Springtime Firewood Festival
I answered a crai**li**t ad for free firewood. And the guy wasn't kidding.
Pristine white oak not a cubic centimeter of rot.
Surprising how much wood the little Jap truck holds.
Daisy also likes oak. I am going back tomorrow for another truck load.
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An astute remark. It gave my saw an ass whipping. Really messed up the chain I am buying a new one tomorrow.
I did have the Husqvarna for back up but it didn't see any action. I think I will start with the Husqvarna tomorrow.
One problem is there is some dirt on the bark. I am taking the weedeater down tomorrow to remove the dirt prior to cutting.0 -
Doing my spring log pile rearranging can across a nest of brown snakes! 0 -
Really a shame to use logs like that for firewood, but there is little market for them now around here anyway. It makes some of the best firewood you could hope for. I have 120 acres of hardwood tree farm and switched all my saws to Husqvarna. Firewood like that goes for about 80 bucks a face cord around here.(Wisc) 0 -
Score! 0 -
I have a landscaper friend of the family - he lived across the street from us for 24 years and while his main focus has several teams doing meal and potato local residence work and one team whose primary focus is HOA's and Condo Associations...
He also has a team that specializes in cleaning out and sanitizing properties (many badly neglected) that have been bought by a developer who plans on clearing the property prior to it being leveled and graded and boundary mark flagged prior to a survey crew or builder prep team coming in as a prelude to dropping a trailer office for developers and builders planning on new construction...
The latest site he is working on at one time had a nursery or commercial oriented orchard on it or the adjoining property as it had fully mature and badly neglected apple (Malus Pumila) (Dabinetts used for cider and beer and apple Jack) and cherry trees in orderly rows now untended and neglected for 5+ years...
So I got a pick up bed load of essentially straight sections of primary large lateral branches varying in length from one foot to 5 foot / and approx 4" to 7" in diameter- solid nearly straight pieces with no rot or insect damage or fungal growths - in fact the cross sections look damn clean and uniform...
I figure that even sitting in a chair at a low work bench I can use hand tools / use the tools at hand to take what I have and generate maybe 75% of it into approx 2 1/2 foot to 3 foot long sections - again not perfectly uniform or akin to some bespoke boutique neatly packaged and Amazon delivered from a high end lifestyle catalog...
But clean problem free mostly / nearly / fairly identical length and diameter fireplace fodder once I trim down or spruce up - cut to fit - labor over the lot I will end up with a decent stack of nice useable fuel...
Also I will end up with - after a little work - some bark free fragrant heirloom varietal applewood smoker chunks - or bags of bark and chips for the grill or green egg or smoker...
Oh and another neighbor - member of the gun club and a fellow certified range safety officer - he's a pathologist for county law enforcement and the court system...
He let me scrounge and collect the remnants and reminders and scraps of:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/728951933/whisky-oak-firewood
Mike
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Hey old friend, remember: Keep your knees out from under the trees! And watch out for copperheads. 0 -
I had to go back today. I brought my brother along to split the big white oak drums. That was a lot of work.
I did get a new chain for the Stihl today and thank God. The new chain was real sharp of course, also cut quite straight. Very important as some of the drums were 26 inch diameter. After I have sharpened a chain 6 or 7 times it is sharp, but it is a little eccentric and cutting a big piece like that starts to go a little crooked.
Brother was also good for loading the trucks, while I handled the sawing. His little Husqvarna was not up for the job.
We got a lot of wood. It is surprising how much wood a little Nissan will hold.
"Some people say a man is made out of mud
A poor man's made of muscle and blood
Muscle and blood, and skin and bone
A mind that's weak, and a back that's strong
You load 16 tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter don't call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store..."
Thanks for the pointer Dale. Yes, boys, keep your legs from under the trees. My right knee is made of metal, due to a boo-boo with a 95 foot pine tree.0 -
I have 45 acres of red oak on our tree farm, burns great but splitting is tough when green because it is stringy and pieces do not come apart easy. I cut them down and winch them out to a landing and let them sit for awhile to dry and then they are easier to split. Around here green is about $160 and dry is $250 a cord.JimmyJack said:Really a shame to use logs like that for firewood, but there is little market for them now around here anyway. It makes some of the best firewood you could hope for. I have 120 acres of hardwood tree farm and switched all my saws to Husqvarna. Firewood like that goes for about 80 bucks a face cord around here.(Wisc)
This year did not burn much as it was such a warm winter. Running my wood furnace is best when the temps. stay in the 20's otherwise we get cooked out.
I could not do what you did and split by hand. It is getting bad enough now when I do the splitting on the splitter. After I am done I have to sit in the hot tube for an hour in the evening or I cannot get of bed in the morning.0 -
Usually wood is easier to split when green. I will have to remember your remarks. However the big drums were too heavy to lift into the truck unsplit, each one was pushing 200 pounds so we had little choice.
Now, this wood was free. But it was a 23 mile drive. At 55 cents a mile, lets call it 25 bucks in car costs for each of us. One hour of driving time. We were there 2 hours, and we worked our ass off as you correctly inferred.
Back home, I got another hour tomorrow of final splitting. So, I get one truckload, pay 25 bucks, and four hours of hard work.
For wood that is free.
Good God I wish there was someone around here who would deliver a cord of green oak, cut and split, for $160. By myself, it would take me 5 trips to get a cord. That would be $125 in driving cost, plus the new chain at $25, plus 20 hours of hard work.0 -
Allen, look into “noodling” on the big rounds. Also, I recommend a Fiskars X27 for splitting. 0 -
I have a Fiskars, great maul. Brother has a Fiskars knock off he got at Lowes. Also a very good maul and as we showed today, in practice indistinguishable from the Fiskars. 0 -
To heck with a maul. MY TW-5 eats big oak like butter, knots and all. 0 -
I was selling red or white oak split for 100 a cord in 1988 0 -
There are about 3 facecords in a full cord. A facecord is 4 foot by 8 foot by 18 inches. 0 -
You sure . A face cord should be 2 feet deep, 8 feet long, and 4 feet high, a full cord is 4 feet deep by 4 feet high, and 8 feet long. 0 -
There is no exact length of the pieces in a face cord. They vary from 12 to 20 inches depending on the person selling the wood. 16 or 18 inches is the most common. The 4 by 8 dimension is standard. A cord always contains 128 cubic feet. When you sell logs the length is usually 100 inches instead of exactly eight feet. 0 -
We spent 8 hours just splitting and stacking Sunday. Using a 5 horse splitter, got about 1.8 whole cords done I think. Which what we didn’t burn this past winter I’m about half ready.
Lifting into those pieces into a new (seemingly) higher truck boxes has to be a workout Alan!
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It is a workout. I spent over an hour splitting the wood yesterday. I did 2/3 of a truck load.
This oak is a little harder to split than most oak. I will be back at it today.
Sure looks pretty in the wood pile.0
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