Once I started scrounging for wood it seems I can't stop. The wife says I need to pump the breaks! At least until I get the wood shed built and get what I have split and stacked. I guess she's right. This is how I spent my Saturday. Found a FB MP post just 15 minutes from our house. A new house going up deep in some woods. They had more than I could take just from clearing the area for the house and driveway. A guy could spend days just cleaning up some of the old down stuff in the area around the house. This is what I got before my body asked me to quit. At least someone was getting some fishing done! Check way in the background.
Once the bugs show up and the summer temps/humidity is here, you'll thank yourself for getting it now. Make sure you go back and get all you can now. And about your wife's comments in your post, well.......
Get all you can cut and split now before the bugs and heat show up. Also tell your wife its like money in the bank.
Like the other guys said, hoard all you can now. March is my favorite month for firewood gathering/processing. Perfect temperatures plus you get the spring warmth and low humidity next couple months for good drying weather of the splits.
Yes it sure is an addiction and im loving your enthusiasm. Gets my hoarding bug going again. Doesn't take much for me! Plenty of free wood if one knows where to look and FBM is a great source. Im amazed that in a Northern state as yours any free wood can be found. Great that you can cut it to your specs too. My suggestion is get what you have tidied up a bit and organized. Maybe the wife can help? Stack all the rounds on pallets or sleepers off the ground if you cant process it right away or split and stack what you have on hand. The nice thing is you can get pickier with what you decide to take as your hoard grows. The appeal to the FHC three year plan. Trust me I know the feeling when you have a lot of wood to haul home and for "unseen reasons" you cant. Great score by the way! Hoard on and cut safe.
Those posts for free wood could dry up, and soon. The old saying.. make hay while the sun shines. Hoard on!!
Everything is off the ground. Busy the next few weeks but the splitting and stacking will start shortly. This isn't a lot of wood for much of you...but for me this is a HUGE stack. The stuff on the right is split off chunks of large rounds but still need to be split smaller as well. I currently only have about a face cord split and stacked from last fall. That 3 year plan seems a long way off at the moment.
To hand split that is a huge stack. How good is Mrs. MLH68 with an axe? Give it time and it will happen. You've been bitten by the bug which is a big plus.
Oh no...the maul was just there for reference and because we quickly hand split the dried stuff I posted on the ID post. And Mrs did it her self! She wanted to try it and it was her first time swing an axe. I bought a 40 ton Champion last fall. I only used it once to this point. Even with the Champion it is a big stack to a rookie wood scrounge like me.
I find making wood to be rewarding. Don't think of it as overwhelming and it won't be. Have learned over the years that if I treat making wood as a chore, that's what it becomes. I'm sore right now from a couple hours of work yesterday and happy about it.
Yeah, other than wood cutting March is probably my least favorite month too. Very dry here in central PA this year so woods and dirt roads are good, and my wood processing area is shale, sawdust and bark so mud is not an issue.
