The wood lot

[fruitcakesa]

We have 50+ acres of mostly white pine with a good mix of northern hardwoods.
I cut 6-8 cords of the hardwood yearly and like JGL, haul them tree length behind my workshop where I spend the rest of the year, bucking them with a chainsaw and splitting them with the electric 16 ton woodsplitter.
My Tarm wood boiler likes really dry wood so I try to have 2 years worth of logs in the pile.
Though I own and operate a commercial bakery, my first love is woods work and when I retire, will spend even more hours in the sticks

 

[deezler]

I cut, split and sell anywhere from 10 - 35 cords a year depending on how ambitious I am, if I draw for hunting season and when I can get good weather. This is a hobby or avocation, not my day job.
.

Uh, what? 35 cords a year is "not your day job"? I just can't fathom how you have that much free time, to cut 35 cords just for fun.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Uh, what? 35 cords a year is "not your day job"? I just can't fathom how you have that much free time, to cut 35 cords just for fun.

Hard work can be very rewarding with the correct mindset. I love haying, even loved stacking in the barn. Still do it but physically can't do as much stacking anymore because of a broken back.

Still like cutting firewood but back limits how much I can do of that too. I only use a cord a year for camping but give what I can to my grandfather.

 

[deezler]

Hard work can be very rewarding with the correct mindset. I love haying, even loved stacking in the barn. Still do it but physically can't do as much stacking anymore because of a broken back.

Still like cutting firewood but back limits how much I can do of that too. I only use a cord a year for camping but give what I can to my grandfather.

I like cutting wood too. It would just take me weeks and weeks to produce and sell 35 full cords. Sorry about your back! I just tweaked mine last week.

 

[MossRoad]

At age 14 my father gave me my first power saw. Since then I spent many enjoyable days and at age 51 it is still my hobby. Having a nice tractor and a walking beam dump trailer certainly makes it even more enjoyable. Anybody else have the same addiction. Would be interested in seeing you operation and discuss wood lot management.

I'd be interested in some more pictures and description of your trailer and it's attachments. The crane, does it swivel? What's the hoop/arch for and how do you use that?

The reason I ask is because all of our firewood is located 9 miles away (or further at friend's houses), and I'm thinking I'd rather load the long poles onto the trailer and bring them home to cut, VS cutting at the property and loading the rounds onto the trailer, then unloading the rounds again when I get home.

 

[Snaker]

My setup. Used to do 13-15 cords to heat the house and a workshop.
In more recent years I couldn't keep up and burned more like 9-11 cords by adjusting the two thermostat's in the house, one for central heat and one for the wood heat.

 

[Budweiser John]

Really fun to read about the various wood gathering adventures. Having ‘put up’ wood in various quantities for some 48 years i’ve Developed a system that accommodates my current need of about 4 to 5 face cords annually.
Starting in the woods I cut logs in multiples of 16” lengths depending on the diameter each log can be from 48” to 12’ long. With my grapple or a chain as necessary consolidate the logs to a common point and haul them to a storage area behind my barn. When the need or mood strikes I then buck the log pile into 16” stove lengths letting them fall where they are cut. Using my FEL then push the cut rounds into a common pile for splitting. Breaking out the splitter, I then position my FEL now with the pallet forks attached and holding mesh wood bags I buy from Ticonderoga Packaging in PA I simply split, toss, and be done. Each bag is about 4’ square and around 5’ high and holds around 3/4 of a face cord randomly tossed. When the bag is full I simply lift it with the attached straps slide a pallet underneath and move the whole shooten match to the covered storage area. No stacking, re-stacking.
I’ve been using this system for about 5 years now and find the wood drys about as fast as convential cord wood stacking and when it comes time to actually enjoy the heat of your wood cutting efforts, simply jump on the tractor and move the whole bag full to the shop, porch, or basement.
Each bag costs about $12 bucks and lasts about 3 or 4 years depending on how carefully they are handled.

B. John

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

We have 50+ acres of mostly white pine with a good mix of northern hardwoods.
I cut 6-8 cords of the hardwood yearly and like JGL, haul them tree length behind my workshop where I spend the rest of the year, bucking them with a chainsaw and splitting them with the electric 16 ton woodsplitter.
My Tarm wood boiler likes really dry wood so I try to have 2 years worth of logs in the pile.
Though I own and operate a commercial bakery, my first love is woods work and when I retire, will spend even more hours in the sticks

I had an electric wood splitter. They work great.

Firewood is great work.

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

10/4 on once you love this kind of work you will always love it but the bush is always dangerous. I started out helping my dad when I was 8 or 9 years old. We had 5 ac of heavily wooded land across the creek from our house that he wanted to clear out so he could put a garden in. The clearing for him was work but he had to do the work before he could do what was fun for him. To me the clearing was the fun part as I already hated picking beans. Come to think about it, I still do.LOL

I don't know how he ever got anything done because I was all over the place and he was always having to keep an eye on me especially when it was about time for the tree to topple over cause I always wanted to ride one down as it came crashing to the ground. Then he had to keep me in sight when he was cutting off the stump because sometimes they would fall back into the hole and those big holes were such wonderful and adventurous places to explore. The holes would be filled with wood and brush from the tree and he would let it sit that way for a few weeks for the wood to dry out a little. Just enough time for me and my buddy's to tunnel under as they made great forts for us to play army men. He would always leave a long piece of the tree on the stump so it would stay up right until he filled the hole with the wood and he had to go poke the pile to run all of the kids out before letting the stump fall over. It's a wonder any of us survived but now I know how I learned to do some of the stuff I now do especially some of the things I had to do while building my barn.LOL

He didn't have any fancy equipment but he did have an old chainsaw, a few axes, mauls, steel wedges, miles of chain and cable and a couple of those ratchet chain hoist. Oh and he had a big ladder he used to get up into those big trees to tie a chain to then he would slowly pull them over with the chain hoist. I always wanted to pull the handle on the hoist but he always kept me away from the hoist because it was really dangerous work and he didn't want me to get hurt.

One day as he had one of the trees just at the point it was about to fall he yelled over to me and said, come over here boy I need some help pulling on this handle. Man! that was music to my ears and I jumped at the chance to bring one of these giant oak trees to it's knees. When I got there he said, It's a good thing you were near by cause I couldn't pull this thing anymore, daddy's just plum tuckered out. I grabbed that handle and gave it a mighty yank and the handle didn't move an inch, not one click did I get out of the hoist. He let me jerk and yank on the handle for a little while and finally he said, Hey!! wait a minute the handle lock has somehow moved to the lock position, here let me help you out. There was no lock on the handle he just told me that so he could get his hand on the handle and then he said all right now give it a great big pull and just like magic the handle started to move and those links of chain started clicking through the hoist and I didn't even notice he had his hand on the handle all I knew I was in control of this powerful piece of equipment that could topple a giant oak tree and the one at the other end of this chain had met it's fate.

All of a sudden, slack fell in the chain and at that point I think I could have ripped a few links of chain through the hoist single handedly but the hoist fell to the ground and as I looked up this giant of a tree was free falling to the ground. As it crashed to the ground with a thunderous roar and the wind and dust that was kicked up by the tree top striking the ground hit me in the face....... I was hooked forever.

I remembered the story of David and the giant and this was my giant and for a moment I felt what he must have felt when he brought his giant to his knees. The smile on my face was so big it hurt my face and I think it would have stayed like that for like three days; but reality set in as I heard my dad saying over and over let go of the handle....let go of the handle! Even he couldn't remove the cold hard grip I had on that monster of a machine that could topple trees. I finally let go and I had peed my pants from all the excitement then I had to go take a quick dip in the creek so everything was wet and not just the front of my shorts.LOL But even that cold creek water couldn't take that smile off my face.

My dads gone now but I can still see him, go one on one with some of the biggest trees in the woods just like it was yesterday and I can still taste those snap beans and potatoes seasoned with a big old ham bone that he grew in that garden. Thanks to the OP for making this post which gave me the chance to reflect on times past, I needed that but I still hate pickin them beans.LOL

Awesome memories.

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

Geo material is not a substitute for a good base. It keeps a good base "good" by preventing mud from squishing up into the base material.

The first two or three hundred feet of my driveway crosses a wet area. Geo material went down first, then a base of bank run gravel on top of that about two feet deep. The bank run varied from fist size to watermelon size rock with some fines. A layer of 3" minus came next, then topping. It's had more than a few heavy trucks on it and is holding up well.

Is your driveway still holding up well?

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

Great stories. Around age 10 I started cutting wood with my dad. We' d burn around 4 full cords a year. There was a lot of soft ground in and around our woods and the water table was usually less than 18" below the surface. When the ground would freeze in the winter it is was wood cutting season. We cut our buts off every weekend we could to make sure that that we had heat. Some winters would be really wet and we couldn't get our full hauls, so we always tried to finish the winter with a couple years worth of wood in the bank.

Our equipment consisted of an old Ford tractor with trailer, a couple of well used saws with 20" bars, an axe, a couple splitting mauls, a sledge hammer, and a bunch of wedges. We would fell, and buck in the woods. The stuff that was too big to carry was split in the woods by hand, the rest we'd stack and split during the evenings through the week up by the house using the porch light to see what we were doing. The wood always split easiest when it was cold out.

My dad is 82 now and there is now a gas line in front of his place. So all that old equipment is idle now. I quit heating with wood when I sold our last house in 2006, but I still enjoy felling trees. I have 4 boys that are too young for a saw, but they still love to watch me knock down trees. The last couple years I have started to cut a few more down to expand my garden area and have been giving the wood to one of the neighbors that still heats with it. They stand in awe and cheer when the tree crashes to the ground. I now understand what my father must have felt when he used to take me in the woods.

I've always loved my dad, but it is amazing how your appreciation grows as you walk farther down the road of life.

Very true. Our memories are sweeten with time. Nice story.

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

Really fun to read about the various wood gathering adventures. Having ‘put up’ wood in various quantities for some 48 years i’ve Developed a system that accommodates my current need of about 4 to 5 face cords annually.
Starting in the woods I cut logs in multiples of 16” lengths depending on the diameter each log can be from 48” to 12’ long. With my grapple or a chain as necessary consolidate the logs to a common point and haul them to a storage area behind my barn. When the need or mood strikes I then buck the log pile into 16” stove lengths letting them fall where they are cut. Using my FEL then push the cut rounds into a common pile for splitting. Breaking out the splitter, I then position my FEL now with the pallet forks attached and holding mesh wood bags I buy from Ticonderoga Packaging in PA I simply split, toss, and be done. Each bag is about 4’ square and around 5’ high and holds around 3/4 of a face cord randomly tossed. When the bag is full I simply lift it with the attached straps slide a pallet underneath and move the whole shooten match to the covered storage area. No stacking, re-stacking.
I’ve been using this system for about 5 years now and find the wood drys about as fast as convential cord wood stacking and when it comes time to actually enjoy the heat of your wood cutting efforts, simply jump on the tractor and move the whole bag full to the shop, porch, or basement.
Each bag costs about $12 bucks and lasts about 3 or 4 years depending on how carefully they are handled.

B. John

For an old fat guy like me, handling a cord of wood takes 1.5 hours. The bags saves you a lot of time

 

[Budweiser John]

For an old fat guy like me, handling a cord of wood takes 1.5 hours. The bags saves you a lot of time

Indeed they do and I’m surprised they are not more popular. The system does require a fairly stout tractor/FEL with pallet forks and a little more storage space if storing under a roofed area.
As an aside, another very useful wood handling tool is a ‘Pickeroon’. Similar to an ax but with a pointed hook on the business end. They work great for pulling cut rounds up to the splitter table with out having to bend over.

B. John

 

[deezler]

mesh wood bags I buy from Ticonderoga Packaging in PA I simply split, toss, and be done. Each bag is about 4’ square and around 5’ high and holds around 3/4 of a face cord randomly tossed.

B. John

Hey B. John, where did you buy these affordable storage bags from? I searched "ticonderoga" and couldn't find any. Other industrial forklift storage bags are $30+ apiece.
I really want to find a lot of IBC totes to convert into firewood storage frames, but people around here want silly prices for used ones full of caustic chemical remnants.

Thanks!

 

[Ken45101]

Hey B. John, where did you buy these affordable storage bags from? I searched "ticonderoga" and couldn't find any.

Thanks!

Me too! It sounds worthwhile.

I started out using pallets to form a box but those do not hold up very well. I went to building my own out of pt lumber. Those are a lot better but expensive. These bags may be worth trying.

 

[Budweiser John]

Deezler, Ken, wood bags.
The contact number is 1 (800)-724-6003.
The last time I ordered some was September of ‘17

B. John

 

[deezler]

Deezler, Ken, wood bags.
The contact number is 1 (800)-724-6003.
The last time I ordered some was September of ‘17
B. John

Thanks, that phone number led to this site:
Air Bag Void Fillers - Corrugated Dunnage | Tyoga Container

And these bags:
Firewood Bags | Dino Bags

 

[Budweiser John]

You found them, sorry for the misspelling.

B. John

 

[Paystar]

While I don't have as big an operation or equipment as many of you, I also enjoy playing in my woods and doing firewood. I live in maple forest. I burn about 12 face cord a winter plus some oil in the furnace.
I only cut dead-fall and the trees that are unhealthy or that need to be removed to keep the forest healthy. I have a retired forester neighbor that helps me with that as he knows more than me.
I would love to do this all the time, but unfortunately i have to go to work every day trucking. But I do most of my work in the winter and spring while there are no black flies and mosquitoes out.

Used to do most of the work with my Polaris Sportsman 500 HO to skid and haul in a dump cart. But now I use my Kubota B2620 to build and maintain one kilometer of bush road (the rest is just cut ATV trails.) Still do all my cutting with an old Stihl 029 that has been absolutely trouble free.

 

[Paystar]

As for equipment I use my Polaris Sportsman 500HO, the B2620 Kubota, and my Stihl 029 saw.

For splitters I have the old one my father built in the late 70's/early 80's at his welding and fab shop. It was an old Lincoln welding machine trailer he made into a splitter. It has had Ford, GM, Mazda and currently Toyota engines on it. (he always lent it out and got it back dead, LOL)
Now I also just bought a new 25 ton Forest King that is easy to pull around with the ATV.

Then I clean up branches and bark with the Wallenstein chipper/shredder.