"Top of the Hill"

[Chummer]

After clearing for this plot I realized I better take advantage of easier areas to plant. Some of the trails around the main plot were I deal for planting. Meaning they were flat and bare. I hinged both sides on a couple trails that I don't need for access. Altogether I probably planted 400 yards of trails

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[Chummer]

Like everyone else I am focusing on food and cover. Cover will be the big push this year. One of the bonuses of logging was the stump sprouts. The loggers took almost 900 trees so there are a lot of these browse stations.

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[Chummer]

Another experiment I did was planting B.118 rootstock and tubed them. I planted them along the outside of the orchard. I also planted them in a hinged area at the entrance of main plot. This will be allowed to turn into a thicket and some cover to check the plot out. An added bonus that I am hoping turns into a nice screen is the thick berry bushes that are filling in all around the plot. You can see them in some of these pics. They are preferred browse here and the deer did a good job keeping them mowed. I think eventually they will take over.

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[Chainsaw]

Great job implementing the fence over wet spots Chummer. Having seen those wet spots on your property before the fence I can attest they were deal breakers for using the road during wet periods. I still have wet spots on my property that will not support any vehicle during wet periods. I've got to try the fence method.

 

[Chummer]

Had a nice walk with Chainsaw today. We marked about 12 apples to be released. Sadly a couple of them are probably past saving. This is the size of tree we were finding.

Many times when covered up these trees will send up trunk sprouts. I think it is a survival move by the tree. Death is next.

Something I wasn't expecting was what we believed to be bear tracks. We had a couple warm days this week. Didn't know bears went for a winter walk. Makes me think the den is close.

Great to get out for a January walk, big thanks to Chainsaw for joining me.


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[Satchmo]

Some bigger boars will just spend winter in a dead fall or a swamp depression and let mother nature cover them up. Then if mild weather moves in and get the blood flowing, they just stand up and go for a walk about. Other bears that have a good winter food supply don't hibernate at all.

 

[Chummer]

Some bigger boars will just spend winter in a dead fall or a swamp depression and let mother nature cover them up. Then if mild weather moves in and get the blood flowing, they just stand up and go for a walk about. Other bears that have a good winter food supply don't hibernate at all.

Wow. That is crazy. Bears are new to our area in the last 5 years so we are having more and more encounters with them.

 

[Chainsaw]

Chummer, thanks for having me join you today for the apple tree walk. Walking on top of the snow was a treat we usually don't get to see until April; it was almost like flying compared to the hip deep powder of a week ago. You've got some really nice wild apple trees well worth the days work to open up the canopies around them and let them do their thing. Ten for sure will be real beauties and the other two though badly suppressed and showing severe deterioration may give you another ten years or so before self destructing.

It's really great that you have planted and are getting blooms from several of your crab apples. With some disciplined observation over the next couple of springs we can maybe learn if the crab apple pollen works better on the wild trees than their own pollen. I had planned on ordering crab apple trees for this year as a way to up the pollination rates here but may wait to see the pollination rates of your wild apples this year.

Though we were focused on wild apple trees I was again blown away by the numbers of shrubs, bushes and fruit trees you have planted throughout the property. It is amazing to see deer tracks on the Hill this time of year. I think all of the browse you have growing with your plantings has a lot to do with that.

 

[Chummer]

Thanks Dave. If you are looking for pollinating crabs check out the Midwest Crapple from Cold stream nursery. They were the ones in the short cages we didn't look to close at them. They are a shrub crab with rapid growth. I have doubled down on these and will be planting another batch this year. They would make a great hedge row on your sun room plot. The apples won't be a draw for deer but they will be a great browse and pollinator tree. I am hoping for blossoms in 5 years from planting.

 

[Chummer]

Planned on marking some hinging areas today but the snow sucked. 15" of thick melting soup. I changed plans and started hinging to create a screen on the north trail. There is a great stand site on the trail but I have to go by the best bedding on the property to get there. The bedding is 100-150 yards from the trail and is blocked in many areas by the geography of the land. I wanted to make a screen with out making it thick enough for the deer to use it.


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[Chummer]

In the process I found some nice spruce to release.

You can see the hill about 100 yards away. I hinged the back side so I am hopeful they will bed on that side.

One thing I like to do is bend beech under my hinges where ever possible.

I had a few trees snap off but enough held that it should be an effective screen.

All pictures were taken from the trail.

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[Chummer]

On a serious note I will post this as a reminder of how dangerous using a chainsaw can be. I have been using one for 25 years and this is the first mishap I have had. Still not sure how it happened. The second tree I cut was an 8" birch. Tree looked perfectly healthy and it was leaning the way I wanted it to go. Tree started to go, I stepped back and whack. A 5' branch about 1-2" around hit me on the top of my chest. Damn near put me on the ground. I stood there swearing looking at the stick. It had a subtle point on it. I reached in my shirt and was Bleeding. I got a pretty good puncture wound trough multiple layers. I was wearing a helmet but if I wasn't and it was a few inches over it could have been lights out. Just remember your safety gear and keep your eyes up.

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[Chainsaw]

Glad you got lucky Chummer and that branch didn't do anything to you that won't heal. Just to be sure though accidents can and do happen to all of us but accidents happen more frequently on high odds days like wind, rain, ice or POOR VISIBILITY. Looking at the trees today here I could not tell what was alive or dead. Between the fog, the heavy clouds and everything being drenched and the same color it was difficult to see up in the trees both to identify dead branches on the target tree as well the branches on other trees it may brush against on the way down.

It has been difficult for me to recognize that as I got older my eyesight and reflexes decreased making extra cautions necessary. And that was twenty-years ago. This happens to everyone to different degrees. So you have done well and it's okay to slowdown a little as you grow older. The difference is large between even twenty and thirty year olds and thirty and on up. I'm glad you are OK and thanks for sharing your day with us. It helps us all to be reminded things we need to be watching out for before they happen.[/QUOTE]

 

[Chummer]

All great points Dave. I only have one speed and at 41 I refuse to believe I have to slow down. My body is telling me what my mind won't. This was a day I probably shouldn't have been cutting but I drove up expecting to do one thing and due to conditions I changed the plan. I should have turned around and went home. I couldn't believe the difference in snow depth between the two properties. Wife made me go to urgent care, an ex ray and a couple stitches later I am on the mend. Not my body but my ego. We talked about this last week, now I am really done cutting in deep snow.

 

[Chainsaw]

That's great that you had it taken care of professionally so you know it will heal. I think of chainsawing as being an athletic activity. As such a forty year old whether it be wrestling, baseball, basketball or whatever simply can't do what he did at thirty under all manner of conditions. It doesn't mean he doesn't get even more safe and proficient at the activity as he ages because surely he does. Everything just requires more thought.
I'm not smarter than anybody here regarding tree cutting and I'm not as accurate in hinge cutting as you are; I've seen your hinge cuts in person and they are excellent. I'm old enough though and have had my own close calls doing things I got away with at twenty or thirty that I couldn't pull off at forty, fifty or sixty.
We are lucky that one of our "athletic" activities is doable throughout our lives; many aren't.

And as you know I'm with you on the deep snow;I like to be at least 15 feet away when that tree falls and in the deep snow that seldom happens. I'm so glad you are okay.

 

[Chummer]

I have gotten smarter with age. I did have my helmet and chaps on, 5 years ago I wouldn't have had either. Just stunned I didn't see the branch coming.

 

[buckdeer1]

First off 41 isn't old.I have worked a couple serious wood cutting incidents,one was a fatality,He actually cut a limb and it bounced back and hit him in the chest.Another he laid his are across the chain and it was idling high enough to cut to the bone

 

[dogghr]

Really enjoy your updates always Chummer. Your land compares to mind in a lot of ways minus the deep nonstop snow. Glad you are ok with chainsaw. Dangerous stuff we take fore granted. I have a second generation logging company friend, who once cut a tree, which released another coming around knocking his teeth out. He and another logging friend have shown me how they watch the color and character of the chips flying out, look up most of the time while cutting, and pay attention to the ground under their feet, all which are indicators of what the tree might do.
I was at my Stilh dealer the other day getting a part, and was reading a chart, and percentages of injuries to the chest and arm area were as high as the below belt numbers. I was surprised. I wear chaps and hardhat, but maybe should wear more protection above belt. Glad you are ok.

 

[OkieKubota]

Chummer, haven't seen you post in awhile...here...

The tree cutting accident will certainly make you realize how things can go wrong quickly when working with trees and a chainsaw. I have had many "almost" moments with trees over the years including my closest this last summer with one toppling onto my tractor with me on the tractor. I just knew I was done...

Are you set to get that big noreaster they are calling for this weekend? I couldn't handle snow like that. We usually get about a 2" snow a year and this year haven't even gotten that. Keep putting food down at deer level on your place and perhaps hold them like Chainsaw does.

Enjoying the thread...

 

[Chummer]

Chummer, haven't seen you post in awhile...here...

The tree cutting accident will certainly make you realize how things can go wrong quickly when working with trees and a chainsaw. I have had many "almost" moments with trees over the years including my closest this last summer with one toppling onto my tractor with me on the tractor. I just knew I was done...

Are you set to get that big noreaster they are calling for this weekend? I couldn't handle snow like that. We usually get about a 2" snow a year and this year haven't even gotten that. Keep putting food down at deer level on your place and perhaps hold them like Chainsaw does.

Enjoying the thread...

It was scary in more ways than one. The branch hitting me was one thing but the hit to the ego was worse. I keep playing it over in my head and I still have no idea where it came from. I guess it was a good eye opener for a first accident. Tree on a tractor does not sound like fun.
We laugh at Nor Easters here. They are calling for 12', that is a walk in the park. What we have to watch is when the storm pulls away and the winds shift over Lake Ontario. That is when the lake effect starts. This could be another 2-3' after the first storm. I don't have to worry about the Deer, Chainsaw is feeding them for me. My place has zero deer on it until the snow melts. They get out of dodge beginning of December. We are over 200" for the year so far so I have you by a factor of 100!