Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[motownbrowne]

So a little more detail. Tree was standing dead and already leaning in the felling direction before cutting. Since it was dead I was a little more leery than normal in cutting it. Straight trunk with few limbs to worry about breaking off above me. Made my front notch then carefully started back cutting. Once the tree started to fall I quickly stepped backwards at least 10-12 feet like normal. What happened was as the tree started to fall and before the front notched closed up the trunk snapped at the cut. The tree jumped forward and landed on the ground in front of the stump. When this happened I'm assuming the jar to the tree was enough to snap a week spot in the upper half of the tree. The lower half continued to fall forward in the correct direction but the upper half snapped and fell backwards and left toward me. The upper half fell in my direction so fast there was no time to do anything else other than lay over backwards to get out of the way. I got lucky in that all that I ended up with was a hyperextended thumb and probably some strained or torn ligaments.

So, doing a bore cut like John _Mc recommended would have helped. You could have created your ideal hinge, left a trigger, checked your escape, cut the trigger and ran. But, playing armchair quarterback here, I'm gonna say that your felling was fine in this case. The mistake was "strong back 10-12 feet like normal". Why stop at 10-12'? There's about to be thousands of pounds of wood falling near you. The trunk can come backwards, debris laying on the ground or branches from other trees can be catapulted or flung in any direction by the falling tree, or the trunk can snap sending the top back in your direction.

It's fun to watch them drop, I know, but there's just no need to hang out near the stump. Wear a helmet, practice good safety measures during cutting, and when it starts to go over, get out of there. Just my two cents.

 

[jk96]

So, doing a bore cut like John _Mc recommended would have helped. You could have created your ideal hinge, left a trigger, checked your escape, cut the trigger and ran. But, playing armchair quarterback here, I'm gonna say that your felling was fine in this case. The mistake was "strong back 10-12 feet like normal". Why stop at 10-12'? There's about to be thousands of pounds of wood falling near you. The trunk can come backwards, debris laying on the ground or branches from other trees can be catapulted or flung in any direction by the falling tree, or the trunk can snap sending the top back in your direction.

It's fun to watch them drop, I know, but there's just no need to hang out near the stump. Wear a helmet, practice good safety measures during cutting, and when it starts to go over, get out of there. Just my two cents.

I say 10-12 feet but could be more. Not real sure to be honest. I usually cut and retreat quickly but without running to where I can as soon as the tree starts to fall. If I can I try to position myself with another standing tree between myself and the felling tree. Due to the thick underbrush I couldn't have gotten back much further without running. Most of the trees I'm cutting are in the 14-16" range. I do agree distance is good but in this case had I been retreating when the upper half snapped instead of watching it would have landed on me.

 

[VroomVroom]

Nice video blooper. Your in Nova Scotia. How you liking the winch, when did you get it?

 

[John_Mc]

Yeah, that's not barber chair. When I reread your original post more carefully, I could see something else was going on.

Dead trees are just no fun. The bore cut may have helped, but maybe not. One advantage it does have is that you can get almost all of your cutting done, leaving just a small bit of trigger wood at the back. Then when you are ready, cut the trigger and get out of Dodge. That little bit cuts quickly, o you don.t have to hang around the stump when the tree may start moving. On live trees, I do back up about 15 or 20 feet. On dead ones, once I've made the last cut, I just keep on moving - the more distance the better.

 

[jk96]

I will probably just steer clear of the dead ones after that run in unless it just has to be dropped for some reason. I've got plenty of good live timber for firewood.

 

[bg71361]

Here's what I worked on yesterday. I have a love hate relationship with these trees. I hate cutting them down and cleaning them up but love splitting and burning once the thorns are off. I have a lot these honeylocust on my property that I need to get rid of. Once they are cleared of thorns they split as easy as anything else I've processed and come in at #11 on the BTU chart.

20161210_115536 https://www.flickr.com/photos/150090343@N02/

20161210_115343 https://www.flickr.com/photos/150090343@N02/

20161210_165713 https://www.flickr.com/photos/150090343@N02/

I love the repurposed totes... still have not found a cheap source near me.

I have a recycling business near us that sells them for $18/each. So much easier than picking everything up after splitting. Everything goes straight into the totes as I split.

Wow $18 bucks I'd be in too! I see them with plastic containers for $110-135 all the time. Looking for the deal still.

 

[jk96]

Wow $18 bucks I'd be in too! I see them with plastic containers for $110-135 all the time. Looking for the deal still.

I've recieved a few pm's so here's where I got the totes. Price was for the metal cages without the plastic container and I asked for a qty discount. They advertised them higher than the $18 I paid.

Green Rivers Recycling

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I love the repurposed totes... still have not found a cheap source near me.

I can get them for FREE from my neighbor, but for me, they really are too small...

My wife said she saw them in town at a garden center, for $25. ea...

SR

 

[94BULLITT]

Has anyone put wood on plastic pallets? I'm wondering how the plastic holds up to weather.

 

[4570Man]

Has anyone put wood on plastic pallets? I'm wondering how the plastic holds up to weather.

I'd guess a lot better than wood assuming they have wood stacked on them sitting on dirt under cover. Rot is the enemy of wood pallets and wins within a year, maybe longer if it's not touching dirt. Sun is the enemy of plastic, but I'm guessing it takes longer especially since they are mostly covered.