Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[Rustyiron]

Spend a little time dragging out wood and it becomes clear.

 

[BackRoad]

Interesting observation that I never made till the post by Mr. Gordon about dragging a hitch.

All of my work has been focused on felling trees for clearing land and reclaiming pasture.

That creates a need to effectively cut "everything"...rather than selective cutting and dragging a hitch out of the woods for the mill.

My greatest objective has been getting everything down and limbed...and getting the slash into brush piles, with the benefit of gaining some firewood from the trunks, rather than trying to determine which tree is best suited to take to the mill.

I hadn't really identified the differences in objectives before...and I have new appreciation for you guys selectively felling "real" timber for commercial use.

 

[Williy]

What ever you use to drag a tree out of the
woods if you can lift the tree and attach to
tractor etc will give you some weight for traction
and have less on the ground to drag

willy

 

[Loaderman22]

What ever you use to drag a tree out of the
woods if you can lift the tree and attach to
tractor etc will give you some weight for traction
and have less on the ground to drag

willy

I typically use a log arch, it gets at least one end off the ground keeping the wood cleaner, & reducing friction (vs dragging entire hitch on ground.). This doesn't put much weight on 4 wheeler though, the arch pics up the weight instead.

 

[Jstpssng]

I typically use a log arch, it gets at least one end off the ground keeping the wood cleaner, & reducing friction (vs dragging entire hitch on ground.). This doesn't put much weight on 4 wheeler though, the arch pics up the weight instead.

I know a couple of people who have cut 8 cord truck loads of tree length pulpwood using ATVs. You just need to understand the limitations of your machine.

 

[Bill Guenthner]

Actual cold weather here is 3-4 months. I have a heat pump. No cutting, working on saws, no ashes to clean up, no smoke on the walls and ceiling. Seriously, I don’t spend enough on electricity to make all that work pay off.

 

[Jstpssng]

It's something that you have to enjoy. I grew up helping put in firewood, and at times when I didn't have a woodstove of my own I often would do it for somebody else. Putting up wood is good exercise and I really enjoy splitting it. In fall as I'm headed out to go deer hunting, seeing the year's wood put up is like looking at money in the bank. I like the steady heat which it gives, and the glow of the fire reflected on the wall after going to bed at night.

On the other hand I'll bet that you've never gotten up at 3:30 AM to throw another stick of electricity into your heat pump, yet still get up to a warm house in the morning. Before I installed a small electric heater, it wasn't uncommon to wake up in the AM and the house would be <40 degrees.

 

[shooterdon]

It's something that you have to enjoy. I grew up helping put in firewood, and at times when I didn't have a woodstove of my own I often would do it for somebody else. Putting up wood is good exercise and I really enjoy splitting it. In fall as I'm headed out to go deer hunting, seeing the year's wood put up is like looking at money in the bank. I like the steady heat which it gives, and the glow of the fire reflected on the wall after going to bed at night.

On the other hand I'll bet that you've never gotten up at 3:30 AM to throw another stick of electricity into your heat pump, yet still get up to a warm house in the morning. Before I installed a small electric heater, it wasn't uncommon to wake up in the AM and the house would be <40 degrees.

I am another "idiot" who enjoys a fire and wood heat. And now, with energy costs escalating, I save a bit more money. I stopped trying to get "free" wood and buy logs.

Cutting down trees is one of the most dangerous tasks for most of us. So buying logs reduces the risk significantly. But I still take advantage of trees down from storm damage.

I know two guys who nearly died cutting down trees. Neither was a dummy and one is very experienced. Stuff happens especially if you are tired and/or over confident.

 

[Molalla1]

I am another "idiot" who enjoys a fire and wood heat. And now, with energy costs escalating, I save a bit more money. I stopped trying to get "free" wood and buy logs.

Cutting down trees is one of the most dangerous tasks for most of us. So buying logs reduces the risk significantly. But I still take advantage of trees down from storm damage.

I know two guys who nearly died cutting down trees. Neither was a dummy and one is very experienced. Stuff happens especially if you are tired and/or over confident.

I would add another one . . . old.

 

[ericm979]

I burn wood in order to get rid of it. I have to deal with dead trees near buildings and roads, trees that fall down on roads, trees that PG&E takes down and leaves, trees that we take down for safety or fire clearing or forest improvement. The forest is productive and overgrown so it generates a lot of wood.

I have given wood away but even to do that I have to fell, buck and stage the wood and help load it. Otherwise no one will take it. There's just too much wood available in the area already and a lot of locals just buy wood that's already split. To turn it into fire wood I can burn, my only additional labor is splitting and stacking.

With the current cost of propane and taking the furnace and stove's efficiencies into account, a cord of firewood saves me about $900 worth of propane. While that's not the main goal it's a nice side effect.

I like spitting wood. I got bluetooth ear muffs and that makes it even more enjoyable. I can go behind the barn and split wood for a couple albums. It's comforting in a primal way to have a couple year's worth of firewood stacked and drying.

 

[arrow]

I am another "idiot" who enjoys a fire and wood heat. And now, with energy costs escalating, I save a bit more money. I stopped trying to get "free" wood and buy logs.

Cutting down trees is one of the most dangerous tasks for most of us. So buying logs reduces the risk significantly. But I still take advantage of trees down from storm damage.

I know two guys who nearly died cutting down trees. Neither was a dummy and one is very experienced. Stuff happens especially if you are tired and/or over confident.

I resemble this remark.
Been cutting trees down for 56 yrs now and I'm becoming less and less confident. Had a lot of hang ups this year and that's just not like me.
Where i could fall a tree on a beer can, my aim now is more like "I betcha I can hit that house".

 

[goeduck]

I have so many blow downs that I seldom ever cut down a tree and don't need to.

 

[Molalla1]

I resemble this remark.
Been cutting trees down for 56 yrs now and I'm becoming less and less confident. Had a lot of hang ups this year and that's just not like me.
Where i could fall a tree on a beer can, my aim now is more like "I betcha I can hit that house".

. . . I resemble that remark also and I sure can't run anymore very good.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

It's sunny and nice here today, so I moved some boxes of firewood up to the house,

I haven't been burning wood full time this winter, so my half cord boxes last a while.

SR

 

[Molalla1]

^^^^^^^ Looks like that front left is a little low?

 

[shooterdon]

I resemble this remark.
Been cutting trees down for 56 yrs now and I'm becoming less and less confident. Had a lot of hang ups this year and that's just not like me.
Where i could fall a tree on a beer can, my aim now is more like "I betcha I can hit that house".

There is a guy from Ohio who is a tree cutter/trimer for a power company there. He has a cabin about 3/4 mile away and we are friends. He offered to cut some tress for me that I wanted gone. This guy is an arborist as well. All goes well until the last tree. It is near the pond and waterfall. I ask him to lay it down between the waterfall and the road....good sized area...maybe 30 ft wide. We tie a rope to the tree and I have the tractor pulling slightly to help direct the fall. Well, he drops it 90 degrees off the fall line and onto the fence next to the road.

I could tell the felling cut was not where it needed to be. I am about 100 ft away in the tractor and wondering WTF but he is the expert. After it crashes into the fence he says, "At least I did not drop it into the pond or on the waterfall". He did not admit it, but he was trying to lay it parallel to the road, and screwed it up. He knew if it hit the pond, it would destroy a $10k llner.

I will give him credit. He dropped every other tree within 10 ft of where he wanted, except that one.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

^^^^^^^ Looks like that front left is a little low?

1. They are radial tires; they pretty much always look a bit low.

2. They both look low, when there's a half core of oak on the forks. lol

SR

 

[Jstpssng]

I have so many blow downs that I seldom ever cut down a tree and don't need to.

Funny how differently people view things. If I had that problem it would tell me that it's time to have the woodlot harvested commercially.

 

[ericm979]

You need to have enough commercially viable timber in those blow down species to make it worth logging, a way to get to it efficiently without clear cutting, and a mill that will take it. In my case (as an example) most of the falling trees are Madrones and the dying ones are Tan oaks (due to SODS). Our forest is mixed with nine different tree species, so there's not a huge amount of either of those two. The only non firewood commercial use I can find for either is a boutique mill 250 miles away that makes small amounts of Madrone flooring. It's beautiful and probably really expensive since Madrone grows any way but straight and cracks and warps as it dries. Tan oak is entirely worthless. I can't even get rid of Tan oak as firewood because I'd be spreading the disease. It's good firewood for me though, as is Madrone.

OTOH one national forest I worked on in Arizona had hundreds of thousands of acres of nothing but ponderosa pine which isn't fir but has value as pulp if nothing else. Lots of logging roads, not to steep, and mills near by. In a place like that logging makes a lot more sense.

 

[fruitcakesa]

We have been managing our 50 acre woodlot for 30 years and burning wood for heat even longer.
After having a forester come in to the timber inventory and develop a management plan, we have been doing all the work laid out in the plan.
Over the years that has included not only saw timber harvest but also crop tree release, habitat improvement and other non harvest activities.
There is always excess firewood which to gather, since we heat the house and workshop with wood.
We just had the plan updated for the next 10 years and some of the work will involve shelterwood and patch cuts on a 15 acre plot. Most of the trees in this plot are low grade, ie: pulp, chips and firewood with a lesser volume of sawtimber.
I am not equipped to handle that scale of non-sawtimber harvest so will likely farm it out to a professional crew.
I love woods work and intend to continue till I am too old and frail to do it.