Steve's County land firewood adventures (pic intensive)

[Steve NW WI]

Had to work late tonight, hope no one was waiting up for the results, if so, call in to work, go back to sleep for a couple hours, then go hit the woods for a while!

Anyhow, here's yesterday's pics.

First is the setup:

Here's why I don't get all warm and fuzzy over a 4 way wedge. With a nice tall single, you can make pieces the size you want, and with the right sized wood, make 9 pieces in 4 splits:

This pile of future kindling was not included in the calculations:

Results and more pics coming in the next post, just to get a nice smooth scroll of my row by row pictures.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Here, without further interruption on my part, is the stack growing as I split each row out of the truck:

Next time I'll put the camera on the tripod and try to make a time lapse video out of it, but the camera angles from today bounce too much and would just make ya seasick.

And now for the winners. As ya can see, it's just a little shy of 2/3 cord. By my official measurements, it's .63 cords, 80.69 cu ft to be exact. That makes

Nice haul. 5/8 cord and 7975 lbs.

our winner. PM me your address and I'll send ya either a box full of Homelite Super2 jigsaw puzzle parts, or a shiny new Save Edge file (7/32" diameter) - your choice.

On the weight:

90 ft^3

8400lbs

Was closest, but still almost 500# off, actual weight across the scale was 8780. That makes a shade over 3900 lbs in the back of the truck. Just slightly over a legal load... From now on, I'll toss the load, except for a row for the tailgate. That hopefully combined with me not needing to get "a couple more pieces" on, should keep me under 8K I hope.

6200#/cord for green red oak is heavier than what most charts say, but this spring and summer were banner years for rain around here, and it's possible these were at full capacity when they tipped over, and the table weights I've seen showing around 5K/cord are for winter cut when the water is down in the tree?

cnice, same deal, pm me your addy, and I'll send ya whatever shelbythedog don't want (or if neither of ya want the box-o-Homelite, I'll send another Save Edge to ya).

Might get another load Friday, but likely not. I might grab a load on the way back down from the charity cut on Sunday, just a few miles outta the way. I'll keep the pics coming.

 

[audible fart]

All these pics of firewood have me considering taking the MS390 out for some more free hardwood. I've decided if i'm gonna keep getting all oak, i'm gonna have to start splitting the splits just a tad smaller. It's still so warm here i've been getting oppressively, tortuously, hot fires going just because i wanna get rid of the oak and watch a fire burn. Then i constantly have to crack 2 windows and the attic stairs just to breathe. :msp_biggrin:

 

[cnice_37]

cnice, same deal, pm me your addy, and I'll send ya whatever shelbythedog don't want (or if neither of ya want the box-o-Homelite, I'll send another Save Edge to ya).

How's about one night w/ your avatar?

 

[CrappieKeith]

How's about one night w/ your avatar?

You guys could swap avatars...LOL

Nice thread ya got going Steve.

 

[shelbythedog]

PM sent. I'm in for the 7/32" file, should come in handy on the rainy days we seem to be having a lot of this fall.

Great thread, Steve. I must have checked back 3 or 4 times last night before 2am waiting on the results! This was so much fun, I might just have to find something out in the stash to pay it forward with.

 

[Steve NW WI]

(Shelby, still need to get that file out to ya...it's coming)

I finally got back up there for a load this morning. It's been too long between loads for a few different reasons, including some stuff I had to get cut at a friends' place. Hopefully I can have a couple more cords home by the end of the week.

Had a smaller load on, just tossed with a tailgate row stacked, but still probably 1/2 cord, in under an hour. I'm getting close to where I have enough clearing to drag tops out individually and cut em up without being in the middle of a tangle.

I have a couple pics to add, but the server's draggin butt again and won't let me, will try again tomorrow. Hopefully I can get this post to go through.

Next week is "Holy Week" aka gun deer season here in WI, and I might snag a couple loads on combo hunting and wood runs, so long as I'm not chasing anyone off their spot by cutting.

 

[Iska3]

Next week is "Holy Week" aka gun deer season here in WI, and I might snag a couple loads on combo hunting and wood runs, so long as I'm not chasing anyone off their spot by cutting.

Hope you do better then we did. Spent the better part of the week in our stands and never saw anything worth taking. Did find a few bucks that the Yotes got, took home a trailer load of oak and had some serious bonding time with son. Always nice to see him again.

 

[fordracer]

Steve,thats a very nice wood stack you got going there.

 

[chopperfreak2k1]

How's about one night w/ your avatar?

shoot, how's about one night with YOUR avatar?!?!?

 

[jerrycmorrow]

i believe i've seen those "4x4" rails you're stacking on. look like those throwaway "4x4"s they transport steel and pipe on. that's what i use but i set mine on rocks to get em off the ground so's i can use 'em again next year.

 

[Steve NW WI]

i believe i've seen those "4x4" rails you're stacking on. look like those throwaway "4x4"s they transport steel and pipe on. that's what i use but i set mine on rocks to get em off the ground so's i can use 'em again next year.

Exactly what they are. I work in a metal fab shop, we get truckloads of steel sheets pretty much daily with these between the skids. They're free, fit in the back of the car to take home, and some of em are on their third year of use without rotting. The rocks might help with the drying, getting more air under, but I'm not worried about em rotting, I'll just grab more.

Got another load home today, but it was a runaround to get it done, my spot was claimed by a guy and his kids sighting in deer rifles at the stumps I left, so I headed toward my backup spot. On the way there, met a friend from down south of me at his cabin and wound up cutting there, he had some trees down at his cabin, some of it nice dry long dead oak and some green like I've been cutting. A few more pics coming after work tonight if the server here cooperates.

 

[rwoods]

hard to beat those old chevys but nice to have one to try and beat
View attachment 205366View attachment 205367View attachment 205368

What's up with that little stepside hiding in the background? Ron

 

[Steve NW WI]

Pics from Tuesday, not many of them however. Apparently, not smoking means no smoke breaks to walk around taking pics of everything. I promise to try harder in the future...

One of a couple small ones I cleaned up:

Top city, I cut the one on the right and a main stem, plus the one in the last pic, and had a load. I think I've got another load here just in the tops.

Half loaded, you can see the bigger chunks get loaded first before I get sick of lifting em.

Thought I had a loaded pic, but the camera seems to have eaten it.

Pics from today's load are on the cell phone, if I can ever find the stupid patch cord for it.

Going up for another load in the morning, might be able to get one Friday too.

 

[Biker Dude]

I hate hunting for patch cords.

Nice score though, it makes me want to go out in the woods and do some cutting myself!

 

[jerrycmorrow]

nice that you can drive right up to em. i've got to dodge trees and rocks to get to mine. sometimes the trees jump out and smack my truck. got a nice reminder of that on the bed of my truck. good goin steve.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Was waiting for the starter repair guy to hopefully call this morning, so I decided not to go up after another load today. I haven't heard from him yet...

Anywhooo, I figured I'd split yesterday's load by hand for some exercise while I was unloading it anyhow. Of course, nothing ever goes as planned here, 2 rounds in and then this:

Not a good start. I liked that Ludell, kinda a poor man's Fiskars. I had to run to town for hydraulic oil for the tractor, so I stopped in at the local Ace. They didn't have the X-27 there but they had the X-25, $40 of my quittin smokin fund got used right there:

Here's the load I had:

A little over 2 1/2 hours later (not much slower than splitting on the splitter alone, but a lot more like work ) I had the truck empty. Here's the green stuff, not quite a 1/4 cord:

The rest of it was bone dry, might as well put it in the house right away, have some room right now where this past falls' box elder was, about the same amount as what's stacked outside:

The verdict on the Fiskars? I like it, a lot. It aggravated me a bit at first when it bounced off the first few hits, until I realized that I'd be yanking on the handle of the old axe to get it out of the wood, instead of swinging again with the Fiskars. Once I got going, it was a split makin machine. I only left 2 rounds for the splitter, because some idjit cut em too crooked to stand upright. If I ever get my hands on that guy...

No, I ain't ready to sell off the splitter, but the Fiskars will get used on those times when it's just not worth it to drag the splitter out for a little wood, or just for exercise or stress relief. It's a dang handy tool to have.

Probably head up for another load in the morning if something else doesn't come up first. Right now, I gotta get my deer hunting gear organized.

 

[jerrycmorrow]

how tall'r ya. reason i'm asking is i've been pondering a fiskars. but undecided as to a x25 or the x27. does the 25 seem long enough for ya? or do ya think you could get more umph out of a 27?

 

[GeeVee]

mmmm. Tops Good. mmmm

Two words for the big rounds.

Bed crane.

 

[Rickochet]

how tall'r ya. reason i'm asking is i've been pondering a fiskars. but undecided as to a x25 or the x27. does the 25 seem long enough for ya? or do ya think you could get more umph out of a 27?

If you are on the taller side, I would suggest the X27. I am 6'1" and have the X25 and it takes a while to get comfortable with the short handle. I will be buying the X27 soon.