Do you cut wood right behind your house? I'm jealous!

[johnnylabguy]

I have my own 13 acre wood lot and don't get me wrong its great. But I sure wish it were closer to my house than the five mile trip it takes to get there with tools and machinery. Today I had a rare chance to go cut right behind my house at a woods about a quarter mile across the field. My farmer neighbor is cleaning up the field edge along a creek and dropped many ash, cherry, and other assorted trees. Boy, I wish I would have called him sooner! It was too easy to just buzz back there with the gators and quads and fill up em up quick! We only grabbed one load as we started at about 3:30 pm but I wish I would've started at dawn! I thought it was a few scrub trees but theres so much more that's going to be wasted on a huge burn pile. A shame really but my 4 day weekend is over and gun hunting season starts tomorrow so a I missed out I think . It was still a fun quick hit with my two neighbor buddies riding along too.

 

[NSMaple1]

I think I'd give up some hunting time for a chance like that.

 

[Fuzly]

I had a visitor giving me a little bit of a hard time at my home after pointing out some basswood on my woodpile. "Doesn't that burn fast? I wouldn't work very hard to get that wood..."
"I didn't. It fell over in my back yard right there."
Nice when one tips over wheelbarrow distance from the woodpile. No truck or quad needed.

 

[Gavman]

I would be hunting wood in this case...

I just did a scout in a neighbours 20 acres today and there are about 8 huge maples dead standing, I will be asking him this week if he will part with them.... wouldnt mind playing with the saws over christmas, theres gotta be 6 to 8 cords in there.....

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

I haul my wood 200 miles from my wood lot so your 5 mile run sounds great to me.

 

[pennsywoodburnr]

You've gotta talk to your farmer buddy and see if he'll hold off on burning some of that wood. If anything, see if he can haul it out of the way somewhere with his tractor so you can cut it at your leisure. That's too good of an opportunity to pass up!

 

[TreeTangler]

Bring your rifle with you while cutting. I've been surprised many times by deer while cutting.

 

[Jim Timber]

Bring the man some beer, and ask he hold off for ya. That's way too nice of wood to just light off to dispose of.

 

[Herd8497]

I typically travel some, but no more than 10 miles. I have had some action near the house in order to help the neighbors and my wood stack. I do have 4 White ash trees in the yard of 30" diameter minimum that will be coming down in the next year though, so I have mixed emotions about the home game.

 

[cantoo]

I would volunteer to burn the piles for him. As long as you get 2 weeks or so to do it and salvage as much wood as you can before burning it. I just had the same thing happen, the guy that I bought tree tops off of decided he wanted a 40' wide trail thru his bush. He just smashed the crap out of everything with a huge hi hie and just made a big mess. It's so messed up now it's not even worth the danger to try to cut some of it. But I did just score a deal to cut as many dead falls and standing dead from right behind my house. I'll finally get to use all the equipment I have gathered or made up over the years to get it. You can see the bush behind my tractor. Finally close wood.

 

[johnnylabguy]

Just to be clear, his family is going to be hunting this week at the woods I was cutting on, so I'm not able to get back there. Unfortunately, I go back to work tomorrow and didn't take any vacation days to hunt this year. The fact is now I enjoy going to the woods to cut wood more than to hunt anymore. My wife doesn't care for venison that much(blasphemy i say!), and I enjoy being active and noisy when I'm back there too. It is amazing how many deer I see with a chainsaw in my hand though. I did pick up a .357 mag revolver with a 6 inch barrel for my birthday this year that jusssst happens to be legal to hunt deer with during our Ohio gun season so I may take that out one evening. I've never dropped a deer with a handgun. (And probably never will the way I shoot!)

 

[Johnny Yooper]

Bring your rifle with you while cutting. I've been surprised many times by deer while cutting.

Amen to that. Though the years, I've overheard loggers say that running their saws is like ringing the dinner bell for the deer. There was an article in the local paper couple years ago about a logger in northern WI who always had deer right next to him during the winter months as he was limbing and bucking downed trees, those deer get pretty brave by January when there's some tops to munch on; the deer tolerated him no problem but if he brought someone else to witness the ordeal, the deer stayed a little farther away. Heard another one about a logger's approach to deer hunting: can't remember if this guy was in the U.P. or northern WI, but when he went hunting, he sometimes took one of his saws with an almost empty gas tank....started the saw, left it idle on the ground, got situated in his stand and let the saw run out of gas, didn't take long for the deer to show up looking for dinner.

 

[srb08]

My property is 160 acres, 130 of which is mostly hardwoods. My house sits right in the middle.
I cut rounds and haul them to the house to split, never over 1/4 mile.
Before I bought the property and built my house, I lived in the suburbs and had to haul my wood 50 miles from where I cut and split. A friend had the trees and I had the splitter. We cut and split together, Each of us got half. That was a good deal, the one I have now is better.

 

[Red Amor]

I have a Friend that I used to shoe for
Id noticed some stringy bark dead dry trees on his farm land
when Id finished the shoeing he asked what do I owe you Red fella
I smiled and said some of that wood, if youd let me cut it . that's how it all started
Ive don't shoe for him anymore he hasent any horses, but I still get my wood from his land
He says Im just cleaning up the place and doing him a turn , but I really beg to differ
you see I cut for my house with two fire places and my 86 year old Mother in law and my daughters
So with this place 5 minutes from home its really handy
I bring him a case of his favourate beer now n then and I also cut him a load for his house or work shed regularly
Hes a good bloke and says I don't have to do it as he can have the workers in his employ do it but I feel that I do
Hes really is doing me the hugest favour and I like to show him that Im greatfull
I recon his workers are better used doing their work rather than cutting fire wood

Also with my dicky ticker everyone knows were I am and can get to me easy if I should have a turn , you can see me from the main road
Im not miles away in the bush lord knows were
and no help available
I consider myself very fortunate indeed yeah

 

[zogger]

Build a new house at the woodlot, sell the one you live at then.

 

[Whitespider]

Cut right behind my house??
Heck, closer than that; my woodlot is my back yard... and my side yard... and my other side yard!
The house sits smack-dab in the middle of 8-10 acres timber... on the other side of the road is "technically" where the "river bottom" begins, putting another something like 40-50 acres timber within a half mile of my place. Admittedly, much of it is "difficult" terrain; but if'n push-comes-to-shove...

 

[greendohn]

Cutting close to home is always nice. 6 to 12 miles is about the average for me, generally flat country roads. One guys I cut on burns wood in his shed so I occasionally stack a load on his pile if it's looking skinny. He threw the other firewood hacks off of his property. I gotta' couple guys I cut on the 1/2 with. I've also had deer come within gun range while working fence rows along the corn/bean fields. I generally keep the freezer well stocked,,it's the wood shed I'm trying to keep ahead of so the deer killin' isn't any interest to me when making little ones out of big ones.

 

[Ironworker]

My wife's uncle just told me on Thanksgiving that I can take all the wood I want on 70 acres most of it is hardwoods and it is about 12 miles from the house, I might go over just to run my saws. I don't think I'll be taken much though, personally I think it is easier and more cost effective to just have a log truck deliver to my house.

 

[Preston]

Yeah. I live on 19 acres of which 14 of that is trees. I live in the middle of it. The only time I cut off my place is if the neighbor has some stuff cut up. But even then I hook up my trailer and go fetch it.

 

[zogger]

My wife's uncle just told me on Thanksgiving that I can take all the wood I want on 70 acres most of it is hardwoods and it is about 12 miles from the house, I might go over just to run my saws. I don't think I'll be taken much though, personally I think it is easier and more cost effective to just have a log truck deliver to my house.

Well now..hmm..I think you can combine both ideas. Go over and cut log length, then hire a log truck to pick it up and deliver to your house for final processing.