The 22 rounds of red and black oak from Thursday and Friday this week made some top shelf splits, filling out a full Colorado load. This’ll all go to my uncle for next year’s stash.
Yessir, they smelled pretty too Aunt and uncle were grateful for the firewood. I do at least a day or two of cutting at their place every spring, and usually bring them a couple loads of dry ready to burn in the fall.
All those loads must be adding up? How many cords so you have do you think? Nice straight wood for scrounging, I'm jealous!
They do add up, slowly but surely. I think I’m somewhere around 12-13 cords now, maybe? Hard to tell. I brought home a bit recently but then sent out 3-4 loads as well. Plus I’ve been burning every day, slowly chewing through inventory. I burn on average a little over 3 cords per year, typically.
Never assume, fellas. I went to cut some dead red oak that turned out to have 3-4” of outer punk. Not for this guy. I headed up the road further until I got to a small swamp where there was a dead ash laying there for the past couple years. I was casually eyeing it last summer, but wrote it off as junk. I stopped today and bucked one round. Solid! Still had that signature ash smell too. I cut a few rounds before running out of time. There’s still a few rounds left to cut that I’ll get tomorrow. Here’s some more dead red oak that I got yesterday. Cut a few rounds then rocked my chain when the log rolled on me The joys of scrounging on hillsides.
Nice find on the ash. Seems it has an extended shelf like IME when the bark is gone. Id love to find more like that.
My splitter is loaned out for the time being so out came the monster maul this morning. Other than a couple crotchety pieces, they all blew right apart. The red oak split like a dream, as red oak should. That ash turned out to be superb, with crazy tight growth rings to boot. That’ll make good farwood next year. Also there’s a few splits of black birch thrown in from a round I rescued off the side of the road.
I would love to be splitting that ash I got on Sunday but my splitting spot is around 100' from my neighbor's deer blind and I don't think the two activities are compatible. I told him I would not be working on wood until he's done.
Not necessarily steaks, but he gifted us with 3 packages of venison sausage from last year's harvest. Working with one's neighbors definitely beats not working with 'em. His land is supplying a good share of my wood stash
Got the last of the solid and mostly-solid ash from this one tree. Unfortunately lots of wood left behind from the lower trunk and the top that was getting too mealy for my liking. Most of the bark was coming off in sheets so I left it behind to feed ze bugz.
With more homes being built in the country, it is getting harder to find a place to hunt. My neighbor hunts and he has permission to hunt on my land. I charge him a deer heart if he gets one.
Youre a good man for rescuing a round wandering aimlessly on the side of the road. Almost did the same today as i spied a lone split in the gutter. Busy bridge so i couldnt. Gotta go that way tomorrow and ill see if its still there.
I spied this dead ash and chestnut oak down this steep bank last week. Being a logistical nightmare, I wasn’t too geeked out about retrieving any of it. The mania was upon me this morning though, so cut I must 5 rounds of 75% solid ash, and 4 of exquisite chestnut oak with bark and sapwood solid. Chestnut oak is relatively rare for me to score, so I’ll take it any way I can get it, even if I have to scale a stone wall and repel down a steep bank More chestnut oak to come from here in the near future. Too bad this spot close to the road is a dumping ground; it’s pristine forest otherwise.
and i thought i went through some logistical nightmares for BL! Hats off to you for your effort as you are officially a crazy hoarder! Doesnt get much better does it???
