I started doing side work to offset my wife staying home with the baby for the foreseeable future. Having her home with him means a lot to me. I don't mind working more to make that a reality for our family. I do mainly carpentry, but once in awhile I get requests for other stuff. A woman who knows a friend of my wife's asked if I'd stack 2 cords of wood for her. I requested some pics of the wood and asked how far it was from the stacking area. We agreed on a job price and a date. I couldn't believe how chitty the wood was. Very wet and obviously freshly cut. Probably 35-40% MC minimum. They're planning on burning it this winter. The pieces ranged from 4" chunks to 24" long. Lots of what I'd consider junk wood. The stacking area/racks were not nearly big enough for the amount of wood they had ordered. Arguably the worst part was it was nowhere near 2 cords. I'd guess after stacking it was more like 1.25-1.3 cords. I stacked it the best I could given the length discrepancies. I tried to start up a conversation with the owners husband, in hopes of opening his eyes a bit, but he already "knew everything" about burning firewood. I offered to build them a woodshed, and he said there's no need. I collected my money and left. It got me to thinking. Is this the norm out there? I know it's not on this forum, but in general I think it' pretty common. This sort of stuff seems to be happening regularly, and is a big part of the reason I try to do educational YT videos on Firewood. Lots of people watch YT, and there are a lot of new wood burners out there. Hopefully my videos help people understand the basics.
Think laziness and lack of putting quality into the slightest job makes things like that these days. I telework 3 days a week from home, my wife works from home full time doing telehealth. Our youngest (2) stays home with us except one day a week she goes to my parents. They love having her for a day. There is a HUGE difference in kids raised around family vs at a daycare. They learn all of the bad habits from other kids, get sick all the time, and someone else is getting to see their smiles and milestones while you would just hear about it. This wasn't an option for our oldest (8) but she listens to the youngest when she tells her what to do as if she's the parent lol. She gets to hang around us, more so me if my wife is dealing with someone, and my breaks consist of 15 minutes of playing with her or going outside, walks, etc. So she gets constant self entertainment and figuring things out for herself while also getting attention from my wife and I.
Moparguy Sounds like you and your wife are doing it right. There is no better child care than having mom and or dad doing the 'caring'.
I’ve seen some rotten piles at places I deliver too. I guess when it gets too spongy they just buy some more
I also have an 18 year old and a 14 year old. Baby has same mother as the 14 year old, long story, lol. I definitely wish I could have done some things differently. Being young and both of us having to work was not ideal. I wish every household could have the option of at least one parent staying home with the kid(s). I agree it makes a huge difference for multiple reasons.
Welp, You should always check moisture on a fresh split face, pins running inline with wood grain.( Never on end grain.) Wood should be around 70 degrees, as most meters are calibrated @ 70* F. I’d bet if you did this with some of the splits you checked end grain on, they’d be somewhat higher.. A few years back I was talking with a buddy that was a Timberwolf dealer, he had a T/W Processor and sold firewood too. He told me he had dry oak that was split, in piles, baking in the sun all summer.. Long story but I went over with my MMeter and an ax… Checked a few splits on the face, 9-12%, he said, see I told ya !! I said no, it don’t work that way.. Resplit some of the same splits I just checked, they were all between 30-36%, the ones on/near the ground were well over 48%.. He said, I would’nt have believed that if I had’nt just seen it !! Again, not trying to be a Dik…. I was hesitant to even make my last post, but thought I should ??
I see a lot of stuff like that when I deliver to first time customers. It's a pile of every size piece you could imagine, covered in mud and partially rotten. The number one thing I hear is, "wow, I never got that much before."
It's a mix of education (not knowing how to process/stack/store/ and burn wood, and at times the old mentality of "my pappy did it like this for years" and also some laziness that can contribute to poor burning habits. I try to explain to people that it needs to become a "lifestyle", or t least a year-round ideology that makes a good woodburner. You can just think about your winter wood two months before it gets cold out, you gotta plan way ahead. We recommend at least 3 years if possible. Your safety, sanity, enjoyment and comfort depend on it. If you don't wanna make it a lifestyle, there's plenty other home heating sources that are much easier (and more expensive) out there.....
I imagine sirbuildalot didn't take it that way. He knows this site is good at helping /education and not 'ill intent' or smartazzitry with things like that...
At 7:30 of the video I do check the fresh split face. I explained that you shouldn’t go by just the end grain in the video. With all due respect, did you actually watch the whole video?
Great decision you guys are making in raising your own children and spending that time with them. You will NEVER regret it!!!! Sent from my SM-S536DL using Tapatalk
Ok, fair enough, I did not watch the entire thing, I got to the part where you were probing the end and I was thinkin, no, no ,no, don't show em that… BTW, I’ve seen many of your videos, good on ya for doing that.. Oh, and ya tawk funny !! Lol See, now I am being a DIK, lol
well, I too try to educate people in my firewood ads on FBMP. Discussing proper technique to test for moisture and where to take pieces of wood from to test based on if they are stacked in rows or piled in piles. Also discuss EMC and how different areas of the country will see different levels of equilibrium moisture. However I've received numerous messages from random people telling me how "I don't know what I'm talking about". Lately my listing showed up on FB's "under review" all of a sudden and stayed there for ever. My guess is there are some other sellers who are "reporting" my listing due to the amount of educational material there is that goes against what they are selling. There are a lot of sellers in my area and pretty much all of them sell wet wood.....based on feedback from others who have bought from me. So I recently toned down the educational verbiage and relisted. So far so good. I don't really care if anyone buys from me, I don't sell because I have to, I just want to educate people so they know how to buy and try to force other sellers into doing things the right way by educating buyers so they properly test before buying.
I think you did fine, used the moisture meter 2 different ways and offered a "correction factor" for using end grains! You mentioned that testing a fresh split was most accurate. I think showrguy missed the part about the fresh split...............As I continue to read, showerguy posted a retraction and poked fun at himself. Real Men mend fences and move on! Two thumbs up for you both!
