Had help offloading, was above freezing so the wife helped. 38°, light wind, cloudy Estimating over 4 cord :
Possible to go get more before things get too bad up there? You use more than that in a year, don't you?
Yea , I try for at least 8+ cord to net 7 This wood's better than from the previous area, might be less loss due to uglies & rotten centers. If the weather forecast is right for Willow tonight, ( 1 -2 " of the white stuff) If it snows enough to ice up the road in, I'm done for this year. I can't safely pull a 7,000 lb trailer up & down the steep stuff on the one lane dirt road . I'm watching the Willow airport web cams & temps to decide if I go for another load tomorrow. Back up plan is I can get some early Spring when the road thaws & before the bugs come out. Nice to be on 3 year plan
I love that birch. Only get to see it and burn it when we visit the in-laws in Upstate NY. Nice work! Now get ta splittin'!!
Nice haul bogydave ! Do you leave some of the rounds unsplit to season? I have lots of smaller white birch on my property that I am clearing for trails and don't think the X27 will work too well to split them. Wondering how they will dry if I just cut them to 16". I had kind of written them off after hearing they need to be split so they don't rot. Thanks
Thanks yea I'll be setting up to split-n-stack if the cutting is done for this year. Was hoping for 1 or 2 more loads. Curious how this stuff splits, I might be pleasantly surprised with no rotten centers to work thru.
I split everything , even the small stuff Nick/crack/bust the bark on several location, that'll help it dry. Good air circ, off the ground & top cover,
Hammy I'm you must split birch or it will rot from inside.. birch bark is waterproof.. why Indians made canoes out of it.. if too hard-small to split by hand I have been known to run them length wise in half ish thru table say ...
Awesome. Thanks bogydave and Canadian border VT ! I figured as much but it never hurts to ask. Will get a splitter eventually but for now it's a not a huge concern. I like splitting by hand and have lots of other equipment needed on the old farm further up the priority list. I just have a pile of 3-4" logs that will most likely rot. Might haul a few up to the shop and put them through the table saw and see how that goes. I did manage to split the bigger stuff so that's safe. Thanks for the advice.
I agree. Thats definitely a good haul! Makes me want to go out and find some birch. Green birch is so heavy! Im used to harvesting standing dead trees that are close or less than 20% mc so whenever ive had the rare chance to have some green birch Its a bit of a shock at how heavy it is. That being said birch is hard to find standing dead (at least for me) since its often rotten by the time it gets to that stage.
Yes it's great ain't it... just means you don't have to sweat it as much in situations such as this... great pics!
just looked at the Willow forecast, pretty iffy.....maybe if you get an early start.....I will check back, good luck and be safe for sure
Nice firewood piles! My experience with white birch is that if it looks dead, it's too late. It's already starting to rot. If it's on the ground, might as well leave it for the bugs. It splits easily by hand, although it can get stringy at times. Get it bucked, split and off the ground ASAP, and you need to split it right down to about 2-1/2" diameter. Smaller stuff will dry without splitting, as long as it's covered and off the ground. Branch wood is great for starting the fire. I'd like to have more birch in my stacks, but I can never seem to get to them before they're rotten. I have no yellow birch in my woods and the black birches never seem to die.
Great pics Dave, and it's nice to,see the new firewood area is paying off very nicely! Hope you,can get more before reality sets in on you....