Post pictures of your woodpile/splitting area

[woodchuckcanuck]

woodchuckcanuck, I use left over Nova Seal to put over the top of my crates. It lasts much longer than the black tarps, more expensive of course too. 100' roll goes a long way though. https://www.buildings.com/product-c...uctid/1520/product/novaseal-roof-underlayment

I usually can get 2-3 years use for each piece. The tarps I use come off of the lumber bundles at the hardware stores. They give them away rather than see them go to landfill. Hard to beat free. I used them on the kiln for bldg wrap, and as a drop down tarp to redirect air flow. Quite sturdy.

 

[cantoo]

Free is always great. We have 100's of lumber tarps at work and I use a fair share of them too. We also use big bale tarps to cover rooves during wet weather so I get the old ones too. They last better than the lumber tarps.

 

[al-k]

Moved about a cord of logs and cut them up today. Gave the 291 a work out.(me to) Ash, oak, hickory

 

[Jere39]

Sawed on this log for about a tank of fuel, then quartered it (Red Oak must be much heavier now than it was 50 years ago):


Scout, my ever present, and vigilant Brit has kept the forest denizens at bay for another year. I haul these quartered pieces to my processing/stacking piles with a low impact ATV and JD 15S cart:



Then just a matter of whacking and stacking. I know I could split faster if I used bungie cord or set them in a tire, or whatever. But, this is my pace, think of all that bending over and resetting the pieces for another split as this old splitters recycle time.

The 1 minute version:


The 2 minute version:


And the 3 minute version:


Just an old guy in flannel splitting some fine straight grained Red Oak. I could do this all day!

 

[SS396driver]

I got the "Do you think we have enough wood stacked in the basement " Said we have 5 plus cords. Get the "ok" so I'm into the the two year stacks for another two cord

 

[al-k]

Had a little storm the other day and went out behind the barn and found this. So today I spent 4 hours cleaning it up. Top of one in back ground snapped off to.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

Red Oak must be much heavier now than it was 50 years ago):

Much agreed.

 

[al-k]

Went out and did some more splitting today.

 

[thewoodlands]

The first three pictures should be some American Hophornbeam (Ironwood) that I split and stacked today, the last pictures are of some Yellow Birch and one White Birch that I split and stacked.

 

[thewoodlands]

I split two loads of Yellow Birch and stacked it with what was started yesterday, picture 1036 in the above post.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

I haul these quartered pieces to my processing/stacking piles with a low impact ATV and JD 15S cart:

I enjoy your photos and others posts of getting into the woods and being good stewards of the land. I used to do the same for years using an atv, small pull behind atv trailer and log arch., both with atv type tires. I'd scatter the brush and leave only a tilted, uprooted stumps from blow downs. Where tops blew out hardly a trace at all if you were to walk through the woods. The atv left a path of crushed leaves that disappeared in a season. Of course it is a slower process, a primal forest gathering lineage, a rooting in nature to which we are just passing through. What a delightful way to spend time. The dogs love it too. And in winter, that warm wood heat and glowing fire is of course a lot more hands on, and just a bit more intimate.
Buying logs and selling wood bypasses all of that, and I miss it, but no longer have access to the land we did for twenty years.
The past few years, log arch has only been used a couple times, lastly at the neighbors after they logged off thirty acres.
The loggers left them a mess. The property is now thick with brush beginning to cover up much of it. It will be a another thirty years or more before it recovers any resemblance of a woods, if not twice that.
We burn about three cord per year and always worked one year ahead gathering dead fall and wind damage. There was more than enough of that that we left standing dead for the birds and wildlife. Eventually those topple and provide beautiful barkless firewood.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

Some ten year old photos.
Wind storm domino effect.Chain feature added to capture front of log. Our youngest son helping in the woods.My older brother visiting MI from CA.

I backed over this log, but more often than not, it is easier to get along side and lift the arch over using the handles. This size log requires hooking the cable to the chain on the rear of the arch (three links hanging from beak), cradling the log and doubling the lifting. This tends to twist the log because the cable pulley and the chain that is hooked to are inline with each other, causing a sideways cable cradle. This is where the chain on the front of the log is really handy, hooking one end of the chain, torquing against the twisting action, and readily hooking in place, in the slot. I've suggested this modification to Log Rite's owner at the Paul Bunyan Show last year, and one of the employees there the year before. Supplied with the arch is a medium weight ratchet strap to control the front of the log. We used a ratchet strap come-a-long instead, until an Arboristsite member posted this mod, and I purchased the cnc piece from him. A local welder mounted it for me. Shown in the second photo.
The photo above shows a single line lift. There is a bell on the cable that the cable end fits into. There is also a bell and hook adapter used to hook on the chain for the double cable lift.
What is really nice about the whole set-up is that you do not have to drag the end of the log through the woods. We use the trailer more often than the arch as most firewood is top wood and smaller dead fall. The arch is fun to use.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

The arch is job specific.
The trailer is so much more useful.

 

[Jere39]

@Sandhill Crane Thanks for the comments, and back at you. Those are great pictures of your firewood collecting and moving efforts. I like to think I operate on a very similar model. I too have an arch, one I made, and one I rarely use. It was fun to collect the components, design it, have a friend who is a great welder put it together, and then to paint it and verify the utility. But, perhaps like you, I mostly use the cart and ATV, or in the winter, with the mower deck off, I have a small grapple on the front of my JD x728 garden tractor.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

You have a beautiful spot.
I also remember your posts on the grapple.
We are very fortunate considering fires, floods, Covid, and the economy.

 

[float89]

All set for the year. Finally... Just have to tarp for the snow. Next spring's project will be a lean-too.

 

[al-k]

finished up cord #3 this morning.

 

[CaseyForrest]

A little later than normal to start filling the lean too. Fortunately it’s big enough to hold more than a seasons worth.

 

[Lee192233]

I was able to get 2 more trailer loads of ash rounds up from the woods today. It's nice getting ahead. This wood will be for 2022/23. I split when the snow is too deep to easily get around the woods.
Next weekend I will be loading about 3 cords in the basement for this winter.

 

[svk]

We skidded 19 more lake logs aka “dead heads” out of the lake. My neighbor texted that he realized later that he broke a front axle skidding with the wheeler.

Some of them.