Do You Have A Wood Processing Routine? - Here Is Mine Just For Fun

I appreciate how organized the OP is. Seems like an efficient use of time.

I usually don't plan too far ahead. Personally I try to keep my chain sharp when I know I'll be cutting in the next few days. I prefer to cut early afternoon on a day without full sun. I fell and buck and the bring my splitter to the rounds so that I'm only lifting each round once and throw the splits into my 5x10 trailer to stack usually the next day or weekend.

 

Nice process!!

Mine is constantly evolving but currently it looks like this:

1. Get tree service to deliver wood (90% of my wood). Either I ask for wood or he just texts me and asks if I want it.
2. Move cars out of the way on the driveway all the way to the side.
3. Take delivery and then whip out the Stihl (lately) to make cookies on the long pieces to trim
'em down to 16".
4. Put cookies aside to chop up later. (This may change if I am able to sell them online)
5. Before splitting I clean up all the sawdust from chainsawing and dump them into my compost pile.
6. Get the x27 and the tire and start splitting. I always take the easy pieces first.
7. Once a garden cart is full of wood I bring it over to stack immediately.
8. Rinse and repeat 48 times with lots of gatorade breaks.
9. Sweep up chips from splitting and put them in a 44 gallon garbage can. Once the can is full I will run it through the wood chipper. Then it goes into compost or the wood chip pile.
10. Update spreadsheet (bad at doing this step and doing it now).
11. Pass out at 7:30pm. Speaking of which, it's time for bed.
12. Give away rounds I don't want (super knotty or too short or perfect ones just because I am running out of space).
13. Give away cutoffs for firepit burners to neighbors.
14. Make kindling if I do keep some shorties.

Typically just make coffee in the morning and don't eat till 3 or 4 pm....but by then I'm ready to eat a horse.

 

No.
But I do think things thru so I don't end up a quarter of a mile into the woods without anything important, such as, say, a saw.

 

Most of my cutting is on national forest. It's usually a 60-90 mile round trip so leave at 4-5 am. I mostly take 2 saws, fiskars x27, there is always wedges, files, etc in the truck. When i cut I'm looking for trees that are 20-27 inches across the stump after it's down. Not interested in cutting huge trees anymore, my back can't take it anymore. I usually split everything once and load it, anything difficult gets noodled.

 

Do you bring a trailer? How much can you transport at a time? With the long bed I can only do 40% of a cord and that's only if it's split and stacked tight. I wish I had a trailer.

 

Nice routine! I get everything ready the day before and pack up and head out in the morning if going to another location. I try and cut for a couple of hours per day for the exercise and load when I have a couple of loads to bring home to work up at my leisure. My neighbors are too close so I let them have quiet when cutting at home.

 

No strict routine here. Starts with scouring FB marketplace for free wood, used to be CL. When I find it, I prep specific saw for the size of the wood, which is a lot of times, very large.


Then it's load saws and process in pieces that can be managed. Rinse repeat till it's all home.


I mound it up, trying to put small stuff on the bottom so I don't have to lift the heavies from ground level.



Then I split straight into a trailer and stack.

 

I text my Tree Service friend that I am ready to do some cutting. He will text back with an address. Then my firewood cutting buddy and I go check out the site. Saw and chain prep and load the truck with cutting paraphernalia (peavey, pickaroons, gas, files, wedges, axes and mauls). 2 chainsaws go in last (can't risk them walking away). Hook up the trailer and do a light check. We usually drop the first load at my friends and the second I back up to my splitting area. I unload a round at a time to the nearby splitter and load the splits directly to the wheelbarrow or sometimes two wheelbarrows. I stack the wheelers of wood and the splitting starts again. I will unload the trailered rounds only if I have to immediately get another load. I really prefer to load the splitter from the trailer as there is less bending and lifting.

 

No trailer. It's very common to have to drive the truck uphill, downhill, through creeks, etc. Very little good wood right next to the main gravel road. Usually the dead trees are in a thicket of live trees, and it's a chore sometimes just to get the truck close enough. I could leave my trailer sitting on a road and shuttle the first cord back to the trailer, but I don't unless I have multiple people to help.

 

That sounds like tough work.

 

Lord of the flies the saving grace is that there dead trees, and it's conifers so alot lighter than oak, locust, etc. Sometimes I do end up cutting on pretty level ground, but that's usually pine. Most everyone here runs 3/4 or 1 ton trucks with racks that will haul 1-1.5 cord.

 

I almost exclusively cut at a friend’s ranch 25 miles away. I leave my splitter there during the fall to spring. I pack saws, tools fuel etc in the truck/trailer tool boxs. Once I get to the ranch I pull the splitter behind the trailer to where I am cutting. It all gets split and loaded in the trailer. rarely in the pickup. I store wood off site, no wood stove at my place. I still cut to sell and give away.
I used to cut rounds, bring them home to split, then move them to my backyard. So much more handling, but was able to get more wood hauled out to split during the week.

 

After a while those conifers start getting heavy too though! When I found my first load of spruce (3 cord) they were cut so big by the tree service guys. It was maybe 32" dbh but lengthwise they cut it something crazy like 24"....so I had to split them in half before being able to even lift them!

 

I get tree guys to drop off wood. The trick here to get them to come is also taking wood chips. I usually take 10-15 trucks of wood and double that in chips. Only oak,locust or cherry. If they bring me bad stuff they don't come back. They have to pay high dumping fees to get rid of wood and chips here. Got enough wood last year to last me a couple of years before getting more.
I made pallet racks I can lift with my tractor. Split and stack directly onto wood skid, lift with tractor and put away, clean up splitting area and repeat.
I'm about 5 to 7 years ahead. I give wood to my neighbors and daughter. This year I'm burning wood from hurricane Sandy.
the pics show most of what was split last year. The skids stacked are 2 deep on bottom with one atop the back row. They will get moved under cover next spring.
I get the wood pallets around the corner. They are all oak and the top is almost solit with maybe 1/2 " gaps between wood.

 

15-20 trucks of wood??? What kind of trucks we talking about here? 10 cubic yard capacity or like a pickup truck? Are you talking about getting that much all at once? And DOUBLE that in chips? I wouldn't even know what to do with twice as much chips as I have wood......and I have a lot of wood. I still have half a truckload (so about 5 cubic yards) of chips I don't know what to do with. What do you do with all those chips? I have 3 huge compost piles already and that's probably more than double what I need for my little garden.

How much land do you have? I'm already jealous.

 

pics out of order

Step 1 Cut to log length and bring to the processing area About 3 acres.

Step two; buck to 16” and split
Step three stack and leave for a few years

Step 4 Bring to the wood deck and burn for 8 month plus!

 

It was crazy here for months and I couldn't say no for a while.

Here are the threads of me getting the wood and It was just about a year ago that I was getting the wood and chips!
Just got me a 2 more truckloads Great stuff and it’s not sweet gum
Truckload of old white oak if you want it.

some pics

 

I keep my saws stored full of fuel and oil with a sharp chain. Some times scrounging wood shows up on short notice. I keep a saw, fuel, oil, extra chain and files in the truck almost all the time.

Lately I've been picking up wood from an old trailer park being cleared out. When I drive by with 30 minutes to spare I cut some wood to haul home.

I'm a big fan of splitting wood right from the truck then stacking. Bed and tailgate are just right height wise to easily run splitter in horizontal configuration. I'll pull the splitter up next to my wood piles. I dislike handling wood more than absolutely needed.

But, I have a pile of scrounged pieces that were just 2 or 3 pieces at a time that didn't warrant rolling the splitter out. I need to work them all up while the kids are out of school. We got ice then snow in the last 24 hr so it won't happen soon.

 

My activities depend on the weather and how I feel. I don't have a tractor or anything so I get plenty of exercise...

But in general, I'll drop one or two dead or leaning trees, limb them on site and bring the logs or rounds back closer to the house with a large wagon. I'll stack the rounds and finish cutting up the logs and make stacks down in the lower field. When the logs are aged for about a year I'll split them into quarters and stack then in the sheds near the house for another two years till they are seasoned.

 

Lately, I've slowed down to a snails crawl... ... but here's how I did my thing in 2014. Have sold the Suzuki, and burn very little now...
Stump to stove... Stinny | Firewood Hoarders Club