Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[cantoo]

Spent another 1 1/2 hours and finished up one pile of logs. There was 200 logs in the pile. I have another pile of 185 but will likely leave them for awhile as they will be cut to 16" to sell. Have to set up conveyor and my 4 way to split the 32" long ones. Going to split everything into fairly big pieces this year and see how my wife handles them. And yes we have a few windmills around us.

 

[Cowboy254]

I don't know if this counts as scrounging or just pure tightarsery. I went back and retrieved the pile of burnt out material from the bonfire that was a couple of weeks ago (the property belongs to a friend of mine so I needed to make it nice and pretty again). Rain came late in the evening after everyone had gone home from the bonfire so there was a fair bit of unburnt charcoal left in the ash pile. I loaded it all up in the trailer to dispose of but then I thought, charcoal burns....

We have an old wire trash basket and I have used that to sift out the ash from the charcoal and then loaded up the heater with the charcoal and chucked some cedar on top to burn it down. It is quick and easy. Seems to be working well.



The quick burning cedar is ideal for this purpose. This is helping to preserve my meagre aussie hardwood stores, I'm down to my last 80 cubes now .

And, buggerme it's hot. I opened the door to give the coals a poke and nearly got fried.

 

[KiwiBro]

I'm down to my last 80 cubes now .

Strewth. Crikey, even.

 

[MustangMike]

So, I had an appointment this morning with one of my tax clients. When we are finished, he says to me "and you can take down trees"?

I will be going back there soon. We have Ash, Cherry, and Black Birch, some dead, some alive, all need to come down, and they don't need to be topped!

 

[Cowboy254]

So, I had an appointment this morning with one of my tax clients. When we are finished, he says to me "and you can take down trees"?

I will be going back there soon. We have Ash, Cherry, and Black Birch, some dead, some alive, all need to come down, and they don't need to be topped!

One of my clients asked me that once. I said "Sure, as long as you don't mind where it lands". Never got the call, funnily enough.

 

[Jeffkrib]

Cowboy, if this charcoal thing was a one basket experiment you don't have issues. Now if you going to sieve a trailer load or several trailer loads then on behalf of all you followers on the 'firewood scrounging' sticky....... I'm going to call it.... you may have issues.
We may have to set up a 'bonfire charcoal scraps scrounge' sticky. You may well be a pioneer!

 

[muddstopper]

I have used charcoal from my stove several times. I'll rake out some of the bigger chunks and use the in my charcoal grill. I have used smaller pieces to char liker. Simply rinse the small pieces of charcoal to get rid of any dust and ashes then drop down in the whiskey and let it set for a few weeks. The charcoal will turn the whiskey a caramel/amber color and make the taste sort of nutty and really smooth. I only use stove charcoal when I am burning white oak, I have found other wood types will give the whiskey a off taste.

 

[longbowch]

got this load of hedge from a tree service yesterday. Only bad part was unloading it in the 95 degree heat!

 

[MustangMike]

One of my clients asked me that once. I said "Sure, as long as you don't mind where it lands". Never got the call, funnily enough.

Actually, I walked the property with him and told him where I would drop each one ... I want this wood. The dead Ash will be good to burn this year and it is a good size three legged tree.

 

[Philbert]

Reusing the charcoal is just being resourceful.

Philbert

 

[husqvarna257]

So I see an ad on CL for mixed firewood. I thought I had seen the same ad before and almost didn't respond, but I did.Good thing, I got a call back and he asked if I could take all the wood, Mainly oak with some maple and some pine. I was not the 1st to call but the rest wanted to pick out the oak and leave. This is going to be a 4 cord pull when done. And the best part is it's all in 8' lengths and he is lading the truck with a tractor. Yep I am a firewood slut who will take most wood.

Any animal experts out there? I come home and there is a dead small raccoon in the dog kennel. My Lab was out last night around 3 and I left her out. She had been barking like mad and then it stopped The raccoon looked ok, no foam at the mouth or weird look. Our dogs are up on rabies shots. Do I fridge it and call or leave it be? My instinct is to leave it be and bury it.

 

[rarefish383]

How small? The dog may have tried to play with it and broke it. They seldom come in singles, usually 2 or 3. I've bottle raised raccoons and they are some of the sweetest pets. Just wear welding gloves when you play with them. They can't retract their claws and are very strong. Well doesn't really matter anymore, you are not allowed to keep them as pets any more, Joe.

 

[Cowboy254]

... you may have issues.

People keep saying that for some reason.

Actually, there's another reason for doing this. There is perhaps a third of a metre of ash and charcoal all up in the trailer. Disposal options include dumping it on my property - not attractive, especially since it has diesel through it. Towing it up some dirt road somewhere and dumping it in the bush - might get awkward if the wrong person sees me do it. Paying to dump it at the local tip - rather not. So, I'm sifting out the charcoal and bagging the ash up and chucking it in the bin for weekly collection. If I leave the charcoal in it, it will take twice as long to get rid of it this way. I have put 3 20 litre containers through the heater - about 8kg or 18lbs per 20L load. A fourth will go in today and the rest we'll probably chuck in the firepit tonight to give some good radiant heat. I did a little research, the energy density of charcoal is 30MJ/kg vs 19MJ/kg for hardwood. It has been an interesting exercise and saved a couple of trips to the shed but I'd rather burn wood.

 

[Cowboy254]

I went out to the Lady Farm the other day as she is still there and was down to her last two bits of firewood. So I took Limby and the workhorse out for a gallop. There was an area near where I've been cutting recently where there were a number of dead peppermints. I had been saving these for Lady Farmer wood. There were plenty of likely candidates.



Also, being a drier spot, there's fewer termites eating half your wood.



They generally prefer cooler, shadier spots and can get quite large but these ones are on a north facing slope and cop the full sun. This one was the largest one at about 18 inches at the base.



There are plenty to work through and any leftovers can always come home with me.

 

[Cowboy254]

The Lady Farmer came out with me and loaded up and carted back to the house as I cut and split. I surreptitiously took pics here and there so she didn't see me doing it. I doubt that chicks really understand why real men need to post photos of wood they have cut on the interwebs so I didn't get pics of all the wood I cut.



Nice view down the valley while cutting this one up.



The log jack really comes in handy some times.



Can't fit too much more in there. She should clean the back window so we can see it better.



There's still plenty more to go, too. Both downed and dead standing.



I was out there for about two hours all up. The downed trees were more suitable for the workhorse 460 so nearly two tanks through him and half a tank through Limby. Would have cut about 2.5 cubes, I imagine. I'll probably head out tomorrow to cut some more.

 

[Jeffkrib]

Now that you mention the diesel in the charcoal I'd say yes burn it or dump it. If it was uncontaminated I'd say mix it with compost or good soil, then dig some holes fill them with your charcoal soil mix and grow some fruit trees.

What's the log jack like is it worth getting one... do you use it much?

 

[husqvarna257]

How small? The dog may have tried to play with it and broke it. They seldom come in singles, usually 2 or 3. I've bottle raised raccoons and they are some of the sweetest pets. Just wear welding gloves when you play with them. They can't retract their claws and are very strong. Well doesn't really matter anymore, you are not allowed to keep them as pets any more, Joe.[/QUOTE

By small I am talking around 20 LBS. We have others around here that are way bigger. I had to put the backhoe on last night to unload some of the oak with skid tongs. I was taking out a larger 8' section and I realized my back tire on the tractor was coming off the ground. The backhoe added enough ballast to unload the rest. I then used the backhoe to dig and buried the raccoon. Still shocked a Labrador would do this but I think it may have been going near the chicken coop and she was guarding her turf. I drained the log splitter yesterday morning to fix a leak at the tank, now to fill and run it

 

[MustangMike]

I could not live w/o my Timber Jack, but I also don't have any heavy equipment. I even put a tube on the end of the handle when I need more leverage to move big stuff (like 40"+ diameter Oak logs).

 

[Cowboy254]

Now that you mention the diesel in the charcoal I'd say yes burn it or dump it. If it was uncontaminated I'd say mix it with compost or good soil, then dig some holes fill them with your charcoal soil mix and grow some fruit trees.

What's the log jack like is it worth getting one... do you use it much?

Definitely worth having. I don't use it every time I go out but it can make some awkward logs much easier. You don't blunt as many chains cutting dirt and with the right log it can halve the time taken to cut it and make it much easier on you as well. This one was long but only about 18 inches across so I could jack it up nearly half way along then cut 10 or more rounds off at a comfortable height then move the jack along as opposed to doing a series of 3/4 cuts and having to cut through, hit dirt and roll the log over at some point. I'm heading out to the farm again this morning so I can get some more pics of it in action. As @MustangMike alluded to, it could use a little extra length as sometimes you have a bigger long log and have to really heave to jack it up.

got this load of hedge from a tree service yesterday. Only bad part was unloading it in the 95 degree heat!

Hedge - that's the second best firewood in Nth America isn't it (after scrounged spruce). Nice load!

 

[LondonNeil]

hottest day of the year so far and south london hit 30C (86F). While my OH and little girl had a nap I did the 'mad dogs and Englishmen' thing and swung the fiskars and stihl maul for 2 hours in the heat of the day. The fir and silver birch was easy, the ash continues to be a battle, although I broke up a fair bit I alo tossed more into the 'noodle further/completely to stove size' pile.