Another beautiful day in the woods (pics)

[Steve NW WI]

Spent the day cleaning up a bunch of wood at little sis and future bro in law's new house. 90% oak, all but one already laying on the ground, my kind of cutting. I did have to bring one down that FBIL swears moved closer to the house after they put the house up! Had a lean that might have caught the porch roof with a good south wind, and was already standing dead. I brought the trusty Massey over there, and my big rope, hooked it up and cut er down:

Another view:

Notched, cut till it started to tip just a bit, then had to give it a pretty good tug to get it to come right between the trees I was aiming for:

Stump looked like a photo op, hinge a little big, but with 10,000 lbs pulling on it, who cares!

Shot of the wood I got out of there today. Rack of split stuff is from earlier, 2 rows of rounds and the pickup load are today's haul.

As you can see in the background of the pics, I've got a bunch more work to do there yet, but 3 loads is enough for me for one day. Just need more nice weekends like this! Close to 40° here today, sunshine and no wind, spent most of the day with the flannel hanging on a branch, cutting in t-shirt!

 

[Nuzzy]

Nice!! 40° is about my favorite temp to cut in. And sunny to boot!

 

[coog]

I agree.We went from 40 to 80 in a week down here.Cutting is a whole lot more work at 80, but at least you can keep ahead of the stove.

 

[Steve NW WI]

I agree.We went from 40 to 80 in a week down here.Cutting is a whole lot more work at 80, but at least you can keep ahead of the stove.

Mine has only run at night the last couple days, might see a few more extended burns (think it ran from before Christmas to Mid February without ever seeing a match), but the end is coming.

Any cutting I do in 80° weather is due to a tree blocking my access to air conditioning. I MUCH prefer it in winter.

 

[Biker Dude]

Not a bad haul for one day! I have often wondered if you could use a rope around another tree to get the direction you want. How did it work? I was always worried about excessive friction with the tree it wraps around.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Worked just fine - the pivot tree has a little scuffed bark but did not lose any. I did not do that intentionally, just that a pile of construction dirt blocked a straight pull.

As a matter of fact, I'm tempted to try it again in the future, since being out of the line of dropping will make up for a bad height estimation!!!

I don't drop many trees, I prefer to block up what Mom Nature drops for me, but I like to think of the tractor on the end of the rope equalizes my lack of experience felling.

See ya Saturday!

 

[STLfirewood]

Not a bad haul for one day! I have often wondered if you could use a rope around another tree to get the direction you want. How did it work? I was always worried about excessive friction with the tree it wraps around.

I do this a lot when dropping trees. I use a pulley at the base of a tree. You can point the truck in a different safe direction. You don't hurt the tree or the rope. Also it give you a direct pull on the truck. I have seen people try and pull a tree from the top with a rope. It lifts the rear of the truck up so it doesn't get traction.

Scott

 

[maplemeister]

Not a bad haul for one day! I have often wondered if you could use a rope around another tree to get the direction you want. How did it work? I was always worried about excessive friction with the tree it wraps around.

I've done that a few times myself but found out it was pretty hard on the rope when your pulling directly against the tree. A much better method for me has been to use a snatch block. Hook up high on tree your pulling to get good leverage, run rope or cable through snatch block attached to another tree in direction you want to fall, hook terminal end to truck or tractor and put steady pressure to tree as you back cut. This method keeps you in the
safe zone and is a lot kinder on your pulling line or cable. CAUTION: Do not pull so hard that you barber chair the tree as you fall it. I have also used a block quite frequently this winter to pull downed logs out of the woods and into a wood road I have been keeping open this winter. With 100 ft of cable running through the block, I had little difficulty pulling up to 16" logs
through 30 inches of snow to get them out of the woods and into the road where I could get at them. I picked up the block I'm using now from my local John Deere dealer for 45 bucks. It is rated for 3 tons and is performing well so far.

Maplemeister:

 

[doubletodd]

nice looking woods, steve. Nothing like a stand of northern wi oak and maple. looks alot like my woods.

 

[Zodiac45]

I'm envious Steve. Like Nuzz mentioned, the temps are about perfect for cutting out there. We've still got quite a bit of snow, ice (2 1/2 feet) on the ground. It seems too alternate from slush too frozen over ice on a day too day basis. WE get a melt, followed by a freeze. Mud season coming I guess. I have been working, but not on my firewood supply. I just finished a local logging job (pix were in logging forum under Local logging) and have started a single man chainsaw&skidder job (first one in a while) which is also local for me. I'll shoot some pix of it and post. Quite a difference too running the feller/buncher!

 

[Biker Dude]

I think I'll try the snatch block/pulley idea. Getting the truck out of the line of fire so to speak would make dropping big trees a lot safer. It's not a method for every tree but it will be another tool in my box. I'm looking forward to the GTG Saturday where we can discuss all sorts of techniques at length. Only 6 more days!

 

[thejdman04]

Looks good