Big project we are doing!!!

[tomf]

I have been thinning an area not far from the house; I am cutting out trees that are not Douglas Fir in this area, and some small Douglas Firs. The trees were so thick that they were blocking the light to trees I want to encourage, and this also reduces the fire hazard. So far I estimate I have hundreds of them down, limbed and cut into logs.
As this is a thinning operation some of the trees get hung up in other trees and have to be pulled down with a logging cable and the tractor. We have started pulling a handful of logs and decking them, but the big job of decking logs and pulling brush is ahead of us. Over Christmas the ground was frozen so it was a good time to pull logs as hard the ground did not turn into mud.
I have a brush rake that will clamp onto my tractor bucket on the way, this will make it easier to push the brush; it should be here this week.
Here are some photos of the area, you will see some Alder trees still in the area, they have been cut down for the most part.

[tomf]

Some more photos.

[catgrass]

A lot of work going on there!

[rainbowgardener]

A ton of work, but I'm not sure I understand what you are doing.... turning this piece of your woods into a Douglas fir monoculture? So the firs left can get bigger? Is this for sale?

I get the reducing fire hazard part by clearing some brush, but I'm not sure about the rest. Just trying to understand.

[tomf]

Sort of in this area I am encouraging the Douglas fir trees, the other trees that I cut out of this area were Alder and they grow fast and tall then die and become dangerous. Alders are junk trees. This area I am thinning is only a few acres and most of our land is left alone, we are trying to get roads to other parts but will not do much more there.

[gumbo2176]

So, are you having a huge bonfire or planning on utilizing all that wood in some way? I see it can be used for smoking, but to make lumber out of it is likely more trouble than it's worth since it is a relatively soft wood and doesn't grow very large, so less useable lumber per tree is available. Either way, hell of a project and a lot of work.

[applestar]

I can't help but to marvel that your land is like a nature park/preserve and you really need the big machinery to help you maintain everything. Do you have the big trailer chipper like the power companies and tree companies use when cutting down trees and trimming limbs and branches?

My first thought was alder chips mixed with hardwood chips are supposed to make good mushroom substrate.... But I'm imagining that you don't have to go out of your way to grow mushrooms.

[!potatoes!]

i'd be using some of the alder, at least, to start some mushroom logs. shiitake grows on alder, i bet other things do too...for that matter, phoenix oysters can grow on doug fir...

hmmm....i'll be cutting a few trees down this winter, too...

[tomf]

First when the trees are thick and close to gather the fire can jump from tree to tree easier. The big issue with the alders is the block out the light on the trees one does want and have already killed a number of trees by blocking out the light. I also will trim up some branches. I do not like to burn, I have a brush mower that goes on the back of the tractor and I use that to chip the brush. By chipping the brush I put the organics back into the soil. I use the logs for fire wood, although I think I will have way more than I can use.

[rainbowgardener]

Do you burn wood for heat? In your situation you would be ideally suited for that.

The modern wood burning stoves are very efficient and pollute very little:

https://chimneysweeponline.com/wscompe.htm

or the traditional Scandinavian ceramic stove:

http://www.ceramicstove.com/

Modern wood stoves burn the wood slowly for a long time and reburns the effluent. The ceramic stove burns the wood very fast and very hot and heats up all the ceramic thermal mass, which stays warm for 24 hours.

Otherwise, you could use some of all the wood for hugelkultur beds and of course chip it up for mulch....

Not that you don't know all this, I'm just thinking out loud....

[tomf]

Yes we mostly heat with wood, for us it is a renewable resource that we will never run out of. There are two wood stoves in our house, one on the east side and one on the west side. we use the stove on the west side and keep that part of the house warmer as it is the side we mostly live in. There is an oil boiler that is rather industrial looking, but we only use it to keep a minimum temperature in the house, mostly the east house.
The place was a sort of orphanage and they had 20 kids living here. the house is 4600sq, 7 bed rooms, with 18 rooms. It needed some work and I have done most of the important work so far. I reshaped the roof in places and put on a metal roof for one. I think the 30 by 30 foot main room sold it, that became our music studio room. One of the bedrooms became a library and art storage room, one became my wife's art studio, one became a hobby room with my electronics bench, three more bed rooms are guest rooms and we sleep in the master bedroom. It is a lot of house for two, we did have her dad for a time although.
The Buddhists wanted to buy this place and turn it into a retreat, but they needed to change the tax status on it first, and that was not working for them.
Any rate we got a very good deal on it. but one needed to be able to do everything a house could need to fix it up.

[applestar]

If I had the land and ready source of wood, I would love to have a clay studio and wood fired pottery kiln. Maybe glass art, too.

As it is, one of my bottom priority Wishlist item is a tiny electric kiln and a space to set up -- maybe a corner of the garage. I sometimes dream about a DIY raku type backyard kiln, but I'm too inexperienced and am afraid of the lengthy drought we have here to muck around with open fire.

I think you said you do fireworks and stuff, right? So you probably would have no problems.

[HoneyBerry]

Nice property. We used to have a lake cabin with acreage and douglas fir trees. Looked just like your pictures. I loved just being in the woods when we worked at falling trees for firewood. One time we were working and a herd of 2 dozen baby pigs ran by us. I think they must have escaped from a pig farm somewhere, but we had no idea where.

[Taiji]

Some of those alder logs would be very welcome down here in AZ. A few decades ago I took a couple of woodworking classes at the local community college. They considered alder a hardwood though softer than something like hardrock maple of course. It was the cheapest of the woods to buy, and one of the easiest woods to work with for making furniture. I really liked the texture and color of the wood too. Kind of a pleasing honey colored wood with a nice grain.
You could probably make about 10,000 kitchen cutting boards with that much alder!

[gumbo2176]

Some of those alder logs would be very welcome down here in AZ. A few decades ago I took a couple of woodworking classes at the local community college. They considered alder a hardwood though softer than something like hardrock maple of course. It was the cheapest of the woods to buy, and one of the easiest woods to work with for making furniture. I really liked the texture and color of the wood too. Kind of a pleasing honey colored wood with a nice grain.
You could probably make about 10,000 kitchen cutting boards with that much alder!

I do a lot of woodworking projects with our indigenous cypress and it too is one of the "softer" hard wood varieties. What I like most about it is how easily it works, especially when shaping it on a router table. Many times you can make the entire profile without worrying about scorch marks or dulling router bits. Early last year I bought 50 pieces of 1 x 6 x 8 boards that have been air drying in my shop that I've just started to use to build an entertainment center for my man cave. This is about the 10th piece I've built for myself over the last few years including a dining room table, china cabinet, large bookcase, queen size bed frame with headboard and footboard, outdoor furniture and re-facing all my kitchen cabinets.

The only issue I, and others, have is when staining, it is best to use 1 part shellac cut with 2 parts denatured alcohol (lovingly referred to as a Piss Coat) applied to the wood, then sand with 220 grit to help the stain take more evenly in the different grain of the wood. Miss that step and the stain has a way of looking very splotchy and uneven between the softer and harder graining of the wood.

If the alder works as easily as the cypress, I don't think it would make a very good cutting board surface. I'd prefer to use a much harder grained wood for something like that.