I have been practicing a little bit of forestry and thinning around my place. Our native alder will be ready to burn in 2015/16. But I only burn about 2.5 cords a winter. Insulation, climate, and house size are the reasons.
It pains me to watch...
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A "head light" works great, one with an array of leds. Been known to use one busting up a few sticks after sundown.
pennsywoodburnr
supreme scrounger
No way could I possibly work in the dark with just that. Once the sun goes down I put the tools back in the shed and call it a night. Anything else I've got planned can wait for the next day. Those rounds you knocked apart after dark......were those for the stove that night or were you just bored? lol
Chris-PA
Where the Wild Things Are
Yeah, I've got one of those and it works great, but to me that's for "emergency" work after dark, and I can't imagine trying to split wood with one unless I was freezing.
I will say though that I was walking around under the last harvest moon, and I went over to the splitting area closest to the house. I could have easily split wood that night, no problem at all!
I mentioned busting "sticks" not "rounds" if you look back. Implying activity less feverish than assaulting full rounds. Having no intention to visit local ER, I tend to stay within my "envelope" without being told.
pennsywoodburnr
supreme scrounger
Oops, my bad. I thought when you said sticks that's what you were talking about.
Dalmatian90
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I was surprised how well -- probably split a full cord of rounds last year wearing a mid-grade hiking one (so not terribly expensive, but not a cheapy either).
Halloween I was out after dark splitting away, realized if any kid for the first time did wander up my driveway with me with an axe and headlamp in an otherwise dark yard, boy they'd have a story.
On that note one time I did 7 cords in an afternoon with the last couple cords by headlamp, in the rain. Wasn't the most enjoyable but had a rented splitter and needed to get the job done.
As long as a guy has enough lighting to not have safety issues I see no problem with it. Although working at night may often mean the person is tired and/or drinking which could be a recipe for trouble.
As long as a guy has enough lighting to not have safety issues I see no problem with it. Although working at night may often mean the person is tired and/or drinking which could be a recipe for trouble.
BillNole
ArboristSite Operative
I've never figured out how some of you guys are able to get so much done in the time indicated. Given that a cord of wood is a 4 foot tall stack of 16" sticks that's 24 feet long, 7 cords of it would result in 168 feet of it! Considering that I've slowed down a bit due to my ever increasing years, I'm good if I get a couple of cords done at one time anymore, but 7 straight in one afternoon would probably put me in the hospital, especially given the pace necessary to do that! Heck, I don't know that I could ever have done that and I've worked more than one or two people into the ground over the years.
Since I just recently began enlisting the help of my 15 year old son in splitting, I could probably up it a bit, but we'd still be using just the one splitter and a maul or Fiskars, so we couldn't count on too much increase.
Kudos to you for such a pace!
With a good hydro I can keep pace of a cord an hour by myself. That's with minimal breaks and wood that splits fairly easily. Also having the rounds stacked in a long row and move to splitter along it help a lot.
With that being said I'm in fairly good shape (save for a few #'s around the waist) in my mid 30's and that's not a pace that could be maintained indefinitely. I've done a couple of 10 cord days and definitely felt it the next day.
Having converted to hand splitting now I usually do about 2 cords and then do something else for the rest of the day.
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I sometimes work in the dark during summer because it's cooler. I just hook up a bunch of worklights and split wood or I have lots of lights on the tractor and just move wood around.
BillNole
ArboristSite Operative
Yeah, that's more my speed. A cord or two while puttering around doing other things.
I split everything by hand up until finally buying a hydraulic splitter last year. I still enjoy swinging a maul, but finally used the hydraulic this Summer and it has become my main method.
Since I burn less than 2 cords a year, I'm really not pressed to put up much more than that a season, or I'd get over run. I think about getting and splitting more and selling it, but then rethink it and decide not to. Maybe one day...
I find hand splitting more enjoyable and also splitting as you go gets the wood drying sooner than stockpiling for 6 months and banging it all through with a rented splitter in a day or two.
I don't normally have the hard to split species around here so not many make it past the Fiskars. Those that do get noodled.
With that being said, I've got a ton of dying/dead wood to do this winter and have arranged for a borrowed splitter from October through spring so I should go from 1 year ahead to 5-6 years by the time the snow melts.
zogger
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Well I finally cut some wood this weekend. Now I am about FOUR WEEKS AHEAD!!!! wooohoooo!!!!!
And it's pretty much all dead ash that dried on the stem.
And it's pretty much all dead ash that dried on the stem.
marcy-m
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I'm curious about your summers. I'm in Texas where we usually live in the fires of hell in summer to pay for our gorgeous fall / spring and spotty, mild winters. I wonder if our summers dry wood faster.
Either way, I hope I'm more than a year ahead now. We burned mixed old and new wood that we could barely stay ahead splitting all winter. It's all new to us in this house. We used to have our own woods to scrounge for standing dead wood.
After last winter I said, "This can't happen again." I don't like seeing my kids piled under blankets and still cold. (We don't really acclimate to the cold either because every so often we'll have a week or days of tshirt weather.)
So, The kids and I made hay while the sun was shining this last spring with a bunch of scrounged curb wood.
A problem for us is where to store the wood before it comes in the house. No covered storage areas. I cleared a wall by the stove for wood storage, but none of it's grey yet
. Well, eventually we'll get there!
Either way, I hope I'm more than a year ahead now. We burned mixed old and new wood that we could barely stay ahead splitting all winter. It's all new to us in this house. We used to have our own woods to scrounge for standing dead wood.
After last winter I said, "This can't happen again." I don't like seeing my kids piled under blankets and still cold. (We don't really acclimate to the cold either because every so often we'll have a week or days of tshirt weather.)
So, The kids and I made hay while the sun was shining this last spring with a bunch of scrounged curb wood.
A problem for us is where to store the wood before it comes in the house. No covered storage areas. I cleared a wall by the stove for wood storage, but none of it's grey yet
. Well, eventually we'll get there!zogger
Tree Freak
I'm curious about your summers. I'm in Texas where we usually live in the fires of hell in summer to pay for our gorgeous fall / spring and spotty, mild winters. I wonder if our summers dry wood faster.
Either way, I hope I'm more than a year ahead now. We burned mixed old and new wood that we could barely stay ahead splitting all winter. It's all new to us in this house. We used to have our own woods to scrounge for standing dead wood.
After last winter I said, "This can't happen again." I don't like seeing my kids piled under blankets and still cold. (We don't really acclimate to the cold either because every so often we'll have a week or days of tshirt weather.)
So, The kids and I made hay while the sun was shining this last spring with a bunch of scrounged curb wood.
A problem for us is where to store the wood before it comes in the house. No covered storage areas. I cleared a wall by the stove for wood storage, but none of it's grey yet
I was at tractor supply the other day and almost, didn't but almost, snagged a "portable garage" they had on sale for 79 bucks. 10' x 8' and I forget how high, plenty to walk in standing up though. That would hold two cords, or one cord and some yard junk/tools, the mower, etc.
I might still get it next month if it is still on sale. They have similar sized little mini greenhouses for more loot, but not much more. Either would work as a quickee shed to keep the rain off.
Well a sweltering, record setting hot summer day here would be less than average for you. We get a few days a summer in the 90's, double digit days in the 80's, and most in the 70's. but it's not unusual to see a daily high in the 50's and lows into the 40's.I'm curious about your summers. I'm in Texas where we usually live in the fires of hell in summer to pay for our gorgeous fall / spring and spotty, mild winters. I wonder if our summers dry wood faster.
A problem for us is where to store the wood before it comes in the house. No covered storage areas. I cleared a wall by the stove for wood storage, but none of it's grey yet
This summer was cooler/wetter than normal so I've got wood cut in April that still is over 30% MC.
Also you may want to look into a moisture meter. Grey wood is great but it's usually dry long before that. I've got maple and oak that's dry as a bone but still very much yellow.
marcy-m
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We put some 1/2" PVC pieces in the ground and bent 10' lengths over them. then attached a tarp. That was what covered our pile last year, but rain still blows in, and like you said, can't walk in it without being bent over. We may adapt that design to use a pvc ridge pole with 4 ways between sections. That should make it stand upable I'll have to rig some kind of flap for a door. A ready kit would be nice, but I can buy a whole lot of PVC and dollar tree tarps for that!
I'll have to rig some kind of flap for a door. A ready kit would be nice, but I can buy a whole lot of PVC and dollar tree tarps for that!zogger
Tree Freak
We put some 1/2" PVC pieces in the ground and bent 10' lengths over them. then attached a tarp. That was what covered our pile last year, but rain still blows in, and like you said, can't walk in it without being bent over. We may adapt that design to use a pvc ridge pole with 4 ways between sections. That should make it stand upable
I scored two billboard tarps last month for 40 clams apiece. they are the BEST looking durable tarps ever! These were..hmm..14 by 48 I believe. All those giant billboards you see are printed on this rubberized fabric..they are tarps! the one end on our greenhouse now, you go inside and look up, coca cola! They guy I got them from gets them from work, he says most of them get packed into containers and shipped to africa.
Anyway, when you look at size and price, they are much much cheaper than store bought tarps, and certainly look so far to be about 5 times better at least.
Read about them here a few years back, happen to see the ad, so went and got a couple. I will be getting more from the guy, got several projects in mind, tarping both ends of the greenhouse, some home built sheds and a little shop for me to work on small engines. For the roofs and walls, perfect, price is right, go up fast, let alone for covering the tops of wood stacks.
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