No, just $5 a year for a sticker. It's chaos there right now. There are 2 excavators working every day excavating the brush pile.
One excavator has a comb. They are separating shreddables from decomposed organic matter. Some firm called The Dirt Doctors.
our dump shred/chips all the wood/brush etc. The pile of logs from my score was still buried when i went there according to the guy who runs it....couple weeks ago. I dont know how often they grind it. Huge mounds of dirt, compost, chips all over the place. I bet they were shocked to see you dumping wood Midwinter
Yes I do hand split. Here are a few of my reasons: 1. Space is limited for me and I don't need another obstacle using up my precious yard. 2. The wood I wind up with is often heavy duty stuff requiring a serious splitter and not some 5 ton electric toy so cost is an issue here as It would take at least a 22 ton to do what I do with mauls. 3. I'm not the best mechanic and hate dealing with engine trouble or hydraulic leaks or what-have-you. 4. I have very close neighbors and running a loud machine would cause some guilt on my part. 5. I honestly love using different mauls and developing the best techniques and tricks to convince a difficult log to split. 6. In many instances with logs that are straight grained or just a nice species to work with, splitting by hand can be extremely efficient and dare I say even faster than machines. 7. I would like to say exercise, but I think you get enough exercise with either machine or maul since splitting is not all there is to the firewood process. So if you're working with firewood at all you should be happy that you are healthy and not averse to physical activity. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a maul snob and actually would not be surprised if the day comes when I decide to pull the trigger on a big ton splitter, but as of now I still like to swing the ax.
Let me add another reason why mauls work for me and may not be the best for others. I get my wood sporadically and in relatively small amounts at a time as per what car hoarding would dictate. So I process the wood as it comes to me or as I find it and this means at most a few hrs a day working time. I like it this way because I like no pressure and dabbling with wood at least once or twice a week throughout the year. If I were like some on this site who deal with big loads at a time and sometimes process half their needed cord wood in one weekend then a maul would be futile and I would be dead. Some people like to get the wood CSS and out of the way so they can focus on other things as their wood sits quietly seasoning through the year. For me I feel I'm never really done as my mauls are ready to split a little each day if I wish and that's ok with me.
That has been how my work flow has gone up to now. Get a little at the dump, hand split it, add it to a rack. But I can see that changing. I can't depend on the dump as a reliable wood source anymore, due to the deterrent effect that high dumping prices have had on Joe landscaper. The wood just isn't coming in anymore. So... I can see more Craigslist scores in my future, which tend to be larger amounts of wood. We'll see. I am stuffed with wood right now, so I don't need a splitter immediately. But once I have to replace depleted supplies, a splitter will probably make sense.
In my area free wood on Craigslist is rare since big wood lot clearing is rare. Wood almost is always offered for a price unless you're willing to take some long drives out to where big wood is mostly offered. With only enough car space for a quarter cord at most, long drives don't pay or make much sense. I don't have a dump option either so most my wood comes from just keeping my eyes open, having a few reliable areas that usually pay off, some trespassing (haha) and serendipity. Who knows Midwinter maybe this will be you soon haha, but actually I bet your area would be a better Craigslist source.
I've gotten my two biggest scores by listening for chainsaws in my neighborhood, and leaving notes in the homeowners' mailboxes, asking for the wood. And who knows, maybe the tree service kid will pan out. And there's Asplundh. Improvise, adapt, overcome!
Makes perfect sense to me. Some of my reasons are the same. Each successful split is a little "victory" and very gratifying!
I was gassing up and at my new favorite gas station/ wood dump. And this EWP (Pinus strobus) started splitting itself and jumping into my trunk. It said something about me needing ballast, but I rearranged it to keep my gas can from tipping. Unfortunately, i’m Going to need that space for all the primo silver maple i’l be picking up later. I’m about out of rack space until I can scrounge some more pallets, so maybe I’ll put the pine down as a first layer and the maple on top.
is that the FHC version of one of those pine tree air fresheners? Bet it smelled nice? Sticky? Good score and idea with the sacraficial pine.
It was sticky, but not as much piney fresh goodness as I was expecting. I touched it and immediately put my gloves on. Too late, now i’m At work with resinous spots on my left hand.
its a pain to get off. Did your coworkers compliment you on your new "scent" LOL!!! Backwoods Savage had a trick to remove pine sap, cant remember what it was. I did a chain saw job years back removing a fallen pine tree. We had to haul it away. I had my GF's son help me. I warned him of the sap. I barely got any on me but the poor kid (he was maybe 15 at the time), was covered in the stuff!
Miracle whip! Works wonders and does not take much to remove the pitch with that. One can also use margarine and I would not doubt that cooking oil might also do wonders.
