The Daily Firewood Picture Thread

[Al_Smith]

I don't know why Partner chainsaws were not  a big hit around here back in the day but the concrete saws were highly regarded .Now regarding the firewood it wasn't as bad as I thought .Here's around a half cord of the best, shag bark hickory .Dry as a bone and hard as a rock .Her 2002 Envoy did good in spite of the fact I had it in 2WD instead of 4WD .It's way too nice to take into the woods ,154,000 miles runs like a top and is nearly perfect in every other way .

  

[SwampDonkey]

Nice warm load of wood I'd say. ;D

[Al_Smith]

I'll toss in a few hickory then bass wood over the top .Once the bass wood has a little heat on it it does fairly well but won't hold a fire over night .The hickory will hold plus by volume is twice the BTU's as bass wood .It should be weights about  twice as much .

[SwampDonkey]

I find aspen gives coals until 5:00 am here, if loaded at 9:00 pm in the stove. They last quite awhile. But with a forced air furnace, doesn't really matter about coal bed, after a certain point. If there is a coal bed 3" deep it's not going to trip the fan. During the day, I keep the fan on continuous and have small loads, maybe 1/3 or even less full of wood. I get heat off of barely any coals to have 75 degrees, a square shovel full rounded up. The purpose of doing that is to also supply heat to the grow tent. Win win.

Living space




Grow tent (77 F)





Coal bed <1/3 firebox. That's hot enough to trip the fan, but not continuously. Burning aspen.

[Big_eddy]

My wife and I cut some wood tonight after work. It was -8c and blowing and snowing out and we had blocks left, so kept splitting until 30 mins after dark.
Cut and split a cord total. Mother nature delivered 4" of fresh snow over the same 2 hours.

If they weren't before, I'm sure our neighbours are now convinced we are both off our rockers, but actually it was a very pleasant evening. (Except the time I forgot to flip the tractor seat up between loads.)



 

[SwampDonkey]

Your neighbours are just jealous of hard workers. ;D

I'm jealous of neighours who play and pretend all day, then deliver new expensive toys after dark. Where does the play end and work start? :D

[Al_Smith]

The only time I can remember burning aspen was in the Colorado Rocky Mountains on our yearly deer hunts .It was either that or spruce . I took a little Poulan S-25DA chainsaw which I had to retune for running at  around  9,000 feet altitude . I thought the aspen burned good though . Those little sheet metal Reeves stoves really put out the heat inside a tent .That tent was a big army squad tent from the Korean war that must have weighed 150 pounds .It took two men and a boy to lift it .It's been over 40 years since I've done it .I was a lot stronger then . ;D

[SwampDonkey]

The good Ol' days Al. ;D I've not had to live out of tents in the cold, but my uncles did in northern Quebec. You was either too hot by the stove or half frozen stiff on the far side. And the tent walls were covered in heavy frost, which would melt and make a wet floor for your wool socks to soak up. :D

[doc henderson]

 

 

 

tappers BSA, low 14°, peak 40 mph winds.  good breakfast, sausage and eggs.  I am taking the pics.



 

Mr. Fee, former NAVY pilot, former scoutmaster, now flies with JB.

[Al_Smith]

Actually that old heavy duty squad tent was made for cold weather .It had provisions you could use two stoves if it were  really cold but we only used the sheet metal Reeves which has long since  rusted into nothing after all these years .Those things if memory serves were only about $12 and we'd get three -four years out of them .That tent is still on the shelf in the little barn where I grew up at .That pot licker is far too heavy for normal camping in warm weather .My uncle bought that thing the size of a small circus tent  surplus for 5 dollars . 
Those giant things might have been used when they built the Alcan during WW2 .Probably used "tundra daisies " oil barrels to make stoves .Those things will run you out of a 30 by 36 garage  in that tent you'd be down to your undies .

[doc henderson]

 " in that tent you'd be down to your undies " not allowed by BSA!  

It was comfy in there out of the wind, prob 50 to 60°.  just right for cooking.  2# sausage and 2 dozen eggs took 10 minutes to cook.

[Al_Smith]

Odd to me .That bass wood was dampish about a week ago piled in a big heap .Put about half a face stacked in the Ranger and I'll be monkeys' uncle if it didn't dry out especially as cold  as it's been .Is it possible to freeze dry like instant coffee ? ??? It burns fairly well now however a tad quickly ,I'll take it .

[SwampDonkey]

Can't be any worst than fir for heat. ;D

[Corley5]

Yesterday and today's wood delivered and dumped.  They had hauled in some of yesterday's load and thrown a tarp over what was left.  I've got a five face cord and a three face load to run off tomorrow.  Business is steadier than I'd like it to be this winter  ;) ;D  Not complaining but I really need to do some other farm related things 



 

[barbender]

I think wood still dries in the winter, Al. Especially if the temperature is on either side of freezing. "Freeze drying" is a phenomenon we witness on our woods roads in the spring. The mud thaws out, things get pretty sloppy by the afternoon. Smooth it out at night and it freezes hard overnight. The mud will still be frozen in morning, but it looks oxidized and dried out. When it thaws, it will actually be dry until moisture comes up from the frost below. Anyways, scientifically I have no idea what's going on but I've witnessed this many, many times. No reason it wouldn't happen to firewood, too.

[mike_belben]

I hung laundry out on the line a few days ago that didnt spin well and it had icicles dripping out of it.  Was a stone cold gusty night.  Next morning that laundry was dry.  In summer it woulda took 3 sunny humid days, or 2 windy ones.

I think its the dry air on really frigid nights.  Airborne moisture crystallizes out of suspension and drops to the ground which leaves the air able to pick up more moisture than usual i guess.


With dirtwork a cool windy days is just as good at drying our dirt and mud roads as a sunny one. 

[SwampDonkey]

Really Mike? I have a huge clothes rack, like 9' tall. On a windy hot day, I can dry everything in 20 minutes. In winter it can hang there 2 days and still be frozen stiff. Neighour is a big wash and hang to dry house wife, but in winter it ain't out there unless airing out, not dripping wet. :D

[jimbarry]

Can't be any worst than fir for heat. ;D

Yes it can. Poplar. :D 

[SwampDonkey]

Poplar/Aspen is 80% of my firewood. It's actually nicer than fir. Just cleaned the flu this morning, clean as a whistle, no soot. Mom's uncle burnt 100% aspen firewood in the kitchen for decades in an Enterprise Monarch.

[woodroe]

Hating fir must be a coastal thing. Guy from the coast once told me
fir was no good for firewood. Inland mountain man told me fir was good for firewood.
So I tried it having plenty of it around.
My take, fir is good but slow to dry. get it dry and it makes as good of heat
as any of the other properly dried softwoods and poplar.
Burning 80% softwood this winter, pine, spruce, fir, hemlock. Hey, its free !
And next winter looks to be about the same.

[jimbarry]

Don't get me wrong, fir is ok, but it burns hot and fast (half the time of hardwood). At least here it does. As for drying, after blocking and splitting, it doesn't take long. Cut it down in the winter, dry it over the summer, ready for the fall.

[woodroe]

Nice looking website Jim, the good life aye.

[SwampDonkey]

My other 20% is mostly balsam fir with some spruce and small bits of hardwood that won't make a decent tree. I burn a bunch of wood, but that is fine because I'm thinning my ground. So I'm not letting it rot. A slow way to thin, but I have to make a living at a real job. This is the most efficient use of my time and a valuable resource. A heck of a lot more valuable than pulp and cost way less to get out....no roads, no heavy equipment, no paying to get it trucked. Money stays in my pockets, $thousands. ;D

[woodroe]

That sums it up pretty good for my situation too SD..
I've thought about doing some commercial harvesting but
just can't justify the costs involved and what little $ goes in my pocket in the end.
So, just cleaning up the woods is worth about 1K staying in my pocket a year for heating.
Think I've spent $500 on firewood over 30 yrs, no oil or gas either.
Passive Solar home design has added big savings in heating too.

[SwampDonkey]

Oh yeah, solor heat here can get 77-85F by 10:00 am until 4:30 pm in the winter. Little smudge in the early morning, then let'r go. Right now I throw 2 or 3 sticks in once in awhile to heat the grow tent. Keep the fan on.  Window open right now, 0F outside, feels nice. Free air exchanger to. :D If I wasn't running the grow tent, I'd burn less wood. Stuff grows better 75-80 degrees than 60-65 degrees, better germ. to. Basement is cooler than living space. Still have winter squash down there, keeping well.  I'm not paying no $2 a pound, one of them 10 lb squash would be $20. Lordy!