My "Challenge Oak"

[Mike Van]

3 logs, 3 loads

One log to a load today, 3 in all. The second pic is probably the largest log I ever loaded with the boom on the truck.

I'm all cleaned up until I pull the tops up the bank. Tomorrow maybe, if it's not rain/snow/whatever is coming.

 

[HD-tech-NH]

Awesome thread! love the pics keep up the good work! Being relatively new to all this I love to soak up all the great ideas! thanks!

 

[jcrenfrow]

Nice pics mike keep em comin. Im still amazed that boom can lift that much

 

[Mike Van]

Logs this size [like approx. 3000 lb] I get one end on, let the load off, move the winch cable out, lift & pull it on. I can't pick one up clean, just too heavy. I usually unload with a cant hook, but not these. A 5' crowbar, and just lever a little at a time, keep kicking a block under so it doesn't roll back. Then gravity wins.

 

[Mike Van]

I hauled the last of this home today, pretty good pile.

As usual, a picture doesn't do justice to it, the logs in the rear are the 30" size. I left some small stuff behind, something I never do. I had just about enough of humping up & down that bank. The bank got kinda tore up too, I had to do some raking, etc. so as not to leave something that was going to wash out. I've got a 'theory' on the gravel seam in the butt. In 1955 there was a huge flood here, US Rt.7 was closed as the bridge went out right where my house is. This tree is downstream some 1/2 mile from there. There's another big tunnel under the RR tracks [200' from the tree] The water level could have easily been up over the butt of this tree, leaving behind what I found with the chain. The tree had 50+ years to grow over it. I did some winch video yesterday, as soon as we figure out how, I'll get it loaded & you-tubed. It's not anything thats going to make you gasp with awe, I know - It really can't show the grade, etc. The job went good, nothing got wrecked, [me or the equipment] I did enjoy "the challenge" of this tree, the average ones can get a little lame after awhile.

 

[Dalmatian90]

That was quite the interesting story Mike!

I don't have the equipment you do...here I would've taken one look at it and declared it wildlife habitat.

 

[coog]

I hauled the last of this home today, pretty good pile.

As usual, a picture doesn't do justice to it, the logs in the rear are the 30" size. I left some small stuff behind, something I never do. I had just about enough of humping up & down that bank. The bank got kinda tore up too, I had to do some raking, etc. so as not to leave something that was going to wash out. I've got a 'theory' on the gravel seam in the butt. In 1955 there was a huge flood here, US Rt.7 was closed as the bridge went out right where my house is. This tree is downstream some 1/2 mile from there. There's another big tunnel under the RR tracks [200' from the tree] The water level could have easily been up over the butt of this tree, leaving behind what I found with the chain. The tree had 50+ years to grow over it. I did some winch video yesterday, as soon as we figure out how, I'll get it loaded & you-tubed. It's not anything thats going to make you gasp with awe, I know - It really can't show the grade, etc. The job went good, nothing got wrecked, [me or the equipment] I did enjoy "the challenge" of this tree, the average ones can get a little lame after awhile.

Gee, from the looks of it,you have enough wood to heat that little house of yours for a lifetime.Remember, split fine so you can get it in the door.

 

[MotorSeven]

Mike, thanks for the info & pic's. We have alot of ridges in our area, so almost all trees are "down the slope". That winch is fantastic, i'll have to work towards one of those. I was at my neighbors cutting up an ash last month, 36" or so at the butt. I was using his tractor to pull it out of the blackberry bushes. He insisted that i hook the chain to the FEL & drag it from the front. I tried to explain to him how easy it is to flip a tractor doing it that way, but all i got was, "that's how i always did it". I guess some people are just lucky .

RD

 

[Mike Van]

Gee, from the looks of it,you have enough wood to heat that little house of yours for a lifetime.Remember, split fine so you can get it in the door.

This little house coog?

Now I know they're aren't any sugarmaples in Kansas, right? We sure got 'em here - The little red barn had about 1400 gal's of sap through that ss tank last spring, and the wood fired boiler inside made some 28 gals. of the best maple syrup ever to be had! You are right though, it does need to be split small so it burns fast & hot - you get the best boil that way - I went through about 2 1/2 cord to do that, mostly slabs from my mill, but some round wood mixed in.

 

[coog]

This little house coog?

Now I know they're aren't any sugarmaples in Kansas, right? We sure got 'em here - The little red barn had about 1400 gal's of sap through that ss tank last spring, and the wood fired boiler inside made some 28 gals. of the best maple syrup ever to be had! You are right though, it does need to be split small so it burns fast & hot - you get the best boil that way - I went through about 2 1/2 cord to do that, mostly slabs from my mill, but some round wood mixed in.

You sure know how to rub it in.I grew up near a sugar bush and spent a lot of time helping keep the fire stoked and emptying buckets.My wife was offered jobs in both Connecticut and Kansas; we ended up here for a lot of reasons, but we loved your state...especially the trees.I wonder how your acer saccharum would do down here?
I think I would like your place.

 

[Mike Van]

There's not much left of the family farm coog, house, barns & 5 1/2 acres. But, my kids are 4th generation to live here, and the way things are bought & sold today, thats quite a thing. Hey, you do have something in Kansas we don't - Dorthy, Toto & Auntie Em -

 

[coog]

One of the reasons we are here rather than there is that we were able to buy a house in town and a 160 acre ranch for about the same price as a buildable lot in Hartford.Big sky country here, way different than the canopy you live under.Do you sell your syrup?Mail order?I suddenly have a hankering for pancakes.

 

[tree MDS]

Wet1 - It was, until I hit that gravel in the tree - If there'd been some Granola bar eating hikers on the Appalachian trail [1/2 mile as the crow flies] They'd have thought some crazy guy was lose in the woods Ropensaddle, I made that setup some 10 years ago starting with an 8,000 lb wrecker winch. I had it driven by a hydraulic motor, but was never happy with it. Too slow & not enough snot. I had it for sale for awhile, no takers. Glad now it didn't sell. This past summer, I changed it over to pto drive, boy, what a difference. It'll pull the tractor back if you don't stand on the brake pedals sometimes. I thought on this stuff I might have to do the hang a snatch on the log thing & double the cabe back, but no need, it pulled that big butt single line.

+ 1 on them granola eating hikers mike - my ex's property was bordered by the trail over in cornwall bridge, them dirty hippies would show up in my yard all the time. My german shepard loved it, lol.

 

[Mike Van]

One of the reasons we are here rather than there is that we were able to buy a house in town and a 160 acre ranch for about the same price as a buildable lot in Hartford.Big sky country here, way different than the canopy you live under.Do you sell your syrup?Mail order?I suddenly have a hankering for pancakes.

Sent you a pm coog -

 

[Dalmatian90]

were able to buy a house in town and a 160 acre ranch for about the same price as a buildable lot in Hartford

Oh, Hartford itself is cheap to buy in. It's today's ammo prices that kill yeah trying to defend you own little piece of Frog Hollow.

 

[coog]

Not sure what "frog hollow" refers to, but ammo still looks like a good investment.Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

 

[yetty734]

mike...would you like to state anything you dont have that is every country americans dream. ill trade you my half acre in ohio for w/e you got. You're a lucky man

 

[Mike Van]

The end of the story

I know last fall I had hoped to mill up some of this tree, but - I don't know how well it shows in the pic, but the whole lower part of the tree had an awful twist to it

If you picked a spot on this end at 3 o'clock & followed the grain to the other end, you'd be at 12 o'clock. All the lumber off logs like this tends to twist the same way. Splitting it even followed those lines. There was one upper piece I grabbed this winter, 10 ft long and big enough for an 8x8. The rest went here

This is the last piece on the splitter, the last and largest of 10 loads on my Ford. I'll be moving it one more time, after new year probably from here

down to my house to get fed into the Harman. This pile is all from the same tree, it's 4 ft wide, 6 1/2 ft tall, and 25 ft long. It comes out to 5 full cord from that big old tree. I still have that winch video on the camera - This is pretty sad, but we don't have a computer with enough room on it to load the program & download the video. Scheesh, I'm still on Win 98 on the one I use.

 

[Henry G.]

Wow great job, that oak looks sweet. Guess those "old" homelites did pretty good! Of course having a lift and truck like that was pretty sweet too...good work.

 

[ulyssesjones]

It's too bad Kent isn't near Mansfield Center. I would hire you and your equipment to come help me with a very similar situation at my place. Mine will probably sit at rot.

Nice job and a great stack of reward.

-Jones