If I'm ever forced to deal with a pile in the summer, I always run a weed eater around it...needed or not...just to make some racket and vibrations to let those damm critters know I'm a coming and if I see em, we're doing mag dumps into the log pile
I only stack in single rows, not much over 4' though.(just enough for shrinkage) Multiple rows here season like crap. As for the falling as they dry, I have had issues but now use a floor jack to lift/shim them straight and level the base as needed.
Finished cutting load of logs I had delivered. Had some help today Gave the Husky 51 a slight work out Will be split and stacked tomorrow.
Looks like good help! My grandkids love to help me. I really like the "table" on your splitter. I need to do that to mine. Speaking of critters in the wood stacks, I have a resident mouse I call Thomas in my wood shed. I feed him in a little bowel. It keeps him out of other stuff. Mimi thinks I'm nuts (probably so) but Thomas and I are buddies. He greets me in the morning for coffee. He's not to happy with me right now because I got to his nest in the wood stacks
I stack at the end of a day's splitting, mostly just because I hate to see my split wood sit on the damp ground. Sometimes it will sit for weeks if I get busy and don't return to the wood pile, so I stack immediately.
I'm trying a different technique. Drip-Dry. I'm using maple tops with bittersweet vines to hang this ash. Heavy leaner I spotted yesterday. Now I know why it was leaning and not laying. I'm going to give it some time, wind and gravity to see if it changes its mind.
I'll check on next weekend. If it's still up there I'll either yank it out or take the swamp maple that helping it levitate. Kind of BOGO. But what a mess.
Yup, I fight both grapes and bittersweet. I try to work with or around the grapes. The bittersweet I spend time on every year trying stem the tide by cutting or clipping them, especially on the tree lines of the field.
Having a little age on me, I tend not to avoid bending. Most of my wood comes to me in large rounds or 10' logs. The logs are cut into rounds. The rounds are then rolled or scooped into the bucket of the Skid Steer. Normally 2 to 4 rounds per bucket load and off to the splitter. Bucket is raised to the height of my splitter and rounds are dragged off and split. The splits go right back into the bucket and off to the stack. Not very efficient, but sure is easy on the back. The only bending is getting the rounds into the bucket.
I cut, split, and stack one pickup load at a time, I am in no particular hurry and find splitting the wood right out of the pickup saves me from bending over, plus the wood is done and I dont have a pile of wood laying around.
There are a few items that I find essential in Firewood Hoarding. And not the least of which is the pulper hook. This saves wear and tear on the body nearly as much as the splitter does; especially the back. Well, that might be a stretch. But for the $29 I spent for it, it made its money back the first time I used it. This one is a Carant and has a replaceable tip, thus the electric tape keeping the set screw from backing out. Notice the tit on the end of the hook. In there lies the magic. It grabs and holds the round. Some pulp hooks just have a needlepoint. Avoid those unless you just want to puncture your shin. This thing is the best thing since sliced bread, and way better than Mypillow, when it comes to fatigue and back stress. I Highly recommend this for anyone who sling rounds, especially if you have a horizontal splitter.
I was out splitting by hand today. When the wheelbarrow got full I started stacking it. That makes for one less time I need to handle it.
Wow sorry guys don't know how the picture of me and the little one got on there LOl....that was a older picture when she was sick!!!! Also those are just piles of wood, some are split, some are just piles of rounds.... I don't have many pics of my stacked piles....
