Nice neat looking firewood and stacks! Didn't think you could leave a job unfinished for long, Husband or not!
Next spring/summer I'll split it. There is a sweet spot with oak, when the bark loosens up, but before the borer grubs make serious inroads. I like to take the bark off oak to foil the grubs. Otherwise little piles of powder in the stacks.
Midwinter your work always looks so pleasing to the eye. You have a way with firewood that makes me think you studied under a Japanese Shokunin. I should know because I studied under one myself in the 80's while in art school. He was an artist who studied in Japan and went through the whole Shokunin apprenticeship to be a traditional Japanese woodworker. He was all about discipline and respect of the natural material and the craftsmanship. He would spend hours showing us how to cook rice perfectly in order to make rice glue used for traditional delicate Japanese joinery when making shoji screens. His name is Toshio Odate and I worked with him in Brooklyn while at Pratt, but he lives in Woodbury Connecticut and I have been to his studio there in 87 helping him to free cut huge white oak logs into 3 inch thick slabs. Instead of using a chainsaw mill he would chainsaw the logs free hand using a Stihl with a 5ft blade. This big saw got the job done with only chalk lines and a mirror so he could see the tip of the chainsaw blade protruding out the other side. It was very slow work that took a lot of concentration, but he cut accurately enough that just a little finish planing would take out any wayward cuts, gouges or depressions. He was an eccentric and I think you would've enjoyed him and also he would have liked you as a student. That's a compliment because he didn't like many since he felt many Americans had very little discipline wanting everything instantly when he claims as a Japanese apprentice he has to sweep the floors for seven years before he could even touch a tool. He is the one I credit today for showing me how to sharpen blades, not chainsaw, but wood chisels and knives. To this day people love working in my kitchen because my knives are always sharp and ready and contrarily I hate using someones knives that usually can't cut a tomato. I know I got off car hoarding topic but your wood stacks reminded me of him and I would like to pay a little tribute to Toshio here. This first melting piece is an example of his early art these above sculptures are works he started making in the late 70's and pay tribute to the philosophy of woodworking techniques and traditional carpentry of Japan working in his Woodbury CT. studio One of at least 5 books he has written throughout his career
Took a little stroll in the park tonight and got me some dead dry wood fall that should keep the home heated the next few days. Here you can see some of my city scavenging techniques that I have developed to get into parks without too much attention. First you'll notice I went just at sunset, early morning works too, but I am not always the best morning person. Anyway, you can see besides having my always stealthy yet powerful battery operated chainsaw on the ready, I also brought my "urban homeless cart" with me tonight. I discovered this cart a few years ago never realizing how strong they are and great for carting wood! In fact I use it now instead of my heavy duty wagon many times to transport fresh splits to my wood shelters. I use this cart in the field when I need to retrieve wood that I can't get close to with the car and it is collapsible so takes up very little space! In public parks like the one I was in tonight I had to stay in the parking lot and so the homeless cart came in handy. I have mentioned before the trouble I get into scrounging wood in parks which is mostly due to having my car parked in places that raise suspicion. This cart is very portable and unassuming and when using it in urban environments it fits right in. Alright, admittedly logs aren't the usual cargo, but I'm in and out fast and people just assume correctly that I'm a weirdo and look the other way. I filled the cart tonight with mostly 35 inch long branches that I packed in the cage vertically and I was able to get all my cuttings in two trips which was about a 200 yard walk from the car. Mostly lengths that need only cutting in half, but I also took some that will need to be divided into three logs. A mix of mostly oak with some maple Back home all cut up to final size. Sorry for the pic, it was dark by then. Most were a bit wet from rain, but some were dry enough to burn right away and so I brought a few inside for tonight's fire. Some pieces also need further splitting which is a job I will do when splitting other wood the next few days.
Nice looking stacks, if ya get tired of the cold and snow, come on down and show me how you do that....
I love it! Dry dead branches that would otherwise go to waste, who could fault you for picking those up? You are doing the maintenance crews a favor. Cemetaries could be good hunting grounds too. Beautiful work by your Japanese carpentry master.
Yes I'm onto that. There is a cemetery on my way to work that is older with older growth trees which I will occasionally drive thru on my way back home. It's hit or miss, but I always seem to get something.
Well I got all my oak from Julio cut and stacked, it measures out to a little over a cord. Of course it will compress down a bit once I split it. There was also a quarter cord of birch, and a little hard maple. The way this winter is going, I may get to it. Although they are beginning to forecast some real cold...
Well I had to work off some of my Holiday gut and so here's my contribution to the thread today. A few days ago I spotted from the road a large oak branch that fell in the park and was hoping it would be left there for me to pick away at it after the holidays. Well I went today with my stealthy chainsaw and homeless cart in tow and because this was a 300 yard walk from the car and yes I even had to park it in a handicap spot just to get that close. My mission as always this time of year is to get dead dry wood for immediate burning to keep my limited stock of 3 cords seasoned wood (now about 2 and 1/2 left) stretched and ready for a rainy or snowy day. I cut up and hauled away mostly all the decent top smaller dry branches and left a 20 ft section of the large stem that ranges in diameter from 6" to 12" which I will pick away at another day. Its green wet wood so not my priority now and I'll need a bit of time to cut it into 16 -18"lengths on the spot because of the weight. There is evidence of some hollowed out rot in the 12 " base that I don't know how far up it travels, but can't complain as that's what caused it to fall to my benefit. I actually scored some wood from another dead oak branch tonight in another location a few hundred feet from the main score wood. Funny thing as I was just finished cutting it into 3 ft sections about 5 in all when a sheriff blazer once more rolls up on me. They are constantly monitoring this park as its a buffer between our town and the much more sinister city of Newark and a lot of stuff goes down in that park. Anyway I see him approaching with his vehicle and I have my chainsaw in my hand and I don't want them to see that so luckily I have my colorful beach towel I keep it wrapped in and was able to throw it over the saw. I pick up a piece of wood and start carrying it to my cart hoping he'll just drive by and leave me alone, but he stops his car. Crap! What is he going to tell me now?? So he rolls his window down and says "hey buddy whats going on?" I said "hi officer how are you, what's up?" He then says " are you the one parked in the handicap space with the wood in the rack?" (The park was empty and I parked in one of the 12 allotted spaces so sue me). Anyway, cop says "ok we'll let that one go tonight because I see you working there, but..." I cut him off and said "yeah I know, I waited till later evening to park in the empty spaces because its a long haul with the cart" Officer said "yeah no problem I see that, you're actually doing us a favor...Have a good night and a Happy New Year" then drove off patrolling the park paths. I'm happy about that. Here are the pics of the start when I got there and some of the progress. You can see the cart holds a lot of weight. The wood is dry so not as heavy as it looks but the picture with the 3 big logs in it is at least 100lbs.
Yep, he turned out to be friendly, but I discovered the whole thing about them always giving me a hard time in that park is the parking. Now they just paved all the walkways and driveways in the park and where I parked my car used to have 5 handicap spaces, but in the renovation they made that whole section handicap which is at least 12 spaces. So I really had no choice and I waited till all events were over. You can see another white car in the picture was also parked illegally with 2 guys hitting some balls in the baseball field near that lot. It's really ridicules and you have to wonder if there's really a need or it's just more opportunities now for tickets. I'm just glad he gave me his blessing to scrounge wood because I wasn't even thinking about the stupid parking space and thought instead he was going to tell me to leave the wood alone. Like you said though Midwinter it's all about the revenue. I guess they're scrounging in that park just like I am...We're kindred spirits haha!
Going after this CL today a couple towns over... https://boston.craigslist.org/nwb/zip/d/dracut-free-hardwood-cut-blocks/6784838740.html
No, which is why I didn't want him to see my saw. Also why I keep the beach towel to cover it. I think if I just took twigs that I broke up by hand, no one would say anything. Sometimes the parks people cut up wood and leave it there so it wouldn't be odd to be seen carrying logs that have been cut by a saw. There was a time when in that park I was parked in the grounds keepers lot because I was planning a quick cut and grab of a fallen branch right near it. I had an officer park by my car flashing his lights and telling me tell all about how I was parked where I shouldn't be and I had to move. He saw I was taking wood and told me I was not allowed to which I said the groundskeeper said I could have this piece. It was sort of a lie because the grounds keeper told me a year before that I can have any of the little mounds of fallen wood they pile up along paths. The wood I was taking that day happened to be 10" diameter branch of oak about 25 feet long and hug up suspended about 10 ft on one end. The cop he saw I was cutting it and said to leave without taking the wood, but there was some truth he recognized the way I described the parks gentleman who told me I cold take wood. I also acted huffy like I was lied to (I can put on a good act when I see I'm not harming anyone and technically it was true that I was told I could take fallen wood, I was just taking some more liberties on my permission). Anyway, half way walking back the 200 feet to collect my saw and stuff, I here a megaphone yelling "stop, hold on". So I stop and the officer pulls up to me on the grass and says "Ok I'll let you take it this time but this is the last time" then he told me to drive my car right to the spot to make it easy. Wow great! but then I noticed he was going to stay there watching me. I was pizzed because when I saw him flashing lights initially I was almost finished cutting thru one of the logs and didn't want to leave the whole thing lying there with only an inch more wood needing to be released. I took the cut stuff and debated to use my saw in front of him but, I said screw it and made the quick cut throwing the wood and saw in the trunk and readied to leave when the megaphone went off again and said "thats it?" I walked up to his car and said I could take more, but didn't want to cause any problems for you. He said pointing at the hung up section, "take a few more pieces"... I said sure! So I did that and packed it up all the 3 ft lengths and there was still some more wood, to which he said "you're not taking it?" I was using my old Ryobe saw which is slow and I felt the batteries would die soon so I explained that to him while I thanked him for letting me drive so close and supervise me. It was a weird encounter though and a funny story because when I explain it in real life I use the guys italian accent which sounded like Frank Pentangeli in Godfather II. My area does have a local maffia presence, but It was just a funny twist of events. I now try to use the cart to go deep in the park when it calls for it and so far so good, but I don't want them to see the secret saw.
