Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[nighthunter]

That could be it alright but then again the more I drink the less I know, so anything is possible

Tends to happen as you drink it.

 

[turnkey4099]

Walmart carries the fiskars super split. Same axe with a different handle mine has held up well.


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Seems they just keep renaming it with minor mods to the handle

x27 became "Splitting ax" with seems to hae turned into 'Super split'.

 

[tpence2177]

Seems they just keep renaming it with minor mods to the handle

x27 became "Splitting ax" with seems to hae turned into 'Super split'.

It may be the splitting axe? Not sure lol. I would’ve preferred the grippy x27 handle but would’ve had to order it instead of driving 5 minutes to Walmart lol.


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[JustJeff]

Two loads today. Elm, ash and a bit of poplar. First load was already half cut from last week. I had my son with me so I finished cutting and we were loaded up in less than an hour. Dropped him off at work, unloaded at home and came back to the scene of the scrounge. By this time my friends neighbor had come over with a sweet little Kioti tractor with a backhoe. The hoe had a thumb on it so he would grab a log, drive it over to my truck and hold it waist high while I cut it to length. While I loaded, he would go get another log. Worked the heck out of me but it was done in no time. Boys I’m telling you, that Kioti was the cats pajamas! I am one spoiled scrounger! The pile is growing, pretty soon you’ll be able to search “JustJeff’s scrounge pile” and a google earth link will pop up!!

 

[turnkey4099]

Lowe's has the super split I'll pick one up. I swung Steve's a few times and liked it. I' starting to split smaller stuff by hand as it' faster then using the hydro splitter and good exercise.

I split as much as possible by hand, much more enjoyable and I find my stacks are much tighter. I can tell from looking through them from across the pasture where I was stacking by hand where I was using the splitter. Just something about a big pile left by the splitter that neerds to be piled that turns a nice job into a chore.

 

[turnkey4099]

That could be it alright but then again the more I drink the less I know, so anything is possible

That runs counter to Cliff's (Cheers) theory.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I scrounged up this load last Sat...

and today it was time to split it, so I got my splitter tractor in place and got started by splitting all the easier ones and ripping the biggest ones,

The old 268xp got a work out,

And S N I had a nice pile of oak splits,

SR

 

[turnkey4099]

Two failed shots at felling the first tree

1. Yesterday: 17 miles to the site, planned the cuts, grabbed the 441. Pull, pull, pull until I couldn't pull it over. DTake a break and repeat. Didn't even get a 'pop' out of it. Thought about trying the new Olympic competition 'chainsaw throw' but changed mind. Headed back to the house. Half way there I decided to take it to Potlach, Idaho dealer 60 mile roundtrip) and have him start it. I had dried it out in Dec and figured it was just not getting fuel. Out of car, into shop, checked the spark and great fire, plug back in and popped first pull, fired up on the second. Excercised my rather copious vocabulary and headed home. Half way back thinking about it I recalled that that 441 needs a bit 'extra' to get it into 'choke' and I hadn't been doing that. Better luck next trip.

2. Today. Tax at 10 so I should have time to fell the tree, 17 miles down, stepped out into half a gale wind and COLD. Back in car and on to Pullman to the tax.

Only good part of the two days was only $162 owed on taxes this year and preparation guy said I wouldn't owe anythign next year if I don't change anything.

Spending rest of day in house to to chill breeze and dripping rain now and then.

 

[dancan]

View attachment 640069 View attachment 640071 View attachment 640072 View attachment 640073 Two loads today. Elm, ash and a bit of poplar. First load was already half cut from last week. I had my son with me so I finished cutting and we were loaded up in less than an hour. Dropped him off at work, unloaded at home and came back to the scene of the scrounge. By this time my friends neighbor had come over with a sweet little Kioti tractor with a backhoe. The hoe had a thumb on it so he would grab a log, drive it over to my truck and hold it waist high while I cut it to length. While I loaded, he would go get another log. Worked the heck out of me but it was done in no time. Boys I’m telling you, that Kioti was the cats pajamas! I am one spoiled scrounger! The pile is growing, pretty soon you’ll be able to search “JustJeff’s scrounge pile” and a google earth link will pop up!!

Looks like you're working on getting a new boat lol

 

[James Miller]

You guys think these little locust rounds would dry well enough to be used next year? I was gona half anything 3" or less and mix it with the maple and cherry. Anything bigger will go in the oak pile for 2020.

 

[JustJeff]

I am kind of horny for a big water boat... gonna need more wood!
James, I split some of that small stuff too depending on how much of it I have. It helps it dry out and sometimes it’s nice to have some small splits for starting fires.

 

[tpence2177]

View attachment 640077 You guys think these little locust rounds would dry well enough to be used next year? I was gona half anything 3" or less and mix it with the maple and cherry. Anything bigger will go in the oak pile for 2020.

Got your new axe I see?


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[LondonNeil]

You can tell spring is springing, there's a definite increase in scrounge activity going on.

 

[woodchip rookie]

I can scrounge better when its cold. As soon as it warms up the ground gets soft and I cant get to most of it

 

[dancan]

All year for me cept for snow storms and rain .
Here's some of today's dead standing spruce scrounge doing what it should be doing .

 

[dancan]

I did a woods run this afternoon and picked up a small load .

This is not spruce

Spruce

 

[rarefish383]

The auction went OK. I was running late and missed the MS660, It went for $450, I wouldn't have gone that high anyway. The Homelite Super 1050, 100CC's went for $150, I got it and they say it is a runner. It has a new air filter and the air box is spotless, with good compresion. This one has the Walbro carb and I have an NOS one if it needs it. It is missing the choke linkage and there is a piece of wire with a loop in place. The C51, 77CC's looks scuzzy but has good compression, and it has the same choke linkage as the 1050. It went for $5 so I got it. The recoil spring went on my little 150 Automatic and the replacement on didn't fit, so I paid $5 for this one just for the recoil. Then I had to wait almost 5 hours for the Jersey Pattern Plumb. They grouped it together with a maul and a bunch of shovels, but my back hurt so bad I couldn't carry the pile, so I asked them to pull the ax and sell it separate. When you do that the starting bid goes to $5, so that's what I got it for. I missed all of the other axes because they sold at the same time as the saws.

 

[Cowboy254]

Nice work @JustJeff and @Sawyer Rob and @dancan ! I'm enjoying seeing some good scrounges now that you northern hemispherians have come out of hibernation.

I was going to test out the monkey saw this morning but rain on the roof and high winds made it less appealing. So I'll get to that soon.

The rain eventually cleared but the wind remained. I figured I might as well empty the red box out of the trailer and hit the gym.

Then I put the splits back in the trailer to take up to the shed that wasn't originally intended as a wood shed but has been temporarily seconded to wood shed duties since the wood shed is already full. The splits amounted to two loose loads like this.



Cowlad helped. Sort of.



This was my red box chopping block for the day before it got a fiskars quartering.



As usual, curiosity got the better of me and I had to find out how much it weighed. Does anyone else do that or is it just me? 31.8kgs, 70 pounds.



Anyway, moving on. It's a much finer and tighter grain than the peppermint stacked up behind it. I have 4-5 cubes or a cord and a bit stacked around the place. It'll be a couple of years before it's ready to burn unfortunately.



Cowlad was rather more useful unloading. Another year or two and I'll have him working like a slave but his skinny arms are not quite ready yet.

 

[rarefish383]

I am kind of horny for a big water boat... gonna need more wood!
James, I split some of that small stuff too depending on how much of it I have. It helps it dry out and sometimes it’s nice to have some small splits for starting fires.

My neighbor is thinking of selling his 28 Mako, twin 200 Mercs. He paid 96K wants 40K.

 

[Conquistador3]

You guys think these little locust rounds would dry well enough to be used next year? I was gona half anything 3" or less and mix it with the maple and cherry. Anything bigger will go in the oak pile for 2020.

Definetely.
Over the years I've used locust somewhat larger than that after 9-10 months drying behind the house. Burned as well as locust the same size dried for a couple years.