Today was a Fiskars day. For the most part they did well. Cherry #1 piece of cake Cherry #2 piece of cake But the red oak was kinda like me. (stubborn) I got a nice pile split But 10 rounds laughed at me. I might go get an Amish kid with his dad’s hydro. We will see. No firewooding till next Tuesday. We heading up north.
We just spent 5 wonderful days at our cabin with friends and family. Not sure how 9 people slept in a 1000 sq ft cabin Saturday night. All I know is I slept in my own bed. Had many campfires and beautiful sunsets. The cabin was 57 F Thursday when we opened it up. Not for long I lit up some very dry oak. First fire. Back to firewooding tomorrow if it don’t rain
Today’s project was filling the garage with this winters wood. Wife helped and we got done just as it started to rain. I have a smidge over 3 full cords stacked in the garage and basement. I am ready to rock and roll,,
Not really. This wood is 3 year dry and the stuff in the basement I spray occasionally for spiders mainly.
My amish neighbor just bought 3 face cords of dry oak. His wood is all “green” and wants to mix mine with his. They never get their wood properly seasoned but that’s his problem not mine,,
My firewood sales have been slow. I have sold 8 face cords and only have 8 remaining that is dry. My amish neighbor just came over with a huge flatbed wagon hooked up to his skid loader. We got a full cord of oak on it. $360 and I didn’t have to deliver it! No pics they don’t allow it. And this morning I cleaned up my drying pad and scored 3 fresh pallets. Here’s something you don’t see everyday my drying pad only has a couple arm loads of wood on it. I’ll have it back to full in a week. I start refilling my 26/27 stash tomorrow. And I hauled the two loads of black cherry to my monster woods pile. There’s always something to do.
Progress was made on processing my 26/27 stash. I hauled 3 loads from my woods pile and used the hydro in the shed to fine tune those large splits. I split my personal firewood way smaller than my for sale firewood. I don’t want any large “overnighters” it is more efficient for me to fill all the nook and crannies of the firebox with smaller splits. My gravel pad is not half full yet but Rome wasn’t built in a day. The 3rd load is in the shed I will go out and split it after supper. I leave the front of the trailer empty so I have space to stack my splits. No wood touches the floor I have my system down. And when I was getting the last load in my woods a nice wide 9 point buck was a watching me,,
This morning I stacked the wood I split last night then decided to do something else. I choose to pick up 2 loads of split oak in my woods and haul it to the monster pile. I guess I just got bored splitting? The second load was smaller I thought maybe it would fill this hole? It kinda did. I had my ATV ramp with so I rolled up those big oak rounds that I couldn’t hand split. Gonna be waiting Monday night when Benjamin my amish buddy gets off the bus. We will split them vertical with his dad’s hydro. No firewooding til Tuesday we heading to the cabin again. It’s lovely up there in the fall.
“Houston, we have a problem” Got back into firewood today but not for long. Had fire shooting out of my DR splitter junction box. yowser Got the Fluke out. On/Off good. Breaker good. Capacitor good. Two burnt leads and a melted terminal block all I could find. Three wago’s later we were back in business. She’s running good once again. I split 2 face cords of oak. Nearly done with my 26/27 stash.
Fruitful day in the backyard Douglas Fir that fell a couple years ago from neighbours side of the property line and partially onto ours. They generously gave the go ahead to collect it Managed to collect the majority of it. Getting to the point now that the rounds are too large to handle solo, and the 18” bar is feeling a little out of its league Just picked up this saw last week and I’m impressed with the easy work it makes of cleaning up these trees. Going to split what I can by hand but might be needing to source a hydro for these larger rounds. A rental unit will do for the time being. Hope to acquire my own in the years ahead.
A good day was had. Got all my 26/27 stash split and in place on the drying pad. Where it will sit for 11 months. Not gonna top cover til late summer. Little over 2.6 cords a good mix of oak and cherry. Seems like my wood sales have created an opening in my shed. Gee, I wonder what will go in this hole? Stay tuned I’m on it,,,
So just how do I get my for sale oak under 20% in two years? Easy, just dont cut live fully leafed out trees down. I only cut dead or downed trees for firewood. Then I split it large and leave it on pallets in my woods for at least one year. When I pull those large splits out to process in the shed most of them are already mid to high 20’s. I split it down 3 to 6 inches then stack it tight in my shed in face cord rows. The shed is un insulated but it does have some ventilation -it gets really really hot out there in the summer. I basically bake the water out of it. I will sell no wood above 20% most of it is closer to 15%. My set up. I split into my wheelbarrow then just wheel it the empty hole. I toss anything cut longer than 16 inches to where I make my cribbed ends. This is a great way to stack those occasional 20 inchers. And as I go, anything cut short I turn into kindling and stack em on the Honda. Then I toss em outside between my rows. Kindling dries really well in that wind tunnel in 12 months. When done splitting a load all the bark and chaff gets picked up and taken to my ATV trails in the woods where it came from. Then just go to the monster pile and load up. I never stand between the trailer and the pile when loading. I learned this the hard way and have scars to prove it. I use an old broke off rake to pull the pile down before I even get close. All set up to get back after it tomorrow. I just love making firewood. Won’t take me long to get that hole full. Then I get the saws out for a little job.
My new Fbook customer just called. He is coming tomorrow for 3 face cords. And another fBook newby wants 2 FULL cords. If customer 1 takes his 3, customer 2 can only get 5 FACE cords cuz that’s all I have left that is dry. oh well I started with 16 dry face cords it will be nice to sell out,,,,,
