Picture tour through my woods

[H-Ranch]

I've been picking away at making trails through my woods (yeah, uhhh... for the kids...) this year. This is just a fraction of the fallen, leaners, and risky standing dead over or next to the trails. If I have to touch it, it goes on the wood stack and these small piles have gradually increased the stock for this year and next. Enjoy.

 

[buzz sawyer]

Nice post and glad to see you're looking out for hazard trees.
As for getting the wood to the house, why not have the kids each carry a piece or two back when they walk on the trail?

 

[H-Ranch]

And more...

 

[Hddnis]

Yeah, if you have to mess with it you might as well get some use out of it.




Mr. HE

 

[zogger]

Way cool! The "touch it" rule really helps the wood stack up! Been doing that my whole woodburning life.

 

[Dirtboy]

Nice going, the little piles quickly add up.

 

[H-Ranch]

Nice post and glad to see you're looking out for hazard trees.
As for getting the wood to the house, why not have the kids each carry a piece or two back when they walk on the trail?

Yeah, I at least want to get the dangerous ones out of the way. There is still so much that I occasionally get one blocking the trail after a good wind.

As to the kids carrying it back to the stacks it's still a bit of a hike for them to do that. They do enjoy helping in small doses if I pull the tractor and trailer out. Most times I go cut for an hour or so and then I can haul back the small stacks at my leisure even if I only have a few minutes in the evening. The best part is not having to worry about the stacks showing up missing.

Way cool! The "touch it" rule really helps the wood stack up! Been doing that my whole woodburning life.

The small piles do add up, but I don't think I milk trees out as much as you do. When it starts getting down to forearm size then it had better be pretty darn easy or it stays in the woods. With the OWB I do cut a lot of 36-42" poles from wood that doesn't require splitting - that at least makes for fewer cuts.

 

[zogger]

Yeah, I at least want to get the dangerous ones out of the way. There is still so much that I occasionally get one blocking the trail after a good wind.

As to the kids carrying it back to the stacks it's still a bit of a hike for them to do that. They do enjoy helping in small doses if I pull the tractor and trailer out. Most times I go cut for an hour or so and then I can haul back the small stacks at my leisure even if I only have a few minutes in the evening. The best part is not having to worry about the stacks showing up missing.


The small piles do add up, but I don't think I milk trees out as much as you do. When it starts getting down to forearm size then it had better be pretty darn easy or it stays in the woods. With the OWB I do cut a lot of 36-42" poles from wood that doesn't require splitting - that at least makes for fewer cuts.

I can see your point feeding a boiler. Rather tedious cutting down to one inch like I do, but I just feed the smogger and the small stuff adds up for me pretty good.

 

[H-Ranch]

More of the tour from today. Some of this is past it's prime, but that's the beauty of the OWB. Again this is just the small stuff that was on the ground - probably around a weeks worth of wood with just an hour or two of effort.

 

[H-Ranch]

More from today. Generic 8 lb fiberglass handle maul in the second pic but most of this was split with the Fiskars using a half swing.

 

[SteveSS]

Any pics of that fabricated OWB, H-Ranch? That's something i'd definitely like to see.

 

[SteveSS]

Scratch that.....I found them. Very cool!

 

[lindnova]

Looks neat and organized. I am just starting on my trails. Hard to get far cutting dead trees, cutting vines and buckthorn. Easy to get off task cutting firewood and spending a lot of time with the invasives.

 

[H-Ranch]

Looks neat and organized. I am just starting on my trails. Hard to get far cutting dead trees, cutting vines and buckthorn. Easy to get off task cutting firewood and spending a lot of time with the invasives.

Oh man, my trails are just getting started. Father-in-law keeps telling me that he has been working on his trails for 30 years to get them where he wants them and that I shouldn't be in a hurry. I have a couple of areas to put culvert in and build the trail over it where it is low. That is one reason for stacking in the woods - got the lawn tractor stuck a few weeks ago when the ground wasn't *quite* frozen enough to drive over. I'm probably a lot closer to where you are on your trails than it may appear.

 

[unclemoustache]

"my woods" he says. Man, I'd love to be able to say that! How many acres?

 

[H-Ranch]

"my woods" he says. Man, I'd love to be able to say that! How many acres?

Yes, we have been very fortunate. It's only 10 acres, but it is "my" 10 acres. I told my realtor that she screwed up when she sold me this house. She was completely baffled and said that she thought it was everything I was looking for. I then told her the reason for her mistake - that she will never sell me another house!

I do get a fair amount of our wood from the property, though I also get some from the father-in-law and I scrounge occasionally when it's convenient.

 

[H-Ranch]

Several piles like this made it to the wood stacks today. More trail clearing - I figured some of the stuff on the ground across the trail wasn't going to be worth messing with, but I was pleased to find much of it was still very solid. Pic below is of a leaner that has only been hanging there for a couple of years so I knew that would be good.

 

[H-Ranch]

Cut a few times over the winter, but didn't get photos for whatever reasons. Was out last weekend cutting up dead stuff on the ground - some of it was cut by my father-in-law while I was traveling last month. Actually, my in-laws, my wife, and my kids all worked hard on it while I was out of town. Some of it is a bit punky, but there are a lot of good Btu's in most of it. Will have to wait until the ground dries up a bit to get further out on the trails to go after some more leaners. I may have another couple weekends before everything turns green making it more challenging to just walk right up to the stuff on the ground so I'm going to try to make the most of the time left until then.

 

[stihly dan]

More of the tour from today. Some of this is past it's prime, but that's the beauty of the OWB. Again this is just the small stuff that was on the ground - probably around a weeks worth of wood with just an hour or two of effort.
View attachment 382579 View attachment 382581 View attachment 382580 View attachment 382582 View attachment 382583 View attachment 382584 View attachment 382585

Second pic down, that pole on top with the smooth bark but has ridges. I don't know what that is but it burns awesome.

 

[H-Ranch]

Lots of trees down on my trails after the windstorm last week, including this hollow sassafras to use for campfires. The rest of it just got stacked where it was cut.