Here's the rest of my wood to go with the cord of sugar maple, shagbark and beech that I have at my house. I'll probably cut, haul, s&s a half cord of so out sugar maple in fall for this winters burn. When I split the other half cord of sugar maple from that tree, it was 12.5% moisture content so it's dry. I split and half@ss stacked for about 4 hours or so. Here is my pile in progress. To the left of the splitter is all dead standing elm I took down in winter. Moisture content is is the mid teens on the elm which was probably about 2' dbh. The hickory is nearly all from one big tree I fell that was live when I took it down in early winter. That big hickory was at 21.7% mc today. I'm sure it will be well under 20% by January when I'll be burning my premium wood. My shoulder wood is box elder and pine, that was all split a good month ago. And here it all is. The furthest left 2 stacks are all premium wood, hickory, sugar maple, and beech. The middle row is my regular grade shoulder wood, it it has a few random splits of beech maple and hickory only on top for stacking purposes only. The right 2 stacks are my mid grade wood, mostly elm but some ash and cherry. Now I just have to get it from my buddy's house to mine. That should be about 4 trailer loads. I'm in no hurry to get it here, as I hate processing wood in the heat. Paul bunion and I'm sure many other northerners agree.
Nice work Horkn. I agree, it is hard to process wood this time of year. I do most of my cutting in the winter and spring. Fall is for hunting and football. Summer is just too hot to be cutting wood.
Nice work.... Yep it stinks but that's pretty much what I'm doing this week on vacation, or until I get tired. But it has to be done, so the faster you get it done the more play time you get..
L Looks good, I have about three years of wood now. I hate cutting wood in the heat too, I worry a lot about snakes out here so I get it done in the late fall, winter, and early spring.--I'm 60 and I still love cutting an splitting wood.--Great therapy!
well horkn, I consider my self northern, I blocked some yesterday, but yeah the high during daylight was 60! it's cold and wet all June! Almost lit a fire then it warmed up from high 50 to 65 at midnight so no..
I'm set for this year and working on 16-17. Definitely slowed way down once the temperature got in the high 90s.
I too wait for colder air before cutting wood. Normally the temperature for us when cutting is from 10 to 40. Best is 20's and 30's.
Horkn Good work sir-I concur with those here-You know I've been going hard at it but the heat and humidity has won for now-I have 6 cords CSS so I'm good at this point til fall as I am well into 16-17 wood hoarding now-Looking like my 3 yr plan will take 2 yrs to fully implement-not too bad I guess I have more than enough wood off the stump to accomplish it now but it will have to wait for the cool of fall...
Neighbor's stairs, 90+F and intermittent rain- didn't stop progress! I seriously considered hanging a ceiling fan in that thing! Never mind the team on the tent roof And his wife decided our table was a good place to stage some flowers for potting, to boot![/user]
I didn't do an in depth , no tape measure guesstimate, but the stack is a good 5'5" tall. I'd be shocked if there's not 2 full cords in that stack. I burned like 2.5 cords last winter in my open fireplace, and I will get a more efficient burner this fall. So, I'm thinking I'll probably have at bare minimum a half cord of this year's wood for 2016/17. In reality I'll probably have at least a cord leftover, but I'll plan on the worst and be happy to be further ahead in spring. This fall and winter I'll be able to really get ahead.
Glad you said nevermind on the tent-that thing looks awful...the "Chokies" of Blacksburg...Legends in their own minds...
Horkn I think we're in near the same boat-I have the Fireview and burn from the first fire of fall til the last of spring and I heat 2000 sq ft on @ 3.5 cords-my highest gas bill as my back-up heat has been 40.-We'll be fine, wood is a wonderful thing,,,and that's what she said...
Oh I'm right there with ya Ashwatcher! Can't stand them and most of their fans(some of which are in laws)
Eric VW Nice looking stringers there pal-you do the deck too? I built my house, have lots of native cherry trim-wainscoting, bar wrapped, door frames...all came from cherry on my farm rough cut to 6" and dried in a friends barn for 4 yrs...planed and hand fit by an Amish craftsman-I admire your craft...
Thanks, Ash... But the picture is taken from a distance because my neighbor butchered those stringers instead of patiently waiting for me to finish my regular work day, and letting me cut them. In the end, the finished product is ok, and that is not my personal feeling- but it was rough try to correct his efforts; I had to tread very carefully- pun intended!
We are looking at an insert because it will fit the existing large FP. VC Merrimack, quadrafire voyager grand ( pricey though), Pacific energies Clydesdale ( pricey again), PE alderlea T5, hmmm. That may be it, but if the plans don't come together as I want, I'll pick up a drolet insert so I can use the wood more effectively. I'm sick of paying the local energy company a huge bill each month. So one way or another an efficient wood burner is going in.
Build a batch box rocket stove on yer hearth utilizing the fireplace as a "bell"..... This link isn't to a "batch box" but you could search it up... "jrl" has a neat design on this site- http://donkey32.proboards.com/thread/739/mini-rocket-mass-heater Man, check it out... At least build one outside!
