Let’s talk about firewood

[44hunter45]

The men in our family were all woodsman. From splitting redwood for grape stakes, fence post or shingles. But we cut a lot more oak and madrone for fire wood, with Doug fir in the mix. My Dad would not leave a massive Doug fir knot in the woods. He cut it with the chainsaw if he couldn’t split it. Always said it will burn all night. I miss those days….

If you cut Madrone, then you have had Poison Oak a time or two.

I never could do one without the other in my Santa Cruz County days.

The green and blue flames from Madrone are wasted in an enclosed stove. So cool to watch!

 

[MTLabrador]

My dad and brother both lost multiple large pines in wind storms since last winter. This years firewood will be ridiculously easy to collect

My folks lost a big spruce a year ago that I cut up. Unfortunately it’s a knotted tangled mess and I haven’t even tried to split any yet.

 

[adoc65]

I split all of mine with a maul, but have to admit some of the stuff with a lot of knots, I use the chain saw.

All the firewood I did with my Dad was all maul or axe.

 

[adoc65]

If you cut Madrone, then you have had Poison Oak a time or two.

I never could do one without the other in my Santa Cruz County days.

The green and blue flames from Madrone are wasted in an enclosed stove. So cool to watch!

Plenty of poison oak in my lifetime. Nothing like a bleach bath and scratch it to get rid of it while in the tub. My Dad said that an old timer he worked with in the woods told him to eat some poison oak and he would never get it again. I don’t remember Dad ever getting poison oak.

 

[Redmt]

When my son was a teenager, he's 51 now, we would hand split 3-4 cords of oak a year. It was a chore. When he would have a teenage "infraction" instead of the usual type punishment he would have to split a pile of firewood to work it off. One afternoon I hear him outside splitting wood. For the life of me I can't remember what he might have done. I started to fear that he had been put on wood splitting detail and that I couldn't remember why. I asked my wife and she didn't know why either. I walked over and asked him finally why he was splitting wood ? He gave me an answer without breaking stride. "Credit. I'm building credit".

Next story. He and a couple buddies and their girlfriends are at the County Fair. There was a sledgehammer and bell game and a bunch of muscle boys trying to ring the bell and impress their girlfriends. He waits until they were done, pays his money, steps up and rings the bell loudly. This gets lots of comments from the muscle boys and said it was just lucky that this little guy hit it perfectly and rang the bell. They bet him he couldn't do it again. They were wrong. He says to them " I've been splitting firewood since I could swing a maul"

 

[Caseknife]

Been cutting firewood my whole life. Somewhere there is a picture of me about 4 years old carrying a piece of firewood and not looking too happy.

 

[Jack Ryan]

Plenty of poison oak in my lifetime. Nothing like a bleach bath and scratch it to get rid of it while in the tub. My Dad said that an old timer he worked with in the woods told him to eat some poison oak and he would never get it again. I don’t remember Dad ever getting poison oak.

That would be a big mistake.

 

[44hunter45]

That would be a big mistake.

The old wive's tale when I was growing up was that you are supposed to get goats to eat the Poison Oak and then drink their milk.

 

[44hunter45]

Just got the hay in the barn. Now I'm ready to think about firewood.

I rebuilt the insert in this spring and it backdrafts bad and smokes. The liner cap in the brick chimney blew off in the December windstorms. I'm going to have to get up there and seal the gap around the liner to stop it. MRS ain't happy about me being on the roof these days. It will happen when she is not here. As the good book says, "If I perish, I perish."

My MS361 finally gave up after many years of 44hunter45 hard use. Still runs strong but the opening in the crankcase for the bar oil cap is run out and it leaks too much bar oil. (Insert rant about how much better the old Stihl screw in caps were...)
I'm headed to CDA to look at a used MS362 tomorrow.

Find a 038. Good ones few and far between but one Hell of a saw. mtmuley

So I did get the MS362 today. Also got a newfangled cam-less oil reservoir cap for the MS361. Win Win.
Getting a new chainsaw is as fun as getting a new rifle.

 

[adoc65]

So I did get the MS362 today. Also got a newfangled cam-less oil reservoir cap for the MS361. Win Win.
Getting a new chainsaw is as fun as getting a new rifle.

Now to get it super tuned…..

My BIL is a faller and his Stihl sounds like a 250 two stroke dirt bike. It’s awesome! Bored out and just an animal.

 

[Caseknife]

If Dad didn't have 15 cord of firewood in the pile, he was running short. Only burned about 6 cord a winter. 1946 CJ2A pulling a old Chevy pick up box/frame with side racks as a trailer. PTO winch on the front brought down many hung up big doug fir and tamarack. Some took yards of cable and multi-pulley blocks to accomplish the feat. A few times we had to go home to get more gear and hope someone didn't get to "our tree" before we got back.
When I was on my own in college, had an old Franklin stove to heat with, it was the home we grew up in, built in 1910. Had a '74 CJ-5 and home built trailer that would hold an even cord of wood. Bought a used Husky that a faller had hopped up, 32" bar, can't remember the model. Had been driving by a few old long butts on a landing for years. Stopped one day while in the woods looking for a firewood tree. Those two long butts were solid doug fir, no knots, about 10' long and 4' in diameter. Had to cut from both sides with that 32" bar, but one load, a full cord, was only 5-16" blocks. Spend 20 minutes cutting with the saw and an hour with the mall and wedge and had a trailer load. The second load was 6 blocks, glad I stopped to look at those long butts.

 

[Jack Ryan]

The old wive's tale when I was growing up was that you are supposed to get goats to eat the Poison Oak and then drink their milk.

I would get it head to toe as a kid, shots, doctors, clorox I've had it all. None of that bull works. Clue, if it sounds like a stupid idea, it is. If you'd rather see someone ELSE try it first, its a stupid idea. Don't spread it, people get desperate.

The flat truth is it is an oil on the plant. Urushiol people are allergic to. It is like axel grease and spreads and gets all over everything because you don't know it is on you until it starts to ith, hours later after you've spread it all over everything from shoe laces to hat brim and coated the dog with it.

EVERYONE IS ALLERGIC TO IT. Ignore what they say, they are. It is just a matter of tolerance. How many times a person gets exposed before THEIR body says "thats it, NOW YOU PAY" and they will react to it from then on.

Use hand cream, vasoline, what ever BEFORE EXPOSURE if you KNOW you are going in the danger zone today. Take a benadryll, or a Zantac or a Zertec before you get in to it. Do all that "danger" stuff at once and then quit. Take all those contaminated cloths off and wash them like they were ruined with radio active axle grease.

Meanwhile get your self straight in to the shower and scrub with soap and rinse, a few cycles like you are trying to get road tar and feathers off your skin.

The quicker you get that done, less exposure, and the more thoroughly done, and don't "pet the dog", the less your poison ivy, poison oak, giant hog weed suffering will be.


Or you can just have a poison ivy salad for lunch like great grampa NEVER DID. HE JUST THOUGHT IT WAS A FUNNY STORY. That is sarcasm.

 

[Hem]

No fun taking a chit in a patch of 7' Stinging Nettles.

 

[mtmuley]

No fun taking a chit in a patch of 7' Stinging Nettles.

I got bucked off of a horse into a patch of nettles one time. She was a miserable bitch every time she was first saddled. I was not feeling it but my Dad made me get back on and smooth her out. mtmuley

 

[Redmt]

I've taken out poison oak bushes with a dozer and gotten it from the damn tractor days later. It's evil shit.

 

[Hem]

I got bucked off of a horse into a patch of nettles one time. She was a miserable bitch every time she was first saddled. I was not feeling it but my Dad made me get back on and smooth her out. mtmuley

I was racing my stepbrother on bikes down a steep gravel road. He was younger, gave him a head start. I caught him right at the finish line but lost control, went off a 4' ledge on the roadside and heels over head into a patch of old growth blackberries.
What a mess.