Splitting into totes has made life SO MUCH easier for me and my crew (family). Of course there is the work of getting logs out of the woods. Once at home, cut, roll into loader bucket, roll on to the push-through splitter, stack in tote. Won't be touched again until loaded into the Hardy.
Other than times I need to move stacks of splits or logs/rounds due to rearranging something in the lot, I think I have it mostly down to handling firewood around 8 or 9 times. Not the most efficient, but it works for me (and I enjoy the work so it doesn't bother me). - Find scrounge (does this count?). 1 Cut tree into 4' logs or rounds. 2 Get logs/rounds out of the woods. 3 Load into trailer/truck. 4 Unload and stage for future processing. 5 If in log form, buck. 6 If in rounds, split. 7 Stack. 8 Move to woodshed after 2-3 years. 9 Move inside to burn (only a day's worth at a time).
Typical workflow for me: 1. Buck rounds - load into truck (first touch) 2. Unload rounds and stack in my driveway 3. Bring rounds one at a time and place into splitting tire 4. Split the round and then stack splits into garden cart 5. Stack splits into holz hausens 6. Load splits from holz hausens into garden cart after wood is ready to burn 7. Load splits into garbage can with wheels that fits through the front door 8. Unload and stack splits into indoor rack 9. Load splits into fireplace I do have 3 IBC totes as a staging area for emergency wood - i.e. if it snows a lot or rains I can take out step #6. That, however, entails doing step #6 at an earlier date and adds another touch to unload the garden cart. But it reduces the exposure to the elements and the distance traveled into the houise. A lot of people will add a step in between #3 and #4 and toss splits into a pile which adds an extra touch. I wish the garden cart fit through the front door but alas it does not. It holds 7+ cu ft which is nice. Each cart loaded is about 2 garbage cans worth.
Based off this, you have your firewood delivered in log form? Nice. I could drop 4-5 times handling the stuff if I wasn't scrounging.
That was part of the splitter. It makes a big difference when splitting solo. I would not want a splitter without one. My old Speeco did not come with one, but I added one later. It was not as big as this one is on my 40ton CL though.
I split solo and the existing one on the splitter i use (my friends) is too small. Like to have a bigger, longer one slightly concave too.
IIRC you use a dirty hands splitter, as do I. My table was to small to be of much value so after a couple years I fixed it. Works pretty well, definitely an improvement.
Last pile was wood fairy dropped off. I cut up and loaded most in the pickup. Split from pickup to tote. Loaded the rest in the pickup and repeat. Current pile, wood fairy dropped off. I cut most of it last weekend. Lefty loaded most on trailer using his grapple. We will spilt that directly in to totes as well. The thought for today is take the splitter to what's left and split into totes and again, done as Lefty will use his forks to move and dry. We are getting more customers that have us load the totes in their truck and they bring it back when empty. Seems to be a win win for everyone.
I used to get it delivered bucked up in all different lengths....so that was a little annoying because I'd have to trim the long ones, process shorties I didn't like......so now I scrounge using the truck. Here's a pic of what I used to get delivered....for free........Back in spring of 2020. I'd end up making a pile of nasties that required the splitter....and back then I had the tiny 5-ton electric HarborFreight special.....which would do most of the nasties but some of them it couldn't handle. Now I've got the 34-ton Champion and I use it mainly for making kindling slices so I can then chop by hand........and also for nasties but I tend not to have that many nasties anymore. Sometimes my tree service buddy (who must have dropped off like 20 loads of 10 yards each) calls me and tells me to come to a location where there's some nice wood and then I'll gear up and bring back a truckload or 2. Now that I can buck logs that I want to 16" almost all of my splits are uniform which results in more efficient handling and stacking. I used to store shorties and uglies in the center of the holz hausens but now they are all the same so that makes less anxious hahahaha.
you're right. Two more times then for me. From ashpan to galvanized can sitting outside and then emptying the can in the woods when full.
BEST CASE 1. Loaded into the dump (w/tractor or skid steer) 2. Buck up logs on ground 3. Move to pile or stack rounds 4. Split into IBC 5. Move IBC with tractor 6. Set IBC on back deck to burn as needed 7. IBC on deck to stove Unless I’m loading scrounged wood into a pickup, I only put my hands on the wood four times. Everything else is done with hydraulics. No matter how efficient I try to make the process, it’s probably still not worth it. But that’s not why I do it.
