It's very satisfying to see it take shape. Kind of hard to see in the pic I posted but the center pieces are all like the outer pieces. Typically you'd have shorties, oddballs, knotties, etc. in the middle....but I've raised my standards now and try to make all the splits pretty uniform (in length at least) so no more shorties for me. I also placed kind of just stacked them in the center in this particular hausen whereas all the other ones I would just toss inside. But since it's slow going (20 min. ride to the scrounge spot and usually just one truckload at a time) I just decided to take my time with the center. A little slower for sure but it will hold more wood. Post your hausen if you decide to do it!! I use 4 pallets and don't line them up butt up against each other - I give a little space so as to maximize the size of the hausen.
This is the scrounge that keeps on giving. Went back today. Was supposed to go with a neighbor but he buckled to wifey pressure to get things done before the holiday. Beautiful day and didn't take long to buck, nooodle, drag, load, debark, and mulch (the bark).
Yeah I like 'em too! I usually don't noodle anything I feel like I can lift but these were rather large and being as they were piled on top of each other it made sense to split 'em right after bucking to make it easier for extraction out of the pile.
Deep inhalations of the noodles indeed. I was using my face shield as a filter heh heh. Was glorious. I should keep a round or two just for the sole purpose of noodling some noodles and then put those in a jar with a lid with holes in it and put one in each car.
I believe there are several members here who live in Alaska and burn softwoods such as Spruce through their severe winters. If that is not a testament to the suitability of softwoods like Fir, Pine, Larch, Spruce and such, I don't know what is! I'm sure that If they had a source of Black Locust they would be all over it but you burn what is available. They do seem to keep warm up there!
I burn almost exclusively coniferous and right now larch and doug fir is all I have in my stacks for burning this year. Many years I have a selection of lodgepole pine and a bit of spruce as well. Ive never had a chimney fire. Wet wood and improper burning techniques cause creosote build up not pine or spruce. There is no hardwood here except for a small amount of birch so all the burners around me are strictly coniferous wood burners and we get into the -30c/-22f range and lower some years and our houses are toasty. I'm not sure if its been mentioned in this thread but moisture meters work best in temps above 70f. If its cool out just bring the wood inside and then split it the next day for a fresh read.
It's amazing to me how much information there is out there that is super helpful.....and yet there is also the spreading of misinformation. Burning softwoods is awesome! I love it.
Around here folks here reject the pine. Now that I have a new Sirocco BK I like the pine because I get long burn times and the pine is easy pickings.
Status of the pine holz hausen. I ended up blowing out some of these leaves that fell into the center. Reminder next time I'm building a hausen during fall to keep it covered.
Yeah I like red maple because it makes very little ash and nice coal nuggets. Norway maple, on the other hand, makes a ton of ash and that's what I'm burning now. Once I finish that pile I'll hit another pile of mixed woods, saving my two ash piles for the dead of winter since they are the closest to the house.
More pics as I split 3 rounds today. Need to go pick up some more. Here you can see what I meant about putting "regular" splits in a somewhat orderly fashion in the center. I don't spend too much time thinking about it but as I transition from less shorties and uglies this is how I'm going to be stacking my hausen going forward. And no need for cross members or anything fancy. Just maintain that downward angle. If you don't you'll learn that lesson quickly. Also a few pics showing my method of making wide narrow splits first using the x27 and then I make these pine ones especially small do that they will be used to get the fire going and going quickly.
