Good day in the woods cutting wood with Dad and the brothers

[johnnylabguy]

This was a day for good memories my woodcutting friends! I used 10 different chainsaws! And yes, I'm sore and not in the shape I once was for sure! Lol. But more importantly, I got together with a few of my older brothers to help cut some firewood for my 78 year old Dad who can still sling a saw with the best of them. I hope I'm lucky enough to be as healthy as he is if I even make it to that age! And the weather was so great we didn't even need take up Grandma for the babysitting offer for the kids. They had a ball playing in the woods without any playstations or TVs in their faces which was great. (far enough from the dropping trees for any politically correct overbearing troll that thinks we don't have any sense to teach our children about that. Thats how they learn and I did too!) We cut at least next years wood for him and likely more. And I had a ball too. Here's a few pics...

Took every saw I own except one. And the kicker is my father in law(great guy too) who never cuts wood calls right before the kids and I leave home with five saws locked and loaded in the trailer asking to borrow a chainsaw to cut up some limbs at his house! Naturally, I had to go back to the shed and gas up the craftsman loaner special for him.(See rule number 1: never loan good saws(or any! unless family. heck he bought if for me 12 years ago!) out. And yes, he called to ask an hour later if it took regular gas or some sort of mix. lol. I had a full tank for him so I wasn't too worried.

Here's lunchtime. Sorry for no action shots but I was busy cutting wood and swapping out saws. Never filled a tank all day in a saw when ya bring 5! Thats my Dad in the back and a couple nephews flanking my 6 yr old who, as it turns out, did not get his two front teeth for Christmas.
And finally,here we are at about 4 pm having a cold one to enjoy the fruits of our labor in a welcome seat and a good days cutting:

 

[Jakers]

this just makes me smile. i never get to cut with anyone but it sure looks nice. for me its always an alone thing... like everything i do

 

[flyboy553]

this just makes me smile. i never get to cut with anyone but it sure looks nice. for me its always an alone thing... like everything i do

come on down Jake! It's only about a 2 hour drive and your here! I cut alone every day all day too. Would be kinda nice to have someone to do the dirty work, er, I mean someone to talk to once in a while!

Ted

 

[farmer steve]

only 1 thing better than that!

 

[ss~zoso~ss]

looks like a great time. It's good to make memories like those!

 

[ric5141]

this just makes me smile. i never get to cut with anyone but it sure looks nice. for me its always an alone thing... like everything i do

Ditto!

 

[howard270]

Great pics from a good days work. Thank you for the story. No one in my family likes to cut wood or burn wood. I am hoping my kids will enjoy it with me in a few years.

 

[Woodchucker Ron]

Memories last a life time. Nice to see the kids with you I'm sure they will always remember good times with family. I'm sure pap enjoyed it just as much as the kids did.

 

[andydodgegeek]

Nice! Perfect day. My dad is 76 and still cuts wood several times a week. I think cutting wood is the best way to keep a fella in good shape and live a long life. My grandpa cut up until he was in his 80's and he was always in great shape. Perfect weather for cutting yesterday, we did some at my place as well. Me, my wife Sarah, and 2 friends I met off of AS Adam and Tim cut up a big pile of red oak out at my boiler. Good times. Glad to hear ya got to spend some quality time with your family.

 

[nk14zp]

Looks like a great time was had by all. And good on you for including the youngsters.

 

[theswampthing]

Cool pics, man. Looks like a fun day

 

[c5rulz]

Great pics, even better to see you Dad out too.

Some nice saws BTW.

 

[pennsywoodburnr]

Man I love threads like this. About the closest I've ever gotten to a big group cut was when a friend called me up a couple months back and asked for some help cutting up a dump truck's worth of logs. I worked the saw and him and his buddy TJ loaded it on the splitter and rotated the round while the splitter busted it up. The wife got stuck with stacking duty! HA!

 

[Milkman31]

I love days like that just wish there were more of them

 

[johnnylabguy]

Thanks for the kind replies!. It really was a geat day I'll never forget because much of what is important to me was involved. No Island vacation or "blingy toy" will replace that. Many outside this forum would call me a simple man. But who can argue with this picture that I snapped dog-tired on the way out of the woods... Dad left every stick of wood we cut on the ground because he had to be most proud to get this load out to the front of the woods where we parked.

That's only a few of the grandkids too. I think he's up to 24 but I lost count awhile ago.lol. He stopped by today and asked if I was sore at all. I told him a little but didn't admit that my 40 years younger body(I'm the youngest of his eight kids) took two Advil 5 minutes after waking up! Here's to hoping we can do it again next year!

 

[zogger]

Big fun man! What were you cutting? Outside bark looks oakish, but inside wood looks like some sort of hickory..which means it is neither maybe.

I cut by myself all the time, so it is up to me to laugh at my own stumps! hahahaha

 

[rasse]

My father a couple of weeks ago, he is 76 old. He would not wait for me so I found him up in the tree when I arrived


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[mn woodcutter]

That looks like a great day! There doesn't seem to be many dads that spend good quality time with their kids. Its so important! Thanks for posting!

 

[Vibes]

All kids should be out in the woods in the winter. Brings back a lot of memories of bringing in the heat with the old man and my uncles. We had to double duty as kids though. We had a coal furnace and generally started out with 5 tons of coal. It would be dumped as close to the house as the driver wanted to get that day and getting it in the shute was up to the kids.

Imagine these days watching 4 kids from 8 to 15 years old shoveling a 5 tonner into the coal cellar these days on a cold winter day. Someone would probably call the authorities.

 

[johnnylabguy]

Big fun man! What were you cutting? Outside bark looks oakish, but inside wood looks like some sort of hickory..which means it is neither maybe.

I cut by myself all the time, so it is up to me to laugh at my own stumps! hahahaha

The wood in the foreground in that pic is a bit of a question mark to me too zogger! Most of the 8 to 10 trees we cut up that day were nice sized(18-22" dbh) ash because of the EAB but that pile was from clearing out out a drop zone for one of them. I know there was a small hickory involved(not shagbark,probably pignut or another close variety) but that pile your looking at still has me guessing too! My coworker buddy who is no slouch woodcutter with his 26 acres says its "red maple" but I have my doubts. It was fairly heavy. I still am amazed that in the winter time its hard to identify trees when their small especially. My Dad grew up in this woods and said its "mostly ash" we cut but he didn't seem to confident about that pile either. lol. It's firewood in the end but dang I hate not knowing for sure! It's like the tree's having its last laugh on ya!