Next year's wood.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I don't find the definition on line to verify it but my dad used to speak of a strand of wood and basically it was 1/3 of a cord. It was 4' X 8' X 16". Has anyone else ever heard of that measurement?

[WDH]

The official measurement for the Forestry Forum is a "whack". 

[Logger RK]

I like the term "Rick"

[WV Sawmiller]

   I think a rick and a whack may be the same only our members in the northern climes when talking in subzero weather could not be heard clearly with all the mufflers and such around their throats and people misunderstood them while our southern members, between bites of grits and boiled peanuts, clearly elucidated the word properly for all to hear. :D

[John Mc]

The official measurement for the Forestry Forum is a "whack".

Is there a defined about of wood in a whack, or is it more like "that pile sitting over there"?

  I don't find the definition on line to verify it but my dad used to speak of a strand of wood and basically it was 1/3 of a cord. It was 4' X 8' X 16". Has anyone else ever heard of that measurement?

That's a new one on me. I can see the logic of it: the strand being a single row of wood.

[LeeB]

Rick is the common volume in the area I live in and to my knowledge it should be 1/3 cord (a face cord), but As far as I can see it can be anything from a light pick up load to a well rounded bed full. Not sure how many loads actually measure out to the correct volume. I bought wood when we first moved to the area but rarely do so any more.

[jmur1]

You know it must be a serious question when the government steps in.  They also agree 48"x 48"x 8'  is the "cord"

https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/mc-mc.nsf/eng/lm03963.html

jmur1 

[Rebarb]

I finished nexted years wood 2 years ago.....I like staying several years ahead.

[Old Greenhorn]

I finished nexted years wood 2 years ago.....I like staying several years ahead.

The more I read things like this, the more I wish I could do it, But I would have to store it 'somewhere' and that is the issue. Best I can do is cut and stack logs ahead, then buck and split each year for what I need. No idea where I would stack and store 10-15 cords and then would still have to move it to the house each year. Good for you, I wish I could do that.

[John Mc]

I finished nexted years wood 2 years ago.....I like staying several years ahead.

The more I read things like this, the more I wish I could do it, But I would have to store it 'somewhere' and that is the issue. Best I can do is cut and stack logs ahead, then buck and split each year for what I need. No idea where I would stack and store 10-15 cords and then would still have to move it to the house each year. Good for you, I wish I could do that.

When I manage to get that far ahead, I drop the trees, winch them trailside, and cut and stack them there. I just lay a couple of poles down to stack them on to keep it up off the ground. When I have the space at home, I bring my splitter into the woods and split them right into the back of my trailer to haul them home (sometimes I'll load the rounds in the trailer, bring them home and split right onto my storage stacks).
It doesn't dry as quickly stacked in the woods as it does out in the open exposed to the sun & wind, but that is generally not a concern if I am that far ahead.

[Old Greenhorn]

When I manage to get that far ahead, I drop the trees, winch them trailside, and cut and stack them there. I just lay a couple of poles down to stack them on to keep it up off the ground. When I have the space at home, I bring my splitter into the woods and split them right into the back of my trailer to haul them home (sometimes I'll load the rounds in the trailer, bring them home and split right onto my storage stacks).
It doesn't dry as quickly stacked in the woods as it does out in the open exposed to the sun & wind, but that is generally not a concern if I am that far ahead.

Well, I am close to that now. I pile up the logs between seasons, then buck and split right into the trailer, forward to the house and stack. Maybe I should think about bucking them and stacking as you do. It adds a handling, but would look neater and give me a better idea of what I have. I am almost out of logs now and am cutting up the larger branches too good to pitch into the rot pile. It takes more time, but wood is wood. I am driving around through the woods picking up hitches of small trees or deadfall I had forgotten. This helps to clean things up too, so it goes slower, but the place looks nicer. I will probably wind up dropping another tree or two before my stacks are full this year. Good idea and stacking the rounds. they will split easier in a years time and dry faster once on the pile, plus I can pull the splitter right up to the round stack and keep 'moving on down the line'. 

[John Mc]

Well, I am close to that now. I pile up the logs between seasons, then buck and split right into the trailer, forward to the house and stack. Maybe I should think about bucking them and stacking as you do. It adds a handling, but would look neater and give me a better idea of what I have. I am almost out of logs now and am cutting up the larger branches too good to pitch into the rot pile. It takes more time, but wood is wood. I am driving around through the woods picking up hitches of small trees or deadfall I had forgotten. This helps to clean things up too, so it goes slower, but the place looks nicer. I will probably wind up dropping another tree or two before my stacks are full this year. Good idea and stacking the rounds. they will split easier in a years time and dry faster once on the pile, plus I can pull the splitter right up to the round stack and keep 'moving on down the line'.  

I figure that at least cutting to stove length and stacking helps it start drying, since the logs don't dry out much when in long lengths. It is one more handling, but stacking the rounds takes me less time than stacking the split wood (fewer pieces to handle), plus it gets things up off the ground. And your right, splitting from a stack of rounds is easier: start at one end of the stack, split till it's no longer an easy reach, pull ahead a bit and split some more. My wife also appreciates it when the mess from splitting is left in the woods, rather than up nearer the house.

[SwampDonkey]

I can't get at mine for another 3 weeks, the road is still snowed in and of course muck under it. Dries real quick though once the snow is off.

I don't need any equipment to bring it out except chain saw and wheel barrel or arm loads. It's within 200 feet of the road for most I would be cutting for the next 10 years. I'll have a 4 wheeler before then to go back deeper. I'm just cutting the pulp grade out. I burn anything. My experience is that it all makes good heat. ;D

[brianJ]

Speaking of next winter's heat,   How do you guys handling trees that have ants in them?   Do these ants only infest trees?   Are they an issue for the rest of the wood pile?   If you were buying firewood with ants would you feel cheated?

I sell 30 something ricks a year and have 3 years of inventory in various out door piles.   Nearly nothing gets stacked.  Not worth my time.

[Willbillys]

Speaking of next winter's heat,   How do you guys handling trees that have ants in them?   Do these ants only infest trees?   Are they an issue for the rest of the wood pile?   If you were buying firewood with ants would you feel cheated?

From my experience carpenter ants will move into rotting crevices of the log that already exist and clear some of the rotted wood out to make room, not consuming the wood.  I would assume the firewood you have was left on the ground and started to rot, but it's possible the majority of the cord doesn't have ants as they tend to stay clustered together. 
I disrupted a colony a couple weeks ago in a 6 year old ash log that had been flat on the ground and just yesterday I found some of the ants had relocated just 5 feet away to the small pile of short stickers I keep at the end of the mill tracks.  I did end up getting a couple decent pieces out of that ash log, though.


 

[Old Greenhorn]

Speaking of next winter's heat,   How do you guys handling trees that have ants in them?   Do these ants only infest trees?   Are they an issue for the rest of the wood pile?   If you were buying firewood with ants would you feel cheated?

I sell 30 something ricks a year and have 3 years of inventory in various out door piles.   Nearly nothing gets stacked.  Not worth my time.

I agree with WIllBillys, I get them in partially rotting wood from time to time as I am splitting mostly, or the bad spot in a tree I am bucking. When I split the wood and hit a nest or large group I throw those pieces on the side and hit them with a little ant killer or whatever I have around and leave them in the weather for a few days to kill the ants and let the poison dissipate. I keep them away from the other wood until I know they are clean. I got a bunch in some wood I got from an arborist last year, none made it to the woodpile. Ants in the pile will spread, more importantly, they may spread to the adjacent house wall. If I do (very rarely) find them in the wood stack, they get removed immediately to the burn pile away from the house and stack. Carpenter ants can make a serious mess around these parts if they get hold and I attack with all my resources as soon as discovered. I've already had them in a house ceiling once, it was ugly. I killed thousands of them in one evening.
 And yeah, it I bought wood and some of it was full of carpenter ants, I would be more than pithed off.

[SwampDonkey]

I leave anything with galleries in it out in the woods. Don't need those critters around. ;D

[jimbarry]

We usually have a year reserve but we burned through it this year. We have logs cut over a year ago, so we need to get splitting for it to dry well over this summer. 1-1/2 cords done the other day. Need about 12 cords for this coming year and to prep for the next year. 



 

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I am coming up on closing this chore out for the year. Cut split and stacked another cord and a half today and figure I have about 1 cord maybe a little more, or 2+ loads to go. Got a surprise blow down last week that gave me 5 saw logs and some firewood, dragged some logs from odd places I had left them and keep finding a few more, they are getting smaller though. I may have to take one more tree, but I had a few standing dead ready to go.
 Here's the blow down load:


 

And here is the first load coming up early this morning. 


 

Then I drug up some more logs and bucked them up for a second load.


 


I ran out of energy to stack the 3rd load which was cut and split last year, but VERY green white birch. So the Grandsons showed up and we put them to work while I took a sit. My wife supervised and yes, these boys stacked up a half cord for me. The oldest is 6 years old. These boys do like to work though and stacked the whole trailer. When their Dad picked them up, they were asleep in his truck within 5 minutes after they left, I call that a winner all around.



 

 I need about a cord and a half to finish up and think I will have it done 2-3 weeks earlier than I did last year, which is good because I have milling work to do, which I did not have last year.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, its getting there. I am bushed after yesterday, but I pulled a couple of turns up the hill for bucking. Raining off and on, but I have saws to sharpen first and fence posts to make for the wife and the raspberries. Always sumptin', right?


 

 

[Old Greenhorn]

Probably the only day this week it won't be raining after work and the wife is working to Polls for a special county election so I cut, split, and loaded the stuff I dragged up Sunday. I can stack it another night in the rain if needed. This is load number [I have no flippin' idea], well, I lost count but somewhere between 8 and 12.



 

 Getting near the end goal, but I am getting tired of doing firewood. Same thing every free evening and most of the weekend. I still have some deadfall to collect and buck into rounds, but I can spread that out between other tasks. That stuff will be for the following year. My cleanup work is progressing and I am running out of easy kills for firewood. I am ready to get back to setting up the mill area and make some drying racks and I have some logs to go gather across town that might take more than a weekend for an old dude without any heavy equipment. A windblown 30" DBH EWP.

[SwampDonkey]

Been a good drying week, might be able to get a load of wood Saturday if the road is free and dried up.

[Old Greenhorn]

It's not really drying as well as I would like here, every time it starts to dry, it rains again, but light spring rains mostly. Enough to keep things wet. However the ground water levels are dropping, so it is firming up a bit. I had stacked my last load Wednesday night and am now out of wood to process again. Last night I took a look in the lowest swamp which has been unworkable since January. I haven't done too much work down there, wet most of the year. I had marked a bunch of junk over a year ago, dead standing and mostly very tricky hazard trees. I was waiting until I felt up to it and the ground was a bit firmer. Well one came down in the wind storm 3 weeks ago and broke. About 70' of ash, turns out there is a BUNCH of solid wood in it. I winched out 3 good logs last night, about 20" x 12', I still have the butt log to drop (easy), and pull out. I haven't even looked over the top because it's in a tangle, but that should have some good wood in it too if I can get it out.
 Every time I think I need to cut a tree I seem to stumble on another one. It never seems to end. I believe these logs will finish my season of splitting and stacking. I will stack logs and bucks rounds for next year, but splitting and hauling are done. I think I hear the mill calling for me.

[petefrom bearswamp]

My son and I got about 10 percent of our needed supply out in the winter.
Been too wet to get anymore out.
We used to stay 2 years ahead but not lately.

[Babylon519]

I go through about 7 bush cords a year

What does a "bush cord" mean to you? I've heard several definitions from various people, but they don't agree or are not specific. One guys definition is a "face cord" (4'x8'), but that's meaningless unless they give you the length it is cut to as well.

My understanding is that a face cord measures 1' x 4' x 8' = 32 cu ft. A bush cord - or full cord - is 4 face cords and measures 4' x 4' x 8' = 128 cu ft.
-   Jason