Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[Backyard Lumberjack]

The cabin is Ash Post +Beam milled with the chainsaw from blown down Ash Trees (that will likely never re grow due to the Emerald Ash Bore). The solar panel worked well in the summer for our lights, but does not seem to work as well in the winter. The sides are just stained 5/8 plywood. We put cement board around the bottom to protect it from Porcupines. Broccoli from the garden.

looks good MM, enjoyed seeing it. liked the in-progress framing shot! I quit growing broccoli down here. cabbage does well, grows well, large heads and sweet. but unless its real cold a lot like low teens and 20's which kills the fall tomatoes... broccoli just isn't too tasty, imo. better, sweeter over at the grocery store. same with Brussels. they start, but don't get big...

garden fresh okra frying in bit of olive oil... can't get this stuff at the grocery store. but as u say... and know... its not a free ride. lol... lots of work, but fun and interesting ... if not a bit challenging at times. grow the same thing year after year... and each year will be different...

one thing about gardening that always amazes me... is the seed. seems dry and dead! and can keep for years if cold. couple seasons back I grew a bunch a limas... I had the seeds from a plant I grew 23 years ago... and the seeds grew well. just put a seed in the soil, moisten... and viola! ~

life emerges.

 

[MustangMike]

Olive Oil and sliced Ginger Root are key ingredients in our marinate, also Kikkoman Teriyaki sauce, plus some other spices and stuff. It is never gammy!

 

[muddstopper]

As someone from the other side of the pond, where we don't do the hunting thing, can you help me out? Why would someone get a tag and hunt if they didn't want the buck themselves? Just for the sport or is it culling for a reason or..? I'd assumed that the filling of the freezer, the subsistence element, was a big plus for most people, and the drive for a few.

I hunt for the enjoyment of just being in the woods. I can kill a deer about anyime I want to off my back porch. Growing up, seeing a deer was a rarity, just were'nt many. Now they are a pest. They make having a garden almost impossible. A few years ago I planted 11, 100ft rows of sweet corn, I harvested a 5gal bucket full of corn, the deer got the rest. This past growing season, I built a fence around my 2100sqft garden. After planting I strung string criss crossing across the top and hung red flags from the string to deter the deer from jumping the fence. This worked pretty well, but made things difficult when cultivating and harvesting the bounty. I let a friend hunt my place for the last couple seasons and he has taken 3 deer here. I have told him to kill everything, including bambi. I have been planning on having a serious deer culling on my place. I just cant store that much meat. NC allows me to harvest 3 nusiance deer without a permit, which I can consume. 2 more that have to be disposed of on my property. After that, I have to get a permit. There are probably 10 or 12 laying in my field right now as I type. I have them trained to look into the light when I take the dogs out. They just stand there and wait for me to go back into the house.

My sisterinlaw used to not want anyone to hunt on the farm. She raises daylilies and bought $10,000 worth of rare types to grow and resell. The deer wiped them out eating the plants. You cant sell a flower if it doent have any blooms. Now SIL, asks people to hunt the place. To many deer and not enough hunters, they still keep the blooms eaten out of her daylilies. The problem keeps getting worse. Bag limits vary around the state. Here during gun season, all you can take are bucks. Out on the coast where I was a couple weeks ago, you can kill as any does as you want, run out of tags and you can buy more. We need a better doe season, one buck can service many does, but only a doe can have a baby deer, usually 2 and 3 at a time. Last year we had diseased deer dying everywhere. To many deer. I look for a huge dieoff in the very near future and it is already starting.

 

[Cowboy254]

Had another go at the neighbour's scrounge today (that he said I could have). All Limby work today. I had a visitor...



Mostly I was glad that she didn't bite me on the arse while I was cutting. Then I saw she had an ulterior motive.



It was all nice clean peppermint, no termites, bugs, spiders, snakes or drop bears to be seen. I was able to halve the rounds with one motivated Fiskars hit.



1.5 cubes or so loaded up. I was confident I would be able to get to my driveway on the right without attracting the attention of the highway patrol Nazis so I didn't bother securing things.



A nice evening's scrounge.

 

[MustangMike]

Still too many anti hunters around here (watch too much Disney), but a lot of State and NYC DEP (watershed) land has opened up to hunting in the past couple of decades. In fact, I got my doe this year on NYC DEP property (a 1,000 acre tract about 15 min from me).

NYC realized the deer were decimating the land, preventing it from providing the protection for clean water it was intended to provide, and on State land the deer were getting sick and emaciated.

 

[muddstopper]

I didnt have much problem with deers until the neighbors started feeding them. Started out with apples in the corner of my field. They can see the field from their front window so thats where they put the bait. I told them I was going to start shooting the deer and to not put anyore apples or feed out. I didnt want the deer drawn up to my garden. Now all my neighbors put out corn, You couldnt haul all the deer corn being fed in a tandem axle dump truck. So I started letting a friend start hunting. Pisses the neighbors off, but deer eating my garden pisses me off so the deer have got to die. I might just need to buy another freezer. Its almost hog killing time and I cant keep deer meat and hog meat, plus all the veggies the wife has in the freezer.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

I hunt for the enjoyment of just being in the woods. I can kill a deer about anyime I want Now they are a pest. They make having a garden almost impossible. .

interesting tale. one man's ceiling, another's floor... sounds like a deer hunter's paradise. up around my ranch... some of those who keep family gardens have put up deer fences... 12-15' high. seems to work. I was visiting a guy, he showed me such... and then said, see? there... deer!... he had done a lower height, but dint work. 15' did...

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

Had another go at the neighbour's scrounge today (that he said I could have). All Limby work today. I had a visitor..
Mostly I was glad that she didn't bite me on the arse while I was cutting. Then I saw she had an ulterior motive.It was all nice clean peppermint, no termites, bugs, spiders, snakes or drop bears to be seen. I was able to halve the rounds with one motivated Fiskars hit. 1.5 cubes or so loaded up. I was confident I would be able to get to my driveway on the right without attracting the attention of the highway patrol Nazis so I didn't bother securing things. A nice evening's scrounge.

indeed! always something to see, always something to learn. nice pix! I noted the slim wedge to keep blade unstuck. who hasn't stuck a blade? ... one pix worth a thousand words... (@%$#, !(*& ^&, $%^, etc!) lol will keep that in mind, a wedge. a google on it shows numerous sources... costs very palatable, too. a felling wedge. HD says to carry one by Echo... and I have to go to HD later today... will ck it out, get one.

 

[Deleted member 149229]

indeed! always something to see, always something to learn. nice pix! I noted the slim wedge to keep blade unstuck. who hasn't stuck a blade? ... one pix worth a thousand words... (@%$#, !(*& ^&, $%^, etc!) lol will keep that in mind, a wedge. a google on it shows numerous sources... costs very palatable, too. a felling wedge. HD says to carry one by Echo... and I have to go to HD later today... will ck it out, get one.

 

[panolo]

I had problems with the last two batches of yellow wedges I bought. They broke in warm temps with less than 25 strokes on them. Went back to the orange ones and they were better. Think the yellow ones were Oregon brand.

 

[Philbert]

I had problems with the last two batches of yellow wedges I bought. They broke in warm temps with less than 25 strokes on them. Went back to the orange ones and they were better. Think the yellow ones were Oregon brand.

Of course, it is not the color, but the plastic / polymer used. Some are better for cold weather.

Lots of cheap wedges out there. Even some of the better ones will snap if hit at the right angle. I suppose.





Here are 50+ pages of thoughts on that subject (OK, maybe 10 pages on wedges, and 40 of other stuff . . . ):
https://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/falling-wedges-whats-good-whats-not-and-why.175184/

Philbert

 

[Deleted member 117362]

I had problems with the last two batches of yellow wedges I bought. They broke in warm temps with less than 25 strokes on them. Went back to the orange ones and they were better. Think the yellow ones were Oregon brand.

Orange are ok for singles, but to double stack I like red headed one. Slick orange ones just come flying right back, unless I am doing something wrong.

 

[muddstopper]

I dont think I even own a plastic wedge. Got a few steel ones, somewhere. I have used the face cut for a wedge, not the best tool for the job, but works in a pinch, (Pun intended). For splitting post, I have made many a gullet out of limbs by sawing them into a wedge shape.

 

[Cowboy254]

On the way back , I spotted a Spruce blowdown and a small dead standing one

I delimbed it with my ax and fired up the Kita

That fresh cut dead standing spruce is good to go !

I love it when you can scrounge and chuck it in the fire on the same day.

 

[KiwiBro]

I had problems with the last two batches of yellow wedges I bought. They broke in warm temps with less than 25 strokes on them. Went back to the orange ones and they were better. Think the yellow ones were Oregon brand.

We had a crowd here in NZ selling plastic wedges extremely cheap. So I bought one with a view to buying a whole box if they lasted OK. I don't think anyone at that plastic parts manufacturer had ever cut a tree down or knew anyone that had. The wedges were made with the wrong plastic and shattered upon impact. I see they are still selling them too, years later, but are now calling them "holding" wedges and not for driving.

 

[KiwiBro]

I love it when you can scrounge and chuck it in the fire on the same day.

If the drive home was a bit longer, cut and split green spruce will probably be seasoned by the time the trailer pulls into the driveway.

 

[MustangMike]

I ALWAYS have a lot of the plastic wedges available. Great for felling and preventing stuck bars. On large rounds I may use 2 or 3 to keep my bar from pinching.

Also use them for stumping and milling. At first, one in the far end to open the cut, then when I am almost through I remove that one and put two in, one on each side just in back of my bar. Keeps your bar from getting pinched, and when you go through, the round "see saws" to release your bar. Even if you don't need them, your bars will last much longer if you use them.

I also use them when removing "widow makers". Putting a wedge in the cut promotes slipping so the two ends are less likely to lock up against each other.

You can also often used them, in conjunction with your X-27, to open up a cut and free a stuck bar.

If I take a saw, I don't leave home w/o them!

 

[Deleted member 149229]

I’ve used the yellow ones I posted and while not using everyday like a pro they have taken some serious whacks and not broke.

 

[dancan]

Orange are ok for singles, but to double stack I like red headed one. Slick orange ones just come flying right back, unless I am doing something wrong.

Just take some sawdust from the cut and put between the 2 wedges , it'll keep them together .
To me , wedges are sacrificial tools , I've busted or cut every one I've owned except the half dozen that I haven't used yet lol

 

[Philbert]

To me , wedges are sacrificial tools . . .

Yeah, but their useful life can be extended.

https://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/wedge-renewal.299485/

Philbert