I was enjoying a nice cold beer after getting my butt kicked splitting a couple large ash crotches. I was thinking: I'm not sure if they'll heat my house any better than stuff that's easier to split, but boy did they sure heat me. My dad always said that "wood warms you twice." It too bad I don't have a way to capture that extra heat and store it for the winter; I'd be halfway there already. First stack behind the garage is almost done. First cord for the third year of the plan. This one's taking a while thanks to the hornets that I stupidly built my stack on top of. Thought I killed them all but they came back with a vengeance. Now they're nice and protected under there.
I don't know how you managed to keep your stacks horizontal like that but i'd love to know the secret!
Your dad probably learned that phrase from a man who roams the woods of Michigan with a chainsaw and calls himself @Backwoods Savage....
It's my 'gravity defying' stacking technique. You just pull the wheelbarrow up underneath and dump it in. Here's another pic:
My college was on the gulf side of Florida and had its own marina where I did work study in the maintenance dept. The boats regularly got infested with wasps, and they'd been using the same insecticide for so long that the bugs had become resistant. Our fall-back technique was hair spray shot through a cigarette lighter flame, to blow-torch their wings off so we could stomp 'em. Probably not the best solution for you, though.
Last week I dropped a tree either on a nest or the nest was in the tree. Start limbing and I'm thinking damm the skeeters are bad right here. Yeah.... it was a hoard of pizzed off wasps. I didn't get stuck somehow. Good thing too, I'm somewhat allergic to them.
I have hornets under the walk at work. I think they are...or they're just ground bees, but either way.....bee careful...
I used to do the hairspray lighter trick as a kid. The lighter has to be real close to the nozzle, but I never kept the flame going too long. The nozzle is high enough speed / pressure that the flame doesn't come back to the nozzle. Not that I would recommend this to anyone now.
"I believe the crotches along with branches do burn alittle longer." ... with the right sized branches, those crotches can burn hotter than h*ll.
We never tire of looking at a nice stack of firewood Knowing the work put into it to get it there ........... Good job !
Really nice looking stacks you have there! Looks like they will dry real well for you the way you have it set up.
Everyone else's stacks always look better than mine, yours included. I think it is because my wood is uglier to start out with. A bunch of gnarly old "yaller trash wood" (hedge) that "cuts" more than it splits. I stacked a little over a cord this weekend and it is not worth posting pictures of.
Don't feel bad. In a few months you can set up a video camera and show us the huge coals and sparks when you open the stove door in the morning.
