Cold Trigger Finger , fear not about the windchill as far as your vehicles go. Ambient temp is whatever is, the windchill is a measurement of how it "feels". Meaning that any air movement sucks the heat out of anything faster, including your body, but it can still only lower the actual temp to ambient. -55 is still -55 to antifeeze, it just gets there quicker.
48f now heading to 34 tonight. Been nice so stove has been cold, only emptied the ash pan once this season. Started it up tonight as much for the cats and anything with so locust. May do some splitting/cutting Sunday.
Poplar, pretty common here. It's an Aspen tree, don't know which one. Shoulder wood at best around here, wet & heavy green & very light when dry. Seasons fast, but super heavy green. Those 16" X 40" rounds are north of 1000 lbs. wet. Not fun to work with, gummy/sticky in the saw bar too.
Interesting. Sounds very similar to the cottonwood trees that are abundant at lower elevations than mine. The cottonwoods on the eastern plains get 120 feet tall and 100 inches wide. Heavy as hell wet. Pretty light when dry. Decent shoulder wood. Cottonwood is in the same family “tree” as Aspen as well.
Ahh, something I know something about. It's not the sap that is the primary thing that is sticky on the bar of a saw in the cut. It's the fingering of the wood once it's severed. All these little fingers spring out from the faces of the cut and litterly press against the bar. Same with Balmagiliad, aspen , cottonwood, and coastal western red cedar. Sitka spruce can do it also. But to a lesser degree. The only remedy I have found is 404 chain. Or the wide kerf Oregon Dura Pro X chain in 3/8. A chainsaw bar is as wide as it is. As most 3/8 chain cuts a narrower kerf. The fingers have more force when pressing on the sides of the bar. A wider kerf keeps the sides of the bar away from the fingers and the bar just floats in the cut. Boat loads of Fallers went thru all kinds of chain and bar shenanigans because when they came to Southeast Alaska . And got into a strip that was heavy to big red cedar. ( they just Knew that 3,/8 cut faster than 404. ) ( Everyone knows that ) Mean while. Those of us that lived there happily ran 404 chain. Usually Oregon 52 AJ or AK. And out cut the down south ( pacific northwest) guys. . I found the same thing when I started cutting along the upper end of Cook Inlet and up the Matanuska River Valley. 3/8 sucks. 404 Cuts I could quite happily cut for the rest of my life with chisel ground chisel bit 404 chain. Lol. It was funny, just to Prove they were right, the 3/8s guys would do all kinds of stuff to their chains to get them to cut a wider kerf . One thing helped a little, filing the outside of the depth guages so the cutters could rock to the side more. That helped a little. But it wore out the bar groove and sides of the driver's Much faster. By the time their cutter were half way home their chain was Shot. They would get hung up 3 times more. Would hear them cussing and carryin on beatin wedges. Getting so p.o.d they would start pulling on the saw and break motor mounts. Then they would show up, hey, I need ya to come cut me out. Where's your spare bar Ide ask. Got it in that $#&@*?;€¢¶π thing too . Oh , ok well you get to pack my saw over. And I get the scale. Ya I know. Anyway. That's the problem with popple. And cottonwood and aspen and wet red cedar.
While we were in town the wind came up and the ambient came up. We got home at 9 pm ish. Stove wasn't out but nearly so. Inside temp was 28° outside was up to 20 below but the wind is up to 20ish mph. Today is the kind of situation where a bigger stove would be nice . And , possibly or , a modern stove like a catalytic. Will load up with fkws and go to bed now that it's up in the high 60s in the house.
What? That must have taken some time to get back up to temp... Coupe of hours? There have been too many times that I have heated up the cottage from low tmeps like that.....sometimes the inside temps would be way below zero in the dead of winter. But, once up to temp, it was worth the visit to just sit and enjoy it! Hope you didn't have any damage from below freezing temps inside the house.
24/68 here. Wind started howling last night and now it is really screaming out there. No percipitation; but that'll be coming a little later. Good news is the -15 temps predicted have been changed to just barely below zero now!
28/71 here heating nicely with the birch coals left from a few big splits I loaded 4 hours ago. Waiting here for the temperature pattern switch to make some good ice for spearing. I have noticed that when we are in the cold stuff you are more likely to have “moderating” temperatures Rope and Cold Trigger Finger.
Don't go by wind chill; that is just a guess on what it feels like and not what it is. If the air is at -40, then rating of -55 should work.
