Author Topic: Tending your little piece of earth (Read 50052 times)

WDH · « **Reply #160 on:** November 16, 2020, 07:17:22 AM »

Working on your own plantation has to give you a lot of satisfaction.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #161 on:** November 16, 2020, 08:59:00 AM »

Yes indeed. Yesterday I cut a fir, that had to be 24" across at breast height. It had to go because it was leaning and toward the road and definite signs of rot. That old girl was like an 8 foot culvert on the but end.

I did cut a lot of firewood from it though. It had a huge witches broom up in the crown to. One beside it is almost as big, but straight up and no sign of rot in the but. Seed tree, I do see a number of little firs growing around the base already. Oh, and I cut another earlier in the day that was 20", had an old scar from logging and lots of hollow rot for a ways. I had a couple small maple it had to come down between, it was kind of bow shaped in the trunk a little, was hard to really tell which way it favoured. But I cut the wedge out on the side I want it to fall, but I made sure I left a little holding wood on one side, where I wanted it to kinda swing it a little toward that side. Worked like a charm, saved the maples. Like directional felling techniques, and a little bit of thinking before drop'n them.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #162 on:** November 07, 2021, 05:27:57 PM »

Still thinning and gathering firewood and a few tidbits.

Old Greenhorn · « **Reply #163 on:** November 07, 2021, 06:00:35 PM »

That was a great video! I feel like we just had a visit and really enjoyed the heck out of that. I will confess I had you pegged as a guy in his early 40's, but now it looks like you are a tad older, maybe 48 or so?

Really, that was fun and it makes me think how nice it would be if more of us did stuff like that to really show what we keep our hands and minds busy with. I am inspired with the pretty roads and how you are maintaining your little parcel of the world.
I did have a hard time following your voice a couple of times when you turned away, but I got the flow of it all, none the less. Nice work, and please do show us another sometimes. Seeing Jeff's stuff and your stuff 'in person' as well as a few of the other guys really does make a difference that can't be conveyed in the written word.
Nicely done and thank you for putting a nice cap on a nice day Bill!

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #164 on:** November 07, 2021, 06:13:24 PM »

Thanks a bunch. Yeah, about the sound, I've not got a loud voice to begin with, but as you walk or turn away it doesn't help.

I've been getting lots of compliments from the nearby farmer (especially for cutting the trees back from the road) and lots of guys who are either just out hunting or simply driving for the scenery and a chance to see a critter. A lot of them I know from around here and some I've probably forgotten who they are over the years. I see some people who come from as far at 30 miles away. One fella I seen 2 days ago when I was splitting up my last tree, said he had just seen 3 deer at about my property line down near the old bridge. One guy was ahead of him that I know, he hunts, but it's buck only and they were doe deer. We were talking before the second guy come up behind. That's how the luck goes and the odds ain't good.

thecfarm · « **Reply #165 on:** November 07, 2021, 09:09:19 PM »

A nice piece of land you have there. Looks flat and free of rocks. Lucky you. My land is hard to get around on. Between the knolls, rocks, wet places and leave trees, I don't have many straight trails.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #166 on:** November 08, 2021, 05:06:36 AM »

Yep, well I can't just go any place because of mounds and wet runs but to have straight paths is because the plantation was bull dozed in with rows. And this area I'm working on was old field. Plenty of obstacles beyond that old field. A SxS is nice though, I can sneak through some rough places, just have to plan my paths.

thecfarm · « **Reply #167 on:** November 08, 2021, 05:23:15 AM »

I have old "fields" too. Stone walls through the woods now. I asked my Dad many years ago, How did they mow the fields here?

We had a Ford tractor and a 6 foot cutter bar and in some of these fields in the woods that would not even fit in between the rocks. But back then they was cutting hay, there was no tractors, all was cut by hand.
My Father and me cut some nice pine in one field that he picked strawberries when he was growing up.
My land grows some very nice eastern white pine. Some of the woods looked like what you have, but pine 3 feet across. Than my Father and me started to cut and we disturbed the soil and opened it up and those white pine came in like hair on a dog. The cycle starts again.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #168 on:** November 08, 2021, 05:43:23 AM »

Yeah, around here the white pine was all pretty much cut, those worth cutting, in the 19th C. This land has been in family hands since the RR was brought into Centreville. Grandmother's (dad's mother) uncles were teamsters who cut wood. I think they lived up in there, she had a brother who lived up there. The 3 houses that were there are gone now, even the power line from the 40's. Funny story about the power. My grandparents had just built a new house and grandmother's brother wired the house. There was no power by then. Neighbor said 'I don't know why you'd wire that house, we'll never have power up here." The power was run up within 2 years.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #169 on:** November 16, 2021, 04:47:15 AM »

A reminder of the total volume back in 2007, 1-2 years after a thinning.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=17457.msg406691#msg406691

Been harvesting 16 cord/acre from a second thinning. In need of an update on standing inventory to determine volume/acre/year.

mike_belben · « **Reply #170 on:** November 16, 2021, 10:12:12 AM »

pretty cool the ability to quantify your earnings on something so vague as "woods"

like counting bushels and dry tons.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #171 on:** November 23, 2021, 03:17:53 AM »

A little update about the bear lugging off the tarp in the video. I finally found it, 300 yards from camp. Must'a been his baby bear blankie.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #172 on:** October 09, 2022, 05:08:43 AM »

Just a little walk about for fall 2022.

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