Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[Cowboy254]

I have burned willow. It kept us warm burning about a cubic metre every two days. You'll burn anything if you're desperate enough.

I still had some left over when I got onto some roadside peppermint and split up the rest of the willow for kindling which was great.

 

[dancan]

A friend of mine kept his house warming all winter on willow and popple last winter , he was happy because it kept both the cold and the oil man away .

 

[svk]

Bucked up a good sized blowdown aspen this evening. Finally was able to test out my two top handle Poulans. One is ready to roll, the other needs a bit more tuning. Bucked most of the trunk with the Echo and the last several rounds with the 550. Almost all of it was solid except for a couple rounds in the middle of the trunk and I used that area for cookie making while I was tuning the saws.

(As it's getting dark I just realized I forgot to take pictures).

 

[husqvarna257]

Well the kitty passed away this morning. He had quite a life considering everything and did great up until the last two weeks.

Got some solace in the woods by splitting up a half cord of aspen that I'll be trading to my welder friend for work he's done for me.

Sorry to hear it, they can bring allot to our lives.

 

[LondonNeil]

I picked up a car load of willow unknowingly last autumn. It was dark, i saw a bark that wasnt softwood, felt a very heavy (albeit wet) round and thought it could be something decent. realisec how wet it was when i swung a maul at it and got splashed. set it aside as it wasnt splitting. it started growing shoots in the spring. i realised what it was a few weeks back when i saw a willow growing in the park and recognised the bark and it tallied with the almost negative weight it is achieving as it dries. still wont split. its like cork, it deforms and absorbs the axe. i'm chalking it down to the learning experience.

 

[farmer steve]

Well the kitty passed away this morning. He had quite a life considering everything and did great up until the last two weeks.

Got some solace in the woods by splitting up a half cord of aspen that I'll be trading to my welder friend for work he's done for me.

sorry about kitty Steve. They do become part of the family.

 

[JustJeff]

Btu wise, willow is just below aspen and the same as white pine. It can't all be sugar maple. And that's a good thing because when I put a piece of hard maple on my splitter, the splitter flexes as it grunts, then BANG! It jumps and the two halves fly out. Been caught in the shins more than once!

 

[LondonNeil]

With temps a little cooler and a nice breeze it was a good time to pull on the chainsaw trousers and give the 'big saw' (and the only saw he he! the MS180) run. 3 tanks of fuel through it. First one bucking some silver birch, a little pine, a bit of sycamore, then 2 noodling uglies including the remaining gnarly and wire ridden ash. Managed to avoid all the wire, yes!.....until right near the end...oh. Going at a 20" round is slow going with an Ms180 but when it hits a huge bundle of washing line, staple and barbed wire it gets slower still. at least I'd done quite a bit on that chain and it needed a sharpen soon anyway. fitted a new chain and...wooohaah! chips a flyin' again! the first chain was getting blunter than i'd realised. Even a ms180 rips in dry ash with a buried 14" bar when the chain is really sharp. managed to buck almost all the way through then split it with the stihl pro maul.

My 'to split' pile is restocked. My rear garden 'to cut pile' is now all but gone, yay that ash is nearly done! I'm going to have to get shifting the black locust piled up out front, and get cutting on that and the hawthorn.

I still have a Stihl 034 on my ebay watch list .....but it seems the ms180 can cope if the chain is sharp and you have some patience, maybe i dont need that 50cc saw after all

 

[svk]

Located a long term scrounge. Very long term to be specific.

I've never found indigenous sugar maple within 200 miles of my cabin. Further west out by benp a few can be found as well as further south.

Found a whole bunch of small ones in one area yesterday. That land had been cut about 20 years ago and the higher ground was planted with Norway pines. I guess it's possible they could have planted sugar maple also? I didn't observe any adult trees present.

Also found some small Elm further down the hill that had different bark from the American elms I normally see. Will need to do some more investigating on those. There are reportedly rock Elm in this part of the county so that would be nice.

 

[dancan]

Temps here this weekend were around the 50's so Saturday afternoon ....

I went and picked up some blowdown spruce and pine that I had drug out last year , I still have another two cord in there about 100' in past the tree line that I need the tractor to get to the roadside .

I went to the woodpile and finished the load .

After I got the honeydoo list done today I made a beeline to the woodpile for another load

Made it home with a load of sugar maple , yellow birch and a bit of red maple
So , almost 2 cord drug home this weekend so the stacks are refilling .

 

[LondonNeil]

you got power sockets out in that forest Dancan?

 

[dancan]

Genny powered lol

Truth be told , the lectric saw was just along for a photo op lol

 

[MechanicMatt]

Had the wife working with me yesterday. Had her running the splitter then riding the ATV trailer to the wood pile where the little ones were stacking.

Today we went to a indoor climbing gym, two daughters surprised me. Wife even did great for her first time. Family had a blast. Only my older daughter had been climbing before, she did the best of the three, natural climber.

 

[JustJeff]

My son and I knocked out this pile while having a cup of coffee, taking turns swinging the maul. If willow splits this easy, I won't mind stuffing the stove twice as often. Lol. I might go get another load just for camping wood.

 

[MechanicMatt]

I swung the mall for the first time in three years yesterday. Split two rounds then tossed it back in the shed. The fiskars came out to play for a little bit. Then when I realized the whole family was going to help, I fired up the splitter to get some production out of them.
I don't think I'll ever swing that orange beast ever again, I should give it away.

 

[Jeffkrib]

Nice man shed cowboy, would love one like that.
Which mountain is that, I assume that's your view?

 

[Cowboy254]

Btu wise, willow is just below aspen and the same as white pine. It can't all be sugar maple.

You mean oak

We're a bit spoilt around here with all the hardwood eucalypts around. Even the rubbish ones aren't bad, but the good ones..... I did burn pine (Monterey) for a year after we moved to where we are now in 2002. Being a bit inexperienced and having previously been burning red stringybark (similar to @Plowboy83 's redgum in both colour and BTU's) for a few years, I was amazed at how quickly the pine burnt out, with virtually no coals. Obviously, I didn't know much then. Even so, I think the pine was better than the willow I burnt the year after - although that was free scrounge from the local caravan park, so who's complaining? Still, I'd burn pine now if it was free, mix it in a bit with other stuff. But I couldn't stack it in the woodshed. I'd never live it down around here.

 

[Cowboy254]

Nice man shed cowboy, would love one like that.
Which mountain is that, I assume that's your view?

Yeah mate, that's my view. That's Mt Bogong there, the highest peak in Victoria. When you did the 3Peaks, the street to our place was about 1km before the turnoff to go over the Tawonga Gap.

There's a bit of work to do internally with the shed to get it how I want but I take the view that the quality is remembered after the cost and effort are forgotten. Mind you, I might need another one, this one seems to have been repurposed.

 

[LondonNeil]

Ashes training? you need it

 

[dancan]

Yeah mate, that's my view. That's Mt Bogong there, the highest peak in Victoria. When you did the 3Peaks, the street to our place was about 1km before the turnoff to go over the Tawonga Gap.

There's a bit of work to do internally with the shed to get it how I want but I take the view that the quality is remembered after the cost and effort are forgotten. Mind you, I might need another one, this one seems to have been repurposed.

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Sure looks like a nice indoor hockey rink to me lol