Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[WinterDeere]

Don't insult him calling it firewood. Those are nice pine sawlogs he has piled up.

Call me spoiled, but most of my firewood logs are every bit as straight as that. They're oak, hickory, or ash instead of pine, but I won't even bother dragging home anything that's not pin-straight. There's just too much primo stuff out there, to waste hours on trying to split or stack crooked wood.

The only time I'll bother to process a log that's less straight than those, is if it falls in my own or a friend's yard, and it just needs to be dealt with. But in the woods, you may as well let the branchwood and crooked trunks lay and rot where they land.

 

[Loaderman22]

Call me spoiled, but most of my firewood logs are every bit as straight as that. They're oak, hickory, or ash instead of pine, but I won't even bother dragging home anything that's not pin-straight. There's just too much primo stuff out there, to waste hours on trying to split or stack crooked wood.

The only time I'll bother to process a log that's less straight than those, is if it falls in my own or my neighbor's yard, and it just needs to be dealt with. But in the woods, you may as well let the branchwood and crooked trunks lay and rot where they land.

I agree... You are spoiled !
I cut every part of the hardwood, because as my dad says, "It all burns". I do leave 3-4" and less there, that makes me warmer dealing with it than burning it. I do throw the very tops to the side for kindling later, I use about 2-3 buckets worth a year. So it's nice to just break that stuff off later. My splitter doesn't care what part it's splitting, I just do the really crooked ones at the end and put them on top of the crate under the lid.

 

[WinterDeere]

It's not just the stacking of crooked stuff that bothers me, my OCD needs to see clean straight stacks, but it also affects how much wood I can pack into each of my stoves.

I'll never have any hope of heating this big old castle with just two large wood stoves, but the reality is that the more I can cram into that box with each load, the less I need to rely on the oil-fired boiler to pick up the slack. I try to get at least 80 lb. of wood into each load into each of my Blaze Kings, which isn't too hard with oak or hickory if everything is straight and uniformly split.

 

[LouNY]

Growing up everything 3" and up was cut and split. The old kitchen stove only took 12" pieces so the crooked stuff went that way, the old central furnaces would take what ever size you cared to toss in we usually keep them to around 16-18 inches.

 

[WinterDeere]

Growing up everything 3" and up was cut and split. The old kitchen stove only took 12" pieces so the crooked stuff went that way, the old central furnaces would take what ever size you cared to toss in we usually keep them to around 16-18 inches.

I keep stuff down to maybe 4" - 6", depending on straightness and condition, when it falls in my own yard. Might as well split and stack it, rather than making it go away any other way.

But when I'm out harvesting in a forest on on someone else's property, which is what I described above, I never bring home anything less than perfect. I've always done most of my harvesting from two large wooded properties, and between the two there has always been way too much perfectly-straight good-condition oak or hickory, for it to make any sense spending hauling time on anything less.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I had a dead fir on the side of the road and adjacent to the power line. These are notorious for becoming blowdowns and in this case a potential power outage. So I wanted it on the ground before winter. It was pretty straight but being dead and on the power line made me decide to use my winch for insurance. There was a good lane to drop it into with a stump from last winter in the middle of it. I used the stump as a snatch block anchor after cutting the root flairs. I did not want the strap to slide up on the taper when tension was applied. I put very little tension on the cable to start. Just enough to make sure the cable stayed seated in the snatch block sheave and would not jam on anything when I started to pull. Looking towards the tractor which is on the road side.

Looking towards the tree - in the center directly behind the stump.

I made the notch cut. You can see why these become blowdowns. Not much structural integrity in the base at all.

Made the back cut and a slight tug with the winch to get it through the surrounding canopy and down.

On the ground. Looking towards the stump.

Towards the top which broke and folded up.

gg

 

[Hoobie]

I had a dead fir on the side of the road and adjacent to the power line. These are notorious for becoming blowdowns and in this case a potential power outage. So I wanted it on the ground before winter. It was pretty straight but being dead and on the power line made me decide to use my winch for insurance. There was a good lane to drop it into with a stump from last winter in the middle of it. I used the stump as a snatch block anchor after cutting the root flairs. I did not want the strap to slide up on the taper when tension was applied. I put very little tension on the cable to start. Just enough to make sure the cable stayed seated in the snatch block sheave and would not jam on anything when I started to pull. Looking towards the tractor which is on the road side.


View attachment 4103752


Looking towards the tree - in the center directly behind the stump.


View attachment 4103753

I made the notch cut. You can see why these become blowdowns. Not much structural integrity in the base at all.

View attachment 4103754

Made the back cut and the slight tug with the winch to get it through the surrounding canopy and down.

View attachment 4103755

On the ground. Looking towards the stump.

View attachment 4103756

Towards the top which broke and folded up.

View attachment 4103757

gg

You are a better man than I Gordon. I have had similar situations occasionally but I chicken out.I can see things going bad and tree falling on power lines.

 

[Molalla1]

I had a dead fir on the side of the road and adjacent to the power line. These are notorious for becoming blowdowns and in this case a potential power outage. So I wanted it on the ground before winter. It was pretty straight but being dead and on the power line made me decide to use my winch for insurance. There was a good lane to drop it into with a stump from last winter in the middle of it. I used the stump as a snatch block anchor after cutting the root flairs. I did not want the strap to slide up on the taper when tension was applied. I put very little tension on the cable to start. Just enough to make sure the cable stayed seated in the snatch block sheave and would not jam on anything when I started to pull. Looking towards the tractor which is on the road side.


View attachment 4103752


Looking towards the tree - in the center directly behind the stump.


View attachment 4103753

I made the notch cut. You can see why these become blowdowns. Not much structural integrity in the base at all.

View attachment 4103754

Made the back cut and the slight tug with the winch to get it through the surrounding canopy and down.

View attachment 4103755

On the ground. Looking towards the stump.

View attachment 4103756

Towards the top which broke and folded up.

View attachment 4103757

gg

Nice job Gordon . . .

 

[fruitcakesa]

I had a dead fir on the side of the road and adjacent to the power line. These are notorious for becoming blowdowns and in this case a potential power outage. So I wanted it on the ground before winter. It was pretty straight but being dead and on the power line made me decide to use my winch for insurance. There was a good lane to drop it into with a stump from last winter in the middle of it. I used the stump as a snatch block anchor after cutting the root flairs. I did not want the strap to slide up on the taper when tension was applied. I put very little tension on the cable to start. Just enough to make sure the cable stayed seated in the snatch block sheave and would not jam on anything when I started to pull. Looking towards the tractor which is on the road side.


View attachment 4103752


Looking towards the tree - in the center directly behind the stump.


View attachment 4103753

I made the notch cut. You can see why these become blowdowns. Not much structural integrity in the base at all.

View attachment 4103754

Made the back cut and the slight tug with the winch to get it through the surrounding canopy and down.

View attachment 4103755

On the ground. Looking towards the stump.

View attachment 4103756

Towards the top which broke and folded up.

View attachment 4103757

gg

The winch sure makes difficult tree work safe and easy.

 

[Gordon Gould]

You are a better man than I Gordon. I have had similar situations occasionally but I chicken out.I can see things going bad and tree falling on power lines.

I wouldn't look at it like that - you don't chicken out. You assess the risk and make a decision based on your assessment just like you should. The smart way to work !!

gg