Leaving The Rat Race

[Supercharged111]

Here's a thread that will see activity about once a year. Last August we got an offer accepted on 5 acres of property in the upper peninsula of MI not 3 miles outside of a town of 2000 on a road that gets plowed first. It has super easy access to the snowmobile/ATV trails too. Those 5 acres are fully wooded though so we're here to do some clearing to figure out what goes where. I started with this natural clearing, if we can swing this for the driveway there'll be zero seeing into the property from the drive as it curves around, but it would be a longer driveway to construct and maintain. Jury's still out but it only required downing 2 trees to get to this point.

This is after mowing the ferns and clearing back some branches. I say some but this pic does not do justice to the size of the mountain of brush that got burned yesterday.

What's not pictured is all the stuff that got burned as it was cut, there was plenty of that as well. Today we probably made 5 of those piles, tonight I'll get a water tank so we can simultaneously burn and cut tomorrow to help boost our efficiency. I'm at the point I can drop a tree in a minute or 2, then delimb, buck and it's on to the next. It's a lot for 2 people, but in the next couple days we should start to be able to visualize placement of structures which really is the whole point of this year's endeavour.

 

[Supercharged111]

I do need to snap more pics tomorrow. The thread is gonna be dead without them. I only dropped one tree today, the rest of the day was spent burning brush from everything we dropped yesterday. If there's one thing I underestimated it's the amount of brush that comes off of a tree. It seems to me the efficient way to work is to have a fire ripping so that as a branch comes off it can be deposited directly into the fire. I think that's the way ahead as it only takes a minute or 2 to drop a tree, a few more to delimb the not ridiculous trees, buck and stack, repeat. The moving and stacking of the brush is what holds me up at the moment. Regardless we have enough of a clearing now that we can pick up momentum with the tree felling/bucking/moving on to the next one. The goal is to clear the general area where the house will be and connect the driveway to that spot without getting turned around. It's so easy to get lost in this sea of trees, but 2 days ago I made a lame attempt at marking my northern border for reference. I need to chat with the surveyor to try and suck less at that. I suppose it's fair to say those efforts fell within the margin of error for a guy who has no clue what he's doing.

 

[ck80]

While you're dropping and bucking there's two things to keep in mind, depending on your local gubbmint.

1 - There's a carveout to the latest edition of the building code revisions that say rough sawn lumber doesn't need to be graded when used in construction if it comes from the land where the structure is being built.

2 -If you save just enough trees to have a local guy bring a portable woodmizer around and slice up trees, you can use ANY ungraded rough sawn on shop, polebarn, or any other use, even the house if you really wanted. No record of just how many bf you cut and stacked if you take some pictures of logs piled and the woodmizer working. They'd never know if it was from what you harvested, or, if you bought from a mill.

Saves $$$$$

 

[Supercharged111]

While you're dropping and bucking there's two things to keep in mind, depending on your local gubbmint.

1 - There's a carveout to the latest edition of the building code revisions that say rough sawn lumber doesn't need to be graded when used in construction if it comes from the land where the structure is being built.

2 -If you save just enough trees to have a local guy bring a portable woodmizer around and slice up trees, you can use ANY ungraded rough sawn on shop, polebarn, or any other use, even the house if you really wanted. No record of just how many bf you cut and stacked if you take some pictures of logs piled and the woodmizer working. They'd never know if it was from what you harvested, or, if you bought from a mill.

Saves $$$$$

Ya know at first I was thinking of using this lumber just for something corny like a picnic table, but I could also do a lean to with it. A lot of the trees getting dropped are 6" in diameter or less, so they get a face cut, a back cut, and a push from me and over they go. I've got some bigger trees now in my sights that have to go, probably be driving wedges for those. How long can the logs sit on the ground before getting milled into any sort of lumber? Any considerations for that?

 

[69hurstolds]

Good luck! Your land looks a lot like ours when we first bought it. Cleared seemingly miles of kudzu (that was actually about a 3 year fight) and about a zillion trees and all the underbrush. Weeks of work just to get things palatable for the builders to even get back to the home site. Renting a backhoe worked well in my favor, though.

 

[CopperNick]

This is about the time that you start to collect and accumulate adult boy's toys. A BobCat with the various accessories. Brush Hog. More ideas on this will get added by others.


Nick

 

[ck80]

Ya know at first I was thinking of using this lumber just for something corny like a picnic table, but I could also do a lean to with it. A lot of the trees getting dropped are 6" in diameter or less, so they get a face cut, a back cut, and a push from me and over they go. I've got some bigger trees now in my sights that have to go, probably be driving wedges for those. How long can the logs sit on the ground before getting milled into any sort of lumber? Any considerations for that?

The biggie from some wood we had done is getting a wax coating kn the lognends. Product is relatively cheap compared to lumber. Look up anchorseal or similar products. That allows some drying and sitting of the log without the splitting/checking on the ends.

Your next big considerations are getting the logs off the ground on a pallet or some such, and, having them covered from rain with good air circulation. Basically the same things you do to keep your firewood from rotting.

From there the trains of thought diverge. Some guys say wait 6 to 9 months. Some say your species lumber matters. Some insist on not wax sealing and cutting within a couple days of felling then going to kiln.

It's got its own little cult world, just like our chainsaw and lawn tractor threads. Us? We had a mix of longleaf pine, black walnut, and some really nice small board stuff - did some peach trees that had 8 to 10 inch trunks, tapered to 4" ends. That had some really striking orange tones and had grown in an arch. But we sealed the ends, protected it on a homemade contraption - 2 layers of pallets, scrap 2x4s nailed to the ends and midpoint going vertical, enough horizontal to support a single piece of 12 ft long metal roofing then hung tarp around the sides leaving 4" between the top of tarp and the metal. Air pulled from under the pallets up through to the top with the breezes while the tarp kept the wind and temp swings from the sun off it. I just sprayed the base of the pallets with normal home pest spray to keep the bugs disinterested.

Your mileage may vary. But, you can also stack the cut lumber in the same way and let it dry if you've got enough scraps to keep the layers separated by a good inch or two between board layers.

 

[liquidh8]

Good luck, alot like my build a few years ago. I had fires going almost 24/7 for days to get rid of brush, then when they were blazing hot I was chucking 4ft long logs on it with the mini-X

 

[86LK]

Your next big considerations are getting the logs off the ground on a pallet or some such, and, having them covered from rain with good air circulation. Basically the same things you do to keep your firewood from rotting.

But we sealed the ends, protected it on a homemade contraption - 2 layers of pallets, scrap 2x4s nailed to the ends and midpoint going vertical, enough horizontal to support a single piece of 12 ft long metal roofing then hung tarp around the sides leaving 4" between the top of tarp and the metal. Air pulled from under the pallets up through to the top with the breezes while the tarp kept the wind and temp swings from the sun off it. I just sprayed the base of the pallets with normal home pest spray to keep the bugs disinterested.

Your mileage may vary. But, you can also stack the cut lumber in the same way and let it dry if you've got enough scraps to keep the layers separated by a good inch or two between board layers.

don't know if the Advance Auto stores up north do it, but ours just toss the wooden pallets from truck shipments out the back. apparently the regional warehouse doesn't want them back, so they end up getting taken by whomever drives by...Free, and some of them are pretty nice

 

[64nailhead]

Wanna get rid of brush - less than 6”’in diameter - get a chipper. Blow it into a pile and move the pile later. .

I cut 40+ 12-20” pine trees the second year I lived in my house. Burning is slow.