Just finished some night whackin'!

[Woody Stover]

I was working on some of the dead standing Ash my neighbor gave me, about 12:30 this AM. It's harder to work at night, but I'd like to stay ahead of the splitting crew at SIL's tomorrow. I probably could have hoisted these rounds into the quad trailer (White Ash, 19" DBH, not too heavy as rounds go) but the girls don't like rasslin' the big rascals. I've got probably 1/2 cord plus over there already, and this pile is now ready to go as soon as I finish my first gallon of coffee. There's another Ash that I've already dropped, about 16", behind the one in the pics, but I think this one will be enough to keep them busy tomorrow.
It was about 72* with humidity in the 80+ percent range, calm wind. I had to roll these rounds up out of the top edge of a ravine. I lost a lot of fluids wielding the Fiskars, so I'm now trying to replace them by enjoying a frosty, frothy beverage. I went commando, no bug spray, so the gnats nailed me pretty good. I picked off one deer tick, but that bugger might have gotten on me earlier in the day when I was setting up the pallets near the splitting site.

http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h407/2bnator/Hearth/003-1.jpg

Here are eight trunk rounds, and several more, some of which are visible in the next pic. I'll put some wedge-sized grooves in the tops of these to split them.
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h407/2bnator/Hearth/005.jpg

http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h407/2bnator/Hearth/006.jpg

This is the Big Kahuna, yet to be dropped. Looks to be 32-34". There's another one that's probably close to 30". These two are in heavy traffic, so I'll try to hide from the widowmakers when the trees start to fall. I'll have a spotter also.
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h407/2bnator/Hearth/007.jpg

 

[shawneyboy]

The "Big Kahuma" should be renamed to "huge Kahuna!" There be some serious BTUs there. Nice score !!

Shawn

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Hey Woody, that is some hard work in the weather we've been having. Those are also some very large splits. I doubt you'll be putting many of those in the Keystone.

I did some splitting once in the summer like this but also set up a large fan blowing right at me. It helped as did some beverage; lots of beverage.

 

[Woody Stover]

Hey Woody, that is some hard work in the weather we've been having. Those are also some very large splits. I doubt you'll be putting many of those in the Keystone.

I did some splitting once in the summer like this but also set up a large fan blowing right at me. It helped as did some beverage; lots of beverage.

Well, after three hours' sleep, I'm back at it. 83*, 61% RH and a slight breeze. Best of all...cloud cover.
Dennis, these splits are just so the girls can handle them while splitting without much trouble. They'll split them smaller; We're trying to get this Ash cured by this Winter. One SIL has a Fireview, the other has a Dutchwest Small Convection. Both those stoves can handle 19" wood max. Keystone is 17" max.
Now, I'm gonna bury them in splitter wood! :cheese:

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Got ya Woody. Nice going to make it easier for the ladies. Maybe next winter you can get it all done before we have this heat! That is one reason I like to do the cutting in winter and splitting in spring. Usually before the middle or end of April I'm done with the wood and can concentrate on other things.

Watch out this afternoon. It will be hot and humid!

 

[Woody Stover]

Maybe next winter you can get it all done before we have this heat! Usually before the middle or end of April I'm done with the wood and can concentrate on other things.

Watch out this afternoon. It will be hot and humid!

That's the plan; Get everyone at least two years' supply now, then process future wood when it's nice out.
I'm already sweatin' like a spewing hydrant! :lol:

 

[Woody Stover]

OOOOOOFFFF!! 87/57 now and the breeze has died. Hand-splitting this stuff is kickin' my arse. Three hours' sleep is not getting it, and the only thing keeping me going at this point is the promise of BEER!!
Next time I'll haul the splitter down in the woods. Looks like a winch or something else is in my future to get the huge rounds to the splitter. Any ideas for an easy, cheap way to do this? Pulling them up with the quad and a rope might be problematic; It's pretty congested in there...

 

[thewoodlands]

[quote author=Woody Stover, it's always nice when someone else is busting there a_ _, nice work.



zap

 

[lukem]

OOOOOOFFFF!! 87/57 now and the breeze has died. Hand-splitting this stuff is kickin' my arse. Three hours' sleep is not getting it, and the only thing keeping me going at this point is the promise of BEER!!
Next time I'll haul the splitter down in the woods. Looks like a winch or something else is in my future to get the huge rounds to the splitter. Any ideas for an easy, cheap way to do this? Pulling them up with the quad and a rope might be problematic; It's pretty congested in there...

Take it easy out there...too much heat and too little sleep can get a man hurt. I find myself making mistakes when I'm hot and tired....and when you are running a saw there is very little room for mistakes. Work safe...we'll get a cool spell.

 

[Kenster]

I would kill for 87/57 temps. That's 15 to 20 degrees cooler than it has been here for many weeks.

 

[Woody Stover]

We made good headway today but by the end of it I was ready to sit down and replenish my fluids with a Fat Tire. :cheese:

Dennis said I'd find other uses for the quad I got recently, and he sure was right. Wind was non-existent here today, and the breeze I created by riding down to deliver the loads after I'd hand-split each one to a manageable size for the ladies was just enough to keep me from boiling over! :lol:

Here's what we got done. SIL cross-stacked every so often. She had a friend whose cat was injured by falling wood, and I guess she figured the stack would be more stable this way.
It seemed like the stuff we stacked first was drying out a little by the time we got finished; It looked a little darker to me. Maybe just wishful thinking on my part.
I think I got into a little Ivy prepping the stacking area yesterday. I was wearing short sleeves, and the Ivy was heavy there because of abundant sun. I tried to avoid it but it's hard to avoid it all...
Looks like this single-row stack is pretty close to one cord. Splits I tested were from 20-25% MC. July and August, do your thing!!
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h407/2bnator/Hearth/002.jpg
I think these dead standers are White Oak, but SIL has nixed cutting them; She enjoys watching owls and hawks that use them as perches to survey their surroundings. Oh, well...
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h407/2bnator/Hearth/009.jpg

 

[Woody Stover]

Take it easy out there…too much heat and too little sleep can get a man hurt. I find myself making mistakes when I'm hot and tired....and when you are running a saw there is very little room for mistakes. Work safe...we'll get a cool spell.

Luckily, I had just enough already bucked to keep 'em splitting until everyone had had enough of the heat. Pre-splitting the rounds by hand was a lot of work but not quite as dangerous as sawing...
I've gotta work tonight for a few hours. I should be taking a nap, but I've elected instead to hang out on a wood nut forum. :lol:
No cool spell coming here, but temps of around 90* will make it workable. No breeze forecast for the next week, though, what's the deal with that?? I need wind blowin' tru da stacks!

I would kill for 87/57 temps. That's 15 to 20 degrees cooler than it has been here for many weeks.

Out of curiosity I looked at the forecast for here and Houston for tomorrow. 101* heat index for you, 99* for us. I would still work in that, but I'd be moving pretty slow. I'm glad we split and stacked today, wasn't quite that nasty!

 

[Jagtec1]

"Just finished some night whackin’!"

I'm not touching that one!

 

[Kenster]

Out of curiosity I looked at the forecast for here and Houston for tomorrow. 101* heat index for you, 99* for us. I would still work in that, but I'd be moving pretty slow. I'm glad we split and stacked today, wasn't quite that nasty!

We actually live about 90 miles west of Houston. Our high today was 101.5 with relative humidity in the 80s. That's higher than 100 heat index that Houston had. Forecast for 102 tomorrow, real temp- not heat index.

I did a trip all the way around Lake Michigan a couple of weeks ago. The highest high all week was about 74 degrees. Loved it and hated to come home.

87 in Indiana or 101 here in Texas. Either way, it's too darn hot to be working on wood this time of year.

Cheers!

 

[Woody Stover]

87 in Indiana or 101 here in Texas. Either way, it's too darn hot to be working on wood this time of year.

Cheers!

I'm trying to get dry wood for a few households by this Winter, and have the 2012 wood stacked, so I have no choice but to keep working on it. Once I have that situation in hand, then maybe I can take midday siestas under a jumbo straw hat next summer. ;-) For now, though, it would have to be 105-110 heat index before I'd say it was too hot to work at all. I would have much rather been running that splitter today instead of rasslin' big rounds into position and splitting them with an ax like I was. After six hours of that, my arse was whupped.

I pulled up the NWS hourly weather graph for my area, and one for Hallettsville, TX which I think would be close to you. During the heat of the day tomorrow, the lowest our RH will get is 52%. Yours is predicted to be 34%, and that's where the difference lies. At 53% humidity, sweat evaporates very slowly so my body can't cool itself as effectively as it could at a lower RH. There's truth to the old saying "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." You'll have a nice little breeze as well. We were doing OK until a couple of days ago, then the bottom dropped out. Little breeze predicted for the next week or so. :-/

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClic...87.54330&unit=0&lg=english&FcstType=graphical

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClic...96.94180&unit=0&lg=english&FcstType=graphical

 

[richg]

I do a lot of wacking at night, but it involves.....oh, never mind.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

We made good headway today but by the end of it I was ready to sit down and replenish my fluids with a Fat Tire. :cheese:

Dennis said I'd find other uses for the quad I got recently, and he sure was right. Wind was non-existent here today, and the breeze I created by riding down to deliver the loads after I'd hand-split each one to a manageable size for the ladies was just enough to keep me from boiling over! :lol:

Here's what we got done. SIL cross-stacked every so often. She had a friend whose cat was injured by falling wood, and I guess she figured the stack would be more stable this way.
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Hey Woody, you also stated something about hauling some rounds with the atv. If you can get the atv in, then you should be able to get a trailer in there too. It is easy to get a small trailer to pull behind the atv and it will be no wider than the atv. For turning it around, you can do that before you fill the trailer and do it by hand if necessary.

You are also right about the breeze while driving the atv. I use that many times through the summer. I'll take the atv to wherever I am working and cool off a bit while coming back. Or maybe I'll think it is a good time to go see what the neighbor (a mile away) is doing. It works for me.

On the cross stacking, that is okay but takes a lot longer to stack and is not all that more stable. Get the ends right and all will be well.