Another before/after

An hour of work this morning led to a very notable change to the area of the big triple trunk dropped a month ago. We split and moved wood before snow started falling (no accumulation, but the flakes were huge!). The first picture is a bit blurry due to the low light.

Working around rain

The weekend washout kept us from working on the big firewood project on Saturday and Sunday. But we cut a lot on Friday, then did some splitting and other wood work today.

This morning's before/after

 Before nearly two hours of work today:

After: 

Sawbuck Friday

Summer-like warmth and no precipitation created some great opportunities to process firewood from the big cutting work late last month. This morning, we cut many split, 22" pieces in the sawbuck, then did a lot of stacking. Many days of work ahead, but we're doing just fine. A before/after duo appears below. The stacks of 22" pieces turned into sawdust and a higher pallet pile in an hour and 45 minutes.

Lots of work ahead

Cavanaugh and Son Tree Service, based in Franconia, NH, did a great job at Hardwood Hermitage on Wednesday. They cut 18 trunks down as a means for us to protect power lines, add firewood by removal of some large trees with dieback, and expand solar production by removing some western and southern shade. Felling twisted trees and other difficult work can best be done by professionals! We've been going to work, with cutting and splitting over the last few days, with much work planned this autumn. 

Helping more hardwoods

One of the felling axes went to work this a.m. The main goal: Help a few oaks and birches by clearing away the highly inferior balsam fir. Below is a before/after of the work session. The surviving hardwoods will get more sun now, increasing their chance of survival.

Felling axes

A new implement has been added to the Hardwood Hermitage toolkit. Felling axes borrowed from a neighbor have thinned several trees over the last few days. Most of the dropped trees were balsam fir, with their demise helping oaks, sugar maple, and birches get more sun. The axes make for a great workout! Soft balsam fir can be taken down quite rapidly with a very sharp axe head.

The trial with a neighbor's axes tested different handle lengths and weights. The work sessions have been a lot of fun, with great benefits for the forest.