[Michel Boulay]

Hi Larry, I’ll say the same as Jennifer you all look like your having fun. Nice team, good job on the hay wagon. You are a good month maybe more ahead of us then here way east, New-Brunswick that is, we’re not that far apart but what a difference. You had a rainy weekend and we had a beautiful warm weekend with snow melting along pretty good, but still have a good foot of snow in the fields. Right now we’re in the middle of a snow storm probably that rain you had, we have in snow. A lot of cancelations schools, cultural, sport activities and the rest. Snow started this morning and we’re going to get a foot or more by the time it ends. I don’t like rain that much specialy on weekend but at this time of the year I’ll take the rain before the snow. Have fun with your project and looking foward to read about them.
mike

[Michel Boulay]

From what I’ve read, with both Carl and Jason’s amount of experience and everybody elses input you have a very good idea of what to do. Now it is up to you to take everything in consideration and put it in practice for your specific need. I can see your having a good time. Here in New-Brunswick loggers will buy stumpage from a land owner and clearcut. The wood they market will be pulpwood, studwood, sawlogs and firewood.
Now the firewood they deliver in eight foot lenght. I think the price for eight foot lenght is from $85 to $100 a cord now. Ten year ago I bought mine at $69 and it went up to $75 a couple of year later till my supplier could supply it anymore. So at that time that is when I started to cut my wood on my land and had to buy equipement to do so. A piece of equipment for me that was less expensive but still expensive in a way was a farmi winch to get at trees in the woods and bring them to my trail. Forest is pretty thick here so to get at some nice size trees it always meant to cut a little trail to get at the tree, which to me was doubling the work. You seem to have good access to your trees, so you would skid them out to your trail and then decide whatever lenght you want to scoot them out. I can see the dilemma you have with those big trees, taking them out by rounds. Seems to add some work. I think the simpler and less labor consuming is best for you, and certainly keeping a good measure of the wood your bringing out. Around here loggers that do exclusively firewood will deliver the wood in 16 inch for $275 a cord. That went up from $175 a couple of years ago with oil going up. they will deliver in 8 feet lenght to depending on what the buyer wants.
They only cut hardwood for fuelwood which is the same in the Northeastern states. The kind of wood here is red maple, some sugar maple, white birch, yellow birch, odd oak and beech, some poplar mixed in there to. With oil going up more poeple burn wood, demand is getting higher. Loggers have there clients, so new clients have a hard time finding some wood. When the logger has supplied his clients the new clients will some time be stuck with unseasoned wood to buy. That is a little picture of what is going on here. I don’t think loggers bother going after dead trees either.
Now what I do when it’s time to cut my fuelwood, I start in july and august. Right after the fullmoon. I don’t know if you loggers have heard of this but when you start cutting in those two months, the old guys call it cutting at the good moon in french à la bonne lune. Which means that you cut between the full moon and new moon in a two weeks span. Before or after you are not cutting any fuelwood. They say that at that time less sap is going up the tree. Now that the tree is cut you don’t fell it, you let lay on the ground without the butt touching the ground so no moisture can be suck up the tree. The leaves on the tree will suck all the moisture out and become brown and dry, take a couple of weeks or more depending on temperture and sun exposure. Then it is time to take them out, fell and cut in the lenght that you want. I took them out in 4 feet lenght and brought them home to cut and split but had a lot of mess to pick up, so now I try and do most of that in my trails then pack the wood on my trailer, three rows of 16 inches. The trailer will contain a cord and a half, so that is how I measure the wood that I bring out. Everything is done with tractor and winch. Could do some in the winter time but, we are at the mercy of the amount of snow we get. best time would be in november and december. Now that is why I am looking for my first horse and going to do some logging. Also the skidoo trail is very close, they always groom them so a good bobsled and off I go. Oh and a Robert good luck.

[Michel Boulay]

Certainly some of the signs of spring here are like yours, let it be sugarhouses firing up, deer in medows, great blue herons appearing,but all a little later. One sign of spring is when ice breaks up on the Bouctouche river and the water is high and people rush up river to have a canoe run, which last maybe three weekends depending how fast snow melts. In our garden when the soil starts to warm up and aspergus shoots appear thats a sure sign to hummm… and good.

[Michel Boulay]

thanks for the welcome, not having a draft yet I can’t reply on your experiences, but having a great time reading them and learning. Have ridden horses in my younger age so have little experience with horse. Not yet quite familiar with post and thread or posting picture but will get the hang of it.

Mike

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