Work Done 2023

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I've been out for a while. But we took down three dead pitch pines at my friend's place. Cut them up for his (new) Drolet.

Given that he will be keeping his pine :-(, I got about 2/3 of a cord of soft wood delivered. I made a small rack next to the garage on the driveway, 8 ft wide, 6 ft tall, two rows (and a third for outside burning). I will fill that with soft wood that dries in one year. It's my emergency wood if my regular three year rotation bays are not enough for a cold/long winter. If I use some of that, I'll fill it up with softwood again and it should be good for next season.

The tree company said it was pine. But it's some fir instead. They didn't even know what pine was... Really low BTU, I think, but that's okay.
 
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I will fill that with soft wood that dries in one year. It's my emergency wood if my regular three year rotation bays are not enough for a cold/long winter. If I use some of that, I'll fill it up with softwood again and it should be good for next season.

The tree company said it was pine. But it's some fir instead. They didn't even know what pine was... Really low BTU, I think, but that's okay.
Yep, I have a reserve rack at my SIL's outside the main shed, just in case. I'm not as far ahead on them as I am for our stove. And I sure don't wanna be taking wood I've already stacked here and move it again. But the way this winter is going, she might have one rack out of four still left in her shed. Yay, less work for me! 😏
Red Maple pops up often here in off-site scores, so I keep plenty on hand.
There's a tree guy and his sons that do work for me on occasion. I once asked him if he comes across any Red Maple he'd like to get rid of. He said, "What's that?" 😆 If that was my job, I'd wanna know a little more about trees, I think.. 🤔
Reserve rack straight through her main shed:
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Checked on a stack today, a combo of the dead White Ash that's very wet, but I'm hoping will dry by next winter (post159) plus other dry wood that I've added over the last week (some Oak on top front.)
OK, it's a temporary stack, but it is drying. 👍Once the trailer is full I'll take it to SIL2's shed. Air movement isn't as good, down in the hole, but maybe we get a hot, dry summer..
Guys in the background are burying the casing for the fiber line.. that should heat things up around here. ⚡💥

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went on the scrounge with my boy today.. we raked it in.. big time.. we started at 7am at my friend's house.. got done at 3.30pm.. with 1 .. 30 minute break.. my sons tired.. he looked at that pile and smiled at the end of the day.. lots of work for 1 old guy and a 14 yr old

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This morning we put two small loads of ash in, the next firewood we'll put in will be what's left of the beech.
 
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You guys have been busy! @Woody Stover you have a lot of downed tree to choose from, nice.
 
Had both sons here on Sunday so I put them to work. Bucked up the ash that came down last week and the boys hauled it out of the ravine.
Guessing with the Limb wood I'll net a cord out of it. 34 16" rounds approx 18" in diameter. Still have a 10ft Plus stalk to cut down.

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I split some fir.
Pieces I split 3 weeks ago already feel like paper... Not much BTUs in this, but it's back up wood, so I like it dry in one year.

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BTW, this was sledged in, not with that hammer in the top of the image... Satisfying cracking when the crack slowly grew after the last whack.
 
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Ready for tonight’s 5-8”, first snow >2” for us here… better late then never.

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I see room for 2 more layers of splits at the far end of the rack :p

Makes me think that I should get some wood in as well. Though they predict only 2-3" here (after 1/4" earlier, and 1/2" 2 days ago), and tomorrow a high of 39 and rain/ice/sleet, so it'll disappear quickly. Nevertheless, it's sunny out now, so a good time to get some wood in the garage.
 
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I see room for 2 more layers of splits at the far end of the rack :p

Makes me think that I should get some wood in as well. Though they predict only 2-3" here (after 1/4" earlier, and 1/2" 2 days ago), and tomorrow a high of 39 and rain/ice/sleet, so it'll disappear quickly. Nevertheless, it's sunny out now, so a good time to get some wood in the garage.
I topped it off lol, funny thing about that rack of wood, under normal winter conditions it lasts between 8-10 days.. this year with the milder weather it lasts closer to 15 days.. and I only filled it twice so far, much easier to pull from the woodshed and wheelbarrow the splits into the basement next to the stove.
 
You guys have been busy! @Woody Stover you have a lot of downed tree to choose from, nice.
Looks like a lot but some of those are shot from lying around too long. Still, there's more good out there than I thought, so that gets the pressure off for supplying two SILs dry wood for next season. 😀
I split some fir.
Pieces I split 3 weeks ago already feel like paper... Not much BTUs in this, but it's back up wood, so I like it dry in one year.

View attachment 310369

BTW, this was sledged in, not with that hammer in the top of the image... Satisfying cracking when the crack slowly grew after the last whack.
I'd have thought Fir would split easier than that..?
I see room for 2 more layers of splits at the far end of the rack :p

Makes me think that I should get some wood in as well. Though they predict only 2-3" here (after 1/4" earlier, and 1/2" 2 days ago), and tomorrow a high of 39 and rain/ice/sleet, so it'll disappear quickly. Nevertheless, it's sunny out now, so a good time to get some wood in the garage.

I topped it off lol, funny thing about that rack of wood, under normal winter conditions it lasts between 8-10 days.. this year with the milder weather it lasts closer to 15 days.. and I only filled it twice so far, much easier to pull from the woodshed and wheelbarrow the splits into the basement next to the stove.
You've still got the sticks where you can grab 'em quick, that tells me it's been a mild winter (golf sticks, I'm talkin' 'bout.) ==c
And a stand bag..that's what I call a real man!😏
Neotec 660 clone put in some work over the weekend. Loving this saw

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Red Maple....hard Maple?
 
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I'd have thought Fir would split easier than that..?

This was a 30" round. It's easy to split starting from the edge (depending on the number of knots/branches,.many of which were cut years ago and nicely overgrown with new growth rings...). But I wanted to quarter them to get them in the wheelbarrow to split elsewhere on the property next to the wood shed. Even if it's fir (whatever type this was), a 30" round is a beast to wrestle into a wheelbarrow.
 
You've still got the sticks where you can grab 'em quick, that tells me it's been a mild winter (golf sticks, I'm talkin' 'bout.) ==c
And a stand bag..that's what I call a real man!😏
Went to VT and nearly froze to death 3 weeks ago (-45 windchill) came home and played 18 holes of golf the following week, went skiing across the street from the golf course yesterday morning and again tomorrow morning with hopefully a fresh 10" from tonight's storm. Amazing weather up and downs... no wonder why so many people around here are having sinus colds.
 
I figured it is red oak so imma do some manual splitting this only 3 rounds in and im ready to pull the splitter out the garage. We will see the progress by the end of the week plus this my20230228_171229.jpg front yard so gotta clean up before the boss starts to complain
 
Scrounged a nice lot of old railway sleepers. These will burn long and hot and I'll save them for the dead of winter.

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