flyboy553
Oakaholic
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
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
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