It was time to start on a new stack of wood. I emptied a stack of red oak. So it was a stack of RO that I opened up. It still puts a smile on my face when I see my old markings like this.
hey that's some OLD WOOD! You're way ahead of me getting on the three year plan. I think my oldest wood is just coming into 2 years old now. What do you have left for the season and for the next couple years?
Hmm.... let's see.. I've got ~3cord of ash, ready to go. I've got ~3cord of mixed shoulder wood, ready to go. I've got ~2cord of red oak ready to go(2018/2019) And a few cord of red oak still getting beauty sleep. There's also some black locust mixed in there. More ash to be added this year. With the warm winter, I've burned shoulder wood most days. The good stuff will stay good. You'll get there.
With our warm ish winter, next season our oldest wood will be closing on 3 years. The next 5 years worth of stuff sitting around will actually be much drier than what we've burned these last 2 years. It burns well, But I'm going to be interested to see how much less wood we go through when it's better seasoned. I actually thought of buying a few cord of seasoned wood just to give our stuff time to season up. As it is, I'll be bringing wood back down to the rows this spring. Your yard looks good Mike. That's a lot of hard work right there.
Did you put a MM to one of the splits? Must be some nice burning stuff. Did you have to put the snow tires on the log cart?
I didn't put my MM on it. It just burns nice. No snow tires, but I did have studs on my boots. Friday is the year anniversary of breaking my wrist. I have a whole lot of new respect where ice is involved.
Yeah ice can and will catch one off guard. Ive been known to walk like a penguin on it. April 13th will be a year for my thumb.
I emptied a couple of makeshift racks last week. The racks were between the recently felled red maples and the soon to be felled ash. The splits were on saplings, between the trees. Over time, leaves and other debris collected and caused the bottom splits to be a bit moist. A week in the sun and they were good to go. I'd like the stacks to be perpendicular to the stone wall, but 8ft out from the wall is too far. So, There's room for 2 racks right there. There's still leveling needed. There will be air under the lengths of the 2x4. A block at each end and one in the middle gets it done. While bringing wood to the house earlier, I came across a couple red tags of death. Elm, I believe. When does the ash come down, will depend on if it leafs out this spring. Those 2 racks will be reserved for it.
Looks like elm to me Mike. Have you burned any yet? I know you're a hand splitter, so if for some reason after drying in the round you can't bust them apart with your maul, make some cookies. Elm cookies surprisingly last quite a while in the stove
I had a small pile of elm cookies from April 2021 that I burned a few weeks ago. I kid you not, they split themselves When I dug them out of the pile, they were all splayed open looking like the Pacman silhouette.
Diameter? I had the idea of slicing elm cookies many years ago when i discovered how hard it is to split.
Around 12” give or take. They dried out nicely too, for just under 2 years sitting in the center section of a shaded stack.
I've been thinning out EWP, that's between the yard and a side street. Less competition for the hardwoods. Today, I took out my very first chainsaw, Husky 40, bought in 1985. Hadn't been used in over a year, probably two. It fired right up! Although, it was idling way too high for some reason. A few twists of the idle screw and it settled right down. It got the job done. Several hot restarts - no problem. The woodyard is off to the left, in the back. I'm just piling up the pine branches for now. I then raked up some noodles from a few weeks ago, and spread them along a woodland path down to the side street. I can use a bit more. Helps to slow down erosion. The wood chips work better than leaves, which get slippery.
