When we moved to Quail Run Farm, we inherited a lot of problems as well as a lot of awesome opportunities.  One of those problems included the large amounts of trash, and random stuff left over the property and in the basement.  When we moved in, we had a 40 yard dumpster delivered and were able to fill it just from the trash in the basement and some of the trash around the yard.  And there is still a lot more to clean up.  One of the big problems we had were a bunch of trees that the previous owner had dumped on the property.  These trees are huge.  The diameter of a couple of them is over four feet.  So the question was raised what do we do with these huge trees? (you can see the kestrel box in the background)

We also burn wood for heat during the winter.  I had harvested all of the wood that I could with the equipment I had.  So we asked our wood guy (we buy our winter wood from him) if he would be willing to process the trees for us.  Well, he said yes, we came up with a price and the work started.

With the help of his numerous different sized chain saws and his hydraulic wood splitter.  John and Tommy were able to convert all of those trees to 12+ cords of wood.  We still have probably 5 cords more of trees to process. The wood will be great for us over the next couple of winters, and the cost to have them process it was more than half the cost to have them haul in wood for the winter.

You can see the trees we still need to process in the right side of this picture.  That one big piece, that is sticking up, that is still unprocessed is a burl.  If it had not cracked, it would be worth close to 10K. But since it is cracked, it will be turned into BTUs instead of coffee tables.

Now we have to move it, stack it, and then protect it for the winter.  But when the cold months hit, and we have heat from these logs, we will be glad that we had trees that we could process and turn into BTUs.