California Cutting

[olyeller]

It's been fun and educational for me to see the various types of terrain and trees from all around the country where you people cut; this sure is a big, beautiful country! So I thought I'd take some photos to show you what it's like on our property in Central California where I do my firewood cutting to supply our hunting camp and home needs. As I've posted before, I just cut for fun, and it's gotten to where I enjoy my saws and woodcutting as much as I like my guns and hunting. I took these photos a couple weeks ago when we were up hunting dove. I'll post in a series along with comments to give you some background info.

This first pair of images is from the upper section of the ranch where we were hunting dove. This view looks down toward the river, which is at the base of the big hill/small mountain in the background. In Ranch 2, you have a closer view of the hill; if you look at the cliff area in the middle of the photo, down below that is the river, and our hunting camp is set up a couple hundred yards toward the camera from there.

Olyeller

 

[olyeller]

Shed limbs

As I've also posted before, there are old oaks on the ranch and they shed huge limbs that I cut up for firewood so I don't need to cut down live trees. Also as you saw in the previous photos, there are trees spread around the place but it's not heavily wooded so we want to preserve as many trees as possible.

In these three photos you see a big limb that has split off an oak tree. In the second and third photos you'll see that I put my hat on the split section for size reference. My hat measures 12 inches from back to bill, so you can see that this shed limb is about 24 inches across at its base--pretty big stuff to be limbing, no?

 

[Hddnis]

God's country for sure. Very beautiful. Thanks for the pics.



Mr. HE

 

[olyeller]

Going to work

Before we could tackle that shed limb I've shown above to start converting it into firewood, Jim came to camp--he's the local guy who leases the ranch to run cattle and he also works on the place. While catching up on news, he mentions that he'd like to trim a few limbs that will be in the way when he beings his big trailer down to the lower section. When I tell him I happen to have FOUR saws with me, his eyes light up--much better than the little Poulan that he's packing. So we get to work and I cut live wood for the first time ever, and I'm surprised how much easier oak is to cut when it's green, rather than dried out to rock-hard consistency. (I told you I'm an amateur!) Even though he makes do with a little saw, he's been working ranches for his whole life and he teaches me a few cutting tricks along the way. I feel pretty silly at times, city boy with four saws up to 95cc that I play with, while he really works for a living with all kinds of machines. But he's kind enough to not give me too much flak. And I give him a tour of my saws, let him test run them to get a feel for the different sizes.

So this first photo is of the biggest limb after we cut it; I forgot to take the camera out sooner! It's a bit under 20 inches in diameter, I figure, bigger than a lot of standing trees. Then we had to lop the downed sections into a few big chunks to make it manageable to drag out of the way. Last photo is of Jim and my young son-in-law Gregg, standing next to the four saws with that biggest downed limb in the background.

We went up there to play and hunt, and Jim put us to work! But I also learned much along the way. It was quite hot that weekend so we didn't do a lot of cutting--but we know where to find a bunch more downed wood during our next trip to the place. And Jim says he's going to visit a guy he knows who sells Stihls; he liked the MS 260 as a compromise between power, weight, cost and size.

Hope you all enjoyed the tour.

Olyeller

 

[Henry G.]

Nice pics, looks like central coast? Sure would like to get some oak myself, got plenty of everything else this year except oak. Nice saw lineup, I think I would throw a poulan away too if I had access to 4 new Stihls

 

[olyeller]

Yeah, we're in Central Coast California, back on the dry side of the mountains from Big Sur.

 

[Henry G.]

Pretty country. We stay in Big Sur when we go to the MotoGp races at Laguna Seca, makes for a nice ride to the track and back everyday.

 

[olyeller]

Last year we stayed at the hunting cabin during the Laguna USGP. This area is great for riding sport bikes too. Too many options--bikes, hunting, saws! Lots of fun.