The Daily Firewood Picture Thread

[SwampDonkey]

The big old spruce that came down. 18 feet long but log, but there's another 2 feet to stump height. She's up rooted. She's an old brute for sure.





It's in the brush and brush on top. :D



Cut some spruce up for firewood, but I took all of the 16" fir and 10" birch. A Tacoma pickup full in all.  A lot more wood than that, but I was done struggling with twisty spruce. :D



That'll make a solid 8 cords, for sure, to stack in the spring.

We don't have as much as a snow flake around here, but that ground is hard like cement, frozen at 13F this morning. :D :D

[Woodcutter_Mo]

 I went out and cut for a while this evening. I parked the 4-wheeler a little too close to the tree I was cutting up  :D

 

 

[Magicman]

So you had to settle for a Bark Christmas instead of a White Christmas.   :D

[SwampDonkey]

Darn near froze my hands taking them photos, it was windy off James Bay for 2 days. ;D

[g_man]

I cut some fire wood yesterday. Some diseased beech, a yellow birch, and a nice apple tree that came down in the heavy snow. We had some nice cold weather this week and where it's dry the ground is finally froze enough so the wood stays clean. A nice change from limbing branchy fir trees. Logs like this make me wish I had a mill. The top was mostly dead and breaking apart so I cut it.



 

gg

[SwampDonkey]

Ground was froze on the road this morning so I went after that big fir blow down that landed on the road. All sound wood, although I would have to say there was a small wedge like area that travelled up the trunk which appeared to be dried out and just turning a little light brown. Cambium wasn't dead there though and bark wasn't shrunk. Was still solid and no ants anywhere nor woody wood peckers. The but end where I cut that 6 foot long section below the break was solid through and through. I got a pickup load of wood. The tree was about 65 feet tall, 20" dbh. Nice easy splitting firewood. ;D

[Magicman]

OK, I could not stand it so:


 
I had to go out for about an hour and split a few rounds. 

I ain't sawin' but I also ain't sittin'.   ;D

[doc henderson]

looks good.  It takes some guys weeks or months to get 5 years' worth of wood cut and split.  It is fun to run a splitter for a while.  

[Magicman]

That stack of slab cutoffs shown in Reply #1324 above just might take a whacking tomorrow.  Everything that I am doing is for next year and beyond.   

[Magicman]

I realize that this is easy pickings for you guys with"grown up" splitters but:


 
Reducing this to:


 
This and


 
This was about a 3 hour job for me.  The only thing bad is that it is not neatly stacked in my drying shed. 

[SwampDonkey]

I have a wood splitter but never need it much. The species I burn most are easy splitting with the Collins maul. And a maul is much easier to move, no rope to pull, no gas needed and way more portable to where I need it. I usually split 8-9 cord every fall with it. All that needs doing is stacking in the spring when I've burned the other wood sit'n in the way. ;D

[doc henderson]

that stacking seems like a grand or great grandkid job.   

[Magicman]

 :

I have a wood splitter but never need it much.

have a wood splitter but never need it much.

I didn't use one much either 24 years ago.   Matter of fact, I didn't even own one 24 years ago.  The years and miles will catch up with you Donk.

[SwampDonkey]

Yes for sure, that will be the end of my firewood gathering, except a reserve for emergencies. Which will be a whole lot less than 8 or 9 cords and a whole lot more time gathering it as I will be on pension and not moving as fast. That is for certain. ;) A couple cords gathered and split spread out over several months instead of days is a certainty.

But my whole point was that I'm not dealing with difficult wood to split. I would actually spend more time farting around with a wood splitter than is required. If I gathered a lot of tough maple and yellow birch to split, you can bet that wood splitter would see more use. One can be stubborn and beat and pound oneself to death or work smarter. Mom's uncle was splitting wood until about 90 years old. Mom's brother gathered it and probably split most of it, but that old man was not buying any wood splitter. Didn't have to, mom's brother decided he was going to get one for himself. So then her uncle had no need for one. He was quite the character. He had all kinds of money, but he wasn't going to buy something to replace something that worked. ;)

[Klunker]

I parked the 4-wheeler a little too close to the tree I was cutting up  :D

 

I parked my yard cart too close once, results were worse.
Picture of the box of the cart for others amusement.

[Magicman]

Klunker, Oh No !!   



 
Da last load goin' to da woodshed.


 
Whacked, stacked, and done.   8)

[GRANITEstateMP]

Final couple cord for 2023


 
Got a pile of big wood quartered up with the skid steer splitter, all is 20-22in long


 
Got the ole splitter and conveyor moved into place


 
Time to get crackin'.  When you can just see pieces over the side boards of that 14ft trailer, front to back, it's a 2 cord load (we rake the pile to help make it even while loading).


 
All thats left of the original pile ;D

[PoginyHill]

Working on next year's firewood. I cut it into 24" pieces for my OWB from 16ft logs I gather with the Metavic loader. Wife teaching my grandson to use the splitter.



 

 

 


 

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Granite that conveyor is the bees knees.   If I ever find a used one local around here I'd grab it in a heartbeat.

[SwampDonkey]

At the right auction, like at an old potato farm, there's bound to be one or two around. At one time 3 or more welding shops around here made conveyors. There's one shop here that makes some with telescoping booms.

[GRANITEstateMP]

B.C.C. Lapp, I wish I had spent the money on one years ago!  This one was well worth the day off and the ride to VT and back this spring.  If it was a 24 vs a 20 that'd be ideal, but I saw this one lightly used and finally jumped!

Swamp Donkey,  This one does have a jack on it.  Low setting works fine for my dump trailers, but had to crank it up a bit to do a cord of boiler wood into the six wheeler

Poginy Hill, that is a sweet setup you have and you, JimBarry, and cutterboy must be in a battle to see who has the cleanest work areas!

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Aint that the truth those guys are totally organized and everything is stacked perfect and you never see old tarps or broke trailers or anything cluttering up their area. 

Meanwhile my log yard and splitting area looks like a badly built campfire.   8) :D

[PoginyHill]

Thanks. My set-up has been decades in the making. I recall cutting green (wet, not the species) ash from the back of my pick-up truck throwing it in the cellar to be burned 48 hrs later. Neatness is not my goal - only reducing handling as much as possible. And no picking up off the ground!

[SwampDonkey]

Swamp Donkey,  This one does have a jack on it.  Low setting works fine for my dump trailers, but had to crank it up a bit to do a cord of boiler wood into the six wheeler

Yep. A telescoping boom changes the length of the conveyor so when loading long trucks of potatoes over the side you don't have to move stuff. Same when storing spuds in sheds. Only thing that moves is the conveyor boom, left-right, in-out, up-down. They are also self propelled off hydraulics, chain drive.

[cutterboy]

Poginyhill, that's a nice setup you have. It's nice to get the kids involved. You're lucky at your age to have a grandson old enough to help out. I'm 75 and my oldest grandchild is 12.


Granitestate, thanks for the kind words.