How'd it go today?

Man Scott, I would kill to spend some serious time on my spurs... We havent been doing big removals, I rarely get to log miles on my hooks anymore.

I logged more miles than I wanted to today in mine! I climbed the first tree and didn't come down until done. I climbed the second and did about 2/3 of it before coming down for a drink and to drop the smaller fork. Wraptored back up and finished brushing out the fork over the little barn. They were calling for 100* today...not sure if it made it or not. Worked my groundie in the ground though, I did!
 
I like days like this when I have a hard time remembering the last time I did any tree work. All my saws are clean and ready to go, including the latest addition that hasn't been used yet since getting fixed up. The trouble is that I start hearing voices in the shop, 'So, when are you going to use us?". It's irritating.
 
Seems Tom has his place piled to the sky with firewood so he's been hauling a bunch out here .He hauled two dump trucks yesterday and has two more to haul today all from one job .Stacked that truck holds a tad over 3 cords.

If the old boy can amass 100-125 cords that will take him through the lean months of winter when few people have tree work done .100 cords would equate to about 14-15 thousand dollars .

It's surprising to me that with the die off of the ash trees that the price of firewood has not fallen but it remains a steady 140-150 a cord .
 
It is the same here, Al.
And our ashtrees are dying fast.

Firewood prices here aren't dependent on availability, but on the price of other energy sources, like natural gas, electricity and fuel oil.

And those are HIGH.
It would cost me close to 10 grand to heat my house with oil.

Every time my wife gets tired of the hassle of heating with wood ( which is minimal, with the set-up, we have IMO) I do the wood to oil price calculation for her.
 
Oil is not the bargain it used to be but sometimes it's the only option some have .

I'm surprised the ash are dying on that side of the Atlantic but world wide trade I guess knows no boundrys to the EAB .
 
I split 5 cords with a maul today. The processor is down at the moment and my log splitter is loaned out. I'm sunburned and tired!
 
The way the house is layed out all the doors are in one end .Not real good if you have a fire .

The new building codes require at least one window in a bedroom to be rated as an egress window for just such emergencies should they arrive .

To replace just one Andersen casement window would have cost me 1300 bucks .Aha ,I modified the damned thing with the help from a Dremel vibratory tool .Took me about two hours .

Cut the center support out and refastened it with draw latches .Slick as snot on a door knob .:D
 
I swung the maul, and my right hand man cut logs and set them upright for me, 10 at a time. You all are probably thinking of large rounds. Most all of it was 8" diameter walnut and ash.

If the wood size is ideal, it can be done. All knotty wood was kicked to the side to be revisited with the splitter. Anything over 8ish inches, wasn't cut, and will be run through the processor. Go hit a piece of straight small diameter ash with a maul. It's cake. Just a flick of the wrist. Now think of having another person standing them up for you all day long so you can walk down the line busting them apart. What we did today isnt as grueling as you all are thinking.
 
But that's just it. This stuff we worked on was easy crap. I don't swing mauls at tough wood. I used to, to keep us afloat for the winter months, but when i graduated from that I swore I'd never look back.

The individual that I'm in on the processor with, had his guys clear several acres in the area a few months ago. New houses or something. They sent a dozen triaxles of 10 foot wood over to the processor. A lot of it is just too small to run through the processor. If the wood is too slim, it becomes time consuming to run through the machine. The stuff that's too fat to run through the processor, I think I'm going to sell as rounds. It's just not profitable for me to wrestle big rounds. I'd rather sell a 1 ton dump of rounds for $100 bucks locally. Load it with a skidsteer, drop it within 7 miles, and be done with it.
 
I flopped a big oak into a muddy rice field once, and was responsible for clearing it out, which required wrestling out the big rounds. Terrible going. It can tear you up.
 
Myself with a helper and my home build splitter might get 5 a day or not depending .With an axe I could get maybe two a day a few years back .

That's a lot of axe swinging though .Now as far as myself with a splitter I have no idea because it's a cord here ,a face cord there .No hurry in my old age .;)
 
Once?! You must have it good over in Japan! I wrestle fat rounds constantly. That's why I won't split them for firewood. How do you all handle fat wood over there?
 
I actually I don't mess with big rounds all that often anymore. I've smartened up. I have a list of firewood wcavengers in my phone. Let them deal with it.
 
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