Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[Creamer]

Someone is planting corn 6 years in a row in the same field?

Exactly. It is about the chemistry and biology and not the equipment. It is amazing to see how it works and why it works but in this case he has alfalfa in the same field and never harvests it. he plants the same population of corn but puts more in the rows he plants and skips a row every so often to let the sun in and uses the nitrogen fixation for fertilization. He didn't get there organically because of where the ground was but now he is organic as well. The biggest thing is that it isn't monoculture but you harvest individual crops, i.e. more than one species is growing but you only harvest the crop you want using conventional combines . Dakota Lakes Ressearch Farm if you want to read more.

 

[Creamer]

3rd and 4th generation farms these days growing thousands of acres of corn and beans, so do you REALLY think they didn't do their research and give it an honest go???

Fact is, it just doesn't work every place!

SR

The answer to your question is yes. It takes a huge shift in thinking and you are talking big dollars and often people are understandably not willing to take that risk because the rewards are somewhat unknown. When the research farm was started - it is privately owned - it was not about no-till - it got there by solving water absorption issues and some other benefits started being noticed. A little serendipity. Most universities no-till research is not long based on a long enough cycle to get the full transformation because funding is is in 2-3 year increments and that is not enough.

 

[Creamer]

Oldpath inspired me to dig up this picture. (Sorry, no tractor pictures, though my tractor did get used to transport the lumber back up to the site.)

We used a curved sugar maple as the collar-tie on a small timber frame pavilion I helped construct at a favorite hiking spot a few years ago. We needed at least one sugar maple log in the project, because this is Vermont, after all. The curve was because the timber framer loved putting a bit of "character" into his timber frames. The frame was constructed on top of the old dam control station for a reservior which was the water supply for a neighboring town many years ago.

The wood was harvested within a couple hundred yards of this site. It was sawed on the landing on this property, a couple thousand feet away. The furthest any of the wood traveled from this spot was to the timber framers shop 9 miles away. All of those volunteering for the project got a chance to help make the joinery and hand-hew one of the beams which had been left un-sawed just for that purpose.

Thanks for the photo. That is a neat project. What did it used to be?

 

[Jstpssng]

Thats good use for banana wood but sugar maple, around hear thats a sin.

For years I cut around my sugar maple, yellow birch, and spruce. Now I'm regretting it. The spruce is carrot shaped; 12-14" on the stump yet only 40 feet to a 4" top. I had one nice white spruce right next to a main trail, which I watched grow for years. When I finally cut it down I left about 14 feet of the butt end in the woods because it was so rotten.
My maple is so darned thick that I've started thinning it. Before I bought the land in 2001 the last cut had been in 1979 when somebody cut poplar with a chainsaw, dragging it out and piling it down to be chipped for paper. About 5 acres wasn't entered though and the dearth of undergrowth was pathetic. Within that 5 acres the maple is old and not very vigorous; but I can take a couple of sawlogs out of it. With only 20 acres I tend to micromanage...

A few years ago when the price of spruce was up and I"d just bought a new tractor and winch I cut a load of spruce, and have enough left for another... possibly the next load that I cut since the poplar market tanked. I've started thinning the thick areas of maple for firewood; the logs I will cut this fall when the "R" months start back up. I have about a dozen good sized maples along my west line next to my field which are very convenient to tap, but they also shade my garden starting about 4:00 and I'm debating if I should cut them. There should be some good logs in them, those 5/16" tapholes heal up quite nicely.
I could easily tap 100 trees if I wanted to, so cutting a few doesn't hurt; and will actually help the rest produce better.

 

[Oldpath05]

I had one hemlock 6x6 reject so went and got red oak for replacement, it was another one of these fun adventures from stump to mill. First thing I did was pinch my Echo bar trying to cut the oak away from the other oak, ended up with a slight bend on bar tip, got to hammer that out if I can, I noticed it when I tried to keep cutting and the chain wouldn't move. So to finish cutting the log I went and got my son's Stihl since I was closer to his place then mine.

Mel Tillis - Sawmill - YouTube

YouTube

 

[Sawyer Rob]

The answer to your question is yes.

OK then, you must know MUCH more about the farmers here, where I live, (myself included) than even I do...

So, I'll leave this one to you and your crystal ball...

SR

 

[hunt4570]

I probably could get more done on my bridge if these little pet peeves wouldn't keep bothering me like helmet placement on tractor. I solved chainsaw placement years ago but a good place for helmet besides the head was is hard to solve at least for those of us that needs to wear a helmet when using a chainsaw. So heres my prototype, tried to keep it small but sturdy with a simple bungee cord to hold in place it's place, without out the cord the darn things swings and bounces, very distracting let alone annoying......

I've been wanting to find an old manikin bust I could bolt to my tractor and strap the helmet to that!

And my chainsaw lives here...

 

[Oldpath05]

I've been wanting to find an old manikin bust I could bolt to my tractor and strap the helmet to that!

Try putting some spray foam in one of your manzier's, that will work lot better.....:laughing:

 

[John_Mc]

Oldpath inspired me to dig up this picture. (Sorry, no tractor pictures, though my tractor did get used to transport the lumber back up to the site.)

We used a curved sugar maple as the collar-tie on a small timber frame pavilion I helped construct at a favorite hiking spot a few years ago. We needed at least one sugar maple log in the project, because this is Vermont, after all. The curve was because the timber framer loved putting a bit of "character" into his timber frames. The frame was constructed on top of the old dam control station for a reservior which was the water supply for a neighboring town many years ago.

The wood was harvested within a couple hundred yards of this site. It was sawed on the landing on this property, a couple thousand feet away. The furthest any of the wood traveled from this spot was to the timber framers shop 9 miles away. All of those volunteering for the project got a chance to help make the joinery and hand-hew one of the beams which had been left un-sawed just for that purpose.

Thanks for the photo. That is a neat project. What did it used to be?

The body of water was a reservoir which was the water supply for Vergennes, VT about 6 miles away. The platform was the control station for the dam. The town owned the property surrounding the reservoir to protect the watershed. I'm not sure when it stopped being used as that town's water supply. Vergennes kept the property for some time, but then eventually put it up for sale in 1995. Folks in the area did not want to see it developed, so formed a non-profit and did some fund-raising, bought the property and put an easement on it so it can never be developed. Over the years, the original 664 acre parcel had been added to. It now consists of 1000 acres, all conserved. Parts of the forest are a "working forest" and are harvested occasionally. Those areas also serve as the site for many of the Game of Logging training workshops in our area. Other parts are being allowed to "re-wild".

The platform/foundation for the control station sat there, slowly decaying. About 5 years ago, someone came up with the idea of turning it into a little timber frame pavilion to make a nice picnic spot or shelter from the rain for those hiking the nice trail network on the property. They turned it into a combinaton of educational workshop and demonstraction project (Discussion of why the specific trees were chosen and how they contributed to the silvicultural and other goals for the property, Game of Logging techniques demonstrated when felling the timber, small forwarded used to bring the logs to the landing, demonstration of bandsaw mill operation, introduction timber framing joinery, and the class all participated in the frame raising).

 

[shooterdon]

I'd have to agree. At least with the ones i get, a 1/3 of a cord would be generous. if it's loose and not stacked, 1/4 at best. shooterdon, I'd like to see a pic of your bin! on another site a fellow cuts the plastic in 1/2 on a diagonal, gets 2 roofs per tank!

I somehow found 10 cord of softwood to buy. (spruce/jack pine). 1/2 of the firewood burnt up here is softwood as Birch is the only hardwood here. Take what we can get. Everything goes to the chipper for paper.....
Not an efficient way to haul it, but again, only one guy has a self loader truck up here, this is View attachment 660648View attachment 660647due to the hauling distances. Luckily it's only a mile of pavement and a few miles of bush road to get this out.

Here you go:



The modified bins stand about 70" tall. It takes some work to modify them but well worth it in my situation. The only cost is 8 zip ties to hold each bin to the frame, cut off blades for the grinder, and reciprocating saw blades for cutting plastic.

Advantages:
More capacity.
Covered storage. And no more **** tarps.
The plastic covers act like little greenhouses to speed drying.
Much reduced handling of splits.
Cost savings and work to cut up the bin to dispose of it (cannot burn them where I live)
Much reduced handling of splits Bins are moved to where the splits are and splits are handled once.
Bins are staged when needed into the garage and I use a pallet jack to move them in the garage. Splits go from bin to my log carrier to the fireplace.
Also, I can move the totes easily between storage areas. From direct sun for drying to staging areas for long term and current storage.
Cheap. I have less than $850 invested in 32 bins that will hold about 15 cords of wood.
Made to be stored outside for years with no maintenance.

Disadvantages
Cannot be stacked
Need a tractor with the lift capacity. Most hobby tractors will not be able to handle the load.
Not pretty like a wood storage shed.

Sorry about pictures being sideways. Cannot seem to figure out how to fix it.