RedNeckGeek
Super Member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2011
- Messages
- 8,753
- Location
- Butte County & Orcutt, California
- Tractor
- Kubota M62, Kubota L3240D HST (SOLD!), Kubota RTV900
I've recognized pieces of wood as they were being fed into the stove as well. My wood is coming from brush piles created by a 'dozer when the property was cleared, so my loop is a bit shorter. I drag a tree out of the pile and buck it into 6' sections, use the FEL on the tractor to pile them up for drying, buck them to burn size, split and stack onto pallets in one operation, move a pallet into the garage, load the splits into a wood dolly, then move that to the stove, and finally load the stove.
Thinking out loud, I might save some heavy lifting if I just bucked the trees to 18" as they come off the pile, and I'd probably be able to put more wood in the bucket as well. By now most of the wood is dry enough to split, so if I fed them through the splitter first I could just put them right on a pallet. Only problem is that I'd have to find level ground to do that, as the brush piles are on a steep hillside and a loaded pallet is heavy enough to make the tractor tippy on a slope. Dragging the tree all the way to the wood yard first would solve that problem, but then I'd be piling up the slash nearby and either have to move it before burning or start a new burn pile near the wood yard. That would actually be safer than where it is now because I could put it farther from overhanging trees.
The new loop would then reduce to: Drag tree to the wood yard with the tractor, buck to 18" and pile slash on burn pile, split and stack on pallet, move pallet to garage, load wood dolly and move to stove, load stove. That's six steps, down from nine (the way I did it last year).
Anybody see further room for improvement?:confused3::anyone:
