Misty with rain sprinkles this morning when we headed out to get firewood. Nice and cool to be working outside. Just had to deal with no-see-ums which any of you from the PNW will know what they are like. They love me and leave campinspecter alone. The pile we worked on. Red Alder from the sides of the highway. campinspecter was bucking on the deck so I could have the fun of splitting Inevitably you know what happens in situations like this and campinspecter has a neat rig to take care of the problem. Good thing he knows how. I don't have a clue. We brought the mighty electric saw for cleaning up knots campinspecter decided to pull the logs out and then cut them up. Easier on the chain. Hard to see but he has a line attached to a log and is pulling it out with the winch on the splitter Sorry I didn't get any pictures of the splitter running. I was busy stacking the truck. Red alder is such a nice white wood when first split. And I didn't get a picture of the loaded truck. I will see if campinspecter will take a picture tomorrow when he unloads the truck. After the heavy snowfall last winter that closed parts of the highway connecting us to the rest of the island with fallen trees, highway crews have been taking down the alders and stacking them up. It is going to be a mess getting more firewood out of there but it is sitting in a great spot with no traffic. Most of the bigger stuff is at the back of course.
Thanks for sharing your day with us. Looks like your plans worked great. That is a nice splitting rig y'all have, especially when needing to pull logs like that.
yes, compared to Western hemlock and Douglas Fir it is farther down on the charts. It is considered a weed tree around here but it burns clean if dry. It will only take 6 to 8 months to dry for burning. We are living in the best part of the island - the northern end.
campinspecter took some pictures for me as he unloaded the truck this morning. Loaded truck - firewood is cut at 18.5 inches so three rows in the back of the truck. Where it was going. This quarter section bin needs firewood. campinspecter just threw the wood at the end of the bin. The wood turns orange when first exposed to air. It was nice and white when I stacked in the truck All stacked and waiting for more.
I went and looked at the BTU and drying chart. Western hemlock should be listed as 24 months to dry and Red alder about 12 months. Red alder is the closest we get to a hardwood here but it isn't that dense as it grows so fast.
Great job folks. Always enjoy seeing his wooding rig in action. Not enough pics of you in action Woodwidow ?
In this corner of the continent we don’t the the luxury of choosing between “butternut oak” or “english beech”. Pretty much fir and Doug fir and alder and cottonwood. We’re not even supposed to cut Madrone unless we want to be cursed by the Great Sasquatch. Maybe it’s the perfect weather we’re having in Seattle right now and maybe it’s the couple beers I’ve had tonight as I’m looking at the 1/16 of a cord of my freshly-split locust, but wow your pictures of split red alder look gorgeous. Nice work.
That is awesome you guys get to spent the time together doing that! The fruits of the labor top it all off, but time together....priceless. Enjoy! Nice pics too. Thanks for sharing.
Headed out this morning again. Fog cover wasn't as heavy so it was very quickly sunny and hot where we were working. campinspecter decided to go with pulling all the logs out of the pile before cutting. Good thing as there was no sharping needed to be done. I tried to get some actions shots of the splitter. Another use of the splitter. Using it as a vice. Keeps the logs off the ground. Here is the video I took because everyone loves to watch the splitter work. I love that first pop in a new piece. Truck all loaded and ready to go home
It looks like campinspecter enjoys the work. Glad you two get to work together. That is something I really miss.
