Bruce's Journal

[Bruce]

That is an EXTREMELY helpful video STA, thanks! Among the things I learned:

1. I need to grow a beard
2. I don't need to use my chainsaw chaps
3. Eye protection is optional
4. No need to back away from the tree as it falls

Nice how well they described the various cuts. Buckin' Billy Ray always seems to use the Humboldt, hardly anyone else I see on YouTube does. I bet that would keep my trees from getting stuck on the stump as they fall since the butt hits the ground first with that one. I am NOT going to try the "back cut first" technique! That looks WAY too dangerous.

One thing ya got lots of is rock.

Yeah but no blasting permit!

have to have a permit to cut down the oak or pine if they are considered monumental

I would say that most of your trees are monumental, they are HUGE in diameter!

I sure hope you wore kneepads.

You bet I did.

Good on getting the trees pulled out while it was drier. Lets not hope that it is going to be an indicator of a dry season.

I was thinking the same thing. Good news now may not be so good later

 

[Bruce]

Yesterday afternoon I went out after the "widowmaker" in the woods.

1. I tried to pull the base with the 2 ton comealong. No good, didn't move a bit.
2. I tried pulling 90° to the first direction. Same result.
3. I cut about 8' of the bottom off, that part dropped, the upper part got more vertical top still hung up in other trees and the "butt end" dropped into the ground. Go back to step 1 and 2, same result.
4. Tied in higher up the remaining part of the tree (i.e. about 6-7') and pulled. The whole thing got more vertical as the top pulled out of the trees it was leaning into. It leaned a bit left, then a bit more so I started slacking on the comealong. It leaned into some different trees but they were less dense and eventually it dropped
5. I cut 3 more sections and limbed it. Tall tree but not very large in diameter. Oddly (to me) there were leaf buds opening on the top branches ... from a tree that hadn't had roots since last fall.
6. I pulled the upper part out to the pile by the barn, since there was very little weight on the ground it didn't dig a rut. I am using the Quick Hitch like a logging arch to lift and hold the butt end of the logs up off the ground and close to the tractor for "towing".
7. Came in to make dinner.

Today I planned to go back out to get the rest of the pieces but wanted to move a birdhouse from the garden to the NW fence corner by the pond so another pair of tree swallows would hopefully use it. There is one at the SW corner of the pond that has tree swallows every spring. The house was on a post in the garden when we bought the place 8 years ago and has been unused for a couple of years with the post leaning quite a few degrees. I think I figured out why it was unused, the roof had a rotted spot near the back with a hole plenty big enough to let rain in. Not what a mama bird wants for its babies. So I made a new one using the old one as a pattern. Took a few hours of course. Guess I'll get the logs tomorrow ... if I'm willing to brave the 0.08" of rain that may fall between 8 AM and 8 PM

A few days ago I mentioned DW pointing out a small woodchuck in the back yard near the little barn. I put the Havahart in the unused (bad roof and structure) part of the little barn since there is a tunnel opened up in there next to the foundation. Checked it every day for a few days and nothing. Figured maybe the little one had moseyed along but nope. I looked in the window after locking the chickens up last night and saw the door closed and a dark shape inside. I feel really badly about this little one, it was already dead which means it died of thirst I want them gone but I don't want them to suffer. I took it out to the woods this afternoon.

 

[Baymule]

I laid our wood floors and had never done floors. I sanded, stained with a whitewash and used a water base polyurethane. It looked good, but the water base polyurethane was a mistake. It has worn. Maybe if we didn’t live on pure sand, making every step sandpaper, it might have worked. So I need to sand, restrain the worn places and use an oil base polyurethane. ......... someday......

 

[CntryBoy777]

Glad ya got the tree down without incident........sorry bout the chuck, but at least it won't be doing damage....don't be too hard on yourself....

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Glad ya got the tree down without incident.....

Amen to that! Did you take any pictures?

 

[Bruce]

Of course not! Maybe I can take a picture of the downed pieces but I don't carry my camera around as a regular habit while I'm working.

 

[CntryBoy777]

....

 

[Bruce]

Pictures, because STA is so demanding

The pieces of the last widowmaker I dropped. Exclusive of the top I had dragged up to the barn previously


Larger pieces up close and the stump this "tree" and the rest of them came from. Not including the very top of the tree it measured about 75'


And this is what happens when the new "bottom" of the tree drops. No wonder it didn't want to pull sideways with the comealong


My logging "winch" setup, the "road" is fairly dry unlike in March when it was below freezing ?!?!?!? It is worse than it looks with regard to ruts. The green behind the tractor in the middle picture is the neighbor's property, the property line basically runs along the upper part of the picture at that green line though their driveway is between the trees and the grass.


And of course one must watch out for the ancient barbed wire (or bob wire for those that say it wrong )


The pile in the field, cut to "carry length", I've not gone to get it yet. I need to put the mower back on (kinda seen behind the wood pile) and swap the bucket for the forks (*) And the pile by the barn, seems like a LOT of work for not much wood. And it isn't even bucked and split yet! The BIG rotty looking stuff on top are beams that came out of the house in 2013. I finally got around to digging in the pile now that I have a tractor. I had no idea what all was in there, the excavator just put the big stuff where I told him to. The beams that looked to be of some structural value are off to the left where you can't see them


And most of my "herd" of chickens foraging behind the barn, must be the alpacas were in the barn. The chickens mostly won't go out if the alpacas are there.


* And because I'm a wimp, weather warmer than "wind chill below freezing". Might get to it tomorrow afternoon.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Looks like your grass is greening up really good for ya and I know your feathered "herd" is enjoying it........I don't blame ya for the delay, there is time to do ahead when conditions are more favorable....

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Mr. @Bruce, sir,

Thank you SO MUCH for the pictures! Keep them coming! BTW, Mike Morgan would be proud! I now have a better idea what you are up against.

Did you get any snow from the cold front that came through?

Senile Texas Aggie