got one walking trail opened up all the way. Nicer than it's ever been, I can easily walk an ATV through there now if I (hopefully) bag a deer back there. Trail #2 is flagged for tomorrow. This one is fully grown in too but it's mostly aspen and nut brush versus the oak and balsam I did battle with today (and required both chainsaw and brush saw work in many spots).

Going back to my notes I guess it's been 7 years since I did any brush work back there and my neighbor hasn't done any. It was well due.

I'm amazed at how little gas the brush cutter uses compared to a saw. I was sure I was almost out a few times and I still had well over a half tank.

Here's the little saw with a blowdown oak I cleared. I'll drag this tree home another day. Used over a half tank of gas in the saw which is quite a bit of cutting because this thing is pretty efficient.


I left the atv at a maple blowdown partway up the trail and at the end of the day I had enough bungee cord left for a small scrounge.

 

[dancan]

Yup , I guess it's time to come up with a better way lol

 

[JustJeff]

Big easy ash today but this is the last tree I cut till I get real saws. The little 33cc14" poulan isnt enough for bucking but too big for trim/limb. The crappy 50cc/20" is ok but getting parts is harder than Stihl. I bent the bar. If it were a Stihl I could have went to the Ace that was literally within sight of the tree I was cutting and get a bar. I need a 30cc(ish) top handle and a 70cc 24/25" (ish) for bucking.

I've got a "crappy" 50cc poulan. With a mild muffler mod and Stihl rs chain, it's a pretty fair saw for what it cost. Parts are cheap and as close as your nearest wifi connection. Anyway what I'm saying is, for me it was worth the effort to make it a decent saw while I waited for the right deal on a pro saw to come along.

 

[cantoo]

We had rain here this morning but I worked around it and got the 16" rounds all split and piled up. Even cleaned up all the sawdust in the rain, nice to have a cab. Just got everything put away and my son drove in with the empty dump trailer. We keep the trailer full of wood with a sign on it at his place of work and someone stopped in and wanted 4 loads. He delivered that one and brought the trailer home. Took 15 minutes for the 2 of us to fill with the conveyor. I hand throw onto the conveyor so I can do a final cull of the splits. He'll deliver the loads every night after work. Plan is to sell this big pile yet this fall. There was just over 200 logs x 12' long when I started. Sold 4 loads so far, trailer is 6x10'x2 1/2' high. No pictures of after I was done cleaning up, was raining pretty good by then. One picture is most of the log pile last spring

 

[cantoo]

I must be doing something wrong again. The maple is my buddy's and is not in the pile.

 

[dancan]

Nice conveyor !!!

Mighty Mouse Logging LLC

 

[woodchip rookie]

I've got a "crappy" 50cc poulan. With a mild muffler mod and Stihl rs chain, it's a pretty fair saw for what it cost. Parts are cheap and as close as your nearest wifi connection. Anyway what I'm saying is, for me it was worth the effort to make it a decent saw while I waited for the right deal on a pro saw to come along.

My poulan screams. Opened the exhaust and richened it but its just the wrong saw. My girlfreinds Husky 435 is such a better saw.

 

[cantoo]

Duncan, I like it so much that I have a spare one in case this one goes kaput. I also have a skeleton elevator that will see some use someday too. Once you use a conveyor you will always have one.
Couple pics of some fence line trees. The big cedar is in the bush. Gotta love it when grand kids say he doesn't want to play in the sandbox. "I wanna go to the bush". There is about a foot of water in the new pond I dug, tons of deer tracks but they don't like the mineral lick I put out. Maybe too much human scent yet?

 

[MuskokaSplitter]

Awesome scrounge day!!!!! Change of plans regarding tearing apart the old stove today. Ok, I'm in the woods.






There were 3 loads from what's cut and split, along with the sugar maple top on the trail, and an elm that I found in my way as I was boon docking my way in.

The Elm and I am pretty confident it is elm because it laughed at the Fiskars.

looks like Ironwood to me best firewood we have in the north.

 

[Cowboy254]

Alright, I'll concede that this does not quite compare to cantoo's split-pile-osaurus but I swung the maul for a bit after work today. This is a fair bit of the blue gum branch material that I scrounged with the intention of taking down to my brother in Melbourne. He does my tax returns, I take down a trailer load when I go to Melbourne for whatever reason. These bits started sprouting leaves after being off the tree for four months and I planted one bit to see if it will grow.

I dry my firewood for 2 years in the shed so I don't bother splitting anything that will fit through the door of the firebox as after two hot dry Australian summers anything cut to firebox length is bone dry. This stuff though is for my brother in 9 months time and the rounds (especially the small ones, and because they're dense-ish material) won't be properly dry in that time. So I split it all up, even the small stuff.

This stuff was between 3 inches and 9 inches diameter. Anything up to about 5 inches is a comfortable 1 swing split with the maul but the 9 inch stuff needs several good ones. So I plugged away and ended up with a nice little fort.





Some interlocking of the grain makes it a satisfying workout.

 

[hardpan]

Took dogs for a walk after work and ventured into another section of the woods. Holy cow.

I'd have a weeks straight worth of scrounging.

Sugar maples down. I'd have to clear a way in for the rig.



Big one broke off.





The frontside of the standing.



It's interesting that a lot of the downed trees have blowouts like this.



There is some treacherous looking stuff that I won't mess with.

Another one with a blown out bottom. I think this is from the sap freezing. Just my theory.



Another sugar maple top.



A big popple down with an interesting break at the base.



Covered in toad stools so pretty good chance it's rotted



Panoramic of the sugar maples coming up on the forest floor.



Downed sugar maple top on the trail that happened within the last 2 days.

It goes "tink" when you hit it.



And Clint mad at me because I'm not shooting the squirrel

Man I just love cutting in a woods with a clean floor like that, however I seldom find it. But all the briars, snags, and tangles I work in are an incentive to wear the chaps. Actually I was in heavy brush the day I hurt my back and cut my leg, didn't do enough clean-up before swinging the saw, a learning experience. LOL.

 

[svk]

On my way home from trail maintenance I found a mystery elm that the beaver had knocked down and delimbed. Judging by how little he took, I'll say he didn't much care for how it tasted.


This pile of oak and maple is all incidental scrounges I have found in the woods over the past year. Not a lot but these little trees do add up.

 

[svk]

Two dull brush saw blades, two nicely trimmed trails, one tired Steve. The most time intensive and the shortest trails are now opened. Now just need to work on my main walking trail which is less grown over but is sure to have some

Think I'm going to do projects around the yard for the rest of the day and grab a new blade from the hardware store (and drop the dull ones for sharpening) later so I can finish the third trail tomorrow.

 

[Erik B]

Two dull brush saw blades, two nicely trimmed trails, one tired Steve. The most time intensive and the shortest trails are now opened. Now just need to work on my main walking trail which is less grown over but is sure to have some

Think I'm going to do projects around the yard for the rest of the day and grab a new blade from the hardware store (and drop the dull ones for sharpening) later so I can finish the third trail tomorrow.

Did you get to scrounge some wood from your trails while you putting all of that work into clearing the trails?

 

[svk]

Did you get to scrounge some wood from your trails while you putting all of that work into clearing the trails?

There's quite a bit of oak along the first trail that I'll get as time allows.