Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[Jstpssng]

That's definitely a gift which will keep on giving!

By any chance, did you check to see if it was on their wedding registry?

 

[FriendwithTractor]

How fitting that it was a barn wedding...

You're the best friend ever!!!

Yes, it was indeed fitting. Both come from large clans so I feel honored to be included among a very tight guest list.
He's been my friend for going on 20+ years, included me when he didn't have to and even included me with his family's prayer. I feel that this is only a small token of appreciation of our friendship.

Now all we need is a shot of the bride & groom motoring off on a tractor with a string of tin cans dragging from the 3pt.

It is still an active farm allegedly, although I didn't see any signs of farming activity. I can't confirm what they rode off in as I had a work emergency crop up and needed to skate after dinner.

You should have taken your forearm and knocked all that junk on the floor and put that bad boy saw where it belongs, in the center of the gift table.

That would have caused even more commotion than a long haired, full beared hippy looking dude showing up with a massive saw slung over his shoulder.
Both families are from a rural background, which made the gift go over easier. I'm sure I would have been asked to leave had I brought it into a church!

That's definitely a gift which will keep on giving!

By any chance, did you check to see if it was on their wedding registry?

Yes, I hope it will help warm them and theirs for many, many years.
I don't believe I was even forwarded the registry, I'm sure my friend assumed I would get them something off menu regardless.

 

[Rustyiron]

NRCS project on a little part of my land.

^This is what I'm looking for, left some desired seed trees.

^This (background) shows how dense it was, it was difficult to even walk through and no sunlight ever hit the ground, stifled.

^Let there be light!
This is my 2nd excavator so I've got lots of seat time. Running that mulcher is a whole other "thing" much to my surprise.

 

[Gordon Gould]

What a huge difference you have made.

Should be interesting watching what happens as the seasons and years roll by.

gg

 

[Rustyiron]

I'm very curious myself Gordon!
Forestry is very slow agriculture.
That little piece was stagnant with the density although the firs and spruce that I ground had respectable growth rings that surprises me.
Now the worry about those that are left remaining vertical.
Much of them had lost their top in last April's very wet snow and large areas of bent over trees that were not going to recover.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I'm very curious myself Gordon!
Forestry is very slow agriculture.
That little piece was stagnant with the density although the firs and spruce that I ground had respectable growth rings that surprises me.
Now the worry about those that are left remaining vertical.
Much of them had lost their top in last April's very wet snow and large areas of bent over trees that were not going to recover.

Same thing happened here with all the wet snow. We didn't get as heavy a dose as you did though. It is hard to find a birch pole here not bent over - both white and yellow. We have a lot of birch poles. The pine regen took it hard too - new growth from a too heavy harvest in the late 90's. Now this summer with all the rain the soil is so wet every time the wind puffs a little trees up-root and take other trees with them. Seems like there is no end to the perils in a forest. But somehow some good trees survive and make it thru. We bought this place in 99 just after that liquidation harvest. Watching it change year by year for 25 years has been a very interesting experience.

gg

 

[Rustyiron]

You VT guys have had long (like years) stretch of terrible flooding storms. Seems like I heard about flooded roads every week this summer.
Iirc your pretty high and dry... hopefully.

 

[WinterDeere]

Well Gentlemen, I am pleased to report that Operation Wedding Gift has been completed:

That's gonna be one happy bride. What'd you get the groom?

 

[Hoobie]

That's good You are lucky. It is caused by a bacteria in the soil that enters thru the root system. Probably why infections are localized vs random. It used to be considered a symptom of strong winds but that has been proven to be false.

gg

Well this is new to me as well. In my career as a forester with DNR I never heard this. We called it wind shake. You always give us something to think about Gordon.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Well this is new to me as well. In my career as a forester with DNR I never heard this. We called it wind shake. You always give us something to think about Gordon.

I copied this from a thread on shake in the Forestry Forum-

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Shake, wind shake and ring shake (and also ring failure, ring separation, and ring check) are the same thing...a separation of the wood parallel to the growth rings. The separation can occur within a growth ring or at the junction between adjacent rings. In 99.99% of the cases of shake, the basic cause is a weakening of the wood caused by anaerobic bacteria that come into the tree stem through the roots. These bacteria create an enzyme that dissolves part of the wood structure, making the attachment between the cells much weaker than normal. So, normal stresses in the life of the tree create the failures called shake. These bacteria also create very high MCs in the stem while the tree is growing. They also create basic fatty acids that turn rancid and give the wood a very foul odor. In dry lumber, these bacteria, although dead in dry lumber, are responsible for wet pockets--small high MC areas in a piece of lumber that is quite dry everywhere except in these few spots. The bacteria thrive in the soil when the soil is wet and warm. They enter the roots through injuries, often caused by cattle grazing or a previous logging operation. Usually, due to the slow spread of the bacteria, trees are 75 years old before the effects are seen in the main stem.

Because of the weakening of the the wood caused by the bacteria, it is common to see splits or checks running across the rings as well in the infected area. In bacterially weakened wood, end checks and splits and also surface checks and honeycomb are commonly seen. But radial cracks running across the rings (when viewed from the end grain) should not be called shake. For hardwoods, the definition of shake is correctly given in the Rules; likewise, when grading softwoods, shake is correctly defined. In texts that are over 50 years old, the failure parallel to the rings was called ring failure or shake. The Textbook of Wood Technology also correctly defines shake. The latest version of the US Forest Products Lab's WOOD HANDBOOK (2010) has shake defined as going parallel to the rings and synonymous with ring failure. A similar definition is in the DRY KILN OPERATOR'S MANUAL (1956). In 1926, they called shake "honeycombing along the rings." The term shake seems to have entered our wood vocabulary in the late 40s or early 50s.

It was only about 35 years ago that the cause of shake (bacterial) was firmly established, with most of the the early work being done with western hemlock by a microbiologist, James Ward. However, shake and its quality loss was well known at least 100 years ago in both softwoods and hardwoods. In fact, if you see some old logging pictures, once in a while you will see that they cut high stumps. Evidence points to the reason for such practice...the loggers knew that the lower portion of the stem had shake and was of poor quality, so a high stump left the defect in the woods and not at the mill.

Some species, such as hemlock (east and west), cottonwood, willow and aspen seem to be quite susceptible to this bacterial infection and shake.

With the high increase in MC when the bacteria are present, it is common to find that the log will not float in water very well. In fact, many of the logs on the bottom of rivers, lakes and ponds are actually bacterially infected and that is why they sunk. Although the bacteria are gone, the weak wood effect is still there. For this reason, sunken wood must be dried much more slowly than "normal" wood.

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gg