This is seasoned River red gum, Eucalyptus camaldulensis. I went out and pulled a pice out of the shed for some sun and a photo shoot. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Not quite as nice or neat as leoht s pallets but this is a method that has worked really well for me. I did change away from some of these but it was only because I can fit more firewood in my shed with just stacking it. I love the idea for the top cover with the IBC totes.
Trees can be worth -$10,000 to $1000's if they are big enough and good enough quality; tall, strait, no limbs, knots, rot, no nails, etc. What I'm cutting is the tops from what has already been logged. We had a terrible ice storm (3/4" solid ice) 10 years ago this week where 100,000's of thousands were without power for up to 4 weeks. Some estimates were 90% of the electric grid was down in some counties. All of these trees were damaged in that storm and there crowns have started deteriorating. So he is logging them before they get to bad. Our weather forcast is calling for another ice storm starting in about 24-36 hours we will see how it turns out!
I like your rack much better than what I've been making. I've been providing lateral stability so when I'm driving it does not move but I need more front to back stability like what you have. Additionally the home made forks I have are not rigid enough I'll have to upgrade them sometime. If you were really close to being able to set the pallet on the porch, could make a ramp out of either 4x4 posts or channel iron so you could back up onto it and drop the pallet on the porch?
I hate ice storms; many years back we got a wet snow here that stuck to the trees; then it was followed by an ice storm; trees down everywhere, and power out in areas for days on ends. I was lucky, power was only out for two days. Back then I only had electric heat, nothing else. It got rather cold in the house during those days; had no real way to cook, or bathe.
Kimberly And if there's a market... It's kind of one of those urban legends. It's a beautiful wood, but it's not gold.
A urban legend we hear up here in NH, people say, " it's illegal to cut White Birch, isn't it". Not NH folks saying it, people from away.
Yes Kimberly, people make some beautiful furniture with it. Have a look at this blokes website, Past Projects It's very hard and long lasting, in the past all Australian railway sleepers (I think you call them railway ties or cross ties) were made out of river red gum as well as fence posts. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm getting ready to stack "overflow" wood that won't fit in the woodshed, on pallets in the spring. Makes them easy to move with the tractor and forks. I've had pallets sitting on the ground for 2-3 years they seem to hold up fine, after that they usually are getting pretty rotten. On the other hand I have pallets as the floor of my woodshed, sitting on a bed of wood chips, and some of them have been there for 6-8 years and still solid. I'm thinking of making my own pallets out of black locust and cattle panels. They should last a couple decades I'd imagine.
That is nice; I could build some of those, store the firewood away from the house in the best location and then just move it to the house when needed. I would just leave it on the pallet as I used it and then move the empty pallet back out of the way. Are you using a counterweight on your tractor? What is the average mass of a pallet load? I know the lift limit of my old 8N.
Temps in the 50's today. That allowed snow that fell a few days ago to melt and get out of my way. Spent time today "adjusting" existing racks, while they are empty. Changed the orientation of them a bit. That gave me space to add 6 more, 8ft racks. I now have space to stack wood that I've been stockpiling. I still need to do a bit of leveling, and I'll be good to go. 50's in January in New England is nuts. So, I took advantage of it. When life deals you lemons......
it used to be in (might still be) Massachusetts in college would bring trunk loads down before thanksgiving as people wanted the asthetic of white birch in fireplace.. easily sold it for 2 dollars a stick.. ANR would stop and I had to prove it came from Vermont with note from landowner.. Uncles or Dad... they would always laugh about them flatlanders paying that much for bad firewood
So I started doing that this year. I use 48" x 48" pallets bit 48" rough sawn 2x4's for uprights. When they are lagged to the side of the pallet I actually get more like 40 or so inches high. I figure I have about 56 cubic feet per pallet which is enough! The forks on the rear handle it fine, but it can tax the loader at times. I stack them on "sacrificial pallets" to keep them off the ground and stack them 2 high. Much smaller foot print and I can bring the racks right up to the OWB one at a time (approx. one per week). Next year I hope to build a better base and use some large planks to better distribute the load between the top and bottom racks. I made some jigs to get the upright spacing consistent. I use A Head Lok type lag to fasten the uprights; two per. Expensive but there is no pre-drilling like using lags. The cross part is another 4' rough cut 2x4 attached with normal deck screws, 4 per upright. I have since, but not taken a picture of, made a top jig as well. It spaces the uprights properly and I then drill a single hole through each upright/cross tie joint. Then I run a small braided aircraft cable (work threw out a huge spool!) from cross tie to cross tie and fasten with small cable clamps to keep the uprights from spreading open. So far it works great. The jigs allow me to assemble one rack every 1/2 hour assuming all the parts are pre-cut. Oh, and I use a chunk of slab wood on each side as a diagonal brace.
In the last load of wood I purchased, I noticed some white birch. I got it from someone that was clearing house lots. I put aside several pieces of it. My thinking is to stack it in the wood stove during the non-heating season, so it shows through the glass door. I figured, it'll be more interesting than just the black hole. But, if I can get $2 a stick, then maybe I should parse through my stacks and put it all aside!
this was in 90s... no idea what it sells for now.. it has to be fresh cut.. they don't want big pieces or split.. white birch rots fast if unsplit!
Oh yeah, them yuppies love the white birch. 6 logs make for a perfect non-functioning fireplace ambiance. Probably get an easy $25 I bet for the 6 logs.
My dad used to stack white birch logs in his fireplace in the spring, after the heating season was over. They'd be inside, warm and dry all summer long. That would be the first thing he'd light in the fall, and that birch bark would touch right off quick.
