Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[goeduck]

Nice I love to watch the elk when they come on my property, its pretty rare now. Do you ever find any sheds at your place?

Years ago, but that bull herd ended up in freezers and we only have had deer for quite a while. This bunch is new this year. They shed next month, so maybe this year.
We have been putting cattle on these fields every spring, I am not sure how that is going to work out this year. Or if it will. Elk are hard on fences.

 

[wolc123]

You must be a young man. Let's hope your youthful exuberance never wears off. Me, I hope to use less wood so not as much is required to restock.

I’ll be 60 this year. I started helping my dad with firewood when I was about 10, so I guess this year will make a half century for me. Growing up, our house wasn’t all that well insulated and we went thru a lot of wood.

I’ve tried to do it more efficiently as I’ve gotten older. I used to do all the splitting by hand, in my younger days, but my wife talked be into getting a vertical/horizontal hydraulic splitter when I was in my 30’s.

Our new house is much better insulated than the one I grew up in, and the winters have gotten milder, so we dont need as much wood. I hope to use (6) face cords this winter, where we are currently on about our 4th.

The new woodshed that I completed last spring put us back “on track”, as far as heating our house with firewood, after about (5) rough years. It’s been rough because I had to take down two old 36’ x 46’ x 16’ timber-framed barns that my great great grandad had built in the 1880’s.

The last of our cattle went, after my grandad passed in the 1980’s, and I had been using those old barns for firewood storage after that. Unfortunately, they were on poorly drained ground, and the foundations and roofs were failing at the same time. Putting up a new metal pole barn was much cheaper than repairing those old wood structures would have been.

For the (5) years, since I took down the old barns, I had been storing our firewood outside on wood pallets and covered by tarps. That wasn’t fun at all. The tarps would blow off in the wind and it was tough having to shovel snow off of them to fetch wood for the stove in the winter.

The new woodshed makes firewood processing, storage and usage fun again. I’ll admit to hating it when I had it stored outside, and I also looked forward to using less of it then. It’s so easy and fun now, that I hope to keep doing it when I’m 100.

I’ll set my rocking chair up out here in the woodshed, under the old lamp my wife gave me, and direct the great grandkids as they load the bucket:

It will be fun telling them about how the timber’s holding up the roof over our heads were cut by their great great great great great grandfather.

 

[Duds13]

Looking like beautiful healthy trees, congratulation.

We keep a close eye on tree health. Any warning signs and they don't get tapped

 

[Duds13]

Finished up the tapping yesterday

 

[hunt4570]

How do you know when its time to start tapping?

 

[Hay Dude]

This past week. Still sawin, grapplin & truckin! LOL

 

[Duds13]

How do you know when its time to start tapping?

You look for a stretch of weather where overnight temps are below freezing, preferably 27-28, and daytime temps are around 40 or higher. Full sun is ideal too

 

[John_Mc]

You look for a stretch of weather where overnight temps are below freezing, preferably 27-28, and daytime temps are around 40 or higher. Full sun is ideal too

Once the days rise above the 40s and/or the nights no longer reach a freezing point, sap production really slows down. You definitely need to remove the taps before the buds open on the trees. Continuing to draw sap after the buds have broken produces a bitter flavor that really ruins the taste of good blueberry pancakes.

Which reminds me... I need to head over to the pancake breakfast being put on by the volunteer fire department in a neighboring town.

 

[Duds13]

Once the days rise above the 40s and/or the nights no longer reach a freezing point, sap production really slows down. You definitely need to remove the taps as the buds start to open on the trees. Continuing to draw sap after the buds have broken produces a bitter flavor that really ruins the taste of good blueberry pancakes.

Which reminds me... I need to head over to the pancake breakfast being put on by the volunteer fire department in a neighboring town.

Yeah we never get to that point where we are collecting "buddy sap." Plus, when it reaches that point I am usually pretty tired from the countless hours of boiling and ready to move onto other chores. That's after the dreaded clean up - scrubbing and rinsing all of the taps and buckets, cleaning the evaporator, etc.

This will be our first year with a reverse osmosis system which should cut boiling time in half and firewood usage way down.

 

[newkiotiguy]

For the (5) years, since I took down the old barns, I had been storing our firewood outside on wood pallets and covered by tarps. That wasn’t fun at all. The tarps would blow off in the wind and it was tough having to shovel snow off of them to fetch wood for the stove in the winter.

For people still using the tarp method I use pieces of wood with a screw hook inserted on one end. Hang these from the tarp grommets. This will keep the tarp pulled down tight in the wind instead of blowing everywhere. I use the heavy duty tarps. This one is on its second year and still looks new.