Yeah I’ve been making them smaller anyway. Sort of a pain. The whole idea was not to waste time smashing the gnarly stuff up. But yeah, I’m getting the idea campers in ct are so used to sticks they wouldn’t know what to do with chunklys. Betting many want and are willing to pay for designer kindling.
They will burn. We use that to pack stove N/S. Gives good overnight burn Chunks, nuggets and 11-12" pieces get put in 55 gal drums.
I Don't scrounge. I cut on my property. Drop the tree, limb, square up the stump end and cut 16's headed to the top. Most of the uglies and shorts end up in the bonfire pile. Unless its Hedge. I keep all that, since it's wood stove gold.
I normally cut mine at 17". If I reach the end, I'd rather deal with one short round than a bunch shorter than normal. I will however halve one if its say 28 inches. 2 14's is better than a 17 & 11. If you have a bunch of shorts, which happens quite often with hoarding, I will put a row or two of normal length splits in the stove east-west, then I'll fill the stove the rest of the way north-south with the short pieces.
FWIW I bought a 25’ tape for just woodin. We all know 16” is marked already in red. I marked 17” increments in green and 18” increments in black. Black is what I had. Of course in normal fashion a few days later I find a nice blue Sharpie Works well on logs. I can run out the tape and find the most economical cuts between 16&18” Branches,,,who cares?
i could survive. Just that id like to shower daily. The falls made a nice "natural" shower the day after we saw you. Two days of camping in the warmth and no running water i was rather grundgy! Had i known the falls were that easily accessible i wouldve gone both days to clean. this was the upper section easy to get to right from the road. Lower falls had a trail to them. Ive seen pics of them...much nicer. The water was low. We wanna check them out after a heavy rain. some really nice stone work. Being a trades person, you would appreciate it. I admired it myself. It was a stone veneer. Real sliced pieces of stone. Not that faux crap that looks fake. Take a ride Joe and check it out. Nice country through there for sure.
The falls are quite impressive during the monsoon . Was quite dry while you were there. Back atDublins for lunch nuk nuk
You guys even pack the barrels neatly too. Do you have any ventilation holes or do they cook pretty good in there? Leave the lids off on occasion?
I use a 6' carpenters folding rule. Has the same red stud markings. Slips nicely in the back pocket. Been using one on the roof for years!
They don't all pack that good......what we do is cut the bottom out, take bung plugs out and flip over, gives two vent holes, leave metal roof panels on and let it cook. Shoud be dry, we have had plenty of hot days this year, it hit 102° again yesterday... it's 100° now, forecast for 101°...high tomorrow is 83°... I'mma need a coat......
Fun to see this thread again. I'm going to have to post a pic of my full Ugly Box. Just loaded the top up with short splits that were waiting around in the back yard to be processed. Good to have a storage place for 6 to 8 inch hunks. Will burn them with seasoned pine splits for shoulder season AM fires. Should be able to keep me away from my main stacks until mid November (assuming no extreme weather). Pics forthcoming when I get home.
Full lengths and shorties for sure. If you cut them in half it will be a pain to stack them. And the middle lengths aren't going to fill the stove as well. Use the full lengths to fill the stove for when you are out or busy and the shorties for when you are sitting around the fire and its no problem to toss them in when needed. I've got about a cord of elm shorties that I'm hoping to finally burn through this year to free up the space. *my stove doesn't burn worth a damm stacked EW. If yours does the middle lengths could work well for you. I still wouldn't want to stack them though.
Im gonna have to try the tape measure method. I just eyeball length and cut. Sometimes Im long, sometimes Im short When I stack, I'll put them on the top and middle, making a higher ridge. Than when I cover it will allow water to run off. I also have a short basket.
I also cut to full length and keep “chunk” wood separate. When packing wood in my basement, those chunks get put near the stove and get burned first or during the day when long burns aren’t needed.
LOL. Ugh. When I saw this thread come back up I thought, I betcha someone's asking for Ugly Box pics. Forgot to post them. I'll have to do so. Thanks for the reminder buZZsaw!
I carry a 25' tape measure and green upside down paint. I cut as close to 16" as possible plus or minus an inch. Shorts, I split small and they go to the older neighbor Lady who lives alone and has a small insert. She just loves them! Uglies, extra shorts and the weird stringy masses that some times come off the splitter are saved for the fire pit. Every so often you have to burn some of the uglies and sip some Scotch!
