Brian's Career as a Lumberjack

Today’s update features Brian Bunyan, logger extraordinaire.  With our four fireplaces, it becomes mandatory to cut wood for the oncoming winter season.  One of the best burning woods is beech, of which we have a fair number.  Unfortunately, they are being decimated by beech bark disease, a combination of insect/fungi that kills the tree.  Beech nuts are an important food for wildlife, and the dead trees become high density housing complexes used by at least 40 species of birds, mammals and insects for nesting in the cavities.  We try to spare the snags as much as possible, but occasionally there will be a dead tree standing that is still intact and ideal for firewood. 

Witness one giant near the driveway that Brian took down this week—there is a lot of wood here.

You can guess the size of the tree by the width of the base.

The work just begins when the tree is felled.  Brian figures that a piece of firewood is handled at least 7 times.  You fell the tree, cut the branches into pieces, cut the trunk into sections, and then possibly cut the sections in half to then be moved by our all-terrain vehicle.  (The red one........)

The wood is moved to the splitter where it will be split into smaller pieces (maybe 8-10 pieces per trunk section).  From there it is moved to the wood shed behind (see red all-terrain vehicle) and stacked again.  When we need it, we move it to a firewood shelf in the garage, and then ultimately carry it into the house to be burned.  No wonder Brian is as fit as he is!