Lets use those axes for what they were ment for.

[David Martin]

I brought several rounds home in order to compare my Council against the Wards ax. They were from the same log, cut next to one another.
Sure enough 2 chops and the round was in half. A lighter ax is just not the tool to use for this oak wood. Here's the load near the barn with my Hults. We have it in the dry now. So, it can snow or rain and we'll have dry wood to heat our home with. DM

 

[survivor45]

I made Carne Asada for the GF on Saturday. I Have a small logo Keen Kutter on an 18 1/2” handle. 3lbs 4oz total weight.
It’s great at splitting this old gnarly plum wood that I cook and smoke with.

 

[Square_peg]

I love plum in the smoker! Any of the fruitwoods make good cooking wood. I mix it with hickory in the smoker.

 

[David Martin]

Here we are gleaming the leaves off from larger limbs I cut, while getting at the logs. We'll haul the leaves in and feed them to our goats.
They just love the leaves. I'm using my Mann pack axe to skim the leaves off the larger limbs. A cold, cloudy day here. DM

 

[muleman77]

 

[A17]

More pics and more story! C'mon man!

 

[muleman77]

I don't have much more on this one. Road hazard snag, just over 6'. The road hooks around and is just below, to the right, which is where the primary lean was. I got it to miss the road easy enough though.

My swamper took that, and these today. No axe work in these though.

(My handle is in them I guess)

Rotten center

 

[Old Axeman]

Barber chair material that one. Glad it didn't.

 

[muleman77]

Barber chair material that one. Glad it didn't.

It sure could have, especially if I was falling headlong into the lean. I take snags a little off whenever I can, just to hold on a little longer. Seems like it helps.

 

[Square_peg]

Rotten center

I figured from the dust in the first image. Nicely done. Doug Fir?

 

[muleman77]

Doug fir . It was a dusty pig.
The bark even on a sound one is enough to choke a horse on those big snags, add rot its even worse!
Heres one more

 

[David Martin]

In a pinch I'll use my bandanna for a breathing filter. Good job & thanks for these photos. Its hard for me to get photos. DM

 

[A17]

I spent the afternoon working on cleaning up some of a drop now, buck, limb, and burn later mess. While axes were not the main focus, they certainly helped with the work. I limbed the tree in the creek and split about 1/3 of the pictured rounds with my Vaughn "racing axe". I call it that because someone severely thinned the bit and trimmed off the heel (or it's a mystery pattern) which really improves it's performance. There's no action pics as I was working and the pics aren't that great as my phone hates cloudy and rainy days.

 

[Square_peg]

Just the kind of place a young man should grow up.

 

[A17]

Or four. That is the "wilderness" half of 9 acres. The upper third is cleared and is the "living area". The rest is left alone unless a tree or 30 dies. Beautiful scenery for hiking or arrowhead hunting. All around our house in walking distance is lots more country like that. On lazy days in the spring and summer I love hiking around the neighborhood with my younger brothers.

 

[muleman77]

Sure looks like my neck of the woods A17.
Theres always work to do, on our place.
A lot like your pics all the time! Good work.

 

[David Martin]

Why were those strips piled in the bucket? For fire starter. I can't believe you guys burn wood like that. Was it too far deteriorated? DM

 

[A17]

Those strips were dry fatwood kindling for starting the fire. The wood in the pic with the saw was a tree that has been down for 5-ish years and the rest is zombie wood. That's my name for the standing dead trees that have been killed by drought and beetles. Yes, all of it is punky and deteriorated. If you look in the 7th pic you can see the rot on some of the rounds. This area is where I've been working. All but 1 or 2 of the trees have been dropped (along with 5-10 others that died after google earth took that). There's only 10-15 more along the fence line on and off the property.

 

[David Martin]

Because of your climate, wood deteriorates fast there. Thanks for the explanation. DM

 

[A17]

More cleanup work down by the creek. This time I was splitting rotten rounds into smaller pieces for easier burning tomorrow if I get my business quizzes done in a reasonable amount of time. If I can't burn that tomorrow, I should get it done on Saturday. Also, here is a fatwood stump in the making. What made it different from the one growing 15 feet away, I'll never know. But it is.