That's how I felt this morning. My father and I spent all day yesterday (8-4) retrieving firewood that, if it was any other species, would have been left in the dang woods. A couple years ago we lost a single branch off a 4'+ diameter white oak tree, the branch itself is 3' across at the base. That in turn took out a 30" diameter hickory tree, which was hollow, and the whole mess came down on a telephone line out through the woods, taking out several other smaller oak, hickory and elm trees as well. We left this whole mess in the woods until yesterday, when the both of us finally had a free day with decent weather to tackle it. The entire site was covered in head-high weeds, sprouted multiflora rose and brambles, euonymus (burning bush) and a tangled mess of branches. None of the oak yielded more than one straight piece before getting into a knot or fork. The hickory was a mass of splinters. All of the wood was sprouting fungus, the bark was sloughing off, and it was all wet and slimy. And for icing on the cake, it was down over a bank and all of the pieces had to be hand-carried to my tractor bucket and then brought up through the woods to be dumped into a trailer. It was a fight, from start to finish, we literally had to cut our way in and start with the smallest pieces, and clear the site as we went. Brush was piled, weeds cut back, and so on. As we filled the trailer, we brought it up to my wood shed, ran it through the spliiter, and stacked it. We wound up with five full loads in a small 4x6 dump trailer, and it worked out to about 2 cords of wood. Hardest 2 cords I ever had to work for. After all that, there's still at least two cords left, and it's all the big stuff. Ugh. At least it's for 2018-19 at this point, so the oak will have another two years to dry. Who said firewood hoarding was easy?
Scrounging firewood isn't easy but, loading up firewood out of someone's yard is a whole lot easier than your situation Slippery wood kinda sucks too. You will be proud though when you put that in the stove for heat
No, firewood hoarding is not easy but it can be fun even if occasionally it is frustrating. Another nice thing about being ahead is to not have to hurry which cuts down on the frustration part. It is also nice when in your type of situation to occasionally take a long break and sit down to enjoy the woods and fresh country air.
I've had a few nightmare scrounges. Like Backwoods said though, being ahead now I am more likely to turn down something like that. Sounds like you had no choice but to get at least some of that out for the telephone line though?
Your story reminds me........I live on hill sloping down into some well picked over woods adjacent to a rail road track...all down hill. When I am up for some real excercise in the winter I will take my log sled back in those woods and cut up a tree, usually nothing special. Then I pull the log sled up hill out of the woods load by load until I get it all, rope around waist, no mechanical aids. I am 55 years old so usually half dead when I get done. So this has become an annual ritual. I normally cut wood on a farm where I can drive up to the trees. But now and then, I enjoy the gut-busting work of dragging it up hill through the snow out of the woods one sled full at a time. The life of a wood hoarder; what can I saw. It's all about the experience of cutting, hauling, splitting, stacking, and burning. Variety makes it interesting. Hard can be fun too.
Been there before, buddy. The worst part of some of our cutting sessions was that we werent getting oak or even punky hickory... We used to fight for poplar or cottonwood lol. We always said we were also clearing areas for trails or a deer stand... Something to think about and distract us.
That is why a lot of people buy their firewood. It is a lot of work. Also I know people who went to pellet stoves because they got tired of the work of getting wood.
Fun spread Toughest scrounge ever, cleared a steep bank, through all the pieces down the slope, then again over a creek, challenge was fun and made a few bucks at the same time
I very rarely have an easy scrounge. Almost all of the wood has to go up hill to the trailer, or over a ditch. Of course my one scrounge where the trailer was downhill was a steep hill over a story tall, so steep I had to slide down while trying to control each round. My van and trailer were parked on the street at the bottom, on a very busy road, any loose rounds would have crashed into traffic. But it did get me a few trailer loads of black locust
I agree wholeheartedly with Bogy, no such thing as easy firewood *****except that beechnut, which borders on cheating.
Speaking of chewed up and spit out Not only was it work to cut skid and carry the wood to the truck but just finished some clean up work earlier. This old girl makes you feel chewed up and spit out when your done, chews up and spits out what ever you put in it and also could chew you up and spit you out if your not careful!
I have been thinking about building a sled. When I use to help dad, he had a sled for hauling wood but he pulled it behind the tractor through the woods. Part of the property here is a steep slope that is too steep for the tractor to travel on safely. I was thinking a sled to haul up and down the slope to the tractor. However, I am thinking of some type of winch system. Over the years I have seen trees go down on that slope and just sit there rotting away.
I just have cheap plastic one with a rope threaded through holes on the front on either side. Been durable and can haul as much as I can pull. They can be bough on-line or at some farm stores.
