Here's my stacks for the year. Worked about six months scrounging this. All split by hand. Hickory,White Oak,Hedge,White Ash,Black Walnut,Elm,and some Silver Maple. This site has helped me tremendously! Thank you!
First year collecting wood
- Thread starter Scooter422
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Good job! I'm planning on starting to scrounge for wood once I fix up my trailer and get a hitch on the new car. How many cords total?
Have about 70' total. All 6'Hx4'W. Not sure exactly. I'm trying to supplement my heat this year. Last year's heating bills were more than I'm willing to pay so I started my firewood adventure.
Sconnie Burner
Feeling the Heat
Looking Great! I found myself in the same spot this spring. Busted hump and got roughly 4 cords of full dead standing elm and some oak tops css (not by hand though) by early May. All ready to burn this year per moisture meter. Also have a half cord of cottonwood and boxelder for shoulder wood. They were green blow downs, moisture metered them last week and they dried out to 18-21% top covered and in sun all day! I have a great jump on next year as well with the oak main trunks some more cottonwood and some scrounged popple from a lot clearing job I drove by. I'm starting to go after a dozen or so oaks this weekend for 16-17 season. Its been a lot of work but it feels good to accomplish that much in a year. I would have more, but cut on shares on 2 properties so I ended up leaving a 1/3 of what I cut at each place. Not excited about that but it was better than paying for it. Keep up the good work and it will keep you from having to work hard again the following year. Once the temps drop I will be ready to just kick back and watch my efforts dance with flames!
Rebelduckman
Minister of Fire
Thats a good amount of wood. I have no idea what I'm at yet. This weekend I'll finish moving it into the wood shed. I paid for a "truck load" He said it varies between 6-8 cords but depends how well and tight it was stacked. He thought it was on the lower side closer to 6 so gave me a better deal. I estimate it's pretty close to 6. I also have another 2-3 that's staying outside covered for next winter. So I'm hoping I'll be at around 8-9 total but only 6 is dry enough for this winter. If Rebelduckman is right then 13 cords is very good going.
I started getting wood in March. Started with the maple cause I knew it would be ready to burn this winter. Just got my insert installed a few weeks ago. The wood comes first so I started when it finally warmed up. I had a lot of luck this year. Have a guy that lets me clean his woods up and I'm the only one cutting there so it's mainly oak and hickory. I really had nothing to compare to so wasn't sure what I needed or how much. Just kept looking around and trying to beat everyone to the punch. Learning as I go. That's why I'm on these forums.
Rebelduckman
Minister of Fire
I just plugged the numbers into the cord calculators they have pinned up top. There's several different ones to choose from.
BillLion
Minister of Fire
Kool_hand_Looke
Feeling the Heat
You are obviously a newbie. You should start out stacking really poorly, let a few stacks fall down, etc. It is a nice touch if you cut a lot of your firewood about 2 inches too long for your stove. Also, it is good form to burn freshly cut, damp wood your first year, and perhaps have a chimney fire or two. You have to leave room to improve.
Ha! Did have a few people asking me why I am not gonna burn the oak this year. They never heard of seasoning. Did have a friend helping me but he was bucking rounds to 20"+. So I made him load while I cut. Was quite an experience the past few months.
Didn't split a lot of elm but what I did was a pain. It was dead so not sure how fresh elm is to split.
Answer: Not much fun . . . even with a hydraulic splitter fresh cut elm will be wicked stringy. Standing dead elm with the bark falling off can be much, much easier . . . especially with a hydraulic splitter.
lindnova
Feeling the Heat
Red elm always splits good for me. American elm is the worst stringy ever. It is a lot better if cut dead and bark falling off.
I've heard a lot about how bad Elm is to split. I just cut down a standing dead Elm. About 18 inch diameter at the base. The bark was falling off. As firefighterjake said it was pretty easy. I split it all by hand and didn't have any problems. My neighbour has a 50-60 footer that's a good 26 inches at the base maybe more. It's standing dead and surrounded by power lines, their pool and their horse barn. She has to get some people out to take it down in the next year or two. I told her I'd take the wood. Maybe that was a mistake! though as it's been standing dead for a few years maybe it wont be too bad.
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