Tending your little piece of earth

SwampDonkey · June 08, 2020, 03:49:16 AM

Can be hard on chain, but cheaper than equipment damage. Most anything ya break is going to cost ya $1000 min in my experience. ;) :D

doc henderson · June 08, 2020, 03:52:59 AM

Just think @thecfarm , 200 years ago some poor schmuck and his 12 kids, for 3 generations hauled those rocks by horse and wagon up out of the bog to build a wall... do not feel bad. :D :D :D

thecfarm · June 08, 2020, 04:08:34 AM

Yes Doc, they did work hard. Without them working so hard I would have no way to get across that bog without wet feet. :D
This wall was by the driveway, only about 20-40 feet away. All gone now.

Than this picture is of the bog. The ones on the left are almost 2 feet high.

This must be about 200 feet long, than a good size hill, with springs on that hill that keep the bog full of water. There are some over 3 feet high in there. Many trips with a forwarder drove the rocks down into the bog. Now I have a road that is high in the middle and low on the sides. Another coating of rocks is taking place. ;D

Banjo picker · June 08, 2020, 09:52:09 AM

I have some wet places I would like to do that to, but I have zero rocks....if you want rock you have to come off that pocket book. Banjo

SwampDonkey · June 08, 2020, 10:52:35 AM

Banjo, corduroy it with some smaller pine like the old timers. Leave some stubs on one side of the posts to drive toward the mud so them posts don't roll. ;D I have some spots to corduroy, all kinds of small spruce to throw on and not far to go with it. ;)

thecfarm · June 08, 2020, 11:07:10 AM

That road across the bog was corduroyed. I think it's about 4 feet under rock now. There use to be fields up on top of the hill. Levels out when I get on top of the hill.

Al_Smith · June 08, 2020, 01:18:29 PM

There were portions of an area called the great black swamp in NW Ohio. At one time before it was drained grew some of the largest oak trees on the planet .It starts about 2-3 miles north of me and goes north about 100 miles to Lake Erie .In the years since it was drained they have dug up white oak logs used to build the corduroy roads in times past .Some had sank 8 to 10 feet under the ground .They say it was infested with mosquitoes which evidently like the migrating birds are still in plentiful supply at times .

SwampDonkey · June 08, 2020, 01:31:47 PM

I've seen old corduroy in the rain forest on the British Columbia coast, some used to haul wood on with skid sleds.

Banjo picker · June 08, 2020, 01:59:15 PM

I did put down some slabs, but with nothing anchoring them down....when a wagon of logs hits them they move. Banjo

SwampDonkey · November 14, 2020, 06:43:04 PM

In 2007 I did a ground survey of my plantation, the estimate was 2.5 cord/acre at 12 years age and spaced 1000 to the acre, planted and natural. I'm now thinning again and started last year. On an area of 2.5 acres, I've cut 18 cords from thinnings so far, taking out old fir, aspen with dead tops, broken or pistol shaped buts. I have another acre (on same 2.5 acre piece) in there to cut through still. I figure 6 more cord to come out, judging on what has been cut up to now. And that's leaving lots of diameters and taking just the low quality stuff, plus trail wood. Trails are only wide enough for a SxS. There's another 60+ acres to thin yet. I projected that the growth was around 0.5 cord per acre a year back in 2007, boy was that a bit low. Growing faster than that. :D There is some low productive wet ground, but that's not much area, there's a good 60 acres of ground like a garden. We are getting 20" fir diameters by 50 years in my area, seen some only 40 years old on the but rings, rings as wide as your little finger. No premium here for slow stuff, so might as well grow it fast. Slow fir is usually red anyway. :D

Can't bank too much on hardwood up here, the moose will change your projections in an instant when they move in on your maple stand and tear off the bark. :D Mainly they bother red maple though.

Areas I thinned so far are outlined in photo.

WDH · November 16, 2020, 07:17:22 AM

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

SwampDonkey · 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. :D 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. :D

SwampDonkey · November 07, 2021, 05:27:57 PM

Still thinning and gathering firewood and a few tidbits. 8)

Thinning my land and using wood for firewood - YouTube

Old Greenhorn · 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? ;D
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 · 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. :D

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. :D

thecfarm · 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 · 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 · 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 · 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. :D

SwampDonkey · 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. ;)