Firewood challenges

[charby]

White Ash.

Usually nice tight fibers, might drop just fine.

[RoadKingLarry]

I'm still figuring on a chain wrap and using a bore cut. 

[charby]

I'm still figuring on a chain wrap and using a bore cut. 

I'd be doing the same. Plunge cut that tree.

[RoadKingLarry]

Bore cut, plunge cut, I use the terms interchangeably. I'll take a pic of it next time I can see it in daylight. Might not be a challenge for a pro but I ain't one.

[charby]

Bore cut, plunge cut, I use the terms interchangeably. I'll take a pic of it next time I can see it in daylight. Might not be a challenge for a pro but I ain't one.

I knew what you were talking about.

For those who don't. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVH3ShnhMRA

[Kingcreek]

Jeez I’m about to cut my losses and leave the oak to rot.
I have been trying to get it out of the timber. Dealt with mud then decided to wait until ground is frozen. Ground finally froze but now 2.5” of snow on it. Tried again today with the tractor and no matter what I do I end up crabbing sideways down hill. I can’t seem to accomplish anything.
I moved some logs and brushy tops with the hydro grapple just enough to give myself room to work but barely got tractor out in 4wd with diff locked and a bunch of maneuvering. Had my ROP up and seatbelt on. Going back to retrieve my trailer with the Jeep and not a stick of wood out yet.
Now I’m thinking if the boggy area below it freezes hard enough I can work it from the low side and pull it out with chains if I have to. No telling when or if that spring fed area will become tractorable (is that a word?)

[charby]

Jeez I’m about to cut my losses and leave the oak to rot.
I have been trying to get it out of the timber. Dealt with mud then decided to wait until ground is frozen. Ground finally froze but now 2.5” of snow on it. Tried again today with the tractor and no matter what I do I end up crabbing sideways down hill. I can’t seem to accomplish anything.
I moved some logs and brushy tops with the hydro grapple just enough to give myself room to work but barely got tractor out in 4wd with diff locked and a bunch of maneuvering. Had my ROP up and seatbelt on. Going back to retrieve my trailer with the Jeep and not a stick of wood out yet.
Now I’m thinking if the boggy area below it freezes hard enough I can work it from the low side and pull it out with chains if I have to. No telling when or if that spring fed area will become tractorable (is that a word?)

Sounds like you need tire chains on your tractor

[RoadKingLarry]

Winch, extra cable, chains and snatch blocks.

[Kingcreek]

Winch, extra cable, chains and snatch blocks.

Yes to all.
A $4k wallenstein 3 point winch would be nice.
Or a track loader...

[cordex]

Winch, extra cable, chains and snatch blocks.

SNATCHBLOCK!

[K Frame]

I keep telling you... 40 pound bags of pellets...

[Kingcreek]

I keep telling you... 40 pound bags of pellets...

I know. We just really like a nice hardwood fire in our 42” pass thru fireplace. Glass doors on both the great room and the master bedroom.
I haven’t really cut serious wood since before my knee replacement 3 years ago and my formerly very well stocked woodshed is not so well stocked anymore. I have this big oak (almost 40” at trunk) and 2 others a little farther away in another pasture that I would really like to haul home so I can cut split and stack at my convenience and have it for the next 2-3 winters.

[RoadKingLarry]

I keep telling you... 40 pound bags of pellets...

I just can't drive out into the woods with a chainsaw in the back of my truck and come home with a load of pellets.

[Jim147]

I got a guy one town over that brings me a a full level long bed full of hedge and will stack it for me for $60. I cut most of the close hedge and hackberry last year before I found him. I have a lot of wood here but it is just too much work for me these days without some help.

jim

[French G.]

I knew what you were talking about.

For those who don't. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVH3ShnhMRA

Thanks, learn something every day. I had a hell of a time last year, 80 foot cherry uprooted and fell across dad's driveway and hung at about a 30 deg from vertical angle in similar sized poplar. I made a pretty safe cut but there was just no weight for it fall and break through the poplar. It just settled about ten feet and was more tree than our loader had ass for. Finally got it and we all lived. Next tree was the sycamore that heavily leaned and I could have used this bore cut I think, it was about 30" diameter where I cut though.

[Kingcreek]

A plunge cut is a wonderful trick with a leaner. You still have to make sure you notch it properly and come in right on the back cut. And when they go, they go fast.
Thankfully I’m just cutting storm down trees for firewood.
I have some pine trees to drop later this winter but nothing bigger than about 16”. We planted 600 hardwood and 400 pines over 20 years ago and we need to remove the pines to give the hardwoods room.

[K Frame]

I just can't drive out into the woods with a chainsaw in the back of my truck and come home with a load of pellets.

Apparently neither can Kingcreek... or a load of wood  


I think that at this point in my life, even if I had access to lots of wood, I'd still be using a pellet stove given their ease of use and flexibility. I helped fell, buck, and split a LOT of wood when I was a teenager. Everyone was heating with wood because of the oil issues in the 1970s and the gypsy moth tree kill had the state begging people to fell trees to reduce the fire hazard on state land.

I still wish I had a fireplace where I could actually build a crackling wood fire, as nothing beats that for ambiance, but the more I use it, the more I love my stove.

I used to say that when I'd retire and move back to Pennsylvania I'd get a coal stove, but the way it's looking, those plans have changed, so probably no coal stove in my future.

[dogmush]

SNATCHBLOCK!

Clearly someone else watches "Smarter Every Day" on YouTube.

ETA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2w3NZzPwOM

[K Frame]

I've got to stop being so damned smug about my pellet stove...

I picked up 8 more bags of pellets on Saturday. While moving them into the house I pulled a muscle in my back under my right shoulder blade. Sore all yesterday, but last night trying to sleep? Holy crap I could not get comfortable. It kept waking me up every couple of hours, so this morning I feel like I've not really slept. It's starting to ease some, but is still annoying and spasms every once in awhile. That makes me know I'm alive...

On the plus side, I now have, I think, 23 bags of pellets stacked up in my dining room. That's over 7 million BTU worth of pellets.

[Ben]

I picked up 8 more bags of pellets on Saturday. While moving them into the house I pulled a muscle in my back under my right shoulder blade. Sore all yesterday, but last night trying to sleep? Holy crap I could not get comfortable. It kept waking me up every couple of hours, so this morning I feel like I've not really slept. It's starting to ease some, but is still annoying and spasms every once in awhile. That makes me know I'm alive...

Heh - welcome to getting old, my friend. While I still have most of the strength I had 20 years ago, it just doesn't work the same way. I actually did something similar to you a few days ago. I was rolling a 300lb chain harrow into my tractor's loader bucket. I was handling the weight just fine until I moved my body what seemed to be very slightly, then OUCH and two days of Aleve.

I can still lift heavy stuff, but then again I can't, if that makes sense. I've been trying to be more and more thoughtful about how I do physical stuff, and taking the longer time it takes to place and use mechanical aids, but my macho all too often overrides my common sense.

[Fly320s]

I've got to stop being so damned smug about my pellet stove...

I picked up 8 more bags of pellets on Saturday. While moving them into the house I pulled a muscle in my back under my right shoulder blade. Sore all yesterday, but last night trying to sleep? Holy crap I could not get comfortable. It kept waking me up every couple of hours, so this morning I feel like I've not really slept. It's starting to ease some, but is still annoying and spasms every once in awhile. That makes me know I'm alive...

On the plus side, I now have, I think, 23 bags of pellets stacked up in my dining room. That's over 7 million BTU worth of pellets.

If you buy them by the pallet (1 ton), the men who deliver the pallet will also stack them in your basement for you.

[K Frame]

I wanted to get my first full season under my belt to get an idea for how much I'll go through. Unfortunately, there's no really easy way to get a ton or 2 of pellets to my house. I don't have outdoor basement access, so the best I could do would be stack them on my patio and tarp the hell out of them.

But, to get them to the patio I'd have to wheelbarrow them from up at the street down along the back of my house and in through the gate. Delivering them in front of my house is a no go, as I'd go through hell trying to get them around the other houses in my row and it would take forever.

I've just been getting 8 to 10 bags at a time for now and have been stacking them in my dining room. Still a huge pain the butt because I have to carry each bag up several steps to get them into the front door. Not great, but doable for now.

[Kingcreek]

I finally got some logs out of the timber and the first load hauled home, split and stacked in the woodshed. Finally, some productivity. Now that I've cleared some of it, I can see where I need to do some more saw work.

[RoadKingLarry]

I've had a slow start to my firewood production this year, only about 1/2 a cord so far. Sore shoulder due to torn rotator cuff has cut into my productivity.  I'm hoping to get at least another full cord cut, split and stacked before I go in for shoulder surgery on Jan. 20th.

[Ben]

I've had a slow start to my firewood production this year, only about 1/2 a cord so far. Sore shoulder due to torn rotator cuff has cut into my productivity.  I'm hoping to get at least another full cord cut, split and stacked before I go in for shoulder surgery on Jan. 20th.

I was starting to get productive on mine, then I don't know what the hell happened, but two weeks have gone by since I last ran the saw. I'm going to try and get a half cord cut, if not split, this week.