Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[Deleted member 83629]

woman are just are the same as men here marcy. yeah i know about the south i live there lol.

 

[marcy-m]

woman are just are the same as men here marcy. yeah i know about the south i live there lol.

Yeah, usually the women's reactions are worse than the guys. At least the men don't usually feel the need to stare with open mouth ect.

Where are you Jake, for weather comparison sake? I'm just west of Dallas, zone 7b. You were talking about split wood cut and split in March, ready in Dec, right?


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[Deleted member 83629]

old kentucky land of tobacco,horses,welfare checks want to visit LOL

 

[Philbert]

Women also compete!

http://www.stihlusa.com/information/corporate/press/collegiate_northeastwomenwinner_april2009/

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150175298703556.315488.86263703555

https://www.facebook.com/events/1567724823453892/?ref=22

Philbert

 

[marcy-m]

Kentucky's pretty country. We have our welfare issues here, too, unfortunately. One of the reaso s I'm working so hard for this firewood. I would rather work at whatever than go to the gov. Would 't let my kids go hungry though. Looking forwArd to another year of no heating bills!


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[Deleted member 83629]

me two but i hope the coming winter is bit more mild and not so stretched as last winter. between the mud,ice,snow and just flat nastiness i hope it is mild i have been cutting and stacking since march i already got 10 cord of locust,oak,red oak,hackberry,cherry,ash i plan the cut a little more and stack it.

 

[marcy-m]

Women also compete!

Competing? Whoa! I've got to see this! Haha thanks for the links!! I feel so validated definite confidence booster!

Edit: my 15 year old daughter is checking out youtube videos, and she's pretty excited about it. I hope they have them here!


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[marcy-m]

i have been cutting and stacking since march i already got 10 cord of locust,oak,red oak,hackberry,cherry,ash i plan the cut a little more and stack it.

Will you burn that much? We've been cutting since May and have almost 3 cords. We'll burn two, I'm guessing.



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[Deleted member 83629]

i live in a drafty farm house so i will burn up to that depending on how bad of a winter i have.

 

[marcy-m]

Oh man. I hope you can get some good windows. Expensive I know. Made a huge difference when we replaced ours. We've been thinking about enclosing a small front and back entry (think 4' square) as an air lock to minimize loss through the door fanning that comes with all the kids.


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[MountainHigh]

MountainHigh, It's 93 here today, and that's about 7- 10 degrees below normal. We have one of those round holz hausen piles that is uncovered other than the bark. The other wood has clear plastic stapled on the top logs, and those piles are stacked against a wooden fence on top of pallets. I'm hoping the TX heat will do it 's thing and the wood will be dry enough to burn this November. .

And oh hey, I always, always seem to over fill the gas tank no matter how careful I am. Even if it's just a little bit, i always seem to do it. i even got one of those indicator funnels, but the opening was too big. Any other ideas? I definitely have to fuel a ways from the starting place or kaboom.
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93 temp and direct daily sun exposure for your wood for some weeks - you will definitely have very dry wood by the Fall !

With the kind of heat and sun you get, I doubt you'll need to, but if wood at the bottom of your pile isn't getting as bone dry as the top wood by mid August, move the still moist wood to the top of your pile. Or you can simply peel off the top wood as it dries and start a new stack of dry, exposing the still moist wood underneath the original stack until the entire diminishing pile has been dried and relocated, one top-of-pile-dry-stick at a time.

Re over-filling gas - like anything, practice makes better - you can't rush a gas re-fill. Even seasoned saw users over fill a little occasionally and that's why you're not taking any chances, and only re-filling after saw has cooled down a bit Zogger's idea is a nice solution to overfilling, but straight pour works ok for me after 30 years of doing it.

also give your mix a few good shakes before re-filling, to make sure you're getting an even mix into your saw.

 

[Deleted member 83629]

i stack the wood around the house, it isn't the windows it is insulation only 1/2 of my home is insulated but i managed to keep the house to 73 degrees ever thought it was -10 below outside with wind chill around -30 a few months ago.

 

[marcy-m]

not taking any chances, and only re-filling after saw has cooled down a bit

I need to remember the cooling down part. I've been cutting about 1 tank full since I've had this saw.

If we heat up to 100 like our normal summers, the wood should be great then!

After watching the Timbersports videos my daughter has decided that when I can't keep up with her splitting, she'll use the ax to buck logs. Oh boy, I better learn how to sharpen it better



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[marcy-m]

i stack the wood around the house, it isn't the windows it is insulation only 1/2 of my home is insulated but i managed to keep the house to 73 degrees ever thought it was -10 below outside with wind chill around -30 a few months ago.

Wow! Nice job! How do you fix the insulation? Blow it in?


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[Deleted member 83629]

when i get some more money, currently im trying to stretch my dollars across the road to pay my bills.

 

[marcy-m]

Boy, do I understand that. i hope your stretching goes well and we have a milder winter than last year.


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[CTYank]

Congrats on the wood score! I have carried a lot of wood in the back of my van, and I've brought bags and bags of leaves home riding on the top. I have a massive compost pile.

I'm glad to hear that using a small saw is very doable. The way it cut today, I think I'm in love with that little saw.

Haha about how you use a little...saw. Too true. However when little saw combines with inexperience there's lots of room for mess ups. And it's possible the end result will be less than happy. With everyone's help here, though, I'm feeling pretty confident that I'm on the road to knowing what I'm doing with this saw. I'm almost positive that I now know more than the average homeowner thanks to y'all. Very much appreciated!

I agree about the noise with the electric, but that gas saw is just wonderful! great idea buying from HD's rental!

The next wood purchase probably needs to be the fiskars x27. We're using the yellow handle maul from HD or Walmart, I think. 15 year old daughter chooses to split rather than run or do any other kind of PE. She would appreciate a better maul I'm sure.

Problem is, most any "maul" you can find at a big box or corner hardware, is a messed-up sledge. One narrow face. Lousy wood-splitting tool. Over the years I've used a few. (Still have them, but modified their head shape a lot, to mimic a much better tool.)

Then I got a 3 kg (6.6 lb) maul from Mueller, an Austrian forge. A wood-splitting tool, forged of excellent steel to an efficient shape. The take-away for me was that there are useful splitting tools in the midst of fad plastic and crude bludgeons. There's a wide price range, too.

Some folks really like mauls from Gransfors Bruks ($180+ here). The Mueller I mentioned is $150-something. Then I got a $110 Wetterlings maul, which happens to be indistinguishable from the Hultafors maul that's branded for Husqvarna. That can be had for a lot less. Stihl dealers, last I saw, were selling mauls made by Ochsenkopf for $80; some folks think they're a bit too heavy, but the price is appealing. A newcomer on this scene is Council Tools of North Carolina, making a variety of hand-forged edge tools, at reasonable prices.

Typically a "maul" has a "poll" (flat head face) that can be used to drive wedges, but a "splitting axe" can't safely do that, because the steel of the head is too brittle. Not to mention, they're too light.

Head weight is important, as is shape. A maul works best if it has an edge. Best weight will depend on the user. Being about 195, I find that 6+ lb is most productive, but 5 lb. head works well for extended sessions. 8 lb is beyond usable. What to do: to cover the range of uses, I've mauls ranging from 5-8 lbs, with the 8 lbs being used only as a sledge. Can't be swung as fast as the lighter ones, and more difficult to "rein-in" in case of an OOPS.

As to whether a batch of wood can be dried in time, that's impossible to calculate. What is possible IMHO is to make an effort, then when it's time to burn, try some samples and see it they're ready for the show. My rule of thumb is to burn from a batch that's dried enough to go, and of lowest quality to do the job. IOW, efficiently use up crap first.

 

[MountainHigh]

Boy, do I understand that. i hope your stretching goes well and we have a milder winter than last year.
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Seems crazy that your winter in Texas and southern US sounded harder than ours in the BC mountains this past year! I've always thought of Texas like hot cactus country in Mexico, even in the winter !? Or was it just that snow and freezing temps are not normal and homes are not built for it?

 

[Deleted member 83629]

my house was built in a time period before insulation was common this past winter i battled frozen water and sewage pipes, my truck froze up running and it had the right amount of antifreeze this winter was so brutal it killed trees in my yard that can handle some cold weather. then the power shortage and a propane shortage the electrical grid here couldn't handle the load of everyone using every type of heat source to keep warm.

i had it better than others though i had my problems i ran out of wood twice because i thought 6 cord would do it had to deal with trying to cut wood in the middle of january to keep my house warm and keep what few water pipes thawed then having to wade through the snow,ice, and the mud as deep as 4 ft in spots. though the windchill on a few of those days where the worst for me trying to drive to work it was so cold my defrost couldn't keep up and had to use a ice scraper.

i just hope and pray this winter is milder even if i got to put up with a little ice/snow/mud the norm for temps in the winter here is 25 30 degrees but it was 1-15 degrees most days with windchills around -10 -30 .i may be whining but us folks in the southern us are not use to it but this time im not getting caught with my pants i have insulated my water pipes and installed a coolant heater on my truck and cutting 12 cords of wood.

 

[GeeVee]

Marcy- get a small hand truck for moving wood. You could use a 32 oz. sport drink bottle for re-fueling, but then you'd risk over filling your refilling tool. Just the squeeze action might help? I have few left, but the old style gas can that had a vent on the top behind the handle could be used to fill with. The old style gas cans are hard to find. In that case that you have the newer cans- which suck, just use your finger. You are over filling the saw, because of the amount of fuel in the nozzle is on its way when you see the saw tank is full, you reactm but its too late for that amount in the nozzle. Perhaps, just getting the saw up on a table and closer to your eyesight, and just barely tip the can enough to trickle it in the tank? * If you have one of those trigger/handle POS cans- get rid of it. A can with a plain old spout will do fine if you aren;t in a hurry. Put it and a bottle of oil in a milk crate and you're portable. I'd consider a cork or stopper on the spout.

Depending on how long said Hair is, ALWAYS a minimum pony tail and a bun or top knot is best for safety. My former beard was ten inches off my chin, I'd braid it and likely fold the braid in half- Got rid of it when Dumb Dynasty made everyone think it was cool to grow a long beard. Amazing how my long beard made people around me stupid rednecks...

I can see pretty soon you wondering why your just sharpened chain is cutting well. Take the rakers down every so often.

This place has so many people willing to help, just holler. A good saw is great, a good friend with a saw is better. As long as the saw you have is running proper, and sharp chains are in hand, save the money for a tool you dont have. Although, I think if you are running a small late model Mac, you may run it to the end of its service life and need to opt for a more durable machine that is more readily rebuildable.

I have never been let down by Echo saws- and I have ten Stihls. The Echos I have now, been known to sit for a year, and start right up with the leftover fuel that I left in it. No Stihl ever has done this. For over twenty years, Echo products have been good to me. All Echo landscape equipment I owned all were the most reliable. Multiple identical ( i had a big company) line trimmers, edgers, blowers, hedge trimmers, saws, Echo could handle intermittent use, Stihl blowers used ten times a day, sometimes wouldn't want to start if you didn;t hold your mouth just right when starting.