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So what do you use to pull out wood? And if you got pictures show them too please. While we are at it, how do you get your wood out? Do you pull it out tree length to a pile and then work it up? Cut it up stove length in the woods and haul it out, only to split it later, or do everything right in the woods?
I think I have used everything over the years, from a giant skidder to an atv and even a brand new pick-up, the latter of which was not good for said truck (LOL). But typically I rely on some pretty small stuff. For the last dozen years I have scaled back and only use a 046 Stihl chainsaw, a 25 hp Kubota tractor and a small farm tractor winch that runs off the PTO.
Believe it or not, the tractor and winch is the most economical I would say. I can't pull a cord of wood behind it, only 3-4 trees, but its faster then a bulldozer, burns a lot less fuel then a skidder, and is a lot more ruggedly built then a 88 GMC Pickup! The landing just has to be close to the trees I am cutting or the long trips back and forth make it unproductive.
I'll certainly share a picture with you but don't laugh at my small tractor, it actually seems to be ideal...just small enough to scoot right around the trees, but big enough to pull some bigger stuff...although one at a time.
So firewood, how do you get yours out?
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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| I take down about three cord a year at least. Two cord sees me but I like a bit extra for years like this, my log stove has been on for a month now whereas normally it starts permanent about thanksgiving. I have three different wood lots, firstly is all the old box elder that I have been bleating about for the last couple of years. This season will use the last of this. The lot I have been working on recently is mainly cherry and a bit of birch (or beech can never remember which is which) This lot was where my new barn is going and the cherry ranged from 6" diameter (1.5 foot round) up to a couple that were about 2 foot diameter. My technique is: I fell them working alone. I cut all the 2" diameter branches off and drag onto a trailer and take to a burn pit. I then de-twig all the bigger stuff and I buck the whole lot into 16" sections. Me, my 16 YO, my 5 YO my wife and sometimes my daughter driving start to load all the burnable bucks into the trailer and take them to a stack pile. Meanwhile my eldest son and I will split all the "too bigs" into usable sections with a maul. Note: Fresh cherry splits easily. Only when we finish one do we do another My last wood lot is actually my front garden, it is about an acre and has forty really big Oaks. The biggest is about 3 foot diameter but most are about 20 to 24". When I take one down it is a big job and dangerous because being so tightly packed they all have bent to the light and have become "widow makers" When I fell one I take home from work several 40" trucking chains and climb the condemned tree and secure the chains as high as possible. I also secure at 3' height normally three ways. this is the triangulation to stop the kick. I do this because I nearly killed myself five years ago when one kicked back and landed where I had just been standing. The chains work great. Once down I do the same thing as before. I can get a full years firewood from one of these trees. If the "widow maker" stops at 45 and digs in the ground I will put a chain around the bottom then feed the chain over one of my chopping stumps and tie the chain off low level on the tractor. I then pull the chain over the stump which lifts the trunk out of the groundand pull stump, trunk and everything untill the tree is down. I use a 40' chain so that I am 40' away out of danger.
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BB hey no need to secure the tree at three feet to keep it from kicking back on you, you can ensure the tree does not come back on you by using the right felling technique with your chainsaw. Its taught in the logging safety courses. Its called the "OPEN FACE FELLING TECHNIQUE".
What you do is, instead of making a 45º wedge on the front side of the tree where you want the tree to fall, you make the wedge at 70º but not nearly as deep into the tree. (1/10th the diameter). The bottom part of the notch is up cut somewhat making a small notch that is 90º.
On a conventional 45º wedge, as the tree falls over, when the tree reaches 45º, the notch closes up, the weight of the falling tree breaks the hinge wood and now your tree is broke loose of the stump and can go anywhere and as you found out...back at you too.
With the open face notch, you have a 90º notch, so the tree falls completely to the ground and never breaks free of the stump. Since the hinge wood remains intact, the tree cannot jump back at you. In fact after the tree hits the ground you have to cut the hinge wood with your saw otherwise you cannot pull the tree from the stump.
This link has a picture of what it should look like. Its the method I use every time I fell a tree. Not only is it safer, it is a lot more accurate too. I wish I lived closer because it is hard to describe in words and pictures. Ten minutes with a tree, a chainsaw and you would understand and would save yourself a lot of prep work.
http://www.dnr.cornell.edu/ext/bmp/contents/diy/openface.pdf
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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| I dunno DB. If the tree has a straight trunk I am pretty confident that I can fell it good. The ones that I chain are the ones that have grown bent. I am going to see if I can get home tonight before dark and take a photo of my front yard and show you what I mean. Sometimes these bent ones hardly even let you cut a front cut before it clamps the blade. I hired a "pro" two years ago to help with the Box Elder and he said he would never take them down from the bottom, he would get a cherry picker and take them down from the top. Mind you he wasn't very good, he thought a hard days work was dealing with 6 of the Elders, I actually did 60 in one day with the families help.
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Okay I did not understand what you meant, I thought you were chaining every tree to prevent kickback on you. Now I understand.
But yes you can tip a leaning tree the opposite way of the lean, you just need to use wedges. I prefer to use an aluminum wedge I have, but plastic ones work too. You just make your back cut part way in, insert the wedge and then keep cutting, that way the weight of the tree as it leans back does not pinch the saw. But before you cut through your hinge wood, you take an axe, maul or whatever, and pound the wedge home. The tree will tip right over.
I am getting cranked up here to do a little firewood harvesting myself, I got to jot down some stuff as I think of it and then come back here with a few tips.
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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The way I do firewood, is to fell the trees, then use my little tractor to pull the logs out tree length to a landing area. In order to get the most production, I try to make this the closet field so I don't have to pull my wood for a long ways.
Once there I cut the wood up into block lengths. I typically do 1 tank of gas for the chainsaw, then since my woodsplitter is mounted onto a trailer, I take that blocked up wood and run it through the splitter and throw it in the trailer...reducing how many times I pick this wood up. I go through a tankful as a way to let me rest from the laborious chainsaw work, and to give me a break from splitting. Either way I block wood and split until I get a trailer load of wood (about 1/2 cord)
Then I haul my wood down to the woodshed.
There is no right or wrong way, this is just the way I do it. What yours?
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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| Our farm is on the top of a mountain in a partially wooded area. We have had so many storms that we've been able to use the trees that Mother Nature knocks down! We use the chain saw to cut them in lengths, then the wood grenade (pretty cool little device) to split it. Like BB, it is a "family affair" - we all work together to cut, split and load it onto the ATV trailer. We use the smaller limbs and brush for campfires.
M. and D.
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| I have a wood grenade, I wonder if it is the same thing? It is a cast steel pyramid shaped thing that is pointed and splits the wood four ways? and painted gold?? They are good but I found it was much easier just to take sections from the edge inwards, if you get my meaning.
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Sounds like the same thing, only ours is black. You just pound it into the log and it splits in three parts...it makes it a little more fun for the kids - they think it is pretty cool...
M. and D.
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as a Child I thought my name was Kerry Wood Till I was 12.
We just had the basics. No Splitters or whatever. Our wood wagons were old trailers and spreaders we'd fixed up. The Game was to see how much wood we could get on the cart before the tires went soft and we dragged the cart home on the hubs. One of the carts is a single axle dump truck, cut in half. Never flattened the tires on it, but the game makes filling the cart full lots of fun.
Like some of you, we have wind storms to bring the trees over, and those are the ones we cut up and use for firewood.
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