Split 2 cord this afternoon! Want to get it all done and in by hunting season! Season starts end of this month.
You must not be a full time logger, a logger doesn't put firewood up. :D :D
No most loggers haul it home as they burn it! I like mine all in the cellar ready to go!
I just simply couldn't find time to put firewood up. When i look back it was simply ridiculousness i didn't have time.
I had oil back up, i could make more logging, then i could save putting firewood up. Thats my story and i'm sticking to it.
I'm just starting to think about mine. No,I'm not a full time logger either. ;D I just cut the dead stuff and push it up into a pile and work on through the winter when there is snow on the ground.I have too much too do around here when the ground is not frozen. Or so I think. When the snow falls is when I can not work the ground or clear out the grown up pasture. Than I start on firewood.
Got all mine in the celler from the wood shed before I went north for harvest. That was my goal and I made it.
I have about 15-20 cords ready to go at the cabin. When I get done clearing the right-of-way for the power lines to come in, I swear I think I'll have another 30-50 cords of firewood. If I did the pines and hemlock, it would be double. SO glad I bought that log splitter 4 years ago.
Mine gets done in 3 days. 1.5 cord in the shop, 8 in the house basement and another cord stacked out by my basement window on old boards off the mud. Never thought it was that big of a deal. If I was a logger, I doubt I'd make a fortune in 3 days. Just wondering how many Fridays were knocked off for one thing or another not related to wood cut'n. ;D :D
Partridge season is open now up here.
I heat with 100% wood, 8 cords a year. Seems I'm always behind the 8-ball on getting it done though.
I claim being too busy....but mostly because I take time off in the fall to hunt and trap instead of putting up the firewood, haha.....
My father, who lives next door, owns 148 acres. Usually my skidder (or a skidder I can use) ends up near home, and I yank out my wood as well as my father's off from his land. I yard the wood right onto my back lawn.
If no skidder,we use Dad's tractor with an old army winch. Too darn slow though. Better than handling it by hand though.
I see so many people putting firewood up in 80/90+ degree weather [why] and they make such a big deal out of it. Its cool in the spring, and in the fall, why not do it nice cool weather.
The son-in-law does the same thing, he had the grand daughters, 15 an 13 yrs old out there this summer, splitting and piling firewood in the shed on the hot days. He only puts up 4 cds and it takes him all summer, i told the girls if i was on my feet, i could do it in one day. I wouldn't have anybody put wood up in that heat, let alone my daughters. To me its crazy, i remember guys coming in to the pub, [95 outside] soaking wet with sweat bragging that their putting firewood up. To me a logger it was stupid to be putting wood up in this kind of heat. [ Am i missing something ? ]
make a fortune in 3 days.
Three days logging, we could make 600. to 1500. heating oil, .50 to 1.00 a gal., when we came home in the dark i didn't feel like monkeying around with firewood, we had to get up in the dark an leave again. In the winter there isn't much rest for a logger, you have about 12 good weeks to make it, if the weather is good to you. We worked everyday we could until they put the road restrictions on.
I agree about firewood at 90 degree. I wait til we have a little frost then get out the good heavy tie siding slabs and run them across the swing saw. Usually have a couple of the girls helping. (They stack) Takes less than a day. The wood goes on racks. I carry the racks up to the basement door a couple of times during the winter. Get the kids out with a chute to slide the wood down. They usually make a game of it, good old family time, wood is in and everybody is happy.
I know a lot of loggers who brought home a pickup load of firewood every day until the wood was in.
We would cut ours in January and haul it in July. Farming was year around. Grow it and then market it the rest of the year. You just took time out for the wood because it needed doing and didn't worry about a day lost moving produce. We weren't hurt'n that bad for a buck.
mud season is for making firewood. you cant be in the woods so you might as well keep the saw runnin at home. ive managed to get ahead and stay ahead for the last couple years. i burn 3-4cd a year and i have 7 worked up and another 1 ready to be worked up.
Since I've had my firewood machine I haven't stocked any wood. I process it as I need it. This season I plan to fill my woodshed for the 1st time in about 6 years I think. I'm looking to not be in the firewood business this winter. I sold all my hardwood pulp as it was produced this year just so I wouldn't have any seasoned wood to sell. When the snow comes and stays I plan to put the processor and elevator in the barn for the winter and be done with firewood until spring. I'm tired of fighting the snow and cold and dealing with people who didn't believe winter was really coming and want perfectly dry firewood in February. If I had natural gas I'd be heating with it and paying the bill with firewood sales from the warmer parts of the year ;) ;D
10 dry cords piled, and another 7 for the next year. Stopped "putting it up" a few years ago. Easier to dump it into a pile with the loader, and it will still dry just fine. We keep it tarped. Deb likes to haul it in during the burning season. I don't mind. I've handled it enough by then. :D
half of our business is firewood, we seem to bring home 1/2 or a whole pickup load home at a time once or twice a month and i split it in the rain. or mud season, seems like nothing. splitting 100+ cord of firewood for customers a year since i was about 11. its all ive ever done so it comes second nature to me. i dislike the oil/propane prices. and the woods free minus my labor. its a simple life in my eyes.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/18864/firewood.jpg)
Thought you guys might likes this. You can see more pics on our facebook page.
There is about 740 1/3 cord pallets. Not much by some firewood business standards as we are still part time. Growing a little every year. Hope it all sells!
Hey cuddle, this sounds wierd! Nice jag,(under statement) This looks like the way to handle the wood to me. Thought about this many times. I am going to the father-in-laws tomorrow, his splitter,his saw, and mine. front bucket on the kiote, a big trailor, and a furnace waiting to be feed, forcast is for 28 in the morning, perfect for cutting firewood.
I cut wood when ever theres time, it can be hotter then and colder then but by fall theres wood stacked as close as I can get it to the boiler. I miss the stove in the house I always enjoyed warming up after a cold day in the woods drying my gloves and the smell when there dry. Everyone at church remarked about your cloths smelled like hickory. I suppose I'll cut wood as long as Iam able.
Being a thinning contractor, the hardest part of my job is finding a market for the small diameter wood.
I burn wood (about 5 cords a year), I have a Chomper processor to make firewood. Everybody and their dog's sell's firewood around here so there's no profit in it. So I usually give mine away to folks who are elderly, or down on their luck. I get paid to take the wood out, but not until it's gone.
Andy
Thats the way it was around here, i had a hard time giving wood away. It had to be moved off the sale before they'd close the block, and if we didn't remove it we faced a penalty. The last wood i delivered with the Mack i got $25. a cord, this is 100" wood. If we could have sold all of it for that price we would have been happy, you sold a load here an there, most of it rotted in the pile. There used to be piles of junk wood all over in the Chippewa National Forest, this was 25, 30 yrs ago.
barbenders logging there, maybe he'll give use an update on how firewood is selling.
It was funny after the 70's oil flip flop, oil was cheap and everyone installed oil furnaces here as a backup for wood. Actually it was a little further back, almost 40 years ago now. I was likely about 8. It was still pretty cheap until Katrina put ideas into people's heads that oil was rare again. We still had our wood here, just the same. No way I'd give that up for no oil. :D
got all my wood cut and split for the winter. took me two days (7-8 hour days) and my brother helped me. Id say we did about 12 to 13 cords. we used a bobcat with a grapple, and a splitter I made for the bobcat. what a time saver in the woods a grapple is!!!! little sore, but relieved to be done!!! 8)
Average firewood prices in my local paper this fall: $100/cord if you come get it, $150/cord delivered. Ads say seasoned wood, either "mixed hardwood" or "all oak".
Virginia law says if you advertise a cord of wood, it must measure 4ft. x 4 ft. x 8ft. As for the terms "seasoned", "mixed hardwood", "all oak", "pickup load", etc., buyer beware.
Pricing around here starts at $150 / cord, and goes up from there. $200 delivered in most cases. Mixed hardwood in most cases, but some will tell you about a small percentage of soft woods (poplar). Once fuel oil prices start rising, so will the cost of a cord.
Around here they start $180-$200 a cord in oct and raise the price $5.00 every 2 weeks till the supply is gone.State say it much be sold by cubic ft (128).
I gave up selling to the public 4yrs ago,seems the public prides themselves in shorting you on pay.
I believe around here firewood goes for between $180-200/cord (4x4x8) mixed hardwood. I don't really know as for many years now, I have cut and split my own and sometime my neighbors'. I need about 5 cords a year and I'm proud that for the very first time I have two years supply all done. As a general rule I don't work on firewood between April and September. Way too hot and the bugs eat me up in the Spring.
Quote from: Ed_K on October 07, 2012, 10:13:25 AM
Around here they start $180-$200 a cord in oct and raise the price $5.00 every 2 weeks till the supply is gone.State say it much be sold by cubic ft (128).
I gave up selling to the public 4yrs ago,seems the public prides themselves in shorting you on pay.
It's been several years ago, but I delivered a cord one time and the guy told me that it wasn't a cord. It was still on the truck and I started to just take it home, but I decided to make him a bet. I told him that I would bet him double or nothing that it would stack out to be a full cord. If it did he owed me double my regular price for wood, delivery, and stacking. If not he owed me nothing.
After we had stacked a full cord, and there was still 15 or 20 pieces left in the truck he said; "You don't really expect me to pay you double, do you?" I said yes, you would have made me drive off with nothing.
That was the best $180 I ever got for delivering & stacking a cord of wood.
Andy
Andy, you made me think of these firewood tales:
Interesting how people view a cord of wood. Most people, including some firewood sellers around here, think a pickup load is a cord. For starters, how could you physically fit a 4x4x8 foot stack of wood in a pickup bed? Next, a 4x4x8 ft. cord of green hardwood weighs a little over 4,000 pounds. Dry is still about 2,000 or more. I really doubt that a 1/2 or 3/4 ton pickup would carry that much weight.
Years ago a friend of mine told the story of how he had cut a pickup load of firewood on the National Forest, then stopped off at a local beer joint for lunch. A drunk customer came up and said "I'LL BET YOU THINK THAT'S A FULL CORD OF WOOD ON YOUR TRUCK DON'T 'CHA?" My friend said, "all I know is that the USFS says a full cord measures 4x4x8 foot, and that's good enough for me". The drunk got that hit-in-the-face-with-a-wet-dishrag-look, then staggered back to his table with the rest of his drunk buddies, who were laughing at him.
Once had a local logger tell me he had left 3 16 ft. red oak logs laying on his deck one Friday afternoon. Came back Monday morning and all that was there were little piles of sawdust spaced about 18 inches apart. Hmmmmmm........
I think I've told this one before, but one night a few years ago a lady heard a commotion in her driveway. Called 911. A sherriff's deputy came out and arrested 3 drunks who were trying to steal a load of firewood her neighbor had dumped at the end of her driveway for her. The commotion came from the fact that one of the firewood thiefs just had the tip of his thumb cut off when one of his buddies slammed the tailgate on his thumb. All 3 were fighting each other, blood flying. The deputy called the rescue squad to cart off the wounded thief, then made the other two carry and stack the wood on the ladies carport for her. Then confiscated the pickup.
Although I've had mine cut and split since early spring it was just delivered to the basement on Sunday. Had a couple of students help me put in 6 cord. Nice feeling to have it done. Had the forced air furnace going since. Love the heat, hate the effort required.
Cheers
Ken
Me thinky your weights are a off a tad there Phorester. I really dont think u could dry it down to a ton for a cord of wood, but thats just me
I think Oak, the standard around here is a little over 6000 lbs green. I don't know what that would be dry, guessing around 4000 lbs, maybe a little more.
I was at a "training" session a few years ago about selling firewood through the local government sponsored voucher program. One guy was bragging he could haul a cord and a half of oak on his F150, the lady doing the training was confused and trying to explain that she didn't think so, didn't know why, just didn't think so. They got to arguing about how much it took to make a cord of 24" vs 16" wood. An older lady that was a manager came in and shook her head. I left.
Red oak, rock maple and beech would all be around 4300 lbs @ 25%, assuming 100 ft3 of solid wood out of 128 ft3 of space. Oak is the heavier of the average until you get down to 12% or so. The oak is way heavier when green though, a half ton heavier than beech.
But as Gerald said, I've never seen a cord on a pickup yet even if stacked careful. You'll need some stakes and side boards. Mine comes delivered (cut to length and split) on a 1 ton truck with dump and it can only hold 1.5 cords. A cord is a lot of wood.
Some people grew up on a face cord standard. When trying to explain a cord it can often be as tough as pounding rocks.
Now we always assumed 100 ft3 solid wood (cunit) per cord. Some go with as low as 85, I don't happen to agree. ;D But kitchen cooking stove wood is split a lot finer than furnace wood, so.... ;D
That is what I haul on my one ton. My pickup will not do it. 1/2 cord is slightly rounded above the bed. That other half a cord takes up a lot of room.
I'm like Ken, been burning wood pretty steady since a day or two. A little warm right now though. Calls for an open window. :D
I put air shocks on my last 3/4 ton to haul full loads of whatever I get. I cut when I can get a load and I'd rather spread the work out through the season. There are too many raining, high wind, bitter cold days when I can't get a load. I got an OWB to keep me in shape and not spend the money on a gym that I won't go to. I built rails for my newer 3/4 ton and have to get air shocks, or haul smaller loads with some cured. Green wood puts it on the springs at about a full truck, without the rails on.
Mine is done! 6-7 cords in the cellar! Bring on the cold and deer season!!!
I sell full, measured cords and haul it to the customer in my Dodge. $200 all seasoned oak delivered free within 25 miles of the house in VB.
So......, you boys think you can stack a bunch of firewood, eh? ;D
http://gowood.blogspot.com/2012/12/real-firewood-stacking.html
I like that, if i was on my feet i would be making something out of a wood pile for everybody to look at.
I hauled a cord on my 1 ton F350 pickup once in a while just to prove at point, that i could haul a full cord on it. It would be easy, if i put it on in 8' length. When its cut 16"s long, you have to have a good rack on the pickup.
This F350 had heavy leaf springs, and a set of over loads twice as heavy.
Pretty cool. They obviously have nothing better to do with their time though.
Quote from: NWP on December 11, 2012, 05:02:04 PM
Pretty cool. They obviously have nothing better to do with their time though.
That's for sure. I never knew Stacking wood could be an art form. Most people I know use the "Get-Er-Done" method.
I tell ya, I love that the farmer I work for has a hydraulic splitter. Makes life alot easier for firewood. We've got probably 30 chord stacked up that we have to move to make room so we can get another 30-40 chord in the barn from clearing a hedgerow. It's crazy.
Just be careful if your's is a pull start. The farmer I work for: his is an older one formerly owned by U-Haul, and it's maybe 12HP. I went to start it this last Saturday and dislocated my right SI joint (one of 2 joints where the spine meets the pelvis) O.O That really hurts for anyone who was wondering.
Way back in the day when I was working on a decent hardwood lot, I used to sell half-cord loads of ends and pieces from my pickup on the way home at night. Most of my customers were either young families at the trailer park or older widows hanging on to the old homestead. If they didn't buy from me, they were buying diesel, five gallons at a time to keep the furnace going for another couple days.
Looking back I thank God nobody I sold to had a chimney fire and burned out. The wood was totally green. It makes me realize that even pedaling firewood involves a moral responsibility.
I burned firewood 30 yrs, from the stump to the stove. I never had a creosote problem, or ever cleaned the chimney. A friend of mine had to clean his every two weeks. He told me that mine had to be full of creosote, he had to come over and check it out himself. I had a Ashly in the living room with a 12" stainless steel pipe, basically the same as his. He came over, climbed on the roof, pulled the stack cover off and shined a light down it. The pipe was perfectly clean, he couldn't understand why. So i told him, Denny we burn all our paper in the stove. Then he says, no, no you can't do that, it says in the instructions that its not a trash burner. I had to laugh, of course its not a trash burner, but you can burn all the paper you want to. I had this Ashly in my new home i'd build 6 yrs prier, it had oil backup.
My father burned wood up to about 15 yrs ago, hes 86. From my childhood up we never had a chimney fire, or do i remember him ever cleaning it. Dad was a full time logger, we never put wood up. He'd take us kids out on the weekends and haul 2, 3 pickup loads, other wise he brought it home every night. I know this was a bad habit, but it was the way we did it. Up though high school we had the Ole barrel stove.
Quote from: gunman63 on October 10, 2012, 05:36:23 PM
Me thinky your weights are a off a tad there Phorester. I really dont think u could dry it down to a ton for a cord of wood, but thats just me
You are most correct. Don't know where I came up with the 4,000lb figure. I'm thinking I was remembering the local conversion for a cord of pine pulpwood, which in this area is estimated by the pulp mill as 4000lb/standard cord. For hardwood pulp, they use 5,200lb / cord. And air drying would not cut it in half.
A cord of fresh cut Northern Lower Michigan sugar maple weighs in at 5,700lbs. That's from a guy that hauls across the Mighty Mac both ways on a regular basis :)
We are in between here because they averaged in the lighter birch for the average and only kept aspen separate at 5000 lbs. Yet, at the mill the birch had to be separated. I suppose it worked out in the end because we have a lot birch in our hardwood. I've also seen a lot of scale bills from various mills working at a marketing board. But these were averages we worked out for our area as the marketing boards here have a little clout in the best interest of the producer. ;) New owners of the mill take a whole mix, no more separation except aspen vs hardwoods.
I was always told to pile my wood with the bark side up whenever possible. Supposed to help the water run off I guess. My grandfathers wood pile could easily be neatly covered with wallpaper. Very few people put the effort into a wood pile like he does.
Bark side up yes ;) bark side down will hold the water just like a bowl.
I stack it whatever way it looks good. been doin it cince I was around 6 or 7, but prob earlier!
I learned fast that it was better to stack than to be haulin bark and brush. I have also learned how to stack rows in arches without fence posts!
Only takes restacking a chord or 2 that you best have the first 2 rows angle into eachother if its higher than 4 foot. Ive done rows 12-20 foot long, about 7 or 8 to a "bay"
Early spring or late fall were the best times to stock up, then split in the wet season or early winter. Splitting when its 90 deg outside is no fun.