What Would You Do?

[Gypo Logger]

What would you do if it was 20 below and you were in the woods?
This is what I would do, only because I have a few loose screws.
Ha, Ha ha ha.
John

 

[NevadaWalrus]

Woods???? And the folks on this board make fun of me talking 'bout chain saws in Vegas. The only wood in that picture is a petrified log someone forgot to pick up. And a petrified logger just tripped over it

 

[glens]

John, you've got to give us a story for that one.

 

[confused]

John,

Who said you cant work and have fun too, never owned a chainsaw. In your case a skidder too.

 

[alamo-kid]

PIC

REALLY JOHN,


YOU SHOULD THINK TWICE BEFORE DRINKING AND RUNIN THAT SKIDDDDER. I NEVER SKID AND DRINK EVEN HERE IN TEXAS ONLY SELDOM HAVE I EVER DRANK AND SKIDDIDDED.

JEFF

 

[Gypo Logger]

If I were you guys, I would just go out and cut some wood. Check out my Red Elm, toughest wood on the face of the Earth.
John

 

[Gypo Logger]

Sorry, I have been posting things back asswards. Ha, ha, ha.
John

 

[Pacific]

Don't you guys in the East ever get tired working in the snow we had a little snowfall last night and it really makes it a PITA to work in. I got a small job of resupporting a 8x8 covered porch and this snow screwed up my day couldn't do anything its supposed to rain tommorow alot easier to work in.

It seems you cut alot of firewood Gypo from the pics you post it looks like firewood or is that what you guys call saw logs in the east

That red elm looks like a pretty tight grained wood what it like to cut and split is it good burning the only hardwoods I deal with is Alder and Maple.

 

[Keener]

For sure about the snow because it is so darn wet when it does snow here.
We worked in the sun this day..

 

[Keener]

And this....

 

[Keener]

This day too...

 

[Keener]

Come to think about it I only like to work when it is nice and sunny, keeps the motivation level up.

 

[glens]

Pacific,

Working in the snow is great.  I don't understand how anyone can live somewhere it rains 3 weeks out of 4.

Elm is not a very good firewood.  It burns pretty cold and it actually warms you more by hand-splitting it than by burning it.  It'll do in a pinch, though.  When it's been standing dead for a while like John fetched, it can be a good little workout for the saw, too.  It's not bad for this time of year when the days get up into the 40's and 50's (F, of course) and you want to keep a bed of coals in the stove but don't really want very much heat from it.  That's what I've been doing and I still have about a yard of it left.  I misjudged and still have a little more than half a cord each of beech, red oak, shagbark hickory (maybe really a third of a cord), bitternut hickory, and maybe a quarter cord of black locust.

Probably first all-around choice would be red oak, and/or white ash.  If you've got time to season it, not much surpasses shagbark hickory, with it's bitternut cousin not too far behind.  A lot of people like black locust and osage orange, but the best (in my opinion) are the first four I listed in this paragraph.

When you're cold, if it's wood, it's good.

Glen

 

[alamo-kid]

post

John


sorry about the all caps this key board was playing tricks on me and I did not catch it til now


jeff

 

[Gypo Logger]

thats ok jeff.
Glen, this Red Elm is still in my firebox this morning after closing the damper last night, but when I threw a match at it and gave it some air, it caught right away. Wood lasts a long time if it wont burn. I think with a bit of house training, this Elm will pump out the BTU's.
John

 

[glens]

Yes, John, it might learn to burn.

If you had some <i>real</i> wood, you'd have coals the next morning that you not only wouldn't need to use a match on, but you wouldn't need one to start the new pieces of wood you'd put in on top of them, either.

But I do confess that there's not much worse than sleeping on top of all the covers while in a sweat, summer or winter, and elm is certainly good at preventing that at least in the winter.

:<i></i>)

Slippery elm is a bit better than white elm, though; I'll grant you that.

Glen

 

[alamo-kid]

wood

john


what you need is some good old South Texas Mesquite. Harder than 9$'s worth of jaw breakers and Burns hotter'n Hades but it's real hard on chains....Maybe you could send me one of those "bad boy" chains to try

jeff

 

[mikek711]

I just removed about a cord and a 1/2 from the side of a friends house.He just sold the place and needed it gone and I was just the guy to help him out!
Anyway,this stuff smells great.It smells like it was seasoned with something to use for smoking meat or jerkey but he says it wasn't.He bought quite a few loads from a firewood dealer about a year ago so he doesnt know what it is and obviously I dont know either.
I would love to get my hands on some more of this stuff so If anyone knows from my description what this stuff could be,I'd greatly appreciate any info.
Mike.

 

[glens]

You've got a nice little mix of hardwoods there.&nbsp; I'm thinking I see a lot of red oak (smells like Parmesan cheese when green), maybe a couple pieces of walnut (very distinct smell when green, but hardly like something you'd want to smoke meat with), some maple, and <i>maybe</i> a piece of bitternut hickory in the middle.&nbsp; The hickory smell can almost induce a spontaneous orgasm when it's green, so maybe that's what you're smelling.&nbsp; But I'd think if it were a year old you'd have to bust it open to get any appreciation out of it.&nbsp; Some of that stuff looks a little punky.

I just went and fetched a few pieces of bitternut hickory off the stack and busted one open.&nbsp; It's been split and stacked for about a year and a quarter.&nbsp; I can't hardly smell a thing in it now.

I had to take the bitternut, and a shagbark right next to it because it was in the way, last fall.&nbsp; They were both about 90 feet tall and 80 years old.&nbsp; The shagbark was about 14" and the bitternut about 20" dbh.&nbsp; I sent about 16" (@ 12" dia.) of each to some kin out in Wyoming, so they could smoke some elk and trout with it.&nbsp; A few weeks later I'd taken my wood stove apart to have a local welding shop make me a new smoke baffle.&nbsp; I'd had to reach in to arm's length and remove a bolt.&nbsp; On my way out the drive I stopped at the mailbox and there was a package from out west.&nbsp; As I was driving to town I kept smelling the inside of my stove, very strongly, and thought I must have really gotten into something in the stove when I finally realized it was coming from the package.&nbsp; They'd gotten a little carried away with the smoke, and it was a <i>little</i> strong, but the elk tasted quite good anyway.&nbsp; It took a little away from it though when I thought by the smell that I was licking the inside of my stovepipe :<i></i>).

As often, I don't have a point.

Glen

 

[Gypo Logger]

Hi Mike, looks to me like the wood in your picture is Rock Maple mostly, possibly some Beech. Both these species develope spalting, which is part of the rotting process, hence, those black lines in the wood. Spalted wood is highly sought after by wood turners and cabinet builders.
My Red Elm is house trained now. This wood is so tough, that when I felled it, not eaven one of the terminal branches broke off or was shattered.
Farmers used Red Elm for those big wooden wheels in the barn to lift hay up into the hay mow.
Hey Glen, The only trouble with smoking fish, is that they are very hard to light up.
I would sure like to try some of that mesquite from Texas Jeff.
John