Nearly done with my tree project

[Hatchdog]

Last week I started trimming some Hawthorne bushes that grow pretty wild on my place. Then.....the neighbor hired a guy to come over and drop some trees that were blocking their view of the mountains. I had some trees I wanted out and since they were too close to my building for me to comfortably drop I hired the guy to come over here and drop five trees for me. Three on the larger side and two on the smaller side. So the Hawthorne project got put on hold as these larger pines were a big mess. After working all week except for one day on the golf course I’m nearly done. I have been on a deadline of being done by Friday as we have good rain coming in on Saturday. I have all the limbs cut and piled and will put tarps on them tomorrow afternoon. I still have to finish cutting the trunks into rounds but my priority was getting the limbs under cover as I will burn them once we get some snow on the ground. tomorrow it’s back to the Hawthorns. Been a good week, I really enjoy getting out and doing this type of work.

Hawthorns on the left and pines on the right

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[JEBar]

that's a lot of work .. .. do you use the pine for firewood ..

[fortyshooter]

I've cut a few trees down over the years and find they seem to get larger when it comes to cutting up the limbs.
Yep that does look like some work. Oh and nice looking place you have there!

[BigAl52]

The good ole Evergreen State trees trees and more trees. Looks good Hatch

[cooperhawk]

I used to have friends who came out and cut firewood from the dead trees in our woods. They've either died or gotten too old so
now I have a lot of dead trees needing to come down. I'm eighty and have all the firewood I can use for the next year already, so
I'm looking for anyone who wants to cut their own. Gas fireplaces and environmentalists have sure cut down in the wood use.

[Hatchdog]

that's a lot of work .. .. do you use the pine for firewood ..

I do, pine isn’t all that great for firewood with Tamarack and Red Fir the preferred choice around here. Both are pretty expensive and my pine is free so I burn it. However, I burn it very hot with good air flow and have had good results. The chimney guys were here yesterday and said my stove pipe was dirty but the good dirty without any creosote build-up. Not surprising as I burn my stove daily for several months. I’ll leave the rounds under my shop eve for the winter and in the spring I’ll split them and stack them in my wood shed. Pine cures pretty quickly so this wood will be ready to burn next year.

Forty, you nailed it on the limbs, a real pain in the neck. The three larger trees all had divided trunks which means the limbs grow into each other. Plus being Lodgepole pines the limbs are a nasty twisted ingrown mess anyway. I basically had to cut my way thru them just to get them loose to drag to my piles. Here’s a couple of before pics but they don’t do the mess justice.

Thanks for the compliments folks, we have been here for four years now and are getting a handle on cleaning up around the house. Fire safety is the primary driver but I do like the way the results look.

Coop, biggest roadblock we have here is frequent air inversions causing the county to issue a burn ban. My stove is a Quadra-fire brand and their claim to fame is a four burn process which really helps eliminate smoke. Plus since I burn so hot I get very little discharge from my stovepipe. Most of our burn bans are for non-certified stoves which allows me to continue to burn. Occasionally it gets so bad that the county will issue a ban for everybody. Rare but more and more people are choosing gas over wood. I’ve had gas, pellet and wood over the years and while wood is the most work it’s also the best heat in my opinion. Helps being retired and having the time to prep and burn wood. I should also disclose that I use my gas furnace too and burn wood to supplement it. Nice to have that auto thermostat start the heat before we get up but once I fire up the stove (first thing right after my coffee ) the furnace doesn’t run very much.

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[cooperhawk]

while wood is the most work it’s also the best heat in my opinion. Helps being retired and having the time to prep and burn wood. I should also disclose that I use my gas furnace too and burn wood to supplement it. Nice to have that auto thermostat start the heat before we get up but once I fire up the stove (first thing right after my coffee ) the furnace doesn’t run very much.
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We have a wood furnace which I haven't lit in several years now. I have used it when the gas furnace failed on a Friday evening and no one would come till Monday. It worked just fine to keep the pipes from freezing. When I first bought the house that was my primary heat source.

We also have a heat o later fire place. It has ducted fans that blow the heat around the house. We use that quite a bit. There's nothing like sitting watching TV with the wife in front of a roaring fire in the dead of Winter. We are having a Chimney Sweep inspect in two weeks just for safety sake.

We have a high efficiency propane furnace that is set on auto. I always bank the fire and we go to bed and sleep soundly. I also have a propane furnace in my shop. I wanted a wood stove, but then when we travel all my paint and such would freeze.

[Hatchdog]

Agreed, nothing nicer than relaxing in front of a nice fire. The pellet stove I had in my last place was great for heat but not much for ambience. It too was on a programmable thermostat and I always enjoyed hearing the pellets drop into the firebox and the fan kick on while still in bed. (This was back when I was still working and a slave to the alarm clock).

The wood stove I have now is on the smaller side as out house isn’t that big. We ordered it with the blower option but don’t use it because it’s too noisy. We have a small fan on the stovetop that operates from heat and a ceiling fan above that moves the warm air around pretty well. Our house is a central great room layout with the master on one side and spare bedrooms on the other. Using the stove causes the bedrooms to be on the cool side but we like a cooler bedroom so that works for us. I have to cut my rounds at 15” which if I ever buy any firewood in the future will be a problem as the local wood cutters cut to 16” to 18” which fit most wood stoves.

Got all my piles covered which is a good thing as we are getting the promised rain as I type this. Cool gray day and I’m tempted to build the first fire of the season but I know it would cook us right out of the house. The local requirements only allow one fire with a diameter no greater that four feet. The pile in the foreground in the first pic is my burn pile and I feed it from all the other piles. This makes burning a slow process and doing what is in the pictures will take me several days. Even tho I burn about 100’ from the house I will fill up my thermos and turn on some talk radio and enjoy my days burning these limbs. Life is good!

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[Sir Henry]

That one log could make a huge slingshot! Nice place you have.

[fortyshooter]

My nephew sent me a link to his new place in the TN. mountains. Said he might clear out an area! Roof of house in center of picture if you squint.

[Hatchdog]

^^^^^^^
Wow, looks like a little thining and limbing might be in order. That’s a beautiful picture, never been to TN but it looks like I should.

Sir Henry, I hadn’t thought of that tree looking like a slingshot but now I can’t get that idea out of my head. Maybe I can dig a hole and replant it. Once I figure out what to use for the rubber bands I can launch bowling balls at my neighbors.

[fortyshooter]

^^^^^^^
Wow, looks like a little thining and limbing might be in order. That’s a beautiful picture, never been to TN but it looks like I should.

Sir Henry, I hadn’t thought of that tree looking like a slingshot but now I can’t get that idea out of my head. Maybe I can dig a hole and replant it. Once I figure out what to use for the rubber bands I can launch bowling balls at my neighbors.

Truck tire tubes!

[fortyshooter]

^^^^^^^
Wow, looks like a little thining and limbing might be in order. That’s a beautiful picture, never been to TN but it looks like I should.

He wants to setup a shooting range some place on the 39 acres so he may have some trees to take out. No worries about some firewood!

[Hatchdog]

Got my logs cut up into rounds today, (sorry Sir Henry, no more slingshot) Now other than burning the limbs I’m done except for....

Move the rounds to the splitter.....
Split....
Stack in woodshed....
Move from woodshed to patio rack....
Move from patio rack to in-house rack....
Load into stove and light....
Empty ashes into pail....
Dump pail....

Who said wood burning was fun....

I am kidding of course, i really do enjoy doing this.

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[cooperhawk]

Was at the crack of dawn this AM to attend a retirees breakfast with the guys. As I was leaving the Wife
says OBTW, there are trees down across the drive way. Yep, two large red oaks that were dead, and I was
planning to cut down this winter, So........... got out the four wheeler and went to the barn, in the rain,
and got the tractor. I was able to push them out of the way so I could get out. Got my clean clothes a little
wet and dirty.
This afternoon I cut them up and hauled them out to the barn. Nice pile of red oak to be split later.

[Hatchdog]

^^^^^^^

Sounds like a lot of work but a worthwhile end. I have never worked with hardwood like oak but I imagine it’s a project to split and stack.

[fortyshooter]

I had a large elm tree of some type in the middle of my backyard years ago. It needed to have long limbs trimmed off that hung over the house.
Didn't have a ladder tall enough to reach the lowest limb so had a guy come by and give estimate to cut off some limbs. Trim limbs..$250 cut the tree down...$450. I went the 450 route!
So rented a big log splitter and went about splitting the rounds like cutting a pizza...they were big. That was the stringiest wood I have seen refusing to split clean. Whole lot of work for couple days and burned it up in my wood stove.

[cooperhawk]

^^^^^^^Sounds like a lot of work but a worthwhile end. I have never worked with hardwood like oak but I imagine it’s a project to split and stack.

I have a son in law who wants wood and I have a hydraulic spliter.

[Sir Henry]

A wood fire warms you twice, once when you harvest it and once when you burn it.

[Hatchdog]

A wood fire warms you twice, once when you harvest it and once when you burn it.

That’s a fact Jack, errrr I mean Sir Henry. In fact, as I type this I’m enjoying the second warming you mentioned.