Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[Gordon Gould]

Did you have wind yesterday? We certainly did. Today the ground has stiffened up so I am headed out to find a hemlock tree or two for the sawmill.

Yes plenty of wind. Straight at me from the NW. No black flies though! When I got in the wife asked me "Are you OK? Your face is all red."

gg

 

[Gordon Gould]

Do you have some sort of method for marking the length of your blocks or do you just guess at it like I do ? Sometimes I manage to cut a few a little to long to fit in my wood furnace.

No, my eye is pretty good or good enough. I used to be a framing carpenter and can mark 16's with my eyes closed. Just add 2" for my 18" blocks. Stove can take 24" so there is a lot of room there. 6 rows of 18" blocks fit good in my wood shed which is 9'-7" inside back to front but the front is mostly open so a little long doesn't matter.

gg

 

[wolc123]

The weather keeps fooling me. Typical March up on the Canadian border in North Western NY. Cold nights as far out as the long range forecast goes, so I had to haul up yet another bucket of seasoned firewood from the woodshed.

I can get a half face cord in the bucket if I stack it or 1/4 face cord loose and 1/2 is about all that I can fit up on the house porch by the wood stove.

Problem is, the barnyard behind the woodshed is thawed out and muddy now, so I’ve got to pull the tractor in sideways on the gravel lane across the back. That means a loose load from the side. I stack the bucket full, when I can back the tractor into the barnyard, and park the bucket parallel with the woodshed. Hopefully, this will be the last light load that I need this spring.

 

[heavy hammer]

This March is the same here a few days in the 70's then a cold spell 30's and 40's and rain and wind. The weather wants to turn spring is trying to show up.

 

[Hay Dude]

Same here in SE PA/ N. Delaware.
When we get straight line winds ~50, it brings the dead ash trees down = $$$$$$

 

[WinterDeere]

Do you have some sort of method for marking the length of your blocks or do you just guess at it like I do ? Sometimes I manage to cut a few a little to long to fit in my wood furnace.

I'm heating a very large and relatively inefficient 300 year old house with wood, and so maximizing how much wood I can pack into the stoves with each load really impacts how much oil I need to burn to supplement the stoves. For this reason, I try to make sure every split is within 1/2" of the ideal length to maximize what I'm getting out of every load.

But I'm also processing 10 full cords per year for my own use, and at one time that was as high as 14 cords per year, so I don't have time for any method that takes more than a second or two. What I settled on was this:

1. Cut a handy stick (I prefer dimensional 1x2 = 3/4" x 1-1/2") to your preferred split length (18" for me).
2. Wrap some masking tape around it in a spiral, and hit it with a few coats of fluorescent orange or other high-contrast marking paint, so you don't lose the damn thing. Stripes work well, as no matter the color, there are no stripes in the nature of my back yard.
3. Holding that stick in my left hand and my top-handle saw in my right, I walk down the length of each log I'm ready to buck, and "kiss" it with the top handle saw. Typical saw kerf is probably only 1/2" - 1" deep, it's just a very-indellible marking tool.
4. Set top handle saw and stick aside, grab a real saw, and buck away.

Some prefer chalk or paint, but I always find there are conditions (wet, snow, etc.) where neither work. The top handle saw makes a nice quick kerf mark that works as a mark in all weather.

 

[Hay Dude]

I just carry a Husqvarna measuring tape to mark logs 11-12’ to fit in the dump truck if needed.
Having a previous career in framing carpentry really helps me. I can guess within a few inches pretty easy.

 

[WinterDeere]

I just carry a Husqvarna measuring tape to mark logs 11-12’ to fit in the dump truck if needed.
Having a previous career in framing carpentry really helps me. I can guess within a few inches pretty easy.


View attachment 3173030

I do the same, but at 15 feet, as the longest multiple of 18" lengths that will fit on my trailer:

 

[WinterDeere]

I mentioned painting a stick with stripes a few posts back, and this may be something helpful for others here. I used to do a lot of cutting alternating between deep woods and perimeter woods, where the ground cover varies from only leaves to continuous beds of ivy. I'd paint my tools bright yellow or orange after one day in the ivy, only to loose them the following fall in the bright orange and yellow leaves covering the forest floor.

Then I remembered my dad's old surveying equipment, mostly painted in black and yellow stripes. Dad or the equipment manufacturer obviously knew that there are no nicely-patterned stripes in our northeast American nature, they jump out at your eye when scanning an area for your tools, almost no matter the color of the stripes. Anything high-contrast works, as long as the two colors used aren't too similar.

Now, everything from my marking stick to my cant hook and peavey have stripes. I usually achieve this with a simple wrap of 1" wide masking tape and a can of whatever suitable color spray paint I have laying around. I even painted some of my old plain steel chains (from dad and grandpa) in alternating stripes of blaze orange, as their patina rust color blended in so well with the forest floor that I was always worried about losing one.

So... what color to paint your equipment? Doesn't matter... as long as it's striped!

 

[Jstpssng]

My father was a fan of his cordwood saw behind the tractor. He carefully cut his wood to 4' and stacked it; then we'd spend a weekend cutting it. He had marks on the saw deck for 12", 16", and 18 inches.