The mighty bowsaw

Sane people only use a bowsaw for relatively minor cutting of small branches.  On Hardwood Hermitage, the bowsaw, powered strictly by elbow grease, continues its heroic work of cutting down bigger trees.  Four red maples were recently dropped with this excellent tool, pictured below.

Two red maples were dropped on the hill south of the house. In addition to about 3/4ths of a cord of firewood from two trunks, the downed crowns will increase winter solar production; the low sun that time of year gets blocked a bit by several trees.

One red maple became a dreaded "barber chair" during the felling operation.  During a horizontal cut, a tree sometimes starts to crack vertically.  This adds to the fall's level of unpredictability.  Evidence of the barber chair is shown by the thin wood above the cut in this photo.  The top of the remaining trunk is 9 inches in diameter.

The two trees gave in without much trouble, even with the barber chair.  They now crisscross each other on the hill.  The top of the second tree's remaining standing trunk is seen in the picture, as well. 

Two other red maples were downed west of the house, so we'll have about a cord of wood without moving much up hill.  When we cut on the south hill, we actually move the wood down to the stacking pile or wood shed.  That will be a pleasant change of pace. 

Visions of future firewood

Some splitting, wood moving, lopping, and bow sawing took place this morning.  All of this glorious activity focused on creating future firewood.  We were cool outside on this fifth full day of summer. 

The bow saw took down two red maples that were dying back.  We'll add the wood to the splitting pile after some cutting. 

This red maple was already leaning a bit, which makes for easier cutting with the arm-powered bow saw.  Here's the tree shortly before the final cut that brought the whole thing down.

And here's the same trunk after the loud drop.  The brown of the interior wood sure is pretty.

Here's is a picture of the second tree just before it fell from the cutting point.  The big part of the trunk is still leaning on a larger tree for now, but should blow down this week. 

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Solar production update

We are getting some rain today after two brilliant days.  The sun was out for so long with blue sky dominating.  Temps were wonderful and humidity was low, making the days extra awesome.  Wednesday and Thursday this week were the 28th and 29th days the solar panels produced 40 kilowatt/hours in a day since installation of the system four years and a month ago.  It was only the 7th time that two consecutive days each saw 40 kilowatt/hours from the panels.  With the sun rising just after 5 a.m. and not setting until 8:30, clear days in June can really boost solar production.  The first half of this month totaled 385 kilowatt/hours.

Although today might be a day off from outside work, the weekend looks dry for the most part.  Perhaps some pics of recent work will get posted by Sunday evening.

Piles of future firewood

Cutting and moving wood continues at a determined pace on our hill.  The workout is tremendous, thanks to the north hill we need to climb to retrieve so much of our future firewood.  Several species are in each pile.  It's interesting to see hophornbeam and quaking aspen in the same pile.  The two species are quite different in how they burn, with super hard hophornbeam and very light aspen giving off lots or not much heat respectively. 

Here are pics of the two piles together, then an up close shot of each.

 

Big day for big saw

More than two hours of work with the big saw today focused on cutting a few paper birch spring poles, a broken trunk from a red maple, and some smaller stuff, which included a large group of red maple stump sprouts.  Here's a sampling of the future firewood. 

This clump of paper birch benefited when the red maple stump sprouts were taken out.  There's a lot less shade for the birches now.  Previously, the maple sprouts, located in the middle of the young trees pictured here, towered over the birches.

Cloudy spring

This year and last year are quite different on the solar front.  Just counting April and May, we produced 431 fewer kilowatt/hours this year than in 2016.  June 1 has given us some blue sky, but clouds are deciding to stay prominent in the new month.  Even so, the house has still produced just a bit more electricity than what has been used since the end of April.

Trail trimming, chainsaw work, wood moving, and other outdoor activities are a constant for us in the warmer months, regardless of solar production.  Some pics of recent work will be posted soon!