Fred Wright
Addicted to ArboristSite
Well it wasn't too cold out today, above freezing. Figured I better get out there with the saw and get some firewood trees felled today. Started the day right by filing the cutters. The Amish neighbor across the road must've had the same idea - he was out there sawing away. I heard a loud crack and looked up to see a humongous tree fall over there.
Got my stuff together, put it in the cart and headed out for some fun in the woods. Had planned the trees I wanted ahead of time, just had to get out there when it wasn't raining or snowing. Boy, there's standing water all over the place... more fun.
First tree was what I called the barbwire maple - it had barbwire embedded in the trunk. I cut between the pieces of wire. Looking at the stump I noticed that carpenter ants had already started working on it. Am glad I got to it before they did.
A couple of big gum trees were fairly close together, one was blocking the fall zone of a maple I wanted. So both came down next.
With the maples and gums done I drove to the back of the lot to attack a nice pin oak that was just waiting to be turned into firewood. The pin oak was a bit dicier... it's back where I hadn't been cutting. I dropped a small gum, about 10" diameter to clear a fall path for the oak.
Those springpoles in the photos...they bent over like bananas. I'm glad the oak didn't get hung up... it sidewsiped some other trees and a few limbs broke on the way down. That's the oak stump with the saw setting on it.
Still had some energy left, started limbing and bucking one of the gums. That was going well but my body was in the opposition. Was getting muscle cramps so I called it a good day's work.
But I know what I'll be doing in the days and weekends ahead. Got wood to cut and load to the yard for splitting and stacking. There's a lot of winter fuel laying out there.
Got my stuff together, put it in the cart and headed out for some fun in the woods. Had planned the trees I wanted ahead of time, just had to get out there when it wasn't raining or snowing. Boy, there's standing water all over the place... more fun.
First tree was what I called the barbwire maple - it had barbwire embedded in the trunk. I cut between the pieces of wire. Looking at the stump I noticed that carpenter ants had already started working on it. Am glad I got to it before they did.
A couple of big gum trees were fairly close together, one was blocking the fall zone of a maple I wanted. So both came down next.
With the maples and gums done I drove to the back of the lot to attack a nice pin oak that was just waiting to be turned into firewood. The pin oak was a bit dicier... it's back where I hadn't been cutting. I dropped a small gum, about 10" diameter to clear a fall path for the oak.
Those springpoles in the photos...they bent over like bananas. I'm glad the oak didn't get hung up... it sidewsiped some other trees and a few limbs broke on the way down. That's the oak stump with the saw setting on it.
Still had some energy left, started limbing and bucking one of the gums. That was going well but my body was in the opposition. Was getting muscle cramps so I called it a good day's work.
But I know what I'll be doing in the days and weekends ahead. Got wood to cut and load to the yard for splitting and stacking. There's a lot of winter fuel laying out there.