My kids and I drove up to my dad's farm in northeast Ohio for Thanksgiving, and had a fine time.  In what seems to be becoming a Thanksgiving tradition for us, we cut down a dead tree that had become a nuisance along one of the farm lanes, and then had a great bonfire.  

Big old poplar I think, maybe three feet in diameter and 60 feet high.  To increase the chances that the tree would fall downhill as we wanted, and not onto on the nearby fenceline or back uphill across the lane itself, we tied a very long rope around it up high, notched the trunk on the side we wanted to fall towards, and then my dad used his Allis D-19 to gradually tension the rope as my brother cut the trunk on the uphill side and my son drove in some wedges.  I watched from several feet away so I could gauge which way the tree was leaning and warn my brother and son off if things started to go bad, and used some pre-arranged arm signals to tell my dad when to pull more on the rope.  All went well, and the tree came down with a mighty crash, much to the delight of assorted nephews and nieces watching from a safe distance.  

Dad used the D-19 to drag over some big limbs that had fallen off other nearby trees over the past several months, and we had a bonfire that's probably still got a lot of heat left in it now, three days later.  Tending that fire over the next day or two was a lot of fun, and we wished we had some more vacation days to stay up there.

Motivated by all the fun, once home I got the M out and pulled down the broken-off upper trunk of a tree that had fallen but gotten hung up in the woods behind my house.  It had been out there since the big post-Ike windstorm a couple months ago but I just hadn't gotten around to it.  The crash coming down wasn't near the big one up at the farm but it felt good to do some work with the M, and once again I'm wishing there was more.

Couple of pictures attached...

Dean Vinson
Dayton, Ohio
http://www.vinsonfarm.net

Poplar isn't great firewood, but I would have cut up the bigger pieces for firewood.  Maybe your dad doesn't have a fireplace or woodstove.

Big bonfires are always nice.  

Always nice when you can use one of your tractors to do something that is kind of fun, like pulling over trees

Hi George.  Dad actually just got done cutting up and splitting the big tree we'd cut down last Thanksgiving, so didn't need the firewood.  He has a wood stove in part of the house but mostly burns natural gas from an old oil well on the property... never produces any oil to speak of but that gas has been coming up out of the ground for more than 20 years now.  

Dean

Must be nice to have your own natural gas supply!

Does he get enough to operate everything on natural gas?  If he heated, cooked, and heated water with it, it would make for a pretty cheap utilities.
If he could generate his own electricity that would really cut down on the utilities.

Looks like a beautiful homestead.  I also like seeing any pictures that don't have snow in them!  We had about six-inches this morning and I am already sick of winter.

Yes, that is one fine homestead and no mistake.  If there's a place on earth I'd rather be, I can't think of it just now.  I keep hoping to get back out in the country myself, but it'll be hard to find as nice a place.  And yes, the natural gas has been pretty much free all these years, although the oil company guys tell my dad it could quit at any time given changes in the water level or something like that.  But it's been good so far.

Just a trace of snow left up there as of Thanksgiving Day, and none at all down here in Dayton.  Some light flurries during the day today but still nothing sticking.  

Dean