What are you cutting 2024? - pics welcome

[Jeff]

Hm

A few short felling vids...guess I didn't embed properly

To embed youtube, click on the youtube icon and put the video url in then click insert

[aigheadish]

@cutterboy that's beautiful! I didn't expect the red inside, I'll have to cut it soon to see what's up! Man! 

[cutterboy]

g_man, you sure get some nice straight stems from those fir trees. My birch trees have so many curves and bends that I have a hard time getting eight foot logs.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, fir tends to grow nice and straight. 

I have some white birch here that are scattered and one little grove with some popple mixed that used to be cedar ground. Not many are straight, but every once in awhile there is a nice one in the mix. Nothing log sized in there. I do have a 20" one that would make log, by the road. They'll grow pretty big and old up here if the stand doesn't get opened up too much from harvesting, blowdown or if they have a bunch of dying fir in them. Get sun scald easy. Wish I had more and more yellow birch to. I only see a single yellow birch here and there, never a grove on my ground. Down the road a mile from my woods was a big stand of yellow birch. I do have one close to 30" though.

[rdobb13]

Probably messed the picture attachment up, but it's just a skidder on a golf course.  That's a hard way to make a dollar. 

[BargeMonkey]

Got granted parole today, the snow isn't making it fun, 

[Old Greenhorn]

Got granted parole today, the snow isn't making it fun,

Welcome home again Eric! I am doing a 2 day show down he hill from you in Arkville yesterday and today at Union Grove Distillery. Why not grab the family to hang for a bit? Been a while seen we've seen each other and I haven't seen the new boy yet. Besides, the refreshments are downright palatable.
 Don't know if you got hit with those lake effect squalls yesterday, but down in Arkville it was near whiteout conditions off and on for a while. The roads were lousy too until I got on the east side of High Mount.

[Greenie]

Yeah, fir tends to grow nice and straight.

I have some white birch here that are scattered and one little grove with some popple mixed that used to be cedar ground. Not many are straight, but every once in awhile there is a nice one in the mix. Nothing log sized in there. I do have a 20" one that would make log, by the road. They'll grow pretty big and old up here if the stand doesn't get opened up too much from harvesting, blowdown or if they have a bunch of dying fir in them. Get sun scald easy. Wish I had more and more yellow birch to. I only see a single yellow birch here and there, never a grove on my ground. Down the road a mile from my woods was a big stand of yellow birch. I do have one close to 30" though.

I suspect white birch trees have different varieties (sub species?) - 40 miles north white birch trees are often part of the climax forest; growing as tall as competing hardwood and hemlocks. In other locations including my lot white birch trees have different bark markings (much more black lines and previous branch marks). These white birch trees resemble gray birch but grow taller and don't bend over in ice storms. These trees are eventually outpaced by nearby trees. As mentioned previously, they need to be dropped when they first show signs of failing otherwise the wood quickly becomes punky. If promptly cut, split, and allowed to dry the firewood from these trees is stable and surprisingly good performing in the stove. 

[cutterboy]

I went after another birch tree today. This is the 4th and last birch for now. The logs will sit by the barn all winter and will be sawed up in the spring. Tomorrow I plan to go back up to cut up the tops for firewood and bring them back to the barn and stack them up.




In the last 10 days we have had 2.5 inches of rain and the ground has softened up a bit. I'm beginning to see some mud.


Down to 17 degrees tonight. That might firm up the ground some.

  Keep on cutting.....Cutter

[Magicman]

Looking good and also looking cold!! 

[aigheadish]

I do like the winter for when the yard freezes up and I worry about running around in the backhoe more. And, this year I have a block heater, so I may actually get it to start!

[David B]

Last night in the dark in a tee shirt I cut up some oooollld dry, dusty, dirty eucalyptus logs for firewood. Spent more time sharpening, haha...only a hundred more to go...switching to stihl semi chisel .404 from oregon 3/8". 

[GAB]

I do like the winter for when the yard freezes up and I worry about running around in the backhoe more. And, this year I have a block heater, so I may actually get it to start!

Make sure you have winterized diesel in the fuel tank or else it may not start.
GAB

[Resonator]

Down to 17 degrees tonight. That might firm up the ground some.

Keeping the snow clear off logging trails (bare ground is best), works good to freeze them at night. Otherwise the snow acts as insulation to keep it from freezing.

[cutterboy]

This morning the mud was frozen. The tractor didn't sink in at all. By late afternoon it was just starting to soften up. The temp only got up to 35 degrees.

[Greenie]

I used to wait until there was snow on the ground to skid firewood out. Last December there was no snow but the logs skidded out very nicely over frozen ground - didn't get the logs dirty or make a mess in the woods. If not for the stumps it looked untouched (I pull the whole tree out with branches attached and have a burn pile for the brush).  I'm hoping for the same snow-free conditions and frozen ground when I start back up this month. I re-registered the sled for some extra snow-free mojo.

[GRANITEstateMP]

Greenie,

I hooked up my plow last night to confirm everything was still functional.  Good to go. That normally kills any expected snowfall.  I really don't mind the snow, its the ice and freezing rain that I hate. Maybe I'll buy a sander for my truck!  That should keep away the rain and ice!

[barbender]

It does seem that the better prepared one is for weather events, the less likely it is that they happen. That must be why tornadoes always veer towards trailer parks🤷

[Peter Drouin]

Greenie,

I hooked up my plow last night to confirm everything was still functional.  Good to go. That normally kills any expected snowfall.  I really don't mind the snow, its the ice and freezing rain that I hate. Maybe I'll buy a sander for my truck!  That should keep away the rain and ice!

I like the way you think. I'll put mine on too. 

[g_man]

Greenie,

I hooked up my plow last night to confirm everything was still functional.  Good to go. That normally kills any expected snowfall.  I really don't mind the snow, its the ice and freezing rain that I hate. Maybe I'll buy a sander for my truck!  That should keep away the rain and ice!

A couple days before Tnksgving I went into the woods where I store my plow thinking the same thing. When I got it on the truck - uhoh, no worky. Clicking noises and bogged down the truck motor a little. Dragged it out of it's nook  to where I could pick it with the tractor and hitch the safety chain. Motor or ceased pump ?? Turned out to be 23 year old motor. In stock at local Fisher dealer and easy swap. Got it fixed in time but didn't stop 6" wet/icy snow storm Thanksgiving.

gg

[GRANITEstateMP]

gman,

I had a plow motor fail on my old 3 plug minute mount.  I broke one of the bolts off that went through the valve body.  Many not nice words were used when drilling out said bolt.  I put a new motor on the next day and did one heck of a job sealing it from the elements!  

[g_man]

gman,

I had a plow motor fail on my old 3 plug minute mount.  I broke one of the bolts off that went through the valve body.  Many not nice words were used when drilling out said bolt.  I put a new motor on the next day and did one heck of a job sealing it from the elements! 

Thee plug Minute Mount is what mine is too. I noticed there was no gasket where the motor case fit down into the valve body but it was close fit. I did put some Never Cease on the bolts but maybe a good sealing job would be good next summer. Thanks for the idea.

gg

[thecfarm]

Cutting EWP for the OWB and anything that don't look good, be it dead or alive.
I hauled one EWP that broke off in a windstorm and an 8 foot chain would not go around it.

[cutterboy]

Ray, I hope your OWB has a big door on it. 

[g_man]

Spruce/fir stud wood from earlier in the week - Tuesday afternoon.





Went down to get one more. A white spruce that uprooted in the wind about 6 weeks ago. It was hung up and at a 45* angle until the wet snow on Thanksgiving brought it down.





By the time I got it limbed I was done in. It's kind of ugly too.





Since I didn't have the energy to pull it out I decided to leave it all propped up and off the ground until after the big rain expected on Wednesday and Thursday.





We got over an inch of rain here and high 40's. Softened things up. Gave the trails a test drive yesterday afternoon. Things are froze up again with much less snow now. 

gg