Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[MustangMike]

Of course the pace always has to be compared to the terrain. On the flats we generally do 22-24 MPH. There is not too much that is flat around here, and hills kill your pace, just like they kill MPGs in your car.

 

[JustJeff]

Mountain ash here is a smallish tree that bears orange berries. Birds love em.

 

[svk]

Mountain ash here is a smallish tree that bears orange berries. Birds love em.

Same here. Then when the berries ferment, the birds eat them and get drunk. It's hilarious.

Old Indian tale says that you can judge the upcoming winter by the mountain ash berry crop. Low yield, bad winter. High yield, mild winter.

 

[cantoo]

Some eggs and one of those days. My work truck tire today.

 

[svk]

Guess you could say momma bird is "Stihl" nesting.

 

[Philbert]

Designed for in-tree use . . .

Philbert

 

[chipper1]

Why's that husky hanging out with those stihls .

 

[Cowboy254]

Cowboy
Was wondering if Mountain ash will last through the night. I've burnt thin skirting board type stuff and it burnt fast like pine will minimal hot coals. Often wondered if large pieces would be decent.

Just for you, I put the smallest round in the fire this arvo and put a small other stick to keep it company a bit later on. It has been in there for 3 hours or so with the air full open. My phone objected to being so close and it is a bit dark.



Gave it a poke and it half fell apart, rolled the intact half to the left with the coals remaining in the middle.



So there are some coals to be had from mountain ash. It wouldn't be your first choice for firewood with its lower density but it's perfectly serviceable in big chunk form and doesn't leave a lot of mess in there. We're heading down to Melbourne tomorrow and I'll take a load down for my brother. I'll also take the workhorse in case there is some roadside scrounge on the way home .

 

[chipper1]

Hard to tell from the pics , flat needles or roundish ?

Roundish, cones hanging down, nasty green ones .
Very small root diameter, I'd say spruce, but in this case it could also be called a money tree .

Might be a little bit of the logs left in the morning as rain was heading our way, we need it.
guess I never posted this last night lol.

 

[chipper1]

See, now you say that I had to go and look up my reference book . It has most useful Aussie species and some imported species that you'd find familiar which is good for comparison. Generally though, you don't actually hit mountain ash with an axe, you just glare at it and it falls apart. Let's see ...

Mountain ash: 12%MC density = 680kg/m , dry hardness = 4.9kN
Canada Douglas fir: 540kg/m, 3.0kN
Larch: 560kg/m, 3.7kN
Sugar maple: 740kg/m, 7.3kN
White oak: 750kg/m, 6.0kN
CANADA BLACK SPRUCE! 490kg/m, 2.4kN (There's all sorts of stuff in this book, I love it)

So yes, pretty soft - in fact one of the softest eucalypts. Understandable I suppose when it grows in the 500m-1000m altitudes, not too hot, not too cold and lots and lots of rainfall. We did find though a few years back that big rounds in the heater would last overnight without needing kindling to get it going again in the morning - just. Splits would burn out. I haven't cut any of this since I had farm access and could cut better stuff, but I might be back to scrounging ash again in a couple of year's time.

Temps have been down to -3C overnight and up to 8C during the day, depending on the day. It's cold enough when your house has cr@p insulation.

Good stuff, looked a little fuzzy on the cut, unlike the other wood you cut looking like it's fresh off a milling machine hard .
I burn a lot of red oak, white oak, and black locust(in-between the oaks), cherry, and ash(mainly because of the emerald ash borer ), the only time I burn softwood is starting my stove a little in the shoulder season. I do burn some box elder which is a very soft wood, but in the maple family, it works great for overcoaling as it leaves very little ash and burns very hot which is needed most times overcoaling is a problem, but ash works for that as well.

I never really thought much about the softer woods being at higher elevations typically as we are at a pretty low elevation here and no real mountains, but it does make sense.
Sounds like some good temps, I like that over the heat we have here right now, although it's been mild for July here.
Hey is that limby, it's not, but it's predecessor.
1:00, that's a limb .

Mountain ash here is a smallish tree that bears orange berries. Birds love em.

Mountain ash here is a big pile of wood.

 

[svk]

Yeah the mountain ash here top out around 8" diameter.

Great wood for doing lathe work.

 

[JustJeff]

Good stuff, looked a little fuzzy on the cut, unlike the other wood you cut looking like it's fresh off a milling machine hard .
I burn a lot of red oak, white oak, and black locust(in-between the oaks), cherry, and ash(mainly because of the emerald ash borer ), the only time I burn softwood is starting my stove a little in the shoulder season. I do burn some box elder which is a very soft wood, but in the maple family, it works great for overcoaling as it leaves very little ash and burns very hot which is needed most times overcoaling is a problem, but ash works for that as well.

I never really thought much about the softer woods being at higher elevations typically as we are at a pretty low elevation here and no real mountains, but it does make sense.
Sounds like some good temps, I like that over the heat we have here right now, although it's been mild for July here.
Hey is that limby, it's not, but it's predecessor.
1:00, that's a limb .


Mountain ash here is a big pile of wood.

Bent that bar pretty good!

 

[dancan]

Wasted wood , sad sight .....

 

[dancan]

I just don't know how I'm gonna sleep tonight , all that beautiful wood , up in smoke , so sad

 

[chipper1]

Bent that bar pretty good!

I missed that, where was it.

 

[chipper1]

Wasted wood , sad sight .....

Can't see the hardwood through the conifers burning . Softwood huggers lol.
Head out this way, we'll get you set up with all sorts of pine and spruce .

I just don't know how I'm gonna sleep tonight , all that beautiful wood , up in smoke , so sad

How'd you do Dan, I slept great .
I scrounged a little at the house yesterday, got 5 or 6 more bucket fulls.
This is why we don't worry much about them conifers out this way.

 

[svk]

Can't see the hardwood through the conifers burning .
Head out this way, we'll get you set up with all sorts of pine and spruce .

How'd you do Dan, I slept great .
I scrounged a little at the house yesterday, got 5 or 6 more bucket fulls.
This is why we don't worry much about them conifers out this way.
View attachment 593304

Nice, what is it?

 

[chipper1]

Nice, what is it?

Black locust, my favorite around here .
Getting the area cleared for the future pole barn. I'd just drop them, but I want the root ball out as well. These are being removed so I can set the grade around the site. That big one was a bugger to get the root ball loose on. I made a moat around it and kept it filled with water and then worked the stem and root ball with the tractor after cutting the top section off.

 

[JustJeff]

About halfway down the trunk. Looks like he kept using it.

 

[dancan]

Hopefully I can get a good night's sleep instead of a long night of tossing and turning like last night.