Getting started finding/processing my own wood?

[emt1581]

I'm really tired of relying on a guy that can't keep a time-table to save his life and then paying him $190/cord...even though his wood is good and dry.

What I'd like to do is start finding and processing my own wood. Now I've done a little bit before and each year I do about 1/2-3/4 of a cord just with the fallen wood around our wooded back yard. However, I'd like to do 100% of my wood from now on.

We go through about 4 cords a season. I figure I can have one section that is "seasonING" and one section that is "seasoned".

A few questions...

1. How much space will 8 cords take up?

2. How do you go about finding wood to process?

If I'm going to be doing it myself, I can spring $500 or so for a good saw but I don't have anyone helping me so I can't offer to cut down trees and such. I'm thinking if I can find trees already down I can take the limbs off and then section the trunk into rounds that I can break apart with my maul or the HF hand-powered splitter I've got.

3. How much time does it take to find/gather/split?

I work full time but my weekends and mid-days are free. Is it possible to spend a few week's worth of weekends gathering/splitting or is it going to take a LOT more than that?

4. Anything else to know?

Thanks!

-Emt1581

 

[Beer Belly]

Let everybody you know that you are looking for wood, the more that know, the better. Make a few calls to local trees services, let them know that you are looking for hardwood, not for resale, but to heat your home, but expect log length at worst.....I was lucky enough to get a tree guy who drops log length at the end of my driveway, and asks if I want more. Do you have the ability to haul ?? (truck / trailer), just in case someone sez "come and get it". I pretty much have just weekends to C/S/S, and it keeps me busy almost year round. Once you get ahead, it gets easier.....I would suggest saving $$$ for a hydraulic splitter....worth every penny....split the cost with a friend if it helps. Pallets, collect them for stacking wood on, and worse case scenario, burning.

 

[Sinngetreu]

See if there is any tree dumps in the area that people drop trees at. That is where I can usually score quite a bit of my scrounge wood from.
A cord takes up a footprint of 4 feet by 8 feet, so times that by what you are looking to do for a total footprint.

 

[Fred Wright]

4 cord of wood will take several weekends to get worked up but it can be done if you stick with it.

The main consideration with cutting your own is transportation, whether from a local woodlot or some miles away. This can get expensive and may take a few years to pay back. You'll have to fell trees, buck the logs, split on site or load the rounds home for splitting. It's a lot of work and time.

I'd suggest asking neighboring landowners for permission to cut on their property. Sometimes you can work a deal to cut a cord for them and two cord for yourself. Cut theirs first and get it out of the way. Landowners are usually receptive to cutting standing dead or fallen trees.

You can scrounge wood, too... see a tree being taken down, stop by and ask if you can have the wood.

And let's be honest - you will need at least a two saw plan. Pro grade saws, not those box store cheapos. Plan for extra chain loops and other assorted accoutrements you'll need in the woods.

Wear your chaps, ear plugs or muffs and safety glasses.

 

[emt1581]

I know it was asked about hauling...I've got a 4x8 trailer that's always served me well.

I hadn't thought of getting a power'd hydraulic splitter. I figured they were just as slow as the hand-powered one.

As for the space...4x8 times 8...I think that's do-able. After two failed growing seasons because the home we bought had a 10x20' garden that was in the shade....that space should do just fine when expanded out a bit. I just have to find some more pallets since all I have now are 4 of them (2 on the ground and one on each side) that houses 1/2-3/4 of a cord. That should be a good challenge. Last time I looked for pallets NO ONE was giving them away anymore....not the industrial parks, not beer stores, not individuals....NO ONE

I don't know anyone that has much land, so I'm not sure where to find people that'll let me pick off their land. But CL is free to ask. So I'll give that a shot. What about public lands like forests or parks? I know I also see dead wood all the time along side the road (in wooded areas). Anyone ever drive around with your truck/trailer and toss that stuff in for later processing?

Thanks

-Emt1581

 

[Paulywalnut]

It's a lot of work keeping up without a splitter if you burn four cords a year. You want to get twelve cords
In the well, and then process four each year. Your arms and wrists will be aching without hydraulics.
You already got some great ideas from others,good luck! It takes a while and you get repaid in free heat.

 

[Hills Hoard]

I
3. How much time does it take to find/gather/split?


-Emt1581

it takes a lot of time and its hard work, but when you stand back with a beer and admire your stacks or when you have the fire blazing on a freezing cold day you forget the hard work...

 

[emt1581]

With a splitter, is a 5 ton electric ok or does it absolutely have to be a 120ton+ $1500+ splitter?

Thanks

-Emt1581

 

[ironspider]

Most of next years wood came off CL. Just search free firewood, I just took my 4x8 mini trailer and picked up logs.

Now I'm full on, everyone I know knows I'm looking for wood.

I sprung for a gas splitter, I just don't have the stamina to swing an axe anymore.

 

[Cold Is Dumb]

This thread has very good suggestions already.

Let everybody you know that you are looking for wood

This is an excellent way to start. This means getting a chainsaw, learning how to use it, and doing a good job when processing on someone else's property. Word of mouth is the name of the game. Don't leave a mess and let them know you are always interested in more.

Make a few calls to local trees services

I've had great luck with this. Not so much with cold-calling, but with stopping at work sites. When you hear a chainsaw or chipper, go investigate and ask the crew if they want to get rid of the wood. A few bucks/beers/gatorades go a long way. Let them know there's more where that came from.

see a tree being taken down, stop by and ask if you can have the wood

This also works well, as stated above. I learned a great tactic from this very forum, carry around a few copies of a basic form letter. "Hi I'm so-and-so, I saw that you were having a tree dropped. I heat with wood, if I can help by taking the wood off your hands, please call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx." Search the wood shed for the topic, it may not have fallen off the boards yet.

What about public lands like forests or parks

Very viable option, this topic comes up a lot on this forum. Learn your local codes and laws. You might not have access to the property, even if it looks like it's sitting on public land. Theft is theft, even if it's wood left to rot. However, if it's up for grabs because the utility company dropped trees on gov't land, free wood is free wood.

Keep your expectations reasonable, it's a marathon, not a sprint.

 

[emt1581]

Pallets....wood or plastic?

Thanks

-Emt1581

 

[paul bunion]

Pallets....wood or plastic?

Thanks

-Emt1581

Wood. The slats let the air and water run through.

 

[Beer Belly]

Pallets....wood or plastic?

Thanks

-Emt1581

Wood pallets for stacking the firewood on........can always burn them when / if they start falling apart

 

[red oak]

I cut 4-5 cords per year with one saw and no splitter (other than an 8 lb maul). Extra saws and the log splitter are nice to have but are certainly not necessary. Check your public lands if you have any close - often you can get a permit to cut anything dead or down. National Forests around here allow me to cut 4 cords for $20 each year. If you can't find pallets simply use straight, longer pieces of wood to stack on, anything to keep it off the ground. Other than that, ask anyone you know and check the free ads - you can often find wood for free there.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I'm really tired of relying on a guy that can't keep a time-table to save his life and then paying him $190/cord...even though his wood is good and dry. What I'd like to do is start finding and processing my own wood. Now I've done a little bit before and each year I do about 1/2-3/4 of a cord just with the fallen wood around our wooded back yard. However, I'd like to do 100% of my wood from now on. We go through about 4 cords a season. I figure I can have one section that is "seasonING" and one section that is "seasoned". A few questions...

1. How much space will 8 cords take up?

2. How do you go about finding wood to process?

If I'm going to be doing it myself, I can spring $500 or so for a good saw but I don't have anyone helping me so I can't offer to cut down trees and such. I'm thinking if I can find trees already down I can take the limbs off and then section the trunk into rounds that I can break apart with my maul or the HF hand-powered splitter I've got.

3. How much time does it take to find/gather/split?

I work full time but my weekends and mid-days are free. Is it possible to spend a few week's worth of weekends gathering/splitting or is it going to take a LOT more than that?

4. Anything else to know?

Thanks!

-Emt1581

1. The amount of space depends upon how you stack.
2. Depends upon your location. Around here and in many areas, just look around as you go down the road and you should see dead trees and/or limbs that are down. Stop and ask! Watch for some tree trimmers and ask about the wood. Any sawmills near? How about a log load?
3. Can't answer that one because there are too many factors involved. What I can cut and split in a day used to take me only a couple hours at most. It also depends upon your skills, your tools and how far you have to go for wood. It also is very dependent upon what kind of wood you are cutting. It makes a huge difference if cutting in a fencerow or in a yard vs cutting inside the tree line of the woods. The reason? More limbs.
4. Indeed, lots.

As for the splitter, we've burned wood for over 50 years but have had a hydraulic splitter for only 20 some odd years. We got along just fine but now we are not as young or as able so we have hydraulics. But even then we found that in most cases it is certainly not necessary to get the biggest and strongest wood splitter. Ours is a 20 ton with a 5 hp B$S engine. It does just fine even on knotty stuff. Some get along okay with smaller splitters; even the little electric splitters and 5 ton splitters have their place except that most are good for the easy splitting wood. Not all wood splits easy. However, if you get log load, most times you won't have a lot of twisted knotty junk.

I know it was asked about hauling...I've got a 4x8 trailer that's always served me well. I hadn't thought of getting a power'd hydraulic splitter. I figured they were just as slow as the hand-powered one.
-Emt1581

No, they are not that slow at all. No way near that close.

On the stacking of the wood. You do not need pallets. In fact, I don't like them in the least. We cut saplings in the woods and lay two of them down to stack the wood on. Another thing you can do is take some splits and small rounds and sacrifice some making you own logs to stack on. When that stack is gone, take those you sacrificed and put them on top of next year's wood stack to dry them.


In that last picture you can see the saplings under the stacks. This is a very cost effective way of stacking. Notice no t-posts either. Just crib the ends and all is well but don't try to stack too high. We usually stack around 4 1/2' high except for when we move some wood into the barn in the fall. Then we stack up to 8' high and still crib the ends.

On saws, you don't need the biggest and fastest out there. Many times one can get by very well with the small saws. First, it helps to know what size trees you may be cutting. In our case, a saw with a 16" bar does very well. We can cut up to 30" diameter trees and sometimes a bit larger. In addition, my wife had been after me for years to get a lighter saw. Her thought was that I could at least use that for the limbing of the trees. Ha! I bought a really small Stihl 180 for less than $200 a year ago and find myself constantly reaching for that saw first. It has a narrow kerf bar and that helps a lot with the power but it has plenty of power. I even cut up a 28" red oak with it!

Okay, I'll stop now. Good luck.

 

[red oak]

Where in PA are you? Maybe you are pretty close to a fellow forum member who'd be willing to help.

Also, to echo Backwoods Savage about the saws, I recently had to buy a new saw. I bought the Husqvarna 440. It is lighter than the 350 that I used to have and the box says to be used for limbing, but it has powered through some pretty big trees at this point.

 

[jeffesonm]

I've got 10+ cords c/s/s by hand, by myself over the past 18 months or so. It takes time but just keep at it. When you have an hour or two on the weekend you can go out and cut, fill up the trailer and bring home a load of rounds. When you've got a 20 minutes during the week you can go out and split some.

As mentioned, just ask your neighbors, tree services, check craigslist... if you live in a rural area, I'm sure you can find all the wood you need nearby.

Buy yourself a good 50-60cc saw with a 20" bar and a Fiskars x27 axe and you will have stacks accumulating in no time.

 

[Missouri Frontier]

emt-
Be careful, you are going to catch the bug. Once you get it you can't get rid of it. Take it from a confirmed firewood junkie. Rolling your own is powerful juju. Welcome to the dark side. Enjoy it and give your ex firewood man a raspberry from me.

 

[muncybob]

I have a 60cc saw with an 18" bar and have not yet had a single situation I thought that I needed a larger saw...same goes for the 22 ton splitter. Hydraulics leave me with enough energy that splitting and stacking happens in the same session and I still have time to take my puppies for their much appreciated walk in the woods.

Most of my stacks are around 5' high, with careful stacking you can probably goa little higher if you need to consereve on space.

I have picked up a lot of wood from CL, but I have had around 3 turndowns(power lines, buildings etc. in the way) for every good score...but it's worth it(currently working on 6 large hard maples). I have also had several scores from word of mouth.

 

[gzecc]

Look for a used saw. Your first saw is probably not your best saw. Its one you get to learn on. I'd suggest a Stihl 290 with a 18" bar (<$300). With a sharp chain it will do all of what you should be doing at this stage.
Buy some wood in the round. Look on CL for someone selling rounds to catch up for next year. Catching up is the hardest part of the wood burning. Stay away from oak in the beginning. You don't have the two years of aging it requires.