Too rainy and wet to do much outside today. I painted the head of the pickaroon red so I could find it easier if I left it on the ground. In the pics you can see why I had them dumped on a hill on top of woodchips. Went out and started them down the hill. Tried to line up the bigger rounds to self fee toward the splitter. Just have to help them a little and let gravity help. I made 2 more skids the other day and filled them so I have to make some more tomorrow.
I know many don’t like to use wood pallets cause they rot eventually I think I’ve been making and using them for the last 10 years. To be honest only a few of the ones with wood sides have failed with rotten wood. That’s because I only use oak pallets for the wood any softwood pallets get placed under them to rot along with the really thin oak pallets. Here are some pics of Pallets that have been outside for at least 8 years. The lower sacrificial ones show a lot of rot and are probably only 2 or 3 years old. I just moved all of them to put em on top of fresh wood chips. These are the worst condition pallets I could find.
The last thing I got done today was to redo the extension I put on the rear of my old Craftsman mower. Only used for towing splitter or dragging a roll of chain link around yard to smooth it. No mower deck. The extension brings the ball well past the rear of the mower and up high for the splitter. No need to remove splitter to use it either. Straightened out metal that bent over the years and welded and bolted it back together. The parts to do this came from a donor Craftsman that I completely disassembled. Boy did I get a lot of bolts from that one!
Midwinter looks like there's more there, than is really left. Getting close to the end of load. Beautiful wood!
yes, the neighbor there dumps them against the chain link fence. the ground rises from the bottom of the pic up 6-8 ft to the fence, not his fence either
Today I had to put together 2 more skids to fill with splits. I’m doing the same as described above. Split wood, put on skid repeat. The logs rolling down to the splitter worked great. Couple of hits with the pickaroon to help them along. A couple rolled all the way on their own! Think I got most of the bigger rounds done. Took a bunch more pics.
I’m thinking 4 or 5 more skids to finish the truckload of white oak. Most of the biggest rounds are done but there could still be some hiding in the 2 piles left. In the pic of skids lined up, the ones split today are to the right. Tractor could only lift them up a foot, very heavy!
Chazsbetterhalf You mentioned that before! Ok I'm game. big square one, round? cushion on a milk crate? Please post a pic of your setup.
Good job mikeward . Wish my wood could look half as nice. Always end up with lots of shorts and uglies.
Then Willie the first wood guy texted, do I want a truck of wood (oak) and another of chips. Sure, of course I thought they might have been done till after winter. Willie said another truck of each tomorrow.
I bet it's nice to be done! But the wood fire hose never stops spraying you! BTW your pallet stacks are beautiful.
Midwinter yes it is nice but this is the first truck and I really wanted to get it done now. I have maybe 5 more good oak pallets to make into racks. Then that’s it until spring. The place around the corner has a great supply of oak pallets but this time of year everyone takes them to burn. The rest of the year I can get all I want. Since this started I’ve slapped together 8 new pallets. Just to get thru the white oak truck! As he was leaving Willie said see you tomorrow. I don’t know if it’s wood or chips — probably both. A friend is coming over next week to use my splitter and split all he wants. Another week and I think I will tap out of this lucrative wood assembly line. I have saved an awful lot of wood and chips from the dumps and I’ve got to have 5 years worth sitting here.
Thanks, thought I would just write up what I did with oak from the one truck till it was all processed!
