I rounded up some wood a few weeks ago from a friend at his lumber mill / firewood business . He had some locust and ash dropped off at his place that he'd rather not mess with so I get the joy of wrestling with the big stuff nobody else wants . The ash wasn't too bad, but the locust will be a different story - every log is big and there is a lot of em. The 461 will be getting a workout. I got all of the smaller ash cut and split today. 75% of it was at 25% MC so it went right into the wood shed. I'm getting ready to hit the big logs tomorrow. I topped off the shed and the rest was stacked behind the shed. Sitting on about 35 cords CSS and I still have all that locust to go yet. After half a day in 85 degrees and 90% humidity, I have to say I am whooped. There was a time I wouldn't have sweated doing what I did....today I was drenched, pants, boots and all. The better half made me change in the garage before coming in the house.... It's all worth it though...I think. Feeling good about the stash though.
I too have a hard time dealing with the heat. It just knocks the heck outta me. I'm waiting to do more cutting once the cool temps come. Although I did get two truckloads of Oak last week because it was offered to me. I drank tons of water doing it and didn't even hafta pee. I just sweated it out.
I have struggled all summer cutting wood as it has been so hot as well. I typically go out at first light and stop around noon. A few times I have resumed from 5 PM to dark just to ensure a load was done, but only a few times. I can't deal with the heat anyway and logging is a cold weather event traditionally here in Maine anyway. It does not help the wood market either, not just because people don't buy firewood until there is a bit of a nip in the air, but also for the paper mills that I help supply. In cooler weather any excess wood they get they just buy and chip themselves, but in the summer when its hot and the humidity is high, those chips spoil so they do not buy as much wood...that is they buy just enough to make paper. Then there are people on vacation, and bearings and machinery gets hot; in short' cool weather makes for better paper-making. In the next few weeks the quotas we have in place now, will increase, or be lifted entirely, and the wood will flow from stump to pencil again.
Looking great man! The humidity is what kills me. I can deal with the high temps but when you throw in 90% or better humidity it gets nasty in a hurry. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
Yet another reason to be on the 3 year plan (or 4, 5, etc.). Now that I'm ahead I can cut at my leisure and sit in front of the fan when it's hot.
It seems like just the last couple of years that I'm having a harder and harder time dealing with heat. I've had heat stroke more than a couple times in my life years ago, but not in the last 10 years. I think we now own stock in Gatorade and bottled water - no doubt in my mind that I drank a couple gallons that afternoon. I never have liked summer anyway and prefer day time highs in the 50's - 60's as my perfect weather. Come on fall!!
I find myself looking at the weather report religiously, waiting for the temperatures to drop so that I can get back out in the woods and start 'firewooding' again. It is no fun slinging a chainsaw around in summer heat. Fall is my favorite time of the year, I can get a solid three months of woods work in before the cold and snow really hit us here, and it's time to hibernate until spring.
Yeah, tell that to us old guys! We've all got " sometimers ", sometimes we remember, and sometimes we forget "
I've been counting down the days until October. Still hot here but we are getting to the point in Virginia where evenings and mornings are cooling off which is nice. Today when I woke up it was 62 and felt great. It didn't stay that way long but it still felt great!
