Amazon Affiliate Links , Contact Info, And Facebook Link Link for Fiskars 28” Splitting Axe amzn.to/2x6Qjob Link for LockNLube Grease Coupler amzn.to/2w4qNiB Link to our Facebook Page facebook.com/Outdoors-With-The-Morgans-1326440487390931/ outdoorswiththemorgans@gmail.com

Mike, Thanks for all the time that you take making these great videos. I'm a combat veteran who suffers with ptsd and severe depression. We currently don't live in the country, do to caring for a friend who is 85 years old and needs fulltime supervision. Whenever I'm having a bad day and I need to escape. It's your videos that get me back to the woods, and turn my day around. I look forward to someday, when I'll have a piece of the woods to call my own.

Good to see you managing your woodland well. I trained as a forester in the UK in the 1990s and have worked in state and private forestry since then. I have just moved back to Southern England where I grew up after 20+ years in Northern Ireland (where there aren’t many trees!) to love and work in an 80 acre wood owned by my parents. They had been looking to buy a woodland for many years and we just happened to find one with a house for my family and me to live in at the time we were planning the move. The woodland is full of large areas of regenerated birch which will make prime firewood from thinnings, but also old plantations of trees such as oak, sweet chestnut and larch, many over 80 years old and 30m tall. I am looking forward to getting stuck in, producing lots of firewood and also sawlogs for my dad to process and for selling. I have also been lucky enough to watch a wood grow and mature over decades as my parents bought a farm near here in the 1970s and my dad has been managing the woodland there ever since. The massive problem here is deer - there are far too many of them as they have no natural predators and they browse everything, self sown and planted trees alike. Grey squirrels (from N America) also do huge damage to trees especially oak, beech and sycamore. Both deer and squirrels are hard to control effectively. It is fascinating to see how a native woodland in another temperate area of the world looks - your winters are much colder than ours, but like Pennsylvania seems to be the native trees here are all broadleaves. I enjoy watching your videos.

I would spend any free time I get in your property if I was you! Your videos like this make me see what I want to do with my 18 acres of wooden land up north from you in NH! Mine is untouched and overgrown and needs some serious work! But Im 26 and plan to live there my whole life so I look at it as proper forestry management it will be worth it in the end!

1 acre of forest will produce 1 cord of firewood a year without ever cutting a live tree. I have lived on 45 acres of hardwood in SE Ohio since 1984 and have never cut a live tree. We have a fireplace and a wood furnace. I also sell a little wood.

Mike, I’m from Kentucky and absolutely love your videos and your calming voice. Don’t ever stop being yourself. You have a gorgeous place. Keep the videos coming.

Our family farm was selectively lumbered about 20 years ago. I can't blame you for having bad feelings over it, so many trees had their trunks nicked when the dozers took out the saw logs. Now we have many trees that never quite closed up the wounds and are becoming hollow at the bottoms.

North/central Ohio here. Just bought 15 acres where 10 is wooded. These videos are great, and I thank you for doing them. I'm looking into buying a tractor but also trying to learn how to manage the woods with dead standing trees (mostly ash but lots of oak too). I hunt, so I want to attract deer but I don't want dead trees falling on anyone either. I do some woodworking so I can find many uses for the wood. Keep the vids coming, and go Steelers, Pens and Bucs!

The gift that keeps giving. We have more down trees then time. Have seen some big property logged and it is amazing how quick things start growing back.

I like your videos. And I agree with you on not logging. We bought 80 acres in South Central Missouri in 2004 after it had been logged down to everything over 8 inches, with the intent of building our retirement home in a couple of years. It never happened, because of the vines, briars and saplings that took over seemingly overnight. We have since bought 20 acres with huge oaks that will remain as long as I'm alive.

I have about 50 acres in Northern NH. I sell a few cords of wood each year. It seems that I take mostly dead and fallen trees. I spend a lot of time looking up at the canopy deciding which are the healthiest trees. And I try to leave those. I sell the best of the firewood and burn a lot of the junk that is left over. I find that even the junk wood burns hot as long as it is dry.Thanks for the woodlot tour.

Lol brilliant Mike liking the hand rubbing back to your self 😃👍another good vid

SEEING IN 4/22/20 IN LOCKDOWN BEEN WATCHING FOR A LONG WHILE , NOW I GOT TIME I;AMM LOOKING AT ALL UR SHOWS LOVE YALL THANK YOU AN THANK YOU FOR UR TIME LOVE YALL SHOW

Enjoyed the video. Thank you. About 15 acres mostly wooded here in northwest Georgia. Outdoor wood furnace is fed mostly from tree service logs plus I sell some sawmill logs and firewood, both in log form and processed. Most of the wood I get is various oak and hickory. I take pine I get directly to a sawmill. Heat water with the same system. Fire burns year round. Buddy says I likely save enough with the wood furnace that I could heat with electricity. He always was a knuckle dragger though. Best, Jerry

Mike they logged my 16 acres 10 years ago. We bought it 5 years ago the mess they left was unbelievable. Piles of slabwood everywhere. When we cut the driveway in I found they buried slabwood 14 inches down. They did this to create the main logging road. At any rate I am final getting to the point that it is getting cleaned up. On a separate note. Ohio has a forestry program. Where you designate your land as forest land and it cuts the property tax on the land in half. Not sure if pa has that or if you are set up already, but it may be worth looking in to.

Mike, I bought my property in 1984 with about 3 - 4 acres of woods. My Elms got hit hard with Dutch Elm's disease; took about 3/4 ths of them. Then, as you mentioned, the ash trees got HAMMERED by that emerald beetle. I harvest every dead tree. I go around my woods this time of year and spray paint the trees with no leaves (spray painted just 12 trees last week for this years harvest). Had the woods logged about 12 years ago. Wasn't bad. It does leave all the tops to cut up after they're done. The worst is their 'stagging area (where they drag all the logs to for trucking). Gets kind of tore up. I got $900+ for 3 truck loads.

Time for a chain saw or a saw blade on a trimmer, cut, chip and leave the chip scattered - no big piles. Where you have cleared looks BEAUTIFUL. When I bought this house, which is my retirement home in a multi-generational neighborhood; i.e., the folks across the street live next to one daughter another lives three houses down. In the summer all I hear is the laughter of young children playing. Anyway this is a group of cluster homes and the association owns the trees in front and on the side of my house, but I have to maintain them. And I did after asking the Board for permission to cut them down - which took just about 4 minutes. I put in one 5" white oak and one 5" Burr oak and some ornamental crab trees. Some of the neighbors asked why I put in such large (and expensive) trees. Simple, I'm 74 and I want to enjoy them for the rest of my life!

We have a lot of Big Leaf Maple, Pine, White Birch, & Douglas Fir here around my property. You've got yourself a little piece of heaven there. Enjoy every one of your vids! ~Jim - Olympia, WA

Hey from s/w WI. 50 acres of red oak ad walnut. Take standing dead oak or lying on the ground. I don’t cut live trees. I have been here 22 years and have a lot of money standing out there. I am 75 so I told the kids to be careful what they do with the wood. The logging will make a mess out of the grounds and it will take many years for it to look good again. I use about 2-3 full cords to heat the house every winter. Great videos and useful. Keep up the good work thanks to you and your wife

Such a nice video. You really love your woods and its easy to see why. I particularly love the fact you look after those woods for the benefit for you, your family, those before, those to come. and for the wildlife that live there now. makes me happy... (and massively jealous (but in a good way))

Another great video. I never noticed you rubbing your hands together until you mentioned it. You are doing a great job managing your land. If you decide to have it logged make sure you specify which trees are to be removed. Also limit the size of the equipment used as logging tears up the land if done improperly. 30 years ago we let the timber be cut on some land and the loggers stripped it and made a big mess of it. We ended up selling the land but it still has not recovered.

Yayyyyyy.......the hand rubbing is back

Really enjoy your videos. I remember back in Ohio when I was young me and my dog would just hang out in the old forest with huge maples, oaks, beech etc. The leaf litter was about a foot deep with small ponds and even a split rail fence. It was a wonderful place. I remember getting lost and being scared with all the critters jumping around and making noises. After settling down I found my way out. Broke my heart when the owners had it logged. It was terrible you couldn't even walk through it anymore.

I'm in west Virginia, 100 miles south of Pittsburgh. I only have 4 acres, but I "gleen" firewood from nearby recently-timbered land. I go in after the timber-harvest is done and get the "chunks" from the landing PLUS the tops which are scattered everywhere on the site Thanks so much for your fine vids.

Love you new n old video’s. My MIL has 12 acres of dense ash, birch, ironwood oak and poplar. Too small to log out. Getting $120/ face cord picked up, stacked n dried. Making more than we would have based on 3 foresters assessments.

Beautiful property wish I had Great Looking property like that!!👊

Hey Mike! Thanks for the video! We bought 20 acres up in NH a few years ago and they logged it right before we saw the property for the first time. Honestly I don't know if we would have bought it if they didn't but they did make a MESS! stumps everywhere (obliviously) good size branches all over, ruts from the machines. Over all it does look good how they left things and the trees still standing but I got a TON of work ahead of me clean things up to make some of it useable for me and the kids. Your videos help with how I might tackle things so thank you!

I really enjoy your videos, we have 10 acres in Maine that was once field but now much of it was let go so I am slowly converting some of it back to field while other areas I am select cutting to encourage hard wood growth for future fuel needs.

I envy you. I'm an urban-ite. I hoped when I was younger as I aged to buy acreage get a tractor and live a blissful ever after during retirement. You seem to have found part of that so far. Thanks again for all of your vids they're great.

Enjoy your video's, look forward to seeing them when I get home from work in the evening. As far as woodlot management I've been on both ends of it. Never was a forester but was a log yard manager, sawyer and lumber grader. Did this when we lived in Virginia for a couple years after I got out of the service. I actually went out and helped mark trees for different orders. So I've seen the whole logging aspect of it . Some good and some bad. If you get low impact loggers your good to go. Some actually have respect for the forest and the land owners. Others don't. The piece of property we just bought was logged by the Amish. You would think the job they did would have been good and respectable. Not the case. Was not impressed at all. A lot of waste!. This was prior to us buying it. So I'm in the process of cleaning up and thinning out. My ideals line up with yours. Even right up to stacking the firewood. I've been praised for the way I stack and cut fire wood. I've done it ever since I was a kid. I think you do a better job though. Keep up the good work and thanks again for the video's from Potter County.

In southern Oklahoma here. I've only got 20 acres and probably only 5 or 6 acres of trees so not a lot of firewood trees available. I do cull the crooked ones out when I need a few sticks of firewood but most of what I cut down are the Eastern Red Cedar. They're like cancer around here and take a lot of work to keep them off your place. They're also not any good for firewood so we almost always have a brush pile going. Thanks for your videos - I really enjoy them. By the way, I've noticed you rubbing your hands together but never thought of it as creepy - just something you do! I've noticed I have certain things I do in my videos too.

We had our 10 acres logged and they did a nice job. They chipped the tops and can sell the chips. Hardly any money from the chips but makes a huge difference to not have that laying everywhere.

Mike, I've got about 300 acres in N. Mississippi that I primarily use for recreation along with some row crops of corn and soybeans. I'm fortunate enough to have about a third of it in mature hardwood Mostly red and white oak with some hickory and pecan. Recently I had a forester come and cruise the woods to get some idea of what I needed to do to manage the resource. The bottom line was, like you, the value in dollars, while a decent amount, was less to me than the esthetic value. Recently, a neighbor sold the timber off of about 100 acres roughly equivalent to my woods. He was told they would "select" cut the red and white oak. After they finished, I walked his woods and wanted to cry...it looked as if a bomb had gone off....tops everywhere, ruts and erosion on every hillside and more damage to surrounding trees than you can imagine. This convinced me that although I probably could find a better operator, the beauty of the woods and the deer and turkey and other wildlife I get to see during the year are more valuable to me than a few thousand dollars. If I had a thousand acres, maybe I could have both on a sustainable basis.....but for me, I'm just going to do as you do: cut some firewood as I need it from dead or cull hardwoods, clear what I need for food plots and enjoy it for as long as I'm here, Like your channel and look forward to more videos. Steve

Like the music and it looks like great mountain bike riding on your land. The Kubota looks like fun, too, but I’d love to pedal those trails!

We are having our property logged now. A company out of western PA is doing ours and several of our neighbors as well. The money was OK, but not nearly what you would think. They are making/leaving a mess as well. We will be cleaning up tops for some time, at least it is easy firewood. One plus, I talked to one of the guys, and he agreed to cut in a shooting range and build a nice backstop berm with the bulldozer while he is there. Mostly hardwood, old oak like on your property, some maple, cherry, hickory, and poplar. We are in eastern Ohio.

Just found you 2. I love your wood cutting videos. I can relate to your love for cutting firewood,as I also enjoy the woods and cutting firewood. We have all the toys for it. Have a good day.

Great video sir. Love the view of the trail as your driving. You have a beautiful piece of property and I hope you never let a company log it and destroy it.

Well, since you asked I have 25 acres in the NE and will be doing a selective cut with low grading. I have a dominant beech, red oak, and eastern white pine component with smaller amounts of white/yellow birch and black cherry. Hemlocks dominate the riparian areas. Selective cut will be best practice to enhance the timber stand for high grading at a later date.

Hi Mike, I'm up in Ontario Canada. I bought some property about 5 years ago that was logged, don't ever let them log your property! They left tree tops everywhere, a complete mess. I'm trying to clear it up but it's a hell of a job to clean up. Cheers and keep the vids coming, I really enjoy them.

Mike my mom cut about 15 acres of pine timber on which is now my place (total 32 acres ) about 18-20 years ago because pine beetles got into it , it was awful looking after they cut it but now it looks much better . Well what I'm saying unless you have beetles or some kind of infestation don't cut.... Just makes a mess and takes years to regain the beauty . Thanks for the videos!

Hey Mike! Thanks for another informative video. The only good aspect of logging fairly aggressively (clear cut or any form of partial clear cut) is that it allows shade resistant species to regenerate. In a woodlot that only sees selective cutting, if a shade resistant/intolerant species is hit with an illness or a bug, it eliminates it and the regeneration will be poor to absent since at this point the forest is too mature and larger trees will hinder their growth. I'm from Quebec and recently purchased a 40 acre and having a great time learning and experiencing this first hand. For more information the Forest Connect series goes in depth on the practice of silviculture, logging, wildlife habitat, invasive species, etc. Great resource for new and seasoned woodlot owners.

Mike, You're in western PA, a large Amish community there, they do logging with horses, 1 log at a time, and that will have minimal impact on your land. I am in Milwaukee, WI, no land just a condo, so I live vicariously thru you, Kapper Outdoors, Wranglerstar and a few others. Keep videos coming, I wait anxiously for each one.

Man that's some cool property. Nice trails. Enjoy your videos.

Great video, here in western Georgia I only cut oak and hickory. My customers knows I sell and like cutting firewood so when they have trees blow over or cut down they call me. I have so much all I need now is time. Lol

Southern Illinois. 25 acres, mostly wooded. It doesn't look like you have a problem with invasive bush honeysuckle like I do here. I wish my woods looked as good as yours. Emerald Ash Borer hasn't hit here yet, but when it does, the ~12-15 acres of my property that's bottom land composed of at least 50% ash trees will be hit hard.

Nice, just nice!

Near Syracuse NY My forest is a lot like yours. Logging would be easy and clean from what I see in this video. You drop the trees then skid out the main stem on your existingroads in Jan or Feb snow. Hire a full time logger to cut for grade.

great subject. always trying to figure out good ways to manage the woods.

I won't timber my land but the guy I bought it from said he had someone value the timber at 60K (of course who knows if that was true). I have seen a few places where they timbered and left a mess. I got some walnut, oak and popular and have been considering getting a sawmill and maybe selling some of it for fun (or more like to fund the hobby). I like the way you approach cutting and that is the way I have started with our land. One side of our property in VA is bordered by cattle and the other Christmas trees.

I like your videos and the music.

You might want to consider setting up a small personal milling and drying operation. The value of the best timber in the main trunk is worth at least ten times as much as firewood when milled 9/4 slabs. The rest of the tree you can cut as firewood. I am sure as much as you enjoy cutting and stacking firewood you wood enjoy slabbing and milling at least twice as much. You already have the tractor all you need is a log arch and an alaskan mill (eventually a band mill or swing blade). Hell of a good channel, makes me want to start my own. Don

Hi Mike, We are having our farm logged out now. Only cutting trees 20" and bigger. Many trees are reaching their life span. Rather than letting them return to mother earth we are cashing them in. We have a Amish crew doing the work. Ron

nice.. got the saws ready and axe. just waiting on COOLER Weather to start.

1st Thanks for the tractor vid mine made the cut! I think after watching you navigate the trails I could do them blindfolded and be just fine? YEA RIGHT I'm no expert either but talk with your local forester as they can really be your advocate. Your doing a good job being a good steward. re: the oaks / While all the attn. was on the EAB and the ash trees a lot of old established oaks are / have died. I believe it is due to a disease called oak wilt. The top will loose some leaves on a few branches and leave what I call antlers sticking up. 3 yrs usually it's dead Other commenters have already said this and maybe you've done this in past yrs but consider cutting those oaks / & others yourself for lumber. Your tractor has the capacity with a log carrier or small running gear type trailer. Take them to a storage area on your property and hire a portable mill to come and cut lumber. You could control all aspects of the logging and not have all the damage the the others have referred to in the comments. As someone else commented the lumber is worth way more than the firewood! Please don't cut those nice straight ones into firewood. You could either store the lumber or sell immediately but I think you would really enjoy it. I did this this summer and boy am I hooked. The lumber is like opening Christmas presents! We would have a 20 min video of Mike rubbing his hands and salivating at the excitement of each cut. Lol

you rubbed your hands together. LOL

Selective thinning by a qualified ethical logger will do your stand good and make more undergrowth for deer habitat. Blessings to your family & you.

Thanks for sharing how you go about managing your land. I'm in Virginia and our land is very similar to yours and I'm trying to get a handle on what I want to cut for firewood and sawlogs and what I want to leave. We've got Oak, Cherry, Walnut, Hickory, and lots of Sycamore (I love the way those look). We had some big Ash trees, but as you mentioned the damn emerald ash borer just decimated them.

Hey Mike. I own 120 acres and I had it timbered like 10 years ago. Took around 25 large oaks, nice chuck of change but your right makes a big mess! Cut some of it for firewood but a lot of times it’s hard to get to. And I have no tractor so it’s really hard!

Thank you for bringing back the 'hand clap' to start the video

Talk with the forester assigned to the county you live in. They can give you the best information of what you need to know about how to get the most out of your woodlot while keeping in tune with your wants for your property. I do believe there are still some people who do logging with mules if you don't want to make roads for big machines to run through your forest.

Here in central Indiana, the ash borers have hit the ashes hard just the past two or three years. The ashes used to look lovely in the fall, but now they're just standing brush. So sad.

Another good video

This was good information. I'm in East Tennessee and hoping to buy about 20-30 acres in the next ten years and one of my considerations for land is available timber and I have been trying to learn how to manage a woodlot for firewood without putting an undue burden on it that would cause harm.

Looks great. Had the pine cut off mine a couple months ago and I’m still trying to deal with the mess. Gonna cost me more to clean up than I got off the logs.

Mike from the looks on your videos you have what looks to be a beautiful healthy forest. We had a very hilly 40 logged this year. Ours is somewhat remote about 15 min. From our main properties. Anyway, personally I would not have that logged. Let some one way past you deal with that. Loggers don't wanna let you be the one that cuts em or skids them but they make a real mess. We don't recognize the woods after they're done. Almost impassable except for some not so good logging roads. Huge tops everywhere. If you cut them your self they figure you're just losing money as they rot, so they will not give you as much for it. We had to do this 40 because someone else years ago let it go but it was one of the most picturesque pieces I'seen around here. It just had (and still has) way too many fully ready trees so we had no choice. It was that, or let em start dying off. Way more dangerous. It'll take a lot of manual hours to make it somewhat beautiful again. Great video. It's kinda nice confirming your own theories with others in similar situations.

‘ose woods er beautiful Mike. We don’t log either, too much destruction. An I hate jaggers too!

If you can find an old time logger with a winch truck they don't do too much damage. Very few still around, all skidders now. Local saw shop may know one.

Your land is Beautiful!

Hi Mike, I enjoy your channel. Have you ever thought about planting black locust trees? They grow like weeds and are great firewood trees. Like burning coal.

Hi Mike.if you do decide to timber.theres a company in Tunkhannock pa that skids out with horses.less mess.

Great vids, I'd love to have a plot like yours, greetings from ireland

Consider pulling all the nonnative privet and honeysuckle too

Like the ranger mike

While cutting down some "widow-makers" today, I got my bar stuck. Finally got the tree to completely fall, but the end of my 16" bar was bent. So, I'll be getting a replacement bar tomorrow. But, at least I got those dangerous trees on the ground.

Thanks Mike!!

Mike, if by "briars" you mean "jaggers" then we're on the same page fella :D ! Greetings from Harmony. Recently identified quite a few Kentucky Yellowwoods on my property, which I was surprised to find in W. PA. Ever see any?

Hey Mike, love the videos. Was just wondering how many acres you have there. It's a beautiful place. Keep the videos coming. Thanks!

Another great video!!

I haven't.just knew of them.mostly red white rock and pin oak in pike county.some maple mostly soft.some pine and hemlock.we re firewood snobs to lol

Love the videos !! I live in Langhorne Pa. As you mentioned the Ash trees are and dying and need to be taken down. I'm pretty sure ash can be burned green. Seems like the oak trees have some sort of disease. I see many oaks there look sick. I also have a mountain property in the Pocono's mountains, I love being in the woods. Keep up the good work buddy !!

You are doing great, keep being a good steward of the land, If you choose to take a few of those oaks for saw logs, drag them out yourself, theres gotta be some sawyers with portable band mills in your area? You mentioned some maple regrowth, are those SUGAR maples(aka hard or rock maples)? those are the most prized trees up here. Any black walnut$ down your way?

Dr. Grant from Growing deer TV on YT. would say those areas are biological deserts. not good as deer habitat , if that is your goal in managing the deer on your property some prescribed fire in some of those areas might reduce some unwanted insects. Nice piece of property though and you rubbed your hands in the beginning :)

Have you ever sold a log as saw log? How did you go about it? What did the buyer do with it, as in rail road ties, hard wood flooring, furniture ? I enjoyed the video. I was really interested in the part where you said you may get a saw log out of that first tree. Thanks.

This looks amazingly like middle Tennessee...

Great videos, subscribed! Thanks a lot for having normal titles, makes it so much easier to find the information I’m looking for.

Enjoyed the video

Hello I'm from elk county pa I enjoy your video's I'm the same as you I'll never let my land be logged either it just makes a mess only way I'd log is with horses

back to the hand rubbing trademark to start the video - Keep it I like it

Love your videos Mike...side note..you look like Bruce Willis

Thanks, I enjoy your video's on property and woodlot management. I'm only a couple hours north of you in WNY so our tree species are the same. Do you have any aspen tree's on your property and if so, what do you do with them?

Cool stuff. How many cords did you say you got from how many acres?

I live in Alabama and we have a problem with red oaks dying also.

how you doing with the polaris. we have a polaris 1000 diesel ranger. we have 38 acres in wales uk ( that is a lot of land for the uk our wood is willow, alder, birch , hazel & oak, with a little ash

Do you have to take precautions for Lyme disease? You do a nice job managing your property.

My opinion is harvest all the trees that are already down on the ground and any standing trees you harvest should be dead standing before you harvest live trees. That three year old dead tree could still be harvested for heating your home, buy a TL-400 outdoor furnace. It's rated at 400'000 btu's and is easy to refill using your tractor and it don't care whether the wood is green, a year old or as you just showed 30-50 percent rotted wood, kit will still burn and provide heat plus your getting the forest floor clean of downed deadwood and branches. Then clearing the forest of wood that you want to grow

Red Oak- Gypsy moth, same thing here in Northern Va.

Macam ni lah kot kalau aku ada ladang pokok balak :)

Looking at your trees and those on your mothers property, there is likely a very good reason why hers looks so much better. Look at the younger trees

Another great video! Do you cover the tops of your stacks with anything to keep rain and snow out? Thanks!

Had an uncle that would timber his oak/walnut lot every 3 or 4 years so he could buy a new car in cash. We deer hunted the timber, but the loggers damned near ruined it, they left the tops and stumps where they hit the ground, cut deep ruts everywhere guess if someone went behind them and cleared up the mess it would be OK, but i'm not for it it. thanks for posting