It got up to -28°F ambient yesterday I got the truck running and went to work on a customers wood . They had got a log truck load in the past and needed the rest of it worked up . The breeze was blowing about 10 so I didn't get too warm . Shoveling work space and shovelingboff the stackbof logs took a lot of time . I got the whole stack marked for 16" and half of the 3 cord bucked . I use my 193T with the measurer on for marking lengths . And used the 565 Husky with 28" bar to dobthe gang bucking . Used the Jonsered to buck back on the front end of the stack to square thing up . Only had to get in the cab and warm up/thaw out . 5 times in 5 hours .. Its a multi day job . All the splitting will be with axes as its too cold to use a powered splitter .
Gotta hand it to you Alaskans! A hearty bunch. Way to get it done! At that temp id be inside by the fire watching you. Maybe bring a hot cocoa out for you once I got ten layers on!
4 layers on bottom, 5 on top . And of course boots made for the arctic. All polyester or wool or down . No Cotton !!! Cotton will kill ya in the Cold . Hardest thing to keep warm is my hands . Chopper mitts with 2 hand warmers each mitt work . Until they starve for oxygen and cool off . Or until I have to fuel up a saw or tighten a chain ect.
NICE!!! I went out cutting in single digits below 0° temps last winter. Gotta love the crunch of the snow as you are walking on it and trying to see whether the gap as you are bucking is either opening or closing through your breath as you breathe.
Cutting in cold temps like that definitely goes into my "no thanks" category! Thankfully, those days are over and looking back on them I can't believe they ever took place.
Working in that cold is no fun at all. I think the coldest I ever worked steady outdoors was -17 and I about froze. Hands, feet, ears and face was the worst. I remember it but do not wish to do it again.
Last winter when I went out I was excited to just see how I would do. It was the first time out cutting in below zero temps. I did just fine and didn't have any issues at all. One thing is for sure, it makes it much easier to keep 'er movin'! Sitting still for too long and one can start to get cold. LOL However, -17°/-28 are different animals!
When does your customer intend to burn this wood? Has it been sitting a while waiting to get processed? I, for one, am sometimes guilty of working harder and not smarter (or at least efficiently). At least the log pile was not completely obscured by snow. Have you considered using a leaf blower to remove the snow? Always good to be making forward progress even if it is slow. Can’t wait to see the processing complete, wood stacked and getting ready for the next heating season..
Personally, I never liked this way of looking at things. First off, I don't consider it "work". I view work as doing something you don't enjoy but have to do anyway. If one doesn't enjoy everything that's involved with burning of wood then maybe burning wood is not for them. I actually enjoy processing firewood, it's exercising with a purpose. I get to go outside and play with my toys. Just like as a kid you liked playing in the sandbox with toys, except these are grown men's toys and your playground is the woods. Now the whole "harder not smarter" thing. From who's POV? If one views it as exercise and NOT work, then exercising smarter would mean to me how to more efficiently get more exercise (repetition) out of what you are trying to do. This means the more you are touching/moving that single split of wood the more efficiently you are putting that single split of wood at work for YOU. From woods to furnace, I handle a single split of wood 10 times. I am more efficiently making use of that single split of wood. In the gym one typically does, say, 3 sets of 12 reps. Could you imagine if gyms had a big banner stating, "work smarter and not harder; just do each exercise one time and go home". It's all about perspective and how you choose to look at things. I choose to look at it as exercise, as I am not in need of anymore wood. I simply am doing it now for the exercise and for the joy it brings me to be outside playing with my toys on a cold winter day.
This wood is about as dry as wood can get outside it died in a Big full crown fire in 2013 and has been standing dead since then . We get around 11" of precipitation annually here . Not a bit of bark left on it . But still hard nut and bone dry. This wood was delivered to the customer 4 winters ago. As a log truck load. The customer is older than me and now have some health issues. At least they didn't wait till they were OUT of wood to call for help !!!!!!
For me , it's Work!! Work i get paid for , work that has some seriously sucky parts to it . Nice hands that are so cold i can't hardly get the door open on the truck to get in and warm up my fingers and hands. With the right gear . Which I've invested good sums of money into for my wife and I. But . It's HARD to get fingers warm . The rest of my body is Easy. Once I get warmed up, it's not as hard to keep them warm . But I still enjoy it. I've lived in cold country my whole life so the adventures of The Cold have lost much of their appeal I've gone to the woods at 45 below and worked all day and had 55 below by the time I got the load unloaded at the customer's I've spent more days in the woods at colder than 20 below F than most on here have spent days in the woods . It's just life as an Alaskan gypo timber beast . Sure beats sitting at a computer all day . And I know that because I got me a job on base in March and toughed it out for almost 5 months. My conclusion after that was if any professional tool we use was built as horribly as the computer programs I had to navigate through were . We would still be swing axes and pulling hand saws .
Yesterday it was another warm day . 10 below what I started the truck. 6 below when/where I went to work . Had some Challenges with my saws getting them to work . Finally got stuff happening and finished gang bucking the logs that weren't on the ground . Then got to splitting . Did 75% of this load with Stubby . My Kelly St Catherine's wore out Tassie. Head weight 3.5 lbs . Originally 4.5 lbs . Full Wood Bullet shape now . . It easily out splits the X27 . I put a House Handles straight 28 on it . For the tough ones . I used my Big GB . 4 lb 14 oz tassie with 30" curved House Handle. This the first time I've split close to a cord in 1 day with hand tools since 2012 .
That is excellent work, my friend. I can tell that axe has met many a piece of wood. I can't imagine those temps... What happens with cotton clothes? I know wool and down are very warm... Just trying to learn something new...
Cotton Cotton absorbs water and mostly retains it . Wether from persperation , precipitation or snow . Cotton will suck the heat out of ya almost as fast as falling into cold water. Synthetics like polyester or natural fibers like wool , have the ability to wick and transfer water from the skin and move it to the outside. Plus they have the ability to insulatewhen they are wet, even saturated .
