Spending another weekend helping my sister's family out with their firewood. They were probably a little short of what they need for the winter, and certainly short on dry enough stuff. So I did a bit of hunting for some dry stuff to give them. Tackled this maple on Friday. It was standing dead, so I figured the tops were probably pretty dry. It was at the edge of a pretty big low spot that's underwater a good portion of the year, so there was a pretty decent clearing to set it down. Took the tops of this, and some other dead maple branches I had on hand, over to my sisters and split it all up this morning. Didn't get any pics of that load because my phone was dead. I saved the bigger rounds for myself since I'll have the time to dry them. Added em to the to do list: This afternoon I worked on cleaning up a stand of small diameter ash that mother nature thinned out. It was a mess of knocked over and hung up little trees. Most of it had been that way since I moved in, so it's been dead and drying at least a year. At least, the stuff that wasn't on the ground. Didn't get any before pics, but I took some after I cut it all up. Here's the load I got out of there. There's a couple more pieces left to get from that stand, and I have a couple other small diameter ash that my BIL and I are going to grab tomorrow morning. It will probably be another load this size. I'll post pics of that tomorrow. Ran that over to my sister's this evening and split what needed splitting. I didn't use the hydro in the pic - my pile is the bigger one with the stump. My BIL couldn't help out today, because he was watching all 4 kids - including the baby. And that was it for tonight. I'll post another update of tomorrows work, tomorrow!
You're a machine dude.. I'm starting to think your goal is to give Scotty Overkill a run for his money..
And I'll do it all by hand... Hahaha! My theory is, the sheer beauty of Scotty's stacks alters his local gravitational firewood forces, making his stacks grow ever larger. That's why I spend all that time trying to make mine look as nice as his!
Oh, you mean you haven't seen my sawbuck build yet? Well here's a link to that thread too! http://firewoodhoardersclub.com/forums/index.php?threads/sawbuck-build.5730/
Oh yeah almost forgot, the neighbor across the street from my sister apparently had a large red pine taken down. It's in pieces all over their yard. What do you think the chances are that they want to keep it for firewood? Red pine is actually just as good as silver maple according to Sweeps BTU charts. Perhaps I can help them start getting set up with some 15/16 wood too!
Had my BIL over this morning do work on the second load. Had him bring over his chainsaw too, so I could sharpen it - and boy did it need it! And I see how it got so dull in the first place... First cut he made he put it in the dirt! Oh well - I was able to expand his firewood education a little bit. We talked about how dry it needed to be and played with my moisture meter a little. Brought it over to his place to take some measurements too. He thought that some of the rounds he had sitting for a couple years were gonna be dry enough. Nope! Some of the ash and norway maple rounds he had actually were, even on a re-split. But anything touching the ground, or standing on end, was still in the high 30's! Here's the load we got out - more small diameter ash, a few bigger pieces on the bottom. Took this over to his place and got it all cut up and split before the game. He wanted to watch the game so he was done for the day. No pics of the progress over there, but I got them a healthy cord of stuff that was all seemed about 16%. I didn't want to stop, so I set the game to record and got back at it. There was some cherry GIBIR at the windfall site where got got some of the BL in my avatar. There was a little bit more BL branches, and a small ash at this site that i grabbed as well. Added the cherry to the pile for next year. And added to the ridiculousness of the log pile. Gotta be close to having another year for the plan here! Need to figure out where I'm going to stack it though! I think I'm going to head back out there - 3 missed FG's in the game as I'm writing this... Not missing much there.
It was such a nice day I had to get back at it, after watching Buffalo trample the Lions.. SUPERBOWL BABY! Fixed the top cover on my stacks on Mr Backwoods Savage recommendations. It did need it; there was a spot in the middle that would have gotten waterlogged if I hadn't fixed it! Thank you sir! Before: After: I cut up a few small branches from my earlier load, and set them crosswise to raise up the back a bit, and a few in the middle to get the front piece of vinyl to slope better. Overhangs the stack a bit - hopefully stay nice and dry under there now. But I still had some daylight left, so what the heck. I spotted a medium size ash leaning while I was out cutting with my BIL, and I couldn't resist. Had it out of the woods in an hour. This cooler weather has really got my butt in gear on hauling firewood. These days Im even finding gears I didn't even know I had. I want to get everything I can before it gets more difficult to get back there. Plus it just feels like its time to do the firewood.
Around here it is definitely firewood gathering time. For us, it is for the 2016 season. For most people it is for this season to start burning next month. Looks like you are really Getting it done big time @ShawnCurry
I've been getting that itch too. I haven't been to the woods much, but the 5 or so cord of red and white oak I cut in the spring needed to be split and stacked to make room for this winter's findings. About half way thru the oak now. Game on!
