Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[wolc123]

I haven’t seen a winter like this in north western NY since the early 1980’s. Our ground froze in late December and the temperature has hardly got above freezing since then. Fortunately, we are well north of the Lake Erie snow belt, so snow accumulation hasn’t been too much.

I’m actually starting to work on some firewood, something I haven’t been able to do the winter in many years, because our ground hadn’t froze enough to eliminate rutting.

Only trouble is, the engines are harder to start when it’s cold out. I had the block heater plugged in on my diesel tractor for a couple hours this morning. I plowed everything out with my little gasoline powered Farmall Cub, which just barely got started, on its own 6 volt battery.

It took a few squirts of ether and some carb cleaner to get the little Honda gas engine on my wood splitter started. I haven’t tried to start a chain saw yet, but I got quite a bit more wood to spilt up before I need to worry about that.

What the heck happened to global warming ?

 

[WinterDeere]

Out splitting today. Mostly sections of a big red oak, roughly 30-36 inch diameter, but also found one nice straight 14” diameter shag bark hickory log in that pile. Everytime I tell myself red oak is heavy, I come across a SB hickory, and re-learn the meaning of the word… man that stuff is dense!

We still have maybe 6” of snow on the ground from the last two storms, so setting up took a little longer than usual, and fetching logs off the pile has been slowed by the fact that they’re frozen hard together. But I should have a fresh full cord up by sunset.

 

[wolc123]

I finished splitting all of the chucked up ash rounds that were stacked in my splitter shed today, a bit over a face cord. It seemed very dry, having been standing dead a year or two. It would have been enough to fill up the woodshed, but I moved about half of it to our house porch, to be burned in the next week.

 

[John_Mc]

-30*C (-22*F)

BTW, you can get the degree symbol (as in -30˚C) by typing Alt-K (or on a Mac it's Option-K)

 

[two_bit_score]

BTW, you can get the degree symbol (as in -30˚C) by typing Alt-K (or on a Mac it's Option-K)

OK, I wrote that down until I get used to it. Thanks for the reminder. 50°

 

[John_Mc]

OK, I wrote that down until I get used to it. Thanks for the reminder. 50°

I remember it because K is the abbreviation for the Kelvin scale: a temperature scale in which 0˚ is absolute zero, the lowest temperature possible (there is no such thing as "below zero" on the Kelvin scale. 0˚K = -273˚C/-460˚F)

 

[dodge man]

Lately I’ve been splitting my wood and just throwing it in a pile. It maybe a 700 foot drive from my pile of splits to where I stack and store my wood. I used to carefully stack the splits in my tractor bucket. Lately I just drive the bucket into the pile and pick up what I can. If it’s mostly full I just drive to my storage area, if not I hop off and throw a few in the bucket. I don’t get as much in the bucket but it’s much quicker.

 

[dodge man]

My wood pile today, I hauled a few more bucketful’s today.

 

[WinterDeere]

Re-using an old barn foundation? I'd be putting a roof on that!

I put up another cord yesterday, back-filling each bay in my row of sheds as I empty it. But as usual, I didn't think to take many pictures, other than this one to show my own embarrassing bone-headedness.

I had only carried my 63cc saw with 20" bar down to the wood lot with me that morning, and then found myself cutting a whole bunch of 30" diameter red oak. Of course you can get thru that just fine (albeit slowly) with that combination, working from both sides, but the cuts never end up quite as perfect or beautiful as my normal work.

By late afternoon I was frustrated enough making big cuts with a tiny saw, that I walked up to the barn to fetch a "real" saw... my trusty old 85cc Stihl 064AV. Here it is, getting gassed up and ready for work, wearing the "small" 28-inch bar. I also have a 36 inch bar that I mount on this saw, as I've dropped oaks up to 60" diameter, and many dozens of ash over 40" diameter, with this old beast of a saw.



Friends who I regularly cut with like to joke that their first mopeds or motorcycles were smaller than the engine on this saw. It's really not that big, I once owned a 125cc Stihl 084AV, which was a true monster. But this 064AV is much faster and lighter than any of those slow .440 milling saws. I've heard a few claims the 064AV had the highest power to weight ratio of any of the "big" saws Stihl ever made, and it appears it has a few peers to that claim, but maybe none even today beat it.

 

[dodge man]

Re-using an old barn foundation? I'd be putting a roof on that!

I put up another cord yesterday, back-filling each bay in my row of sheds as I empty it. But as usual, I didn't think to take many pictures, other than this one to show my own embarrassing bone-headedness.

I had only carried my 63cc saw with 20" bar down to the wood lot with me that morning, and then found myself cutting a whole bunch of 30" diameter red oak. Of course you can get thru that just fine (albeit slowly) with that combination, working from both sides, but the cuts never end up quite as perfect or beautiful as my normal work.

By late afternoon I was frustrated enough making big cuts with a tiny saw, that I walked up to the barn to fetch a "real" saw... my trusty old 85cc Stihl 064AV. Here it is, getting gassed up and ready for work, wearing the "small" 28-inch bar. I also have a 36 inch bar that I mount on this saw, as I've dropped oaks up to 60" diameter, and many dozens of ash over 40" diameter, with this old beast of a saw.

View attachment 2367997

Friends who I regularly cut with like to joke that their first mopeds or motorcycles were smaller than the engine on this saw. It's really not that big, I once owned a 125cc Stihl 084AV, which was a true monster. But this 064AV is much faster and lighter than any of those slow .440 milling saws. I've heard a few claims the 064AV had the highest power to weight ratio of any of the "big" saws Stihl ever made, and it appears it has a few peers to that claim, but maybe none even today beat it.

That’s actually not a barn foundation but an old dog kennel. It had a little house on it when we moved in but I eventually tore it down. It makes for good wood storage.

 

[two_bit_score]

I remember it because K is the abbreviation for the Kelvin scale: a temperature scale in which 0˚ is absolute zero, the lowest temperature possible (there is no such thing as "below zero" on the Kelvin scale. 0˚K = -273˚C/-460˚F)

Turned out my keyboard wouldn't work that way. But I can press Alt +. and get °. Thanks to your post though getting me to try it until I got it.

 

[Portuguese Farmer]

 

[Gordon Gould]

Thought this odd shaped 3 stemmed red maple would make good firewood and give the nice red oak pole across the trail more light.

Cut the 3 stems off at 24' each and skidded them out to the wood pile. I'll come back for the limb wood later.

It was a nice winter afternoon. Cold, 10* F, but plenty of sun and no wind.


gg

 

[Rockbadchild]

Thought this odd shaped 3 stemmed red maple would make good firewood and give the nice red oak pole across the trail more light.


View attachment 2410093


Cut the 3 stems off at 24' each and skidded them out to the wood pile. I'll come back for the limb wood later.


View attachment 2410095


It was a nice winter afternoon. Cold, 10* F, but plenty of sun and no wind.


gg

I call that a perfect winter day… how’s the traction in the snow ? i guess the lack of friction from the logs compensate for the lack of traction from the tires and things equals out ?

 

[Gordon Gould]

I call that a perfect winter day… how’s the traction in the snow ? i guess the lack of friction from the logs compensate for the lack of traction from the tires and things equals out ?

With those big loaded rears and chains on all four the snow has to be pretty deep and mealy for traction to be a problem.

gg

 

[Gordon Gould]

View attachment 2410062

What type of stove do you have that likes those nicely chunked up pieces of wood ? And how do you process that wood ? Very efficient usage - you don't leave much that will burn.

gg

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Hard to load a pallet on a trailer with sides. Had to hoist these slabs headed to the kiln with straps and back the trailer underneath. Worked perfectly!!

 

[WinterDeere]

Hard to load a pallet on a trailer with sides. Had to hoist these slabs headed to the kiln with straps and back the trailer underneath. Worked perfectly!!
View attachment 2410127

I have a trailer with relatively tall sides probably over 24" high, and I have to do the same thing, hoisting with straps. But the trade-off is that I use those side railings to steer logs into the trailer, and avoid having to strap them down for transport home. The heavy front wall of that trailer also keeps 5000 lb. of logs from shooting in my direction, if I ever need to slam on the brakes while hauling.



If I could do it all over again, I'd probably buy a flatbed and custom-fab some metal sides to drop into stake pockets, but they'd have to be very strong and relatively heavy. Getting them on and off might be a two-man operation, with one on the tractor and the other steering the stakes into pockets.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

View attachment 2410130

I have trailer envy!!! But yeah, those sides are pretty tall. I would love to make a trailer with a log arch on it for loading logs.

 

[WinterDeere]

I have trailer envy!!! But yeah, those sides are pretty tall. I would love to make a trailer with a log arch on it for loading logs.

I had planned to build a pivoting log arch on mind, essentially a pair of hinge points on top of the railings, with a U-shaped hoop that would pivot fore/aft, and a snatch block in the middle of the hoop to lift logs off the ground and onto the trailer. But I never got around to it, and with a 7500 winch, brute force has a way of making things work. The only flaw in my system is the expanded metal tailgate takes a beating.

I try to keep a sheet of old plywood handy to throw between the tailgate and oncoming log, but getting the log up onto the plywood can be a bit of a thing, and keeping it from sliding out is a little bit of a hassle.

BTW, that trailer really was not very expensive. I think it was only $3600'ish back in 2016 or 2018. I did spend several hundred more on the winch, big batteries, and other accoutrement, maybe under $4500 total investment. Lots less than a tractor!