The Daily Firewood Picture Thread

[SwampDonkey]

Burn'n up the money wood. :D

[jimbarry]

One 16" block in an otherwise b*tch of a log to split. 26" across with hidden crotched meant some noodling. A lot of it looks like this


 

[RetiredTech]

  We had some firewood gifted to us to get it out of the owners way. It had been on the ground at least a year and the soft wood was rotten. Most of the wood 2-3" in was was still hard as a rock. We turned two of these 16' trailer loads of wood into 5-6 smaller 8' trailer loads. I lost count. This plus the two small oaks I have on the ground will probably finish off all the wood I need to cut this year for the three houses. My wife and uncle pitched in and with the help of our new 25ton splitter we got done in record time.











The last short load of old wood and a very tired Mrs.


Now, I just need to cut and split the green oak and the firewood project should be completed for this year.

[Old Greenhorn]

Always nice when it's gifted, but there is no 'free firewood'. You've gotta work for it one way or the other, every time. ;D
----------------

Speaking of 'working for it'. Today was one of those days that took a lot more effort than I ever expected. Some may remember back in Feb of 22 we had a ice storm here that kocked out power for a week or more. I had a big hard maple come down that whacked my garage and clobbered the chain link fence. At the time, I took care of the top wood pretty quick and repaired the roof. Ever since then I have been walking past it. Well "some day' was today. I couldn't start on the fence until I got the main stick out of there. About 25" on the stump and tapered up, the stick was about 25', but weighed a bunch. More than my Mule would handle by a far piece. The issue was that I had to drag it across the creek ditch,  through the fence, and across the back lawn. So I bucked into three sections and used the winch on the mule to pull them up to the fence. After two sections were pulled I had drawn the battery down pretty well. So I ran a line and put it on a charger and went off to rig a high line in a tree that MUST come down on the front lawn. The tree will need a pull line, because any error would put it in the house. I won't risk it, so I run the line. That took a little while and I hung the line about 30' up, figured and laid out the rigging for another day, it's good to go.
Returned to the maple, winched in the other two sections then started hooking them up to the arch and dragging them over to the splitter and I got them all bucked, had lunch, then cut a path through the swamp to collect the largest rounds off the butt end. I had to take them one round at a time, another 4 trips.
I bucked two more off the stump now that it has settled back and lifted up. I could not get these after the storm, they were in the dirt. I usually butcher these butt cuts at odd angles, but this one I aced, if I do say so myself. A nice clean flat and square cut with no overcuts. Poor photo follows:


 

This stump is at a 45° angle and if I cut that round off it would have slid into the hole making it a real bear to get back out. Trimming the flares first made retainers to hold the round on , and then I could 'flip' it off (as well as anyone can 'flip' a 180 pound round) and miss the hole. It wasn't easy, but I did it. At one point while cutting my left foot found a weak spot at the base of the stump and I dropped in up to my knee. Had to put the saw down to get my leg back out. :D

Anyway, got it done. Here is a photo looking over the stump in the fall direction of the tree, at the bottom, you can see those two ears, in the middle you can see where the top rail on the fence is gone, and beyond is the garage it hit:



 

A little closer up, you can see I have now pulled the fence across, but it is totally trashed and twisted, will have to weave in new fencing and you can see some of the creek swale.

I estimate I will fill a trailer with what I pulled today (only 1/3 cord), but by golly I dispensed a lot for sweat on that wood and I still have to split it. It needed cleaning up anyway, so it's done. All I had the energy for was to put another coat of poly on a job and do a beer run. I'll be in bed early tonight. it was a two shirt day, should have been 3, but I was too tired to get the third one and too covered in sawdust and mud, so I just let it dry out as I finished up.

Edit to add: ARRGH! I was just proof reading this post and realized that I need to take the fence section back down. There is another red maple that got clobbered in the storm and needs to drop right through that opening in the fence. I had put the fence back up with come alongs this afternoon to discourage bear and deer from wandering into the yard. It won't keep out that ground hog until I weave in a new fence section and fix it properly. But yeah, gotta get that other tree down. Oh well more work. ;D

[SwampDonkey]

The work never ends on the farm. ;D

[bitternut]

I often wondered just how much weight I was hauling on my loads of fire wood. So one day I was taking my trailer to our woods to get a load of firewood and  decided to stop at a Cat Weight Scales. I pass this scales  twice on every trip to our woods. Been passing it for years. Guess you could say that I tend to procrastinate sometimes. Anyways I pulled in and for $13 I got the unloaded weight of my truck and trailer.

On the return trip I got my loaded weight of the trailer load of wood. The wood was from our timber sale that was harvested last July. It consisted mostly of Red Oak with some Bitternut Hickory. My trailer is a 7 x 12 dump trailer rated at 12000#. The height of the sideboards is 39". I loaded the wood to the top of the side boards mostly except for the rear tailgate which has no side board. Did not want any chunks dropping off to harm anyone following me.

My trip home ( 100 miles ) was a slow ride, 55mph on the open flat stretches and 45mph on the steep hills. There are several hills to go up and down on the trip. The trip went well and my truck ( 2009 Chevy Silverado 2500HD ) handled it fine but you definitely knew that you had a load back there.

Anyways I now have a number to sort of gauge how many more blocks of wood to pile on the trailer. Red Oak and Hickory are the heaviest wood that we have in our woods. When I split the wood it felt very wet yet even though it has been dead for a year so green fresh cut probably would not be too much heavier than what I had. My load was not to max load of the trailer capacity but increasing the weight would require increasing the height of the tailgate. i think I will be safe and satisfied with the present load capacity.

Loaded trailer ready to depart


 
<b

All split and ready for stacking


 


Oh yeah, the wood weighed 7500 #

[jimbarry]

Based on the photo with the chunks of wood I was gonna say 1-3/4 cords aboard. With the weight being 7500lb I figure that's about about right for green/wet wood.

[Hilltop366]

7'x12' by a average height of 3' comes just under 2 cord, once you count the extra air because of the blocks you are probably real close.

[Al_Smith]

No pictures but I finally made it back to the woods .Wind fallen ash as hard as concrete .Used an 024 Stihl and dulled the chain on just a yard cart full of 4 to 8" logs .I'm going to break out the Partner 5000 plus on this small stuff .Although it's only 7 cc's larger than the little Stihl it's got a lot more grunt .
As it is I have these dead little trees every where in addition to some rather large ash .The deal with the small stuff is it doesn't need split and it's dry as popcorn .Plus it will lay on the ground for years before it gets punky .

[SwampDonkey]

1-1/3 cord if you go by our local 2.5 metric tonne per green cord, 2200 lb in a metric tonne. And heavier wood means less cords.

[GRANITEstateMP]

We pride ourselves on clean firewood. This stuff was super clean, it dropped right into the water in the trailer and got one last wash before leaving the dooryard ;D

 
We got two cord done between rain drops and before fathers day festivities

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I am just struggling to get the firewood done that I need and I am a one man show, so 8 cords is a lot of work for an old guy alone. I am thankful for the timberwolf 6 way splitter Bill parked in my driveway for a few months or I would really be suffering through these 22' RO rounds. ;D
 Today was another day and another overfull trailer load.


 

 I can't get no more in that trailer than that and it's the biggest trailer I can fit through the backyard gate. The stack under the house is beginning to fill in finally, but I think I still need 3 or so more trailer loads to fil it.



 

 This year I have nice tight stacks, but still enough airflow, with maximum wood fit in there. The grandsons nor the wife have not been around when stacking time comes for some reason. >:( I am pretty particular on my stacks.
 I have a birds nest in there over the header on the outboard side and the mamma and poppa birds sit on that clothes line right close and keep an eye on me while I am stacking. I talk to them and tell them I mean no harm and won't hurt their babies and they have stopped buzzing me, but they still watch me close. Anybody know what breed of birds these are?


 
 That's the best photo I could manage, they keep moving away when I get close. We play this game just about every year. At least this year they built the nest on the header instead of on the light fixture. I haven't checked the nest for an egg count yet. Firewood and nesting birds are always related here on our little acre.

[barbender]

I believe those are Phoebes. I have a pair that nest in my workshed, it's probably been several generations of them because they've been nesting in there for 10 years probably. 

[cutterboy]

Yes, phoebes for sure. They love to nest under porches and decks on houses and in sheds and under roof overhangs. They are great little birds to have around, they eat lots of insects.

[Al_Smith]

I'll most likely do 6 or 7 cords this year .If I only do a cord a week I'll be done about August .If a cord of hardwood equals a tad over 250 gallons of propane at $2.00 a gallon  or $500 I'd have to shell out about 30 percent more in income taxes state and local .So far they haven't figured out how to tax my own labor but I suppose they are working on it .
When I wore a younger mans clothing I could do a cord and a half or two a day but as they say the old gray mare just ain't what she used to be .

[Big_eddy]

Decided this weekend it was time to cut down some poplars and a dead elm that have been leaning heavily over the little "clearing" I usually park my trailers in. Being the only open spot in the canopy, the poplars were overweighted on the open side, which of course starts them leaning. I was at risk of one of them breaking or up-rooting in a wind storm or a heavy rain and squishing all 3 of my trailers.

It was a bit of a tricky spot to work. There is a very nice large elm tree on the corner of the clearing that I did not want to harm. All 4 trees were leaning heavily directly towards it. I planned to send 2 trees left of it, and the other 2 trees right. The right hand slot was pretty narrow with some white pine on the other side. If anything, I was okay to knock some branches off the pines - just stay away from the elm.

Being all 3 poplars were heavy leaners, I considered a plunge cut with trigger, but decided in the end to just notch and backcut the first one. It was the smallest going into the largest slot, so easy enough. It didn't take much of a back cut before it started to move, then I just let it go. The lean meant there was a nice large hinge directing it to where I wanted it. There was no sign of any tendency to barberchair from the fresh green poplar.  The next two looked to be more difficult, as I had to pull them quite a bit away from their lean, but the lean got them moving while there was still 4-5" of hinge wood, and both came down exactly where planned. The elm was untouched, and only a few limbs came off one of the pines.

The majority of the day was spent feeding limbs into the chipper.

Once all the poplars were taken care of and blocked up, I dropped and blocked the dead elm.

 

 

 

 

 

Poplar isn't the best firewood, and we wouldn't sell it, but we will burn it ourselves. Neither the maple evaporator nor the pool heater are fussy.



 

[SwampDonkey]

I have a pair of those phoebes under porch. They like a leave deposits on my porch and step railings. Bad bad phoebes. My grandmother would say, "have'n a s****'n good time". I need a fly whacker. ;D 

[fluidpowerpro]

They look similar to a barn swallow.

[cutterboy]

Big eddy, like you I don 't sell poplar (aspen) but I will burn it. There is usually some poplar in my stacks of firewood.
The picture of the stump surprised me. The back cut didn't go in very far. I'm amazed it was enough to send the tree over. Thanks for the pictures.

[Al_Smith]

It all burns even cottonwood and linden .Just takes more of it .
Simple ,just load it full of oak,shagbark,beech at night .Then come morning toss in the lighter wood and let it roar .About every hour toss in some more .Nice and toasty all day and night .

[Big_eddy]

Cutterboy.
I deliberately mix a poplar or two into each row in the woodshed. Makes for good kindling. Each time the woodbox is filled, there are couple of poplar sticks go in it. I set those by the kindling block beside the wood furnace, and resplit them while I'm waiting for the first fire of the morning to catch. That way there's usually a nice pile of kindling ready to go.

Al - you're right. It all burns. I liken feeding our pool heater to feeding our 4 boys when they were all teenagers. It really doesn't matter what it is, but there better be a lot of it!

[SwampDonkey]

I burn aspen all the time, and there is usually coals in the furnace in the morning if I put wood in in the evening. Unless it is overcast and well below 0F, I'd never be able to burn it all day, it's would be over 100F in here. A sunny day, you can forget about burning aspen all day here, way too hot.

[Al_Smith]

Not my day .Pulled one of the splitters into the woods behind the Toro and got stuck in the mud .I got the tractor and ran out of gas pulling it out .Before I was done I had a mower, splitter ,tractor and a golf cart in the woods .Needless to say I got a lot of waliking in .I can only operate one at a time .  

[cutterboy]

 I liken feeding our pool heater to feeding our 4 boys when they were all teenagers. It really doesn't matter what it is, but there better be a lot of it!

:D :D :D
I know what you mean. I only have two boys but even so it was near impossible to keep the fridge stocked.

[RetiredTech]

  I don't know what the Good Lord is trying to tell us, but all the wood racks are full at all three houses and the latest storm left us this gift. I wish I had thought to take a picture before we started cutting. At this point we've had two saws running about 45 minutes and I've moved a bunch of small limbs to the burn pile. I hate to see these old pecans go. They were large trees when my Mother moved here as a child. We're cutting the all but the biggest fork for firewood. That's my uncle helping cut the limbs and his house in he background. Yep, he's a lefty.
  I'm going to try to save most of the largest section for saw logs. I really need to find time to finish my mill.