All The Wood I Missed Last Winter!!

[flyboy553]

This morning, while having coffee and planning out my day, I got to thinking about all the wood I have blocked up laying out in the woods. I really need to get out there and get it split so it can dry faster. Some of it was storm blowdown from last summer so it is going to need a lot of drying time to be ready for next year. I decided to cut my coffee time short ( only two pots) and head out to the woods to survey the work ahead of me.

It's really amazing how much different the woods is in the summertime compared to winter(my preferred cutting time)! Evidence of life everywhere! Leaves on all the live trees, various plants every direction I look. I shut my truck off for a few minutes just to look and listen. Okay, enough with the philosophic crap!

My next stop in the woods was to an area I thought I had cleared out last winter. First thing was to check on my pile of split wood( around 8 to 10 full cords). Yep still there, untouched as I knew it would be for the landowner is the only other person with a key to the gate. Then I looked around at the area I thought I had cleared.

My my my! I could not believe what I was seeing! Over the winter I took around 100 dead standing red oak out of this area. Now, when I looked around, it was clearly evident I was no where near done here. I stopped counting at 60 more that are standing dead! Could be as high as 100 more! This area is perhaps 3 to 4 acres in size in a 160 acre oak woods.

Each area I cut in last winter had the same results! Hard( for me at least) to tell a live tree from a dead one in the winter time, unless the bark is missing! But now, in the summer, the live trees are quite obvious, even to me!

Next Saturday, I have a date with my splitter, Bobcat, truck, 359, bug spray, and that woods!

Ted

 

[zogger]

mark them

Go around now and mark all the dead ones for next winter cutting. Anything at all, an obvious axe slash will work.

 

[eric_271]

Go around now and mark all the dead ones for next winter cutting. Anything at all, an obvious axe slash will work.

I did that this last winter. White can of spray paint and X's on what needed to come out and leave the hedge row looking nice. I never did count how many we cut just the large number of wheat truck loads we hauled home.:msp_biggrin:

Kind of cool to feel the ground shake a little when the big one's fell. Lol

 

[cnice_37]

After two pots of coffee I figured you could've knocked them over by hand and hauled them back home by now.

 

[banshee67]

send some oak my way:help:

 

[Circle B MN]

After two pots of coffee, I'd be marking those trees the same way Fido does...

 

[Evanrude]

Yup, never hurts to walk through the woods on a summer day and mark your dead stands for winters cutting. Takes all the guess work out of it. I use fluorescent paint to mark mine.

 

[Steve NW WI]

I thought this thread was going to be about all those rounds that get buried in the snow and not found till spring. I still need to go pick up a bunch from last winter's cutting, and take some stumps down below the snow line.

I usually head out early in the fall and mark the dead ones with the trusty blue rattle can. It might be a bit different this year, I might "mark" em with the saw and haul em home for splitting as time allows. I can always find a little splitting time here and there, but the days to go to the woods are harder to come by :msp_sad: and last winter was atrocious for trying to get into the woods with all the snow.

 

[gwiley]

x2 on the marking advice. I keep a rattle can of light blue paint for marking my tools and trees.

I would avoid white since it blends well with snow.

An old hand got me to switch to light blue from orange or red paint since those colors conceal under fall leaf colors.

 

[olyman]

This morning, while having coffee and planning out my day, I got to thinking about all the wood I have blocked up laying out in the woods. I really need to get out there and get it split so it can dry faster. Some of it was storm blowdown from last summer so it is going to need a lot of drying time to be ready for next year. I decided to cut my coffee time short ( only two pots) and head out to the woods to survey the work ahead of me.

It's really amazing how much different the woods is in the summertime compared to winter(my preferred cutting time)! Evidence of life everywhere! Leaves on all the live trees, various plants every direction I look. I shut my truck off for a few minutes just to look and listen. Okay, enough with the philosophic crap!

My next stop in the woods was to an area I thought I had cleared out last winter. First thing was to check on my pile of split wood( around 8 to 10 full cords). Yep still there, untouched as I knew it would be for the landowner is the only other person with a key to the gate. Then I looked around at the area I thought I had cleared.

My my my! I could not believe what I was seeing! Over the winter I took around 100 dead standing red oak out of this area. Now, when I looked around, it was clearly evident I was no where near done here. I stopped counting at 60 more that are standing dead! Could be as high as 100 more! This area is perhaps 3 to 4 acres in size in a 160 acre oak woods.

Each area I cut in last winter had the same results! Hard( for me at least) to tell a live tree from a dead one in the winter time, unless the bark is missing! But now, in the summer, the live trees are quite obvious, even to me!

Next Saturday, I have a date with my splitter, Bobcat, truck, 359, bug spray, and that woods!

Ted

this summer,,take some paint bomb,,that dont match the bark,,yet not real bright,,and mark the dead trees.................like cheap black.............guys mention diff colors,,but black shows always,,and usually is cheap to buy....................

 

[flyboy553]

I thought this thread was going to be about all those rounds that get buried in the snow and not found till spring. I still need to go pick up a bunch from last winter's cutting, and take some stumps down below the snow line.

I usually head out early in the fall and mark the dead ones with the trusty blue rattle can. It might be a bit different this year, I might "mark" em with the saw and haul em home for splitting as time allows. I can always find a little splitting time here and there, but the days to go to the woods are harder to come by :msp_sad: and last winter was atrocious for trying to get into the woods with all the snow.

I had walked through the woods and tied florescent orange ribbons on a bunch of trees, but the areas I cut in were discovered during the winter. Pretty sure I never even cut one with a ribbon on it!

I have a bobcat in the woods so I do not lose any wood chunks. I just plow out a large area where the tree is going to drop. Pretty soon I have an area large enough so that all the trees fall in the cleared area. makes for convenient brush piles which makes for convenient heat!


By the way, I said I cut my coffee time short - only 2 pots! It is possible that I may have marked a tree or 30 like Fido! The first 3 trees, I dont even have to start the saw, just hold it against the tree and all the cafiene jitters do the cuttin!

Ted

Oh! I forgot! The owner of the woods plows me a road out to the woods - 1 mile from his house to where I cut on the other end of his property! Can't beat that! Once in the woods, I use the bobcat to make my trails.