Today my 16 yr old grandson helped. While I limbed the trunk he loaded the brush on the forks and hauled it into the woods, dumping it in a big pile. After I finished the limbing I went over to the big sugarmaple and cut about 5 blocks. For some reason I couldn’t get my saw with a 24″ bar to start, thus I used a smaller saw and had to cut from both sides. If the saw with the 24″ bar had started I’d have only needed to cut from two sides on 2 or 3 blocks. I think I only got 5 blocks cut and I was done for the day. I then went back to the hemlock and cut 2 smaller diameter logs to use as rails, to hold the saw logs off the ground. Then we hauled 3 of 5 total and placed them on the rails, then using the PTO logging winch we pulled the two largest logs (diameter) out to where my grandson could get them with the forks and set them on the rails. While I have 5 logs to saw into lumber, I still haven’t decided if I’ll saw the smallest diameter or haul it to the brush pile. At any rate, the driveway between the sugarhouse and the shop is open again. Over the next week or so, I’ll cut the rounds out of the big maple, then I’ll see if my brother will help. If he’s too busy, (which is possible) I’ll have to slide one block at a time into the bucket for the tractor loader , lift it onto the worktable on the splitter, then make it into a bunch of smaller pieces, then get another and repeat.
In the end today I was pleased with the progress, especially that of my grandson, not so much on my part.