Monday, September 1, 2014

Some disassembly required

 The fruits of last weeks labors:



We got firewood for next year:



those rounds are 40" + diameter. Tree was somewhere around 130 years old.






Lots and lots of firewood:

Wind damaged trees supply most of my heat every winter. The smaller rounds are 20"-25" dia, the larger one in the foreground is 34"



This was a big tree:

 
Unloading these from the trailer without the tractor and log tongs to lift them required a lot a careful work with a large bar.....



There is more to get, but what with all the rain (nearly 7" since the last Saturday when cleanup began), the ground near the tree is of a consistency somewhere between oatmeal and pudding. Kinda hard to carry rounds weighing in the range of 400-600 pounds through that. Traction becomes an issue, even with 4 wheel drive.....and he doesn't need his yard torn up any more.

Now we just gotta split it into "stove bolt" sized chunks.

The cool thing is that in the 19 years that I have been heating with wood, I have never had to cut down a live tree. There is enough storm and wind and ice damage every year that I get plenty of firewood selected for me by Ma Nature. I just haveta cut it up and split it.

4 comments:

PioneerPreppy said...

Good catch!!

I am the same. I have never had to cut a live tree. There are enough dead and damaged trees around I never need to. I don't know how many times I have done a wood cutting/heating post and had some idiot go on and on about how to cut trees and cure em like they have a clue. Tree cutting is experience is a very regional thing.

og said...

I know what your muscles feel like now.

I need the name of your tree guy, I have a couple I want down that are almost as tricky as your big one was. Hope you only encounter the useful kind of stiffness.

MSgt B said...

Looks like great hardwood.

Congratulations.

B said...

MSB:

White oak. a shame to cut it up for firewood, but the sawmills don't want yard trees. Fear of nails or such.