New guy in Maine

[Ironworker]

You seem to know what you're doing and on the right track, but I have one question. Why are you stacking wood in front of your garage?, do you not use it?

 

[trukn2004]

You seem to know what you're doing and on the right track, but I have one question. Why are you stacking wood in front of your garage?, do you not use it?

I love my garage, plan to use it a lot, however this is a new home. My bay is still full of a lot of crap, and we have zero landscaping. Right now, in front of my bad is the best spot unfortunately. In the future it will be stored other places.

 

[trukn2004]

Well, I've been fighting a cold all week ,and finally on Friday I decided to try the old "sweat it out" remedy. Got moving on some what I believe is red oak rounds. Carrying and splitting. Used my new Timber Tuff 24" log claw. Slick tool, but I could tell my rounds were a little too short. I got it to work, and got better the more I used it, but I have a 16" claw and a 8" set of tongs on their way. Photo time!

Its nice when mother nature de-barks for you


splits


making the pile


My grandfather's splitting maul. No idea the brand or weight, but I have to say this was becoming my second favorite tool behind the fiskars. has a bit more weight to it, so it drive through the bigger rounds with ease. Unfortunately, the head was loose, and on borrowed time. Halfway through she let go on me. Going to pick up an new handle since the one that fell out has to be 25+ years old. Does anyone have a link to a good youtube video on how to reset a handle?

 

[trukn2004]

Well, it has been a while but I've been side-tracked with house stuff. We are all moved in and got several projects finished up. I finally tackled some wood stuff I have been meaning to handle. Got all of the wood moved away from the garage, and I took down a standing dead ash that was long overdue. It fell the right way, though i found i cut through the hinge. It had no canopy, so there was no real weight to get it to start falling. Wife and I also cut a bunch of small dead stuff around back to clean it up appearance-wise. I found three dead and down red cedars though, so i got those into the stacks too! I also had a tree guy come out and drop a maple in the backyard that I had wanted to save but my site guy destroyed the roots on it. that is them in the video. I had them put it on the ground and i am processing it.

 

[Ronaldo]

That cedar is pretty wood and I love the smell!

 

[trukn2004]

More wood added to the pile! Well, technically not stacked, but close enough

This red oak trio had a bad lead, so i cut it off




Hands down still my favorite purchase.


All in all, i cut up three downed red oaks. They got some outer punk, but the rounds are about 80% solid wood. plus nature has de-barked it all for me. Splits ranged from 43%(laying on the ground after some heavy showers a couple days ago) to 28% (off the ground, no bark, less punk) I'm pretty sure it will dry quite quickly once its stacked and top covered.







Second lead looks to by rough at the bottom, but the top is still in full leaf and healthy. Think im going to leave it for now.



This is a dead lead i still need to get to. Comes off of what i believe is a white oak, no real punk, when i cut it seems nice and dry. Once i get more fuel mixed up i will know more.

 

[benp]

Awesome!!!

Looks like you've been busy!

 

[Ronaldo]

It looks quite dry. Nice set- up you have there. Id say you are well on your way to becoming a wood hoarder! Good Job!

 

[trukn2004]

Awesome!!!

Looks like you've been busy!

Yea, Ive been doing a lot around the house too, outside pretty much every day while im on nights for work. Mostly ive been moving rocks around. The wood work is a nice break from the norm! here are a couple more shots of the stuff ive been working at.

second stone wall


the garden i half ass put together. Its doing decent, im getting a lot of cucumber and tomatoes.


Stone retaining wall the wife and i are building. This picture was after we finished the first teir. Second teir is 90% done. Plan is to plant some blueberry, raspberry and blackberry bushes here.




A bush hog i got from a neighbor. this is what it looked like when i got it. 250.00, plus 100 bucks in parts and its running like a dream. Ive got plans to paint it this fall

It looks quite dry. Nice set- up you have there. Id say you are well on your way to becoming a wood hoarder! Good Job!

All this talk of harsh winters has me realizing I started out good, but i quickly slacked off. I figure if i do a little at at time, it wont be as bad.

 

[Ronaldo]

You have been moving rocks around? Rocks in Maine?

 

[benp]

You have a GREAT looking spread there!!!!

Good use of all your rock you have around. The retaining walls look really good!!

Nice Kubota too!

 

[trukn2004]

You have been moving rocks around? Rocks in Maine?

If I can just cut down all these darn trees I think the rock crop will come in great next year! Lol

 

[zogger]

Yea, Ive been doing a lot around the house too, outside pretty much every day while im on nights for work. Mostly ive been moving rocks around. The wood work is a nice break from the norm! here are a couple more shots of the stuff ive been working at.

second stone wall


the garden i half ass put together. Its doing decent, im getting a lot of cucumber and tomatoes.


Stone retaining wall the wife and i are building. This picture was after we finished the first teir. Second teir is 90% done. Plan is to plant some blueberry, raspberry and blackberry bushes here.




A bush hog i got from a neighbor. this is what it looked like when i got it. 250.00, plus 100 bucks in parts and its running like a dream. Ive got plans to paint it this fall







All this talk of harsh winters has me realizing I started out good, but i quickly slacked off. I figure if i do a little at at time, it wont be as bad.

You are doing great! We started out with elaborate raised beds here once I cleared an area, but we have some nastyazz creepy grass weeds that over run everything, so I gave up on the raised beds and pretty walkways. I've taken samples to the county ag agent, two of them, they had no idea what it is. End of season I mow over what is left, cover with tarps, and let it cook down and rot until spring, then a fast till and plant again. I weed for awhile in the spring but once hot weather hits and the creepy stuff comes back, I just stop, heck with it. I dug one out once, two foot deep roots and went on forever.

 

[rarefish383]

Welcome to the site. I haven't been on the firewood forum for a while, been feeding my other addictions, milling and collecting vintage Savage 99 rifles. Beautiful place you have there, and the toys are starting to add up. CAD, don't worry about it, you have plenty of garage space. I have at least 20 saws from a little 14" Echo, to a 180 CC two cylinder Disston. I sold my biggest Homelite a while back to a member here, it was 129 CC with a 52 inch bar. Last year I bought a new Stihl 660. Of all the saws I have the two that get used the most are the little Echo 305 14' and the Farm Boss 290 18". The rest mostly line the walls on shelves because they look better than plain drywall. As for the Dodges, I can live with them. Here's mine, Joe.

 

[trukn2004]

its been hot here and ive been hiding in the ac, but decided i needed to get working on the rest of the wood i had cut down. mixed up some new fuel (going for 50:1, but i think it came out more along a 40:1 range). Saw initially stumbled a bit, but once i had made a couple passes, it seemed fine. I first started on the dead red oak limb i had dropped earlier.


it wasnt much. but i figured why the hell not. I also dropped a little standing dead white pine, just for fun. Cut about 8 rounds off of it, and they split out to 19% moisture. Figure it will be a good mixed in with all the red oak.

Lastly I finally took down a standing dead tree right next to my leftover dirt pile. I made my cuts and got it to fall exactly where i wanted it to!



I had initally thought it was white ash, but while cutting i noticed how easily the saw chewed through it, and the rounds felt relatively light. The stump has some offshoots and i did some searching in my tree book. My guess is American Basswood . i split some and it popped apart like a breeze, thought i would luck out that it was dry since its been dead awhile, but the meter had it pegged at 42-43%!!!.








All in all, it really wasnt much would from all three trees (basswood, pine, red oak) so i think im just going to process it all and get it stacked. the rest of my stacks are Red oak, Shagbark hickory, white ash and rock maple. I figure this stuff will compliment those species quite nicely.

 

[benp]

Yep. That's basswood you found there.

I try to avoid that like the plague for my purposes.

Neighbor through the woods burns the snot out of it in his stove for his year around lake cabin.

He's happy with it but I'm not sure he's too savey on firewood.

 

[woodbooga]

Welcome to the area. Don't venture to Tatnic - if the balancing boulder don't get you the cavemen and the Boston boys will.

http://www.someoldnews.com/?p=614
http://us.geoview.info/balancing_rock_tatnic_area_south_berwick_maine,31174909p

 

[Deleted member 83629]

nice truck i wish mine was that shiny welcome to the forum btw, one saw isn't going to cut it though.
my daily driver is ugly because thieves here like shiny stuff.
but for a 94 its quite good.

 

[trukn2004]

Thanks guys! got the wood split and stacked, probably another half cord out of all of it, maybe a little less. Its is raining like a bastard now, so i am cooped up inside. glad for the rain though, it broke the 4 day 90+ degree, 90%+ humidity we had going on. i was happy to shut the central air off and open windows again.

 

[trukn2004]

Welp, it is time for another installment of the guy on the internet does household chores and posts pictures of the work!

Headed into the woods to a pre-picked standing dead tree. made my cuts, and she fell just like i wanted. I notice though that i have a difficult time lining up my backcut to my notch. going to work on that as i move along.

started bucking and with the lay of the land and the lie of the tree i managed to kiss a rock. Back to the garage to sharpen

At it again, and i did a swell job of pinching the bar not two cuts later!! did some lever work and got the saw free.

crappy pic, but the saw is on the stump after i cut it flush. pretty steep downhill angle here, so i was extra cautious


A shot showing the cut. you can see how high my back cut was. Tree pulled a tiny bit of fiber right on the outside edge. definitely need to work on this.


So i carried the rounds to the edge of the ledge, and hucked them to my lawn. pulled the tractor around and moved it all to my splitting area. The first time i saw the tree, i thought it might be white oak by the lower bark. Turns out it actually was a shagbark hickory! not bad for standing dead. Split like a dream too, which was a very weird experience for me.
the bark that confused me


bark higher up that looked much more like shagbark


All split. going to stack tomorrow morning, since my stove guy should be here soon!