The neighbor from the thread: all-you-can-heat-red-maple , which really turned out to be silver maple, says they still want their mountain of silver maple gone. They say if there contractor is around, he’ll even lend me his pickup to help out. Problem is there are a lot of big and long rounds and crotches left. I warned them that I would need to cut to length in place and i’ll Probably do some noodling while I am at it. Cutting to length techniques for big rounds? Split first? Or tip to rolly side and buck? Stack before I start cutting or work on the ground. Noodling techniques, please help. Do the crotches split any easier if I cut through the ‘Y’? Stacking techniques for rounds and noodled rounds once I get them home? I’m short on time these days, so I just want to get these out of their way as quickly as possible, but also avoiding a mess around my yard to minimize grief from the wife. I’m thinking through it, and i’ll Need some more pallets me thinks. I can split the rounds later. I am bad at estimating, but I think there are 1-2+? cords of silver maple. I’m not so worried about the low btu’s since I like playing with fire, i’m more worried about the walk from the street around the house to behind the shed... it has some steep uphill too.. Pre-thanks for the advice! Hoard on my wooded friends.
How about a picture of what they want you to take? If it was me, I would cut and noodle as much as I could onsite, to leave the mess there and not at my house, and to facilitate transport.
I think Midwinter has given some sound advice and made a good request. What stands out for me is avoiding grief from the wife. Mine is very a coma dating to a point. Be very careful my friend with the hill the tools and yes with what could be the most dangerous of all
Noodle as much there as possible. Lessens mess at your house. Bring file to sharpen chain on site. It will dull! Buck logs 75-90% then roll and finish cut. If too big, half/quarter while fresh cut if splitting. Store rounds on end to keep one end wet. Silver maple splits easier with a wet end IME. Sounds like a four sided pallet cube would work better for stacking. One "neat" row in front of cube and loose fill with uglies/nuggets..a game of FHC tetris sort of! Is hill at your place or theirs? IMO i would refuse wood. Have you committed to take it? Not trying to rain on your parade, but too many obstacles for you. If you need more advice PM me mrfancyplants
Notice the stack of large rounds; some have been noodled. The reason we stacked them (not neat but stacked) is so that we can just place the splitter right next to the stack so the big blocks do not have to be moved far to get to the splitter. It helps. Normally we do not throw wood into a pile like on the right but this wood was not cut on our place and we also had some help from other people. I did not feel right in asking others to stack the wood when they threw it off their trucks. So, I have some work ahead of me.
The hill is at my place, so it is a consideration for every piece of wood that I hoard. They have a short walk to the front, I think the biggest challenge will be getting it all cut to length. The leftover chunks and cookies ought to get me on way to my three year fire pit plan. We’ll see tomorrow I think i’ll Get a chance to fill a car load and take some pics. Maybe I’ll stick to the thick branches rather than the trunk rounds, low hanging fruit principle. I’m on the fence and have a habit of biting off more than I can chew. The community firewood drop off (round dump) has been doing pretty well for me a trunk load at time. Here is the hill in front.. mulch is all spread by now although the yard work never ends. They say a bonsai is never “finished” until it dies. I guess the yard is the same way.
Yeah take the easiest stuff first. Seeing your pics of dump scores is ideal for your set up. You can pick and choose quality and minimal wood to process to bring in more. Too much gets to be stressful IMO. A pic of my two more than overflowing nugget bins. Half of one bin on left side. Nuggets mounded in front plus scraps for the fire pit. Four sided, front stacked with 10-12" shorts and filled in. Probably have another cord of shorts/nuglies around my processing area waiting for another bin!
I took the saw for a test run and made some progress on my backlog. Wheel barrel of locust and what I thought was locust then thought it might be elm, but then it split and looks just like the locust on the inside, so i’m Thinking it is locust again. Red maple with a little rot and ants in the middle some cherry with some different ants at the bottom of the pile. I tried noodling a red oak and cherry, uglys with mixed success. Got most of the way through but haven’t tried splitting yet. All this to say not sure i’m Feeling the silver maple tomorrow. I kind of feel like taking some of these uglys back to the firewood dump.. it was hot today.
not for anything, but that is a GREAT excuse to go back for more....return the uglies!!! I like it. I havent gone to the dump just to get wood. Its either brush dumping or getting dirt/mulch etc.
I’m seeing a couple more places I could stack. Make the shed side stack a double wide. Add another pallet to the back shed stack. And I could put some rounds down low behind the shed. I need another wack at the ugly pile before I give up on them.. the last of the cherry is cut and ready to split there too. You can see my attempt at noodling the red oak crotch that wouldn’t split. My daughter’s second birthday party is the weekend after next, so the priority is getting the back log split or returned to the dump. Then maybe I squeeze in some more Silver Maple.
I like the stacks on the retaining wall! Behind the shed, not so much. It looks like it could get pretty dank back there. You've almost got that oak crotch! Just knock it here, and here.
i really like the idea of returning the big uns. Get rid of headaches, hunt for nicer wood thats easier to split= nicer stacks. Easier to split is more fun in my book. I give you a lot of credit for what you do to get it done with all the logistical challenges you face.
Down low behind the retaining wall is pretty dank, but out of site staging for rounds was what I was thinking. Maybe I can start a mushroom farm if I take too long. The retaining wall is also behind the shed but it does get more wind and sun up there. Beside the shed gets the most sun. Thanks for the pointer on the oak; i’m Looking forward to taking another whack at it.
An idea I’ve never needed to try but have considered when looking at those huge maple logs no one ever wants. Noodle horizontal as first cut. Or vertical first the horizontal. Then buck to stove length. On the big ones you may want to make two horizontals and two verticals. The positive to noodling horizontal is you can cut all the way through with out ever getting close to the ground. The noodles will have less tendency to build up in a pile and clog your saw. The positive of noodling the log first is it will have less tendency to roll or move on you. Can’t say never but close If you step up the horizontal cuts you can take quite a bit of weight off the log before considering rolling it to get a through cut. Before rolling make sure to do any bucking length cuts so you won’t have to roll it again.
Thanks Brad, coming from you, that means a lot. The long ones i’m Not too worried about, as that is some of the hollow standing cherry already cut to multiples of 16”. That oak was giving me grief though. And the unknown pale wood.. really pithy feeling but not splitting well at all. I might also put it behind the shed until the next hard freeze.
I really don't like stacking wood like that. When it is up against a wall, how can it get air through the stack to dry the wood? You could do better if you could stack in the open and don't be afraid to stack several rows together. Some worry about doing that and I used to but no more. I've stacked numerous rows together even in areas with no sun so long as they get some wind and the wood dries very nicely. But stack where it won't get a breeze and you are many times asking for problems. Besides, isn't your state one of those where lots of rain falls? Could be a problem. Also, when covering the wood, try to get the cover so there are no pockets for water to pool. When using tarps, you could lay some boards or osb on top of the wood then cover it with a tarp. Just be sure on the ends where the water will go. Don't let water fall from one stack onto another, for instance.
Masonry is moisture Not to mention lack of air as backwoods suggested. At least stack/lean a pallet against that retaining wall first to allow a little separation. Many people here stack single. Me I use pallets and pallets have room for two rows and I’m gonna use that room. Never had a problem with double stacks. Many years ago Dad and I decided to stack a huge solid square of firewood. About five pallets square for 25 pallets. Now that wasn’t a good idea. The center was all black mold and soaking wet. We never tried to pull a stunt like that again
Did you have the wood top covered? Maybe a leak somewhere to cause the mold and wet? The reason I ask is because we've had probably 30 rows stacked together and never had a problem, but we then did all the stacking in the spring, left it uncovered over the summer and fall then top covered it before the snow starting flying. Never had any problems with that wood. No mold. Maybe a few mouse nests but that's it. The wood was fine. It laid there 2 or 3 years before we started burning it then it took a few years to get it all burned. It was nice!
Everyone's situation is different and sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do and only have so much room to stack your wood. When I first started out I had some stacks on pallets like that up against my neighbors vinyl fence and as Backwoods Savage mentioned because of the lack of air flow and in my situation no sun as well they always seemed wet and never dried well. I moved them and adopted a new rack system with plenty of air flow and a tad of sunlight and I am getting much much better results.
