Stone Branch, build it, they will come.

[Mennoniteman]

I did catch a wire with 36" bar.



I do know that they kept pigs down in the fenced in area and had their corn field up above the pigs on the slope. The last guy to live here before I bought the place had an area up on the slope terraced for his specialty crop.

G

I have prior experience with specialty crop growers. They are a very dedicated group of individuals who usually pack in heat to aid the growth of the crop. I tend to let them alone while they are tending their crop. The only thing I smoke is my fresh deer bologna.

 

[George]

I have prior experience with specialty crop growers. They are a very dedicated group of individuals who usually pack in heat to aid the growth of the crop. I tend to let them alone while they are tending their crop. The only thing I smoke is my fresh deer bologna.

Blackhawks dropped in and picked my neighbor's stash a few years back.

Being a one jackass team, each tree takes about 4-5 hours of hard labor to organize.





G

 

[Mennoniteman]

Blackhawks dropped in and picked my neighbor's stash a few years back.

Being a one jackass team, each tree takes about 4-5 hours of hard labor to organize.

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G

I enjoyed working at a sawmill for the entire day that I lasted, 45 years ago. I guess your biggest challenge is to try to keep the logs out of the mud?

 

[George]

I enjoyed working at a sawmill for the entire day that I lasted, 45 years ago. I guess your biggest challenge is to try to keep the logs out of the mud?

Yeah, I was packing the logs with dirt the other day fortunately the rain washed them off. It has been non stop soggy here. I'm starting to fret over my fire season. It doesn't help that I have my sawmill parked in the overflow field of my ephemeral frog pond. I would like to mill the logs in cue before I move it.



G

 

[Mennoniteman]

Yeah, I was packing the logs with dirt the other day fortunately the rain washed them off. It has been non stop soggy here. I'm starting to fret over my fire season. It doesn't help that I have my sawmill parked in the overflow field of my ephemeral frog pond. I would like to mill the logs in cue before I move it.

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G

Ephemeral? I had to look that one up and discovered that it means "fleeting", however, even if the flooding is fleeting it's still difficult to do sawmill work in that area. Traditionally sawmill log yards were always a sea of mud, but the local sawmill has everything paved with a foot of concrete and it makes a world of difference to drive in there, it feels almost too clean and dry to be a sawmill.
Even if the mud washes off of a log there's still enough grit stuck into the bark to dull a bandsaw. Debarking in front of the blade is about the only way to save the saw teeth, and, with the bark being almost as valuable as the actual wood to be used for landscaping mulch, most mills in this area are debarking the entire trees right before they roll onto the log carriage.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Looks like walnut in cue, a pile of those and they would be worth more than your mill.

 

[George]

Ephemeral? I had to look that one up and discovered that it means "fleeting", however, even if the flooding is fleeting it's still difficult to do sawmill work in that area. Traditionally sawmill log yards were always a sea of mud, but the local sawmill has everything paved with a foot of concrete and it makes a world of difference to drive in there, it feels almost too clean and dry to be a sawmill.
Even if the mud washes off of a log there's still enough grit stuck into the bark to dull a bandsaw. Debarking in front of the blade is about the only way to save the saw teeth, and, with the bark being almost as valuable as the actual wood to be used for landscaping mulch, most mills in this area are debarking the entire trees right before they roll onto the log carriage.

Good idea, debarking. Poplar bark is an actual thing in some parts as siding. The sawmill down on Trace Creek is about 2' deep in mud. He moves his inventory around with Cat loaders.

Looks like walnut in cue, a pile of those and they would be worth more than your mill.

Any suggestions on how to cut that walnut, I only have a few goofy chunks.

G

 

[dogghr]

Dang George I’ve never seen that much wire on a tree
Specialty crops exist around here. I once was buying chemical for my foodplots at my local feed store one fall and mentioned to the guy doing the loading that I was late spraying my weed. He then spent the next 45 min explaining to me the best management for Weed and also warned me the narcs were doing their annual heat sensing flyovers at the time and to be careful. I didn’t have heart to tell him what I meant. But I have since known how to grow an optimum cash crop. Hey, times are hard!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[George]

Making some progress on my stick pile.













G

 

[Native Hunter]

Looking good G. I think you could have the world's greatest marshmallow roast before long. We missed that last snow down here - it was all rain.

 

[George]

Looking good G. I think you could have the world's greatest marshmallow roast before long. We missed that last snow down here - it was all rain.

Thanks Native, my campfire is getting too big.

So, bucks bed up on the ridge, right?



I'll let my dogs point out the deer beds.









Homeboy 10 was bed down about 60 yards below the start of my cut and burn food plots the day that he passed away. I had a hankering to get in there and drop more trees, however I have already killed a lot of trees last June that will not have leaves this year. My only plan now is to burn.









G

 

[Native Hunter]

Thanks Native, my campfire is getting too big.

So, bucks bed up on the ridge, right?

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I'll let my dogs point out the deer beds.

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Homeboy 10 was bed down about 60 yards below the start of my cut and burn food plots the day that he passed away.

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G

I have come to believe that the best buck beds are those where they aren’t bothered by humans. Between your drone and your dogs you are gathering some great info for your future hunting.

 

[Mennoniteman]

The one requirement for deer beds that's important is a somewhat level spot, and your two marked locations both have a bit of a turtle there, which isn't a feature found in every ditch.
In a lot of hills and hollers terrain there's not many level spots much lower than the military crest, and perhaps the level factor is the bigger factor that deer beds are often found there, not that deer prefer the military crest, it's just the closest level spot?

 

[George]

I have come to believe that the best buck beds are those where they aren’t bothered by humans. Between your drone and your dogs you are gathering some great info for your future hunting.

About 60 acres on that end of the property of sanctuary.

The one requirement for deer beds that's important is a somewhat level spot, and your two marked locations both have a bit of a turtle there, which isn't a feature found in every ditch.
In a lot of hills and hollers terrain there's not many level spots much lower than the military crest, and perhaps the level factor is the bigger factor that deer beds are often found there, not that deer prefer the military crest, it's just the closest level spot?

Impossible to approach deer undetected in those locations.

It is too sloppy to move logs around so













These 2 trees cut probably have more board feet in them than the last 10 that I cut.



G

 

[Mennoniteman]

Pulled a few slivers out of that one. Is that a hemlock tree I see behind that stump? Our PA hemlocks are mostly gone due to the hemlock woolly adelgid, an aphid-like insect that attacks and kills hemlock trees.

 

[George]

Pulled a few slivers out of that one. Is that a hemlock tree I see behind that stump? Our PA hemlocks are mostly gone due to the hemlock woolly adelgid, an aphid-like insect that attacks and kills hemlock trees.

That one wasn't waiting around, jumped off the stump with 4-5" of hinge left.

This whole thing with the government and eqip got started with my wooly adelgid. I had a hemlock that looked like it was sprayed with snow out of a spray can. It took a couple of years, but I recognized the snow to be wooly adelgid. I called the Morehead office and Chief Forester Bill answered the phone. I was able to find some adelgid for Bill to confirm on his first visit. It was the first wooly adelgid confirmed in Lewis County. Since then that tree covered, has recovered, and I probably can't find any wooly adelgid remaining. I dropped the big tree to avoid the hemlock but snapped off a hickory.

G

 

[Mennoniteman]

That one wasn't waiting around, jumped off the stump with 4-5" of hinge left.

This whole thing with the government and eqip got started with my wooly adelgid. I had a hemlock that looked like it was sprayed with snow out of a spray can. It took a couple of years, but I recognized the snow to be wooly adelgid. I called the Morehead office and Chief Forester Bill answered the phone. I was able to find some adelgid for Bill to confirm on his first visit. It was the first wooly adelgid confirmed in Lewis County. Since then that tree covered, has recovered, and I probably can't find any wooly adelgid remaining. I dropped the big tree to avoid the hemlock but snapped off a hickory.

G

Most professional loggers that I've known fell trees by first making the notch in the face, then doing a plunge cut in the back, leaving enough standing on the outside to hold the tree, and cutting to within an inch or so of the notch, then they step back and reevaluate everything, only once they are good and ready do they step up and do a quick whack of whats left standing in the back, and hustle away from the tree (if the tree doesn't need wedges). If the tree needs wedges this method helps that process as well, keeping the saw blade from getting pinched. The wedges are hammered in just before the coup-de-grace. I was told this method is required by their insurance policy, and also helps to not to pull slivers out of high value butt logs.

 

[George]

Most professional loggers that I've known fell trees by first making the notch in the face, then doing a plunge cut in the back, leaving enough standing on the outside to hold the tree, and cutting to within an inch or so of the notch, then they step back and reevaluate everything, only once they are good and ready do they step up and do a quick whack of whats left standing in the back, and hustle away from the tree (if the tree doesn't need wedges). If the tree needs wedges this method helps that process as well, keeping the saw blade from getting pinched. The wedges are hammered in just before the coup-de-grace. I was told this method is required by their insurance policy, and also helps to not to pull slivers out of high value butt logs.

I won't be relinquishing my amateur status anytime soon.







G

 

[Mennoniteman]

I won't be relinquishing my amateur status anytime soon.

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G

Amatuer status? The evidence shows differently. Your accomplishments there are absolutely amazing, especially with the equipment you have. And, the part that makes me the most jealous when I'm sitting in my office is the amount of fun you're having.

 

[George]

G