Do you have your firewood in for this winter? I do and it is all below 20% moisture content. It takes a lot of work to get there but it's worth it.
It's a routine that we enjoy ( often :'() every year done for decades.
Harvest firewood ( ~ 6-8 cords hardwood ) in Fall and Winter plus softwood blowdowns and trails; bucks stacked for Spring splitting and stacking.
If it's not done by Summer I'm in deep &%^$#@. Too much going on in the short summer season, too hot for this one to do wooding in the heat, and the wood needs seasoning for at least 6 months in the woodshed and open stacks for clean, efficient burns.
4 more bags to do and mine is done.
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How do the splits season in bags ? Or, are they dry.
Firewood isnt rolled wrapped hay to store in the barn for the winter.
These bags are vented desighed for potato storage. So no problem drying firewood. Been doing it in bags since 2010. They are stored outside till dry then one could house them. We will stack them in our wood shed attached to the house before the snow flys.
Interesting method. Weight ? Load into the shed with a FEL ?
Birch bag weighs around 1100 lbs depending on moisture content. Keep telling myself to take a bag over to my neighbour to weigh. We use this 14 ft conveyor to get it into the woodshed attached to the house. The shed is 8x16x 8ft high. we stack about 4 cord of birch from one end to the the door to the house then leave a 3 ft space for birch bark and fill the last bit with jack pine or hemlock and scrap form the wood shop. So about 6 cord for the year. I was thinking at first to just set it up so we could put the bags in it. but would need a very large shed either to keep them in and just bring say 6 bags at a time but then it makes for a not so mouse proof attachement to the house. The rest would have to be stored in some weather tight building as well. so this works. Takes a day and half with the 2 of us.
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I had shoulder surgery this spring so my winter fuel making had been on hold. I finally got cleared to run the tractor and skid steer so my two firewood making helpers came to the farm Friday and Saturday and they got about six cords bucked split and stacked in trailers. It is all Locust that was cut two summers ago and been setting in logs it is still pretty wet but I won't need it until next year. I have some loaded in trailers in the shed that I will burn first in the boiler. I run it year around for domestic hot water.
All ours done late Aug. due to helping daughter with her garage my ex wood shed !
I try to have my wood cut, split and stacked a year in advance. I burn right about 4 cords a year.
2 more cords and I'll have next years done.
I'm going to WV to help my neighbor up there get started cutting his wood for this year. It's pretty late but we will cut up an oak that has been down for a while but not rotted, split and stack it in his car port and it will burn, just not the best.
Son and I have our 2018-2019 wood all stacked inside.
most of 2019-2020 is stacked outside for that winter.
I also am burning some of my Hemlock slabs in the warmer months for heating domestic water in cribs copied from kbeitz's design.
Miss his posts.
I figured i would have 20-30 cord up for this selling season, but was blessed by 150ish loads of free fill dirt and rock from spring thru summer, which overtaxed all my resources. Now that im finally getting back to wood the splitter keeps giving me grief, maybe have 7 cords done, i hope to hit 10. Its how i fund fixing and maintaining whatever is down and waiting parts. Homesteading is not for the impatient.
My home wood has been cut, split and stacked in an open end canvas shed for at least 4 years, good and dry.
My sugar wood has fallen behind, I've always been a year ahead until this year, I'm still processing. The logs have been cut and stacked for 3-8 years but the bucking and splitting is still going on. Right now I have likely 75% done, in a couple more days the rest will be done, but I'm now sawing hemlock to build a loft in my shop. The wood will be finished in a couple of weeks after the loft is done.
For the evaporator I cut the wood 21" long and split it all to wrist size or smaller for a super fast fire. I split with an original Super Split which has a super fast cycle time, like 1.5 seconds. I recently went on a maple tour and at one of the sugarhouses they were demonstrating a Dr. RapidFire splitter, it is even faster but I will not be buying one to save 1/2 second per cycle, however if I was in the market for a splitter I would certainly look into one.
This type of splitter is great for an evaporator, but those who need larger size pieces to burn would generally want a hydraulic with a 4 or 6 way wedge.
I have this years wood all stacked in the attached house garage. I use about 3 cords/winter to heat my house.
Outside under the lean-too on the workshop I have the next 2 years wood ready.
After a bad storm about a month ago my woodlot is full of down and damaged trees and tops all over.
I won't have to drop a tree for a year or 2 after that I'm afraid most of the stuff in the woods will be getting bad.
No place to store more firewood.
I'll process my OWB wood in five face cord loads as I need it once we're out of cookies. 100" sticks don't cut into 16" pieces exactly. There's a big pile of them to go through first. I've got a standing order in for a train load of ash this winter to cook sap with this spring. I also got an almost free deal on 15 cord of red pine pulp to mix in with the ash or burn in the OWB.
Well, it sounds like we are all doing what we can. Getting it in is a lot of hard work. Many of us are getting older and it becomes more challenging with age.
There seems to be a correlation with age and working on it to make sure we have fuel for heating versus youth and allocating time to prepare for the season ahead.
Those of us who are younger, keep working on it. Those of us who have a little more experience, keep doing it while we can.
Lets try and help the young ones and hopefully they will help us when we need it.
Uplander
The world has changed a lot around here 30 years ago you could hire all the hay and firewood making help you needed. Slowly most of the hay around here got switched to round bales or big squares you move with a tractor. The few people around here that still make small square bales of hay are old guys doing it. My firewood making crew is made up of the young guy is 55 and the rest are 60. Young folks around here aren't burning wood to stay warm. Had a older gentlemen 76 call me last week looking to hire some help to get some trees that had fell in a wind storm on his field fence so he could turn out his cows on his harvested fields. I said I didn't know of any one but I could haul the skid loader and grapple over and clean it up when it rained and we couldn't combine. A few days later I did and he had started on it with a chain saw and almost ended up in the Hospital he was out there on a hot day and it almost did him in. Like the rest of us he was having a hard time waiting. Got it cleaned up,fence back up and cows out. Its bad when your 60 and your are the young guy.
Yup. I wont do it when its hot out anymore. Generally I wait to cut till the end of February or beginning of March,
Work smarter not harder.
Last year I had everything done and covered by about this point planning for OT at work that never happened. First time I'd been so far ahead.
This year... :( Been busy + OT at work. No time for firewood yet. Looks like we will be feeding straight off the trailer mostly. At least there is a lot of standing dead stuff I can go get. ;D
Quote from: uplander on October 02, 2018, 07:50:16 AM
Many of us are getting older and it becomes more challenging with age.
"Many"? Who isn't (and still reading these posts) :D :D? I always thought there wasn't but one alternative to getting older. As long as I'm on here typing, I'm getting older (but the wisdom on here is allowing me to avoid the alternative)!
My wood is cut, split and stacked for this winter; I started our 1st fire last night. We have a ton of Blowdowns to process, so I don't have to agonize over which trees to feed to the stove next year.
Steve
Mine has been stacked outside since last march.
almost 3 years worth done for myself. 2/3 done for next year that I make for a friend that cant do it for herself. I cut and split and throw it on a pile then she stacks it when she gets time.
I just got into this game. Bought a house two weeks ago. So yeah, I'm behind :D Not lacking experience burning wood, at my parents we did 5+ cord a year forever.
Should have planned ahead when we knew we were buying the house, but where to put it and hating to move it an extra time held me back.
The worst part is I log part time, have a skidder, all the saws, etc. and hate the thought of buying split wood.... but I'm gonna have to, at least for this year. I have a maple stand to thin, so I'll be cutting beech, yellow birch and ash later this fall and will be set for next year.
Still working on this year.
Hey Chris. don't forget that ash is the only wood I know that can be burnt near green. Split it smaller, then mix it with some standing dead ( not rotten) trees like oaks around you.
We've used ash like that when we had screwed up not getting enough wood in in time. Never again. Also Look at free hardwood pallets.
I cut and skidded 5 trees after work today, and bucked and split a 1/2 ton pickup load of ash. Think I'll stoll buy a cord maybe two of seasoned wood but we'll see.
I do have a buddy who's wife works at a furniture place, they have kiln dried hardwood cutoffs. Think I'll get a truckload of those too.
I'll make it I'm sure :)
Quote from: uplander on October 02, 2018, 07:50:16 AMThose of us who are younger, keep working on it. Those of us who have a little more experience, keep doing it while we can.
Uplander, I agree with what you said. This process (aging) has been on my mind lately as my OWB is ready to start its 13th season and I know will soon be faced with a decision and trying to look realistically at what the next phase will bring.
Quote from: Wood Shed on October 06, 2018, 09:23:41 AM
Uplander, I agree with what you said. This process (aging) has been on my mind lately as my OWB is ready to start its 13th season and I know will soon be faced with a decision and trying to look realistically at what the next phase will bring.
I plan on doing it as long as possible. As I get to the point I know I am going to need help I am going to try to find a youngster with a good work ethic and hopefully together with my woods, tractor, saws, splitter and few tricks about how to do it we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement. That's my hope at least.
Quote from: uplander on October 08, 2018, 03:35:57 PM
I plan on doing it as long as possible. As I get to the point I know I am going to need help I am going to try to find a youngster with a good work ethic and hopefully together with my woods, tractor, saws, splitter and few tricks about how to do it we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement. That's my hope at least.
Good luck on finding that person. I have looked a lot to find some younger help. People don't burn wood in my area like they used to. The serious wood burners already have more wood to cut than they need. I have two guys that like to hunt both 55 + and I trade them hunting rights for days helping me get my 15 cord I burn a year. When they have had enough that might finish me burning wood.
Quote from: uplander on October 08, 2018, 03:35:57 PM
Quote from: Wood Shed on October 06, 2018, 09:23:41 AM
Uplander, I agree with what you said. This process (aging) has been on my mind lately as my OWB is ready to start its 13th season and I know will soon be faced with a decision and trying to look realistically at what the next phase will bring.
I plan on doing it as long as possible. As I get to the point I know I am going to need help I am going to try to find a youngster with a good work ethic and hopefully together with my woods, tractor, saws, splitter and few tricks about how to do it we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement. That's my hope at least.
I am almost 70 and I have to plan farther ahead now than I use to. I go out and cut for a couple of hours or whenever I get tired then I stop. I built a processor 10 years ago and it is slow but I don't handle the wood other than stack so that helps a lot. I cut 2 cords and stacked in my woodshed today. I have seasoned poles to cut so going into the woods for me is a big no no. This year it is harder to get in and out of my skid steer but I manage. Cutting wood makes my blood sugar go down as well as my blood pressure
just finished up working on the woodstove. Most of the firebrick was all cracked apart so I replaced all the broken pieces while replacing two of the hot air re-burner tubes. I fired up the stove to take the chill off the house from this cool snap we're having this weekend.
I have most of the wood cut and split but I have to move it from the drying areas over by the big barn to the wood shed by the house. I still have one big dead ash to drop cuz it is within striking distance of the house. Winter winds blow the bad direction so I better get it dropped before it gets punky.
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I'm gonna try some of the Honey Locust for firewood that has been drying all summer. I will mix it in with the Ash. We cut a bunch of Honey Locust early this spring to make some fence posts and I cut and split the limbs and what was too crooked to run on the sawmill.
Quote from: MAF143 on October 14, 2018, 10:20:45 AMWe cut a bunch of Honey Locust early this spring to make some fence posts
Did you mean Black Locust? Black Locust makes great firewood and posts. Honey Locust makes good firewood and poor posts.
Just trying to save some heartache before sinking a bunch of HL posts.
The last bunch of honey locust posts that were put in here on the farm 50 or so years ago are still functioning. If these new ones only last 20 years I don't think I'll be to worried about them after that. We have no black locust on our farm. I wish we did, but... I have done a lot of reading on the Honey Locust vs. Black Locust and the stories range from very little difference to HL being totally worthless. The agriculture reports I have read indicate the HL is good for posts, but Yellow Locust is to by shyed away from for that application. I'm going to take my chances.
A couple years ago we found logs (16" to 20" by 6' long) lying in the bottom way back in the woods that no one knows who cut them or how long they had laid there. (minimum of 15 years). There was no bark and they looked like the fencing up at the barn that was put in in '52. I cut them up for fire wood and it was great, no rot in the heart wood at all, just encased thorns (found when splitting it) like I find in all other honey locust that I have cut and split from our woods.
The last 2 days my wife and I stacked our wood shed full 8x16x 8 ft high.
4 cord is birch. Then we leave 3 ft space for birch bark and small stuff for kindlin and did sawmill slabs of hemlock jack pine and birch for about 5 ft. One bag out of 20 did not fit. It will be used up before the snow flys.
I'm ready!! Just got my Central Boiler hooked up and rolling. Bring on the Cold!!
I have 9 Dino bags of cut offs from selling firewood mixed hardwood
1 pallet of black locusts
1 pallet of red oak sawmill slabs
1 pallet of hardwood limbs
And hope to get 3 more Dino bags off cut offs
Bruno those Deno bags were the first ones we used in 2011. A customer returned this year with one of them. I had the well used ones full of saw chips and this year they were falling apart. So 6 to 7 years before donè. It all depends on how long they were in the sun.
Sounds like we are all doing pretty good! You youngsters that are a little behind better get to work though!
Just kidding, I know how difficult it is to manage all the responsibilities one has at a younger age.
Us folks who are a little more "seasoned" are a little better at managing out time though :)