Therrin

Several years ago we had several hundred thousand acres go up ablaze in that area. That place is called "Kings Canyon", which is just west of Lancaster, and just NW of Lake Hughes, about an hour north of Los Angeles.

They haven't been too big on controlled burns there, they just get too big too quickly and can't be contained. The aftermath was pretty crazy, left a hell of a mess.

Incidentally, the valley where I was cutting this pine (Kings Canyon) is where a couple thousand fire fighters made a stand as the fire came over the opposite hill and they managed to hold it off and run containment there. The pines atop that hill were going up like tiki torches, flames several hundred feet in the air. It was quite a site.



Back to the cutting... thanks guys, yeah it's not overly big on the scale that some of you work, but it's pretty big to me.

I'll be taking all of the large-diameter rounds back here to this ranch in town where I've got my firewood operation going. Since the wood was live when it came down, I'll have to split it and let it dry out in wood racks till I sell it. The ranch next door to that place has some big diesel trucks and flat trailers, and they come into town pretty often so I'm working on a deal to get it all hauled out here cheap.
It's good pine, so once it's done curing a little it's great to burn.
Burns fast and hot though, so it's typically good for getting a good fire going before ya throw some hardwood on. Alot of people up here don't have access to hardwoods though so they burn pine all winter. Ya use what ya have.

Ekka, I found that using the wedges at what would be 12'oclock and 10 & 2 positions while I'm cutting through keeps the top from shoving back together as I cut.... When I come through at the end it just pops off and sits there. They work pretty good.

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Ken Fessia
I.T.S.A. Tree Service
(661) 916-4703