No such thing as too much firewood

[mainewoods]

Getting wood on the ground and hauled to a landing, as soon as possible while everything is frozen, will give everyone a fighting chance at least. I anticipate a nasty mud season that is going to delay a lot of good intentions. The snow depths are making that a very tough chore right now. One big reason to have a few seasons ahead at all times if humanly possible.

 

[Chris-PA]

Who am I kidding - I'll spend all my time fixing equipment like I always do.

Just looking at the world through brown colored glasses - more snow coming and the truck has a dragging front brake. Gonna have to fix it in the dark and snow tomorrow evening while the temperature drops toward 5. WooHoo! I hate working on vehicles. WTF, I just put those calipers on this summer! Sigh - rant over.

 

[mainewoods]

I've seen brakes lock up before when slush gets in them and freezes. Hopefully a propane torch will be all it takes. Working on anything in this cold sucks.

 

[benp]

What a difference a day makes. 2inches on the ground now and 12 more in the forecast. Might not be Minn. But who wants to live in an icebox anyways.

You are getting zero argument from me on that one. This double digit sub zero is getting to be crap for the birds.

What am talking about getting? I mean IS.

You truly know that things are messed up when people talk about it being balmy this morning.....and it's 10 below 0.

Wouldn't break my heart one bit if winter skipped us next year.

 

[stihly dan]

Who am I kidding - I'll spend all my time fixing equipment like I always do.

Just looking at the world through brown colored glasses - more snow coming and the truck has a dragging front brake. Gonna have to fix it in the dark and snow tomorrow evening while the temperature drops toward 5. WooHoo! I hate working on vehicles. WTF, I just put those calipers on this summer! Sigh - rant over.

It's a Ford isn't it.

 

[Chris-PA]

It's a Ford isn't it.

Of course - it's from 1994 and still runs great. Therefore it cannot be a GM or Dodge.

The wheel was hot as heck when I got home, but later when I put it up on the jack there was little drag on the wheel. My guess is that there was air in the line that expanded when hot. Tonight I pulled the caliper, retracted the pistons, cleaned it up and lubed things well. All looked good. So I bled that corner and put it back together, and took it for a drive. Everything seems to work well and the brakes were cold when I got back. So I'm ready for the snow.

 

[mainewoods]

My old 86' runs like a clock and is still plowing snow. Yarded quite a bit of wood with it until the Dodge came along.

 

[mainewoods]

There are a few things I plan to improve on this year. One is to get more wood out to my landing where it can be more easily processed( for me any way). And another is to have emergency (extra) dry wood, stacked and covered, closer and more easily accessible ( minimum amount of snow removal to reach). If nothing else I intend to have as much tree length and logs hauled out and sitting on my landing as I can which allows me to at least cut it into rounds. Even just cutting the logs into rounds helps with the drying process, as opposed to letting it sit there full length. A sure way to get to that " firewood years ahead" status most of us strive for. I would rather have logs laying on the landing than trees standing in the woods, any day. As I said, you can never have enough wood. So many running low or just about out, and scrounging for anything they can find in Feb., is sad indeed.

 

[bert the turtle]

It is all getting stacked in the barn this year. The barn stuff was bone dry even though it never got any sun. The outside stacks were not very good at all. Something about raining nearly all the time far as I can remember has something to do with it. No more outside stacks for me.

 

[steved]

I realize a lot of you don't have a woodlot, and have to scrounge for your firewood, but do any of you have plans to do things a little different this year than in the past?

Nothing much different other than I'm planning to put more away in an inside storage area; sort of like a backup plan...sort of store it and forget its there.

I'm also going to be getting into better firewood since I'm burning up my freebies (free firewood is good, no matter what it is). I found some prime white oak and a lot of it, just got to cut it down and cut it up. So that might slow my volume of wood burnt during a season since I'll be burning all hardwood.

I had enough firewood cut and seasoned this year, even though I burnt significantly more than I have the past few years (burnt about five cords so far, usually around three at this time); but that might be from burning 50% or more softwoods and pine this year. I'm not going to be into next year's wood luckily. I don't need to heat with wood, but it saves on the heating bill.

There is/was a wood pellet shortage around here...nobody had any, and when a delivery happened; it was gone in an hour (insider information?). I was glad I had wood and not pellets when I heard that as there was a propane shortage going on at the same time.

 

[blades]

Like Stihly I am way ahead, part of 40 cord have a line on some oaks to come down and a couple other jobs so I can replace what I burned this season

 

[zogger]

Nothing much different other than I'm planning to put more away in an inside storage area; sort of like a backup plan...sort of store it and forget its there.

I'm also going to be getting into better firewood since I'm burning up my freebies (free firewood is good, no matter what it is). I found some prime white oak and a lot of it, just got to cut it down and cut it up. So that might slow my volume of wood burnt during a season since I'll be burning all hardwood.

I had enough firewood cut and seasoned this year, even though I burnt significantly more than I have the past few years (burnt about five cords so far, usually around three at this time); but that might be from burning 50% or more softwoods and pine this year. I'm not going to be into next year's wood luckily. I don't need to heat with wood, but it saves on the heating bill.

There is/was a wood pellet shortage around here...nobody had any, and when a delivery happened; it was gone in an hour (insider information?). I was glad I had wood and not pellets when I heard that as there was a propane shortage going on at the same time.

Man, I would hate to be dependent on pellets. At least with such a stove, maybe a modified way to switch to normal firewood if you wanted to or had to.

Of course, one could always do a little pellet scalping, buy low in the summer, stockpile and sell high in the winter. ha!

To anyone, those pellet stoves, can they burn wood chips?

 

[steved]

It depends on the stove...some will do wood pellets, corn, and rice coal. I don't think any of them are capable of chunk wood. One of the houses I looked at a while back had a corn/pellet/coal version and the owners claimed they heated the house with $400 of rice coal.

I've never been around one that was working, don't really know how much heat they put out. They have a small "firebox".

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G730A using Tapatalk

 

[mainewoods]

From what I've seen they only burn pellets. If you lose power and have no generator - you have no heat. Makes the effort of gathering wood, like our forefathers, look pretty good to me.

 

[mainewoods]

And I ain't exactly a spring chicken.

 

[Slackerjpt]

Is this enough?

 

[mainewoods]

Looks damn good to me!!

 

[steved]

From what I've seen they only burn pellets. If you lose power and have no generator - you have no heat. Makes the effort of gathering wood, like our forefathers, look pretty good to me.

Again, fuel type depends on the stove.

Yeah, I forgot about the whole electric auger and blower that pellet stoves need. I have a generator, but its nice to know you don't need to run it to keep warm!

For most people they are "safer" since you're not responsible for seasoning your fuel and they are "cleaner" because everything is enclosed. All about your needs I guess.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G730A using Tapatalk

 

[zogger]

Is this enough?

Almost there, just a scosh more...HAHAHAHAHAHA

Nice log stack man!

 

[Saddle Mander]

This was my first year and I struggled with less-than-ideal ash. But I have 2 or 3 years worth of hardwoods stacked around the property. My biggest change will be this: Instead of telling tree companies "Just put what you got in my driveway," I will be gathering only what I can bring home, buck, split, and stack in a day.

I STILL have stacks in the driveway that I haven't been able to move to the back (all the snow is largely to blame for that).