That's exactly the way I do it. A big double wheel, wheel barrow ( 1 cubic yard?) right next to the splitter. All the splits get tossed in, so I don't have to bend over to pick them up again. When it is full I shut off the splitter for the 5 or 10 minutes it takes to wheel the wood over to the area it is gonna be stacked. I find it just keeps me caught up, and I too hate to see splits on the ground that could be stacked and drying. Plus within a hour I'd have so many splits I have a hard time getting rounds to the splitter and I risk tripping over them carrying wood. My way, works for me. :stacke:
I wish I had a systematic way of handling wood. It really depends on where I'm sourcing it from. Right now we're cutting tops on some land that was clear-cut but didn't have a mill on site, so they left a lot. Sometimes I get a call from a local village that is taking down treelawn trees that are 3'+ in dia and are cut to 8-10' lengths. I haul them home in my dump trailer and pick a dry spot to dump so I can get as many loads as possible. Other times I have a tree guy on the east side of Cleveland who hunts turkey here in exchange for oak logs. When he gets a good job he'll load my 20' 12k flatbed in about 20 mins with red oak. Worth the drive for me. I have an MX 5100 Kubota with forks to unload, so sometimes I'll get 2 or 3 loads a day. I usually run across the scales at the feedmill and most times I figure by green weight, I have close to 2 cords per trip. Fuel usually runs $25-30 per trip, not too bad and little work on my end until I get it home. All this to say, soil conditions, the speed I need to move in order to get it home, the trailer used and state of the wood will dictate how I handle stacking after splitting. I prefer to split out of the dump trailer, Pug or pickup and stack in my shed off the splitter. Unfortunately, that rarely happens. Usually, especially with the big stuff, I'm using the loader with log tongs hanging off the bucket to feed rounds into the vertical splitter so the splits get tossed into a pile until weather permits moving to the shed. Sometimes it's the same day, sometimes it has to wait til it freezes or dries up.
Welcome to the club Casper, sounds to me like you are doing it right. Get the wood when you can, and get it home. But you're gonna hafta have pics, or we can't be sure it ever happened.
Honestly, it never occurred to me to take pictures of firewood gathering, splitting, piles and finished stacks. I'll have to rethink that now. I do, on occasion video of stuff my kids do to send to my wife while we're out cutting. Here is my youngest using a top as a redneck trampoline. This is the location we have been cutting out of the past two months. We're on hold til things either freeze up or dry up.
I used to love playing on trees like that when I was a kid. To be honest, I never took pictures of working with my wood processing until I joined either, so don't feel bad. In fact at the time when I took some photos, my wife was saying, What are you doing? I said they want to see pictures, she looked at me like I was nuts, shook her head and walked away.
Same way NH mountain man ... I got saw gas oil chains wedges ppe axe etc etc never thought of camera! then I came here
BS I just bought a pair of 12" for $48.00. Best money spent on firewood in a long time. No more bending all the time to load and unload the trailer. And two for that price I thought was great.
Hand split, stack as I go. the job isn't done till the wood is stacked. If I get interrupted, I don't want a pile of splits sitting on the ground.
What I've found with any stage of the firewood processing is focusing on too may tasks at one time reduces productivity- and any well laid plan should have some fudge factor involved. Size up a tree you plan to have stacked by the afternoon and you'll be a whole day getting dropped after it hangs up in an adjacent tree. Day two bucked and moved to splitting area, take down some other trees interfering with getting the trailer out of the woods - more rounds. Day three split and stack it all after spending a bit of time leveling the skids so it doesn't tip over in the next 3 years. Sometimes it goes smoother(especially smaller trees) and everything is dropped, split, stacked with a cold beer or two by mid afternoon.
I split a wheel barrow load, then stack. Then split again. Breaks up the stacking, which is the only part of the wood burning process I don't like. Chief Edit: I shouldn't say I don't like stacking, because I'm always proud of my stacks when I get done.
Hey Hydro, Your earlier comment about the conveyor reminded me of a process I've seen guys use here. Cut & split however you do it, then use an old hay elevator/conveyor to dump the wood into wire corn cribs. They stand on concrete pads, & have a steel roof that allows for good airflow. Fellas say their wood dries well, & it looks pretty efficient. Just a thought.
Ya I'm bad for stacking, in the summer I stack when I'm finished splitting in the winter it tends to pile up until I'm motivated to stack it. Darn snow gets in the way.
I split a big pile this past summer and the heat just got to me. I figured I'd just leave it lay and get up bright and early to stack it before it got to hot. Next morning I get myself out the bed slowly lol and head for the fresh pile. I bet I hadn't picked up three pieces of wood and what comes rolling up out that stack.. oh you know what it was NO SHOULDERS himself lol. I had to let that one lay until I caught a cool day.
