Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[LouieJunior]

Had a huge silver maple come down this week. Lots of work ahead cleaning up this monster.

View attachment 447253

It measured 70 inches at the widest part

View attachment 447254

 

[terryknight]

I HATE HATE HATE silver maples. we have one here and as i told my wife, when the first limb falls it's gone. had one at the old place i trimmed 3 times before i took it down

 

[TomSeller]

That is one big tree.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

I've never heard of a silver maple. Is it a species of maple or a description of attributes like a "wolf pine."

 

[Gordon Gould]

I HATE HATE HATE silver maples. we have one here and as i told my wife, when the first limb falls it's gone. had one at the old place i trimmed 3 times before i took it down

We had a big one at our first place. Sat between the house and barn. I thought it was a good shade tree to work under. Why do you hate them I wonder ??

gg

 

[terryknight]

silver maple AKA water maple is a very fast growing great shade tree, that was used alot in the late 40s and 50s as a landscape tree and a sidewalk tree in towns. they have very brittle wood and are susceptible to disease. most around here are also mutli stemmed which make the tree weaker and increases the chance of dropped limb. the neighborhood i use to live in was built in the late 40s every other tree was a silver maple. most were in the 60+ ft tall range, about 40" DBH, and mutli stemmed i can count the number of time i saw limbs down. i was lucky that my house was never hit thought it was close. my shed was. the ones at the new house are much younger maybe 15 year and already over 40' tall, but only one is in range of the house.

 

[LouieJunior]

I've never heard Water Maple, but that is appropriate! They like to grow in my flood-prone river bottoms. I have oaks and walnuts growing on the higher ground -- but they won't grow where it frequently floods.

 

[Everhard]

All ready for the winter here. (got this done last month) Been a bit of a process: The long term goal is a large carport (waiting on permits) where all the wood is stacked, and then the perimeter will get stacked 2 high with the firewood "cradles" that I made out of 3 pallets each. (there's a 2 strips of wood connecting the 2 vertical pallets)



When I made the first wood cradle and went to lift it loaded with firewood with my tractor (I had the home made forks hanging off the bucket - I'd followed a simple design from another member on here.) and of course it couldn't lift it an inch! In fact it wasn't till I unloaded the cradle to almost half full that I could lift it to full height.
Ya, that just wasn't going to do so I pulled out the welder, popped the bucket off the loader and made a pin on frame that the forks could attach to. (the forks can come off the pin on frame so I can still use them on the bucket for lighter loads allowing me to switch between forks and bucket in seconds.)
Now that allowed me to lift a wood cradle almost full of wood to full height.
Much better! I started worrying that I might have to go buy a bigger tractor! lol

E.

 

[300UGUY]

I don't do near the wood-cutting some of you here do. We just have a small wood stove that we use to supplement our propane heat - usually only on weekends. Most of what I cut is standing dead wood, and I usually go for stuff that's small enough to not require splitting.

I had been reading about things people have made for their tractors to make their cutting easier and got the idea shown in two of the pictures here. It lets me lift the log off the ground and just slice it like a loaf of bread. No muss, no fuss, no sore back. I also made the box to put on the 3-point so I can use all the room in the bucket for wood. I just fill the bucket and take it right to where I stack it.

View attachment 445893 View attachment 445894 View attachment 445895 View attachment 445896

That's a couple good ideas. Better to work smart than hard.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I build my "half cord" firewood boxes so they hold two rows of splits, that allows air to get all around the splits so they will dry right in the boxes,

then, when the wood is dry and I need it, I can pick the box up with my tractor,

and move it to my basement window,

where it get's throw down, to be burned in my wood/coal fired furnace...

SR