When doing your thinning, you should concentrate on dominant and co-dominant trees. Intermediate and overtopped trees have too much catching up to do, so if those trees are pushing on better crowns, go ahead and remove them. Sure, the tree is going to pass out on its own after several more years, after the dominant ones grow up and over it, but in the meantime, they are not expanding their crowns, and growth rings get narrower every year.
The long branched thorns on honey locust are a curse to anyone working in the woods. They are notorious for causing flat tires, and can also cause serious injuries and infections. Loggers hate them, even thought the wood is pretty, because bucking and moving the logs is dangerous, and a flat tire on a skidder ceases production, and causes expense. Be careful when working around these pests, and especially, keep your safety glasses on!
About thirty years after we (Susan and I) planted this little patch of timber I am now doing a much needed thinning. Can you bring yourself to drop trees you planted with your own hands? Sure you can! If you don't, your plantation will stagnate, and trees will drop out one by one from overcrowding. Thin it yourself and you choose the best ones to finish out. Now you just have to live long enough to send them to the mill. Let's see, these trees need another thirty years; I am almost 72 right now. Piece of cake. I just have to keep on with clean living and break that statistical ceiling!
The Coolspring show was last week. Here is a bit of what us homebodies missed.
One of the things I noted early on working with landowners is that people who plant trees often have trouble cutting any of them down. I resolved many years ago that I would not be that way, and I have been whacking trees that Susan and I planted for many years. The project in this video has actual sawlogs that I am taking out, and I hope to make many of them into firewood. You plant more than 400 per acre to finish out 40 or 50. If you are growing trees you definitely need a wood stove in your home.
I have several more days to go in this planting, so, Back To The Old Grind!
Hi, Boron! I grabbed the photos from the post I mentioned in comments to stick in here. We wanted to grow our black oaks a couple inches larger, but we were losing more volume than we were growing at this point, so we did that harvest in December of 2012. Black oak is like that. It grows fast, but lives only about 2/3 of what white oak can do. It was a good time, and the weather held for us during the harvest. The last photo is the sawmill pit from 1940.
It is well worth all the winding roads to get there. Thanks, Merle, for the reminder.
If you broke into someone's home in Illinois you would be facing 30 years in prison. If you are armed, the state can add 15 years to your sentence. But you are not a cop. Cops typically go right on working. They might be fired, but they go down the road to another town and keep on doing what they do. Honestly, cops like this couldn't hold a job delivering pizza, and taxpayers are handed the bill for their atrocities. "What's the Punishment for Home Invasion in Illinois? Home invasion is a Class X felony in Illinois, which means if the court convicts you, you could go to prison for between 6 and 30 years. If you have a firearm at the time of the offense, the court may add to your sentence (you could even be imprisoned for life)." (Google ref)
The Civil Rights Lawyer is a great resource if you want to learn about your rights and the types of abuses that are happening to citizens all over the country.
William Kirk of Washington Gun Law YouTube channel updates regularly on Second Amendment news. Subscribe to his channel, and check in frequently. The bad news is that Illinois appeals probably won't make it to the Supreme Court until next year, after the deadline to have your banned firearms registered. Registering them is fraught with danger. The IL State Police will be writing the administrative rules, and I think they won't publish those until after the deadline. The ISP will be enforcing this evil piece of legislation with rules yet unknown to the public, so don't be caught after January 1 with your banned firearms in Illinois... Also don't forget that anything the police can call an assault weapon attachment is a thousand dollar misdemeanor. The way the law is written, they can call a rifle sling an assault weapon attachment. Study the law and try to figure your best moves come December 31.
Valinda and Mike Rowe are modern day heroes, and we are proud to call them our friends. Listen to Valinda tell of the process that brought us concealed carry in Illinois.
...but it can bite! You can pack this little saw around with you all day because it is light, but carry extra fuel because the tank holds only 9 ounces. It runs great though, and will do the work for you if you don't push too hard. Let those 30 cc s rev and it will cut down pole size trees for you. The 16 inch bar could drop 30 inch diameter trees in theory, but this saw is meant for lighter work. I am dropping trees up to 12 inches diameter with no trouble. Remember to let the engine rev, rather than pushing the bar to cut quickly.
