Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[zogger]

Resplit about a cord of wood from boiler size down to firewood size with the Fiskars tonight.

Wood that was cut memorial day weekend and was reading 29% mc on Labor Day weekend is now at 22%. Not bad being we had over a month of constant below freezing temps thrown in there.

The stuff I bucked up yesterday, that redoak, has been down over two years and the inside was still reading in the 30s with my cheap moisture magic guess o meter..., looks "brand new" fresh cut, no difference from any standing live oak I have cut. That's going in the pile with the LA test wood for three years from now, replacing what I am burning now. I was busting the pieces small enough to pick up and hump outta the picker swamp, read, dirty nasty muddy ground, so used the anvil on a stick (henceforth AOS) to whack them. One hit, bang!

Love me some straight red oak! I have half a dozen more rounds to haul out this afternoon, I just tuckered out yesterday... Next to it is a nice straight pretty almost dead standing tulip poplar, I'll get that one next. Love that stuff too.

 

[MustangMike]

That Tulip (Yellow Poplar) is invading a lot of the woods around here, grows very fast, very tall and big around. With a quick glance, U can easily mistake the bark for Ash.

 

[zogger]

That Tulip (Yellow Poplar) is invading a lot of the woods around here, grows very fast, very tall and big around. With a quick glance, U can easily mistake the bark for Ash.

Yep! It's like "ash lite". Looks very similar, cuts similar, splits similar, easy in other words, just not as many BTUs per stick, but great for mornings/fall/spring. Dries fast, so similar there, too.

If you get some gnarlier chunks you don't want to fool with, let them rot out on the ground, later on before you go fishing bust them open, huge giant white grubs, fat ones.

 

[MustangMike]

Sounds like beetle larvae.

 

[svk]

Who needs leaf springs when you have ash splits! .

Heard my tire rubbing the fender and was dismayed to see I lost a leaf spring 40 miles from home. Jacked up the trailer and wedged in this split to finish the job.

By far not the heaviest load I've hauled in this trailer, I guess it was just time.

 

[Philbert]

I once brought a trailer home using a come-along to hold the axle in position when the shackles broke.

Philbert

 

[zogger]

Last load of oak from that tree today, with one of my supervisors inspecting. Thought I only had around five rounds left..wrong, forgot about all the branch wood, some big, from the top. Way down in the pickers, I shot putted and heaved one truckload out, that's it. There's another load down there but it can ooze back into the natural ecosystem...

Then two shots of the next one, cleared around a tulip poplar, stripped dead vines from it and debarked it for when I come back, that's where the felling cuts will be, so got rid of a lot of dirt first. Last pic shows the stack I am adding to on the left, and what I am pulling from this winter, on the right. Once the one on the right is gone, that will get rebuilt properly with railroad ties and pallets, then the wood on the left gets finished splitting and stacked over there. I try to make around four cord stacks, about what I use per season.

 

[steved]

Those seem like aweful thin springs? Mine are nearly 3/8" thick (each leaf)...

Couple places to check: Northern Tool, AgriSupply, and Truckspring.

 

[SteveSS]

Pretty lax day here. It's 12/14 and it was too hot to cut wood. Dad and I took down one small, dead cherry that ended up making 14 keeper rounds. Half of them with the middle starting to rot out, and the upper part of the tree was just fluff. Temp got up to almost 70 I think. Snow in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday. Weird weather this December. Oh yeah......Found three baby mice in the hollow stump of that tree. No bigger than the first knuckle of one of my fingers. Didn't even think about taking a picture of them all laying in my glove.

 

[MechanicMatt]

Zogger, id focus most my energy on making the four speed truck a runner. Swap the bigger axles and anything that works into that truck. I hate gm auto transmissions.
Svk, I like your quick fix, McGyver would be proud.....but Chuck Norris would have just carried the trailer home.

 

[svk]

Steved, They are probably quarter inch. They really don't do anything, the trailer probably squats 1/2" from empty to full.

I'll pull it out over Christmas break and throw a new one in.

 

[svk]

On the scrounge note, I did spy a 10" yellow birch that will be coming home with me this spring. No splitting needed, just perfect overnight heat.

 

[Ambull01]

Hey Reid:
grab that pine, dry it , split and stack it. Have to admit, lot of my pine is not dry but has slipped the bark.
When I forget the stove and feel the chill, I rake the ashes, find a few coals. a handful of noodles and couple pine splits.
Poof, I got a fire going again. Then pile on the hardwood.
Sometimes I just burn pine, the heat feels so good on these old bones, Have to monitor the stack temp, don't want to overfire.
At times, I use the pine to dry the hardwood, the borderline hardwood ( not quite ready to burn).
Don't be in a rush to install a BB on the 6421 you'll need 64cc more than 79cc. I would venture a guess that I use my Husky 455 and the Makita 6401 more than the Dolmar 7900. If you can score another HD Makita, then go for it.
The OEM 7900 P&C is the perfered route, you know what your getting, AM kits are a crap shoot,
Hey Zogger:
I like your wood wagon, has all the requirements, dent in the door, rusted out wheelwells, cant tell if the tail gate is bent. The only thing missing is the Duct tape and cardboard on the rear window.
Gotta get out of here before I get in more trouble.

CUL

Yeah these noodles fire up quick.
I'll run it at 64cc for about a year or so. You have a 7900 too? I'm jealous.

I have a few scrounging ops lined up. I'll post pics if I remember to take them.

 

[zogger]

Zogger, id focus most my energy on making the four speed truck a runner. Swap the bigger axles and anything that works into that truck. I hate gm auto transmissions.
Svk, I like your quick fix, McGyver would be proud.....but Chuck Norris would have just carried the trailer home.

The bigger axles/diffs and real nice wheels and tires are all on the 3/4 ton with the four speed already. It doesn't need much near as I can tell, just throw some money at it, set of injectors, batteries, and a pushbutton something for the glow plugs, the factory controller doesn't seem to work. I jumpered them for a test fireup. 3 out of the 8 suck, but whole sets are cheaper than buying three...the rest is normal stuff, fix the stupid electric windows, scrounge a tailgate, hood and another windshield, work on the lights, etc. So, I really don't have to move anything around, nothing major, should have two good runners by next summer. If not, I still got enough parts to make and keep running one of them.

 

[dancan]

I didn't get in the woods yesterday but I did go pickup 4 spruce logs for milling and got a bonus stick of maple while there
I was going to go and run the skiddah but when I got home with the logs I had to move a pile of wood so I could unload , been so wet here I couldn't get the little Bota out of the back yard because the wet clay soil turned to grease in a hurry , plugged up the treads on the turf tires and gave me the traction of 4 helium filled balloons so out came the old school wheel barrow and got it done .
The logs will haveta wait till next weekend .

 

[mainewoods]

Had a couple of scroungers show up in my driveway the other day looking for a score.

 

[Philbert]

Oh, Deer!

Philbert

 

[zogger]

Had a couple of scroungers show up in my driveway the other day looking for a score.View attachment 386960

That's cool! Do you throw some feed out for them in ther winter?

I don't get wild guys like that closeby, too many dogs. Get like possums or coyotes sneak through fast, that's it.

 

[Red97]

Not much of a haul today. ran out of daylight. Glad I fixed the speeco These rounds were about 20-24" And did not want to split. had to axe every piece apart. Sad thing is most were straight pieces. The 925's earned their keep.

 

[svk]

Not much of a haul today. ran out of daylight. Glad I fixed the speeco These rounds were about 20-24" And did not want to split. had to axe every piece apart. Sad thing is most were straight pieces. The 925's earned their keep.

Nice looking Homelites!