Let’s talk about firewood

[OpenCountry]

Last year sucked with having to fill a new fire wood shed up for the first year. It was a pile of cutting/splitting. Now I only cut 3-4 trailers per year. Half the shed holds one years worth of wood so I’m able to alternate years and always cutting two years ahead now. Buddy has a mill so we built the shed with all milled lumber .

 

[longtail55]

maybe its just me but here in the Midwest we have mulberry trees everywhere and tend to grow in the places people don't want them so pretty readily available. Nothing beats the smell and the snap, crackle, and pop of mulberry at the campfire. I think its a pretty wood also. Good thing my folks are farmers and live on a ranch where its readily available

 

[Redmt]

We have a couple more cords to cut for next winter. Anyone want well seasoned dry oak? We have hundreds of oaks killed in the 2020 fire. Bring a very sharp saw capable of 24" trees and come and get it.

 

[antlerradar]

Picture of the wood pile, 40 feet long, six feet wide and seven feet high. About a year and a half worth of supply.

 

[Redmt]

Picture of the wood pile, 40 feet long, six feet wide and seven feet high. About a year and a half worth of supply.View attachment 410752

Impressive. That's about 13 cords by rough calculations.

 

[Gellar]

I have added a headache rack though. After a new rear window was installed. mtmuley

Did you find out the hard way?

 

[mtmuley]

Did you find out the hard way?

Yep. Load slowly shifted forward. Finally the pressure blew out the widow. Sounded like a gun went off. Glass everywhere. Scared the shit out of me. mtmuley

 

[Keep on]

Splurged a little last October for my birthday. Big upgrade from the throw away Poulans I'd been using all my life.
Still split by hand, my dad is 84 and still uses a maul, won't allow myself to buy a splitter.

 

[mevertsen]

Man that’s a good sized juniper. What did the wood grain look like? I bet it would make a nice table. I’ll trade you something else to burn for just 1 of those trees.

Really not that good. This three was pretty gnarly. That big around but lots of other arms coming off of it. Some of the smaller stuff might hold together better.

Edit. Here's part of the stump. It we broke it up to load.

 

[Gellar]

Yep. Load slowly shifted forward. Finally the pressure blew out the widow. Sounded like a gun went off. Glass everywhere. Scared the shit out of me. mtmuley

I’ve broken a few. Drive my atv through the window once when I was loading it. F150 with a sliding rear window. They can’t replace just one panel and it’s cheaper to get a solid window. I had a seasonal kid a few years ago not latch the goose neck trailer. Luckily he had the chains latched but they were just long enough to come through the back glass on a single cab f250

 

[Redmt]

Splurged a little last October for my birthday. Big upgrade from the throw away Poulans I'd been using all my life.
Still split by hand, my dad is 84 and still uses a maul, won't allow myself to buy a splitter.

View attachment 410755

I bought one of those little 250's a couple years ago. My favorite is an 028 but it's cantankerous to start. I have a 391 with the compression release. I just can't start them as easily as I used to. My wife has a 20" bar Stihl battery saw. It almost comparable to the 250.

 

[mevertsen]

Ive got to say.

Some people's ability to cut perfectly straight and stack in a nice pile

This will get put in a shed, but it doesnt stack pretty. Lol

 

[El Jason]

Why not cut them on the mountain?

I used to do the same. Fill up a flatbed trailer in a day and then cut lengths as needed.

 

[Addicting]

Best day of my firewood lifestyle was the day I quit and sold the saw!

Such a great day to be alive!

 

[mtmuley]

Best day of my firewood lifestyle was the day I quit and sold the saw!

Such a great day to be alive!

I guess I can see that. Something about being on the mountain early in the morning and busting my ass still appeals to me. Makes me feel alive. I hope it never goes away. mtmuley

 

[psinclair]

I’ve always liked Douglas Fir, other than the bark can be a little messy.
This was the north end of the Bridgers a few decades ago. Bud worm killed stand of Fir.

 

[BuzzH]

I agree, Doug-fir is one of the best firewoods a person can get only wood better is Western Larch.


Growing up, we would cut about 25-30 cords a year about 10 cords each for our house, the neighbors, and my Grandfather.

Dad's neighbor bought a split axle studebaker that would hold give or take 3.5ish cords. Was a giant pain in the ass to fill that thing and we would usually start getting firewood about middle of June through September.

Long days as we would head over Lolo pass into shotgun creek to cut those big dead larch. Had 300 feet of cable with snatch blocks to pull some of them up to the road when we creamed all the "easy" stuff from the uphill side. It was really a small logging operation, and frankly, I don't miss it. Not sure how we never got killed or maimed.

Can't really top the quality of wood heat.

That said, the only firewood I cut anymore is for my wall tent stove, and that brings back all the memories/nightmares I need of cutting firewood.

 

[Addicting]

I guess I can see that. Something about being on the mountain early in the morning and busting my ass still appeals to me. Makes me feel alive. I hope it never goes away. mtmuley

We don’t have mountains, we have heavy hardwoods and mosquitoes.

Both make you wish you didn’t have to be doing it.

Best to do it in winter but playing catch up with the wood stove games got old. Seems like we could never get ahead with everything else we had to do in the farm.

 

[mtmuley]

Two different scenarios. I get it. mtmuley

 

[Steiny77]

I filled our wood shed in March with a bunch of really nice cherry that had blown down in wind storms.
It's all split up and drying. Will be ready by heating season.