Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[woodchip rookie]

I have found that "crappy" wood splits alot easier if you leave it in log form for a year then wait till the remaining moisture is froze solid in the winter. Then it splits like styrofoam.

 

[JustJeff]

Im processing some willow right now and it splits great. Knocked most of it apart by hand cause it's faster. It'll hold water like crazy though. If you set it on the ground, it will grow!

 

[farmer steve]

I'm retired and cutting wood is the only "recreation" I indulge in. I am so far ahead (around 100 cord) that I'm c/s/s wood that I will never use. Went all out this spring as I got sacked last year by a new customer for a 6 cord order of my 'for sale wood' - managed to get 5 to him. So this sspring I went wild and got 6 cord c/s/s by june only to be told that he is probably going to go pellet stove. So 6 cord of 'for sale', 4 cord detieorated oak I was given in March plus all my work all summer winds up with some 20 odd cord 'for sale' that I don't have customers for.

Now the shocker. My 'for sale wood' is willow and I have regular customers for over 30 years, one takes 4 cord/yr, that love it at $120/cord.

I'm working two willow bush clear cuts for farmers just for the exercise and the fun of processing wood. All sales are just 'icing on the cake' and don't even beging to cover expenses. Stable has grown to:
Echo CS303T, MS/193T,310/361/441 and a very beat us 1989 F150

i'd burn SPRUCE before willow. don't you have PILES of locust?

 

[KiwiBro]

I have found that "crappy" wood splits alot easier if you leave it in log form for a year then wait till the remaining moisture is froze solid in the winter. Then it splits like styrofoam.

What is this "froze solid" you speak of?

 

[woodchip rookie]

Uh...like January Ohio cold. It gets a little colder for longer periods of time farther north but sometimes we get brutal cold.

 

[dancan]

Frozen wood burns way better than frozen snowballs lol

 

[dancan]

Hranch , nice spruce!
Aheeejd , my stacks never turn out like that , I usually have the uglies against the posts but since my splits are bigger they don't pack up as nice.
I do believe that occasionally whitespider swings by and knocks over a row or two, I've got two rows to restack.

 

[woodchip rookie]

Frozen wood burns way better than frozen snowballs lol

ah....just set it on top of the stove for a minute. That snowball will burn just fine.

 

[JustJeff]

Since soccer season is over and I got one son moved off to college (boo hoo), it's time to get back to work on the scrounge wagon. It came with 3 14" wheels and one 15. So I swapped two girls bicycles and two 14s for a set of 4 15" wheels. And I have a spare.
This pic leads me to a word of advice...Don't spray paint a boat in your garage!

 

[MustangMike]

Took a few trees down for a friend this AM, a few small Cherry and a mid size Red Maple that I had to tie. They were all over hanging his lawn or house at his new place, which has been vacant for a while.

There are several more to go, some will be interesting. Specifically, a Cherry is inter twined in some other trees, crocked and twisted as heck.

 

[KiwiBro]

Uh...like January Ohio cold. It gets a little colder for longer periods of time farther north but sometimes we get brutal cold.

It got down to about 32 degrees Fahrenheit here once. Now THAT was a cold morning.

 

[turnkey4099]

you process willow for fun?! the bits i've had (had to learn by experience) have grain so wavy it doubles back and forth on itself, a fair bt is in my ugiies pile, awaiting noodling, i simply can not split it. Got a big round as my chopping block currently and its proving to b very durable. I can't imagine processing it for fun

Must be a different species. Here it is straight grained and splits very easy. I split most of it by hand with an X27. 3 shots in a line across a 20" round will usually bust it in half then one shot per finished chunk after that. I do noodle the knots/crotches, etc. Stuff grows big, grows fast and dies young. Biggest grove I am working was planted in 1908.

 

[turnkey4099]

i'd burn SPRUCE before willow. don't you have PILES of locust?

Sure do, around 80 cord now. I burn a mix of locust/willow. Heated the house for over 30 years with nothing but willow. It is 'good' firewood but one has to load the stove oftener. Here, one does not hae a choice of the real hardwoods, oak and the like except for the occasional take out in a town or farmstead. I lucked outon the locust, locust borer killed alot of it.

 

[Jeffkrib]

Hey Turnkey4099 how long can you keep wood out in the open on pallets (off the ground).
Around my parts you'd have the termites into it within about 5 years.

 

[rarefish383]

When my Dad sold his place and moved to WV, I was cleaning up the wood yard. He had been dumping wood and chips there for 15 years. I decided to clear a landing out the back sliding door of the barn. We had a big old "Hough Payloader" for loading chips. As I was grading with the old Hougher, I hooked a big Black Locust block. Kept digging and wound up digging out a whole dump truck load. I cut and split it and it looked like it did the day it was cut. The builders buried it when they built the barn, so it was under ground at least 15 years. Locust fence post will last 40 years in the ground, Joe.

 

[turnkey4099]

Hey Turnkey4099 how long can you keep wood out in the open on pallets (off the ground).
Around my parts you'd have the termites into it within about 5 years.

Dunno. I have locust taht have been in the stacks directly on the ground for going on 20 years and no sign of a problem, no rot either but that is black locusst.

I have also had willow in the same condition stacked for over 3 years and no problem except for a very very thin layer of rot on the layer directly on the ground.

Of course this is 'dry land farm country', annual precip is about 16"

 

[LondonNeil]

it varies, the dead standing locust i got this year was well rotten in the middle.

 

[JustJeff]

Got some unprecedented help from my better half, moving some wood tonight Halfway there Finished stacking what we moved just in time for sunset over the scrounge pile.

 

[cantoo]

Looks like somebody is going to be burning slabs next year. That is if I ever get time to put it together. Poplar, ash and cedar are gonna catch hell soon.

 

[turnkey4099]

it varies, the dead standing locust i got this year was well rotten in the middle.

That is pure gold for splitting, one hit with a fiskars yeilds one split ready for piling. Splitting doesn't get easier than a ring of dead locust around a rotted out core.