Making it thrugh another year, '24-'25

[GRANITEstateMP]

Tom,

Sounds like you had yourself a real good visit, and tour, with some old work friends, that is awesome!  Were you able to help the fella out with wood shop setup stuff?

I'm glad it wasn't just us that got crummy weather yesterday!  We got 1-2in of snow, then sleet/rain.  I got out of work early to go to a funeral service and banged out a couple driveways before the COLD and wind froze them up.  I hate the heavy / wet snow, it just doesn't "stack" nicely.

Peter,

Are you planning on keeping the mill once you retire, or does it take up too much room / or too much temptation to do more work?

You might want to keep it around...never know when you might need to bang out a couple loads of lumber to get yourself a new fancy hot rod part!

Doc,

sometimes we DON'T want pictures, because then it DIDN'T happen!

Ted,

I feel bad   about my yoga comment and it derailing Tom's thread...but, not wicked bad, cause think of all the merch $$$ Tom will be banking once the first set of "Gumby Tom the Mushroom Log Man" tshirts and hoodies hits the market!!! 

[Peter Drouin]

Peter,

Are you planning on keeping the mill once you retire, or does it take up too much room / or too much temptation to do more work?

You might want to keep it around...never know when you might need to bang out a couple loads of lumber to get yourself a new fancy hot rod part!

No, I think I'm going to let it all go.
With the lull and all, I think I will end up with $145000.00 That's enough to get more Hot Rod parts.

[Old Greenhorn]

That's a big decision Pete, best of luck with it. Take your time and get your price, then enjoy it. Making the transition can be tough or most enjoyable, often both. Do what is right for you, you earned that.
_---
Yeah Granite, sloppy yesterday and my call was spot on, what I cleared and could run off or evaporate looked nice today, and dry. But where the water couldn't run off or puddled it was a skating rink and I nearly fell several times in the yard. That stuff firmed up pretty well after dark last night.
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Today I was resigned to grab a few more logs, I have to keep at it and know we might lose the next 2-3 days. We had pretty good wind today, but I was determined. I put on my yax trax and went on into it. But the wind where I was cutting was coming out of the NNW at about 25 mph steady and trying to blow the stems I wanted right at some power lines. That was unacceptable and I walked away from them, live to fight another day. I couldn't live that one down if it went wrong. But there was one that would work safely so I took that and it was textbook easy.  None of the others in that area fit the conditions for today. I went up to the shop to say hello and saw another tree that had blown over (broke) back in December. It was blocking a trail into Bill's burn pit and laying on a skid full of septic drainage pipe. So it had to come out anyway. A little tricky getting it out without damage to the pipe, but I got it out and it turned out to be a good mushroom tree with a tiny bit of firewood. So I came home with about 20 more logs and cold feet.   It was a beautiful day though if it weren't for the wind. Temp held around 28 or so all through the daylight hours.

 We have weather coming in around mid-day tomorrow and it's anybody's guess what we will get. THEY say 4-6", but I have my doubts, more worried about the sleet and freezing rain they predict at the end. It's not a big storm (my words), but it could make things lousy for a few days. I just want to get back to harvesting logs. I have a long way to go and only a couple of weeks to get there.
 Tomorrow is another day, hoping to hit it in the morning, then read for the second half of the day.

[Magicman]

And to think that I retired and bought a sawmill !! 

[Nebraska]

20 logs and some firewood, sounds like an ok day to me.

[Old Greenhorn]

" And to think that I retired and bought a sawmill !!  "

Yeah, me too Lynn!

[Old Greenhorn]

20 logs and some firewood, sounds like an ok day to me.

Yeah, but I gotta kick this up a notch Pat. If conditions work tomorrow I will get the toolcat in there and use that for bringing logs to the truck. I have been hand dragging these so far and that is just blowing out my legs. We'll see what the weather allows. The next two trees have bigger wood and a lot more logs, hand carrying is just not time effective. I can't fit the truck in that slot, but the toolcat will fit fine. The snow on the ground at least allows dragging without scarring the logs up. So many logs, so little time.
 Like Pete, this may be my last year.

[SawyerTed]

Me thinks he doth protest too much.

I don't think so, Tom!  There are some things a man can't protest enough!  

[Peter Drouin]

And to think that I retired and bought a sawmill !! 

Everyone I know has had to work after retirement needed the $$$. I did plain better. I think it would be nice not to have to answer to anyone. Except the Father.

[thecfarm]

And then some need to work.
I have a tractor, chainsaw and plenty of woods and grown up pastures to keep me busy for another lifetime.
I might have to work a little to keep me in diesel. 
I go through some diesel on vacations and weekends.

[Magicman]

We did the the 'retired thing' and traveled extensively for several years driving to 49 states and all of the Canadian Provinces.  We still take a couple of shorter trips each year.

I have always worked and will continue to work as long as my health allows.  My sawing goal is now 2-3 days every 2-3 weeks.  The travel sawing has always matched very well because there is no equipment, inventory, laborers, nor overhead.  Just 'Have Sawmill will Travel', just not quite as far as in the past.  My sawing days average ~$800 which ain't bad.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I am pushing along slowly for this harvest season, but pushing none the less. We had that storm coming in Saturday afternoon, so I got down to the woods a little earlier than normal. My plan was to collect a good tree, a little side firewood, get it home and unloaded, and do the chores before the snow began.
 The next tree up was a nice WO of about 12" on the stump. Really too nice a tree to take for mushrooms, but the top was busted out and it would last long. Lots of epicormic sprouting going on. I had to take a dead standing EWP pecker pole to clear my fall so I cut that up for Bill's OQB, it's perfect wood. I also cut up 4 or 5 more small ones that were already on the ground, making it easier to walk and more wood for his stive. General cleanup stuff.
 The I cut the WO but it's so tight in there that there was no really slot to drop it into cleanly. However, I cut one log off the butt and the stem dropped then very slowly laid on the ground. I backed the truck in and chained it and dragged it out to the road. Normally I can't drag but the snow keeps the tree clean and scar free. I cut it up until I was halfway up, then re-hooked and dragged the top all the way out and cut that up. Got a tiny bit of dead topwood for my stove. About that time Bill and Inga came down to see what I was up to. Bill looked at the tree and asked if it was marked for me. It was a really nice oak. I pointed at the flagging tape which HE had tied on it last fall. When I pointed out the broken top, he recalled it better. So he helped me load it, then he got the toolcat and we filled the forks pretty well with all the OWB wood I had cut up, about enough for one full load in the boiler.
 I headed home, unloaded the firewood, stacked the logs and parked the truck. Then I fetched in a full load of firewood for the house stove. I checked the fuel in the Mule for plowing and did some other prep work outside. Lastly I brought in my even supply of beer from the shop. I sat down to take off my boots and before I had them both off, it started snowing. Pretty good timing I would say.

 We didn't get much snow, just about 6" but it had a crust of ice about 3/16" thick and a lot of water in it. It rained all day Sunday and so I plowed everything I could hoping for the best. Temp hung at 33° all day. Today we have a lot of ice everywhere and it will stay that way all week. Not much I can do about that except salt in the trouble spots and throw planer chips elsewhere.
 I had planned to cut again today but the winds are weird. It will be normal 10-15 mph winds, then all of a sudden we get 35mph or more blasts coming through. I don't like being in the woods with that kind of wind. Stuff is coming down everywhere. The wind is predicted right through tomorrow, so I will see what I can do. I have barely 50 logs cut so far and I have to keep at it.

 I'll just take it hour by hour and see if I can sneak in and out.

[Peter Drouin]

Snaeking 

[Magicman]

This sawing customer has had about 40 logs; White Oak, Water Oak, Tulip Poplar, Cherry, Cypress, Sweetgum & ERC that I can think of.


It was all separated by species so really spread out and hard to picture.


Most of what is seen here got sawed with the exception of the Tulip Poplar in the furthest whack.


The customer and his Grandson were excellent help.


We quit early so they could haul this to the shed and sticker.  It is about 1400bf that we sawed in 5 hours.

We both have appointments tomorrow and whether we saw Wednesday is dependent on the weather/rain.  We can easily finish this job in three days....maybe two if he finds good help.

[Old Greenhorn]

Nice mix of logs there MM!

I was too tired to post last night. It was our monthly food shopping trip and the wife will not be denied. So after humping a months worth of supplies into the house, the pantry, the freezer, and upstairs to the kitchen I changed outer clothes and took a 1/2 hour break before heading out. It hit about 24° yesterday. I took only one tree which did not go as planned. I tried to put it across the trail but there was just too much side lean and it broke the wrong way, no matter, no harm, but I had a heck of a time dragging it up to where I could work on it. I also had trouble with the toolcat forks popping off at a very inconvenient moment. Took me a minute to get that fixed. With all the snow and ice plugging everything I could not see clearly that the locking pins were not engaged fully and popped the whole thing off. Of course I was on an uneven slope at that moment, so it became a 'thing' to get things lined up and re-hooked.  I worked way too hard for that single stem and only got 9 logs out of it. 1 more tree in that section for today further back then I have to look elsewhere.

 So I got home, broke as much snow off the log pile as I could, then unloaded these logs on top. My son had dropped off some log chunks he had cleared from a clients parking lot after the wind. So I cut a bunch of that up, split a bunch and brought a cartful in the house. Neither of us can figure out what it is. It has a yellow interior wood and the outside looks like any barkless tree that has been standing 5 or more years. I have to work a bit at splitting it but it burns faster than anything I have. Perhaps some sort of willow, I don't know. BTU's come in all forms. What is left I will use for daytime wood because it barely lasts for an overnight burn. Anyway, I quit for the day around 4:30 and never did get lunch.

 Hopefully today is a bit easier. I'll wait a bit until it warms some, only 11° so far, then head down again and get that last tree. Maybe I can squeeze in 2 runs and get some firewood on the second run. It's hard to let this weather go to waste and I have a lot of catching up to do. But I see that wind seems to be picking up, dang.

[SawyerTed]

Could that yellow wood be Cladrastis Kentuckea?  

The common name is Yellow Wood or Kentucky Yellow Wood.   

It has seed pods similar to Locust and blooms that look kind of like Wisteria vines.  The bark is slick like Beech. 

If the tree was an ornamental tree, it's possible it was the Yellow Wood.  It's native in more southern states (I see a few around here) but has been cultivated as a decorative or ornamental tree.  It's not uncommon in nurseries for landscaping.  

It's a relatively soft wood and probably doesn't burn too well like you describe.  

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   Any chance that yellow wood was Black (Sometimes called Yellow) locust? It is a real dense wood and burns really well. It is the preferred firewood for many in my area because it burns hot and leaves very little ash. When dead the bark slips off fairly soon afterwards in many cases.

[SwampDonkey]

We've had black locust planted around here for over 100 years, and also bristly locust. The old people loved the flowers on them. The black locust seems more hardy. I've seen those by old homesteads on back roads that was abandoned eons ago.

[SawyerTed]

Locust is great firewood.  Unless it's rotten, Black Locust and Yellow/Honey Locust burn much better than Tom describes. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Ted,

   Around here Black Locust is sometimes called Yellow locust. I have never seen honey locust, which I understand is an Acacia, referred to as yellow locust. Is honey locust called yellow locust in your area?

[SawyerTed]

We have both varieties here but not in great quantity.  Black and honey are the names I was taught.  Locally, and possibly erroneously, I've heard Honey Locust called yellow.  It doesn't seem correct since as you mentioned, Black Locust wood can be quite yellow. 

[Magicman]

But they are completely different species.  Black Locust is weather, water, & ground contact resistant/safe. 

Honey Locust as fence posts will rot before you get the hole filled.    It also stinks when it burns so I will not use it for firewood.

[Wlmedley]

Around here we never had any honey locust until the mines started using it to reclaim ground that had been surface mined. A buddy of mine cut several as he was told it was locust ( which it was)and used them for fence posts. They rotted in no time like MM said. The coal companies have brought a lot of undesirable plants into the state just because they grew and spread rapidly.

[Old Greenhorn]

I don't know what that wood is and it's not worth worrying about. I can tell you it's not Ash, WO ,RO, Maple, Birch, Basswood, or beech.   I can also tell you it's absolutely not black locust, but it might be honey locust, common here. It burns easy and pretty fast, not very good at an overnight fire, so tonight will be interesting because I will load the stove with it and hope for the best. I only have maybe 3 days of wood out of it, so no big deal. It's BTU's and I will take it, but not something I would want to split and stack for next year. No way in heck, it would be campfire wood.
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Today was truly a beautiful day. One of those rare ones that reminds you there is a higher power giving us gifts from time to time. Low was 8 and the high made it to 26, but with almost no wind, blue skies, and blazing sunshine, spending it outside was the only way to enjoy such a gift.
The shop was down to 29° (first time in many years) so I started a fire out there to keep anything from freezing.
So I changed up my routine and started by splitting up a cart load of that junk wood and getting it in the house to thaw. Then I grabbed another chain and headed down and took out the last mushroom tree in the section I am cutting (I think, but I should re-check that). Less effort than yesterday's tree. Bill had his crew working at his place doing firewood and other stuff so I had to be judicious in my use of the toolcat because they needed it also. I had my logs loaded in the truck by 11:30 and gave them the toolcat back for firewood bag changeouts.
I headed home, unloaded logs and skipped lunch to head back. I took 3 standing dead trees off the swamp edge and got them up on the road using 2 chains and a choker to reach that far and had to do it in 2 pulls. I bucked those and filled the truck bed. Cleaned up, headed home and unloaded. I wish I didn't have these mushroom logs to worry about so I could concentrate on firewood. This standing dead stuff is so nice, needs no drying time, and only half of it needs splitting. I will only be able to grab these trees as long as the swamp stays frozen and there are many hundreds of trees to come out. I could do a years worth of wood if I could process it fast enough. It's also great for Bill, because he wants to dig out and make that swamp back to what it was 40 years ago when it became neglected. Even with it frozen I am still falling into my knees in some spots between those swampy hillocks but at least I know I won't get a boot full of water, it's just very difficult walking. I got about 5 days of firewood  today, maybe more with the warm weather coming in.
No plan for tomorrow, but I need to find more mushroom trees and fast. More firewood is also helpful.

[Old Greenhorn]

Still poking along, not getting logs in fast enough and I didn't get many over the weekend Friday the wind picked up pretty good, but Saturday Bill need3ed a hand getting a 750 gallon gas pig back from one of his job sites so I did the rigging and he operated the machine. Brought it back to the shop and reset it level to finish emptying it. I wandered a section I cut last year and found one or two more trees, but they are big and I will need some skidder help to work on them. Then I also found one tree remaining in the area I thought I had just finished, so I'll get that on another day. Sunday I was hoping to mark more trees with Bill, but he had family stuff going on, so I just wandered over on the 60 acre side and found three marked trees I had missed. Well one was missed, it's scrawny and I let it go, hoping it might frow a bit more. I cam home and split some firewood.
 Today I got out at a fair time, swapped my truck out for the SxS and headed over to fetch those trees. My timing was good, 5mph winds when I started and 20mph when I finished up. I filled the SxS pretty well.



There's a little bit over 20 mushroom logs, and handful of firewood, and some broom handles in that load. I try not to waste anything.
 I headed the mile back to my truck, transferred the load, headed home, unloaded it all and had lunch. I have to go pick up a GS at 3:30 and take him to his weekly outdoor study class at the Ashokan center. They tramp all around the woods, learn about flora, fauna, aquatic life, trees, and stuff like that there. The instructor is a guy I have known for 30 years and is very knowledgeable and a good teacher. Good program that.

 So I have time for a 10 minute nap before I have to take off.