Little helper and pine/spruce fuel rods

[North of 60]

Special times can be created for a wood burning family. My 3yr old is now really into it. My 6yr old now cuts the field with under 2 feet of supervision. ( I walk beside the tractor) A few pics of my 09 wood scrounge. It will be split next spring and be moved into my sheds atop the hill by my house. They are now full. The question all ways arises about burning spruce and pine. Well here it is as thats all I have to burn with the exception of poplar and a little birch. Shoulder season or not. One more day of bucking and this northern ant is done. GONE FISHING... Hope summer wood collecting has been good for all.
N of 60

 

[Pagey]

That's awesome, N of 60! Great pics. That looks like a beautiful, relaxing place to be. By relaxing I mean "if you consider all that bucking, splitting and stacking relaxing then it's relaxing". :cheese:

 

[SolarAndWood]

That is beautiful country and your son appears to be a natural. How do you load logs onto your trailer?

 

[burntime]

Are you nutz??? He is much too young for a 14 inch bar. For Gods sakes man, shorten it to a 12 inch beofre he gets hurt! :lol:

 

[BrotherBart]

That pic of the young'un is priceless.

 

[North of 60]

That is beautiful country and your son appears to be a natural. How do you load logs onto your trailer?

By hand end over end. 8 footers are the norm but the larger ones I cut down to 4 footers. I just take my time. Its always from dead standing beetle kill so its alot lighter than it looks. :coolsmile:
N of 60

 

[Backwoods Savage]

North, we do all of our wood gathering in the winter. Spring brings splitting and stacking. However, I can certainly understand why you wait for summer to do it there. Besides, someone has to feed the mosquitoes. lol

 

[North of 60]

Dennis, our bugs/mosquitoes usually aren't the problem as we reach near frost every am. 38f in the AM due to being in the mountains. The killer is adapting to the 80f+ in the afternoons. Its the warm climatizing that kills me. The bugs pretty much disappear due to the cold overnight so an early start takes care of that.
80F + makes it feel like I am going to melt which you southern folk probably will get a kick out of it. I was in Ann Arbour Michigan 2 summers ago for a UA pipefitting convention and that humidity was really the killer. I dont know how you guys do it.
Cheers N of 60

 

[Backwoods Savage]

North, thanks for posting that. We too have been in your neck of the woods and surprisingly, the bugs were not bad then (month of August).

Now as for you being in Ann Arbor, I agree about that humidity. Nasty stuff. I hate it. When my wife and I were spending a few winters in Arizona it was really tough coming back here. I recall heading north into Utah and then east through Colorado. We noticed the humidity as soon as we got to Colorado. By the time we got to eastern Nebraska it was almost making us turn around.

If my memory is anywhere near close, two summers ago was pretty hot. Our average is to see 90 degrees or higher only 6 times per year. Last year I think we got there only twice (we ran the air conditioner I think 4 days) and so far this year we've seen it once.

So far we haven't had but a couple of days of hot and humid. Most days in the 70's. June saw 20 days below normal temperature and we did not see 80 degrees until June 19. Then we had a run of 9 straight days of 80 or above with one being that 90 degree day. So far in July every day has been below normal temperature and we've seen only 2 days of 80 and 1 day of 81. We can't match your lows for sure. We very well could match your mosquitoes as it has been a wet year.

Michigan is a very nice state....in the northern part. But the southern part is awful. The U.P. is best and it seems to almost have its own climate; 2 seasons; winter and the fourth of July.

Probably 80 to you is more like 90 to us as far as how your body reacts to the heat.

We do hope to get up your way again sometime.

 

[Todd]

I didn't think the trees grew that big around that far north? Looks like you have a good supply going, how long will that last?

 

[North of 60]

Todd, the trees for the most part are 6-10" max. We are an hour to the coastal mountains of Haines. This is were I have been scrounging on a wood lot allocated due to beetle kill. Some are 25"+. The drive is worth it along with the scenery. CSD here is now $230 a cord for pine and spruce. There is 5&1;/2 to 6 cord there which will almost do a normal heating season. Last year due to the cool summer I burned almost 8 cord which is a record for me. Stove was down only two month's. I happened to be away at that time for an ankle repair and rehabilitation to walk properly again. I turned 40 then and now feel like I am 30 without the limp. It was no fun for the type of work I do and is now allot more enjoyable in the bush for the wood collecting.

 

[BrotherBart]

Trees? Ya got trees in the Yukon? Heck I thought you mail ordered a bundle of splits every six months and that was all that BK needed to keep the joint warm. :lol:

 

[North of 60]

BB I knew it was only time before you would chime in for that one. :blank:

 

[Wet1]

Beautiful country, nice wood piles, and a great looking kid you have there, plus you own a BK... life is good.

 

[Highbeam]

You loaded those by hand! That's crazy. The big one looks to be 20" across! I hope they're light as that many logs on a normal car hauler would be way too heavy and hard to load without risk of them falling onto the highway.

Thanks for the pics. They're great.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Aw, come on Highbeam. We carry those little sticks out of the woods before loading. Just get them on the shoulder and go.

 

[wendell]

Aw, come on Dennis, you know that is not true. You just sit on your milk crate and roll them. :lol:

 

[Jags]

Common N of 60, you know your not supposed to burn that kind of wood in a wood stove. Its supposed to be oak and hickory and ash, ya know ....the hard wood stuff. :lol: That soft stuff will never work.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Aw, come on Dennis, you know that is not true. You just sit on your milk crate and roll them. :lol:

But Wendell, we first have to get them out of the woods! lol

 

[North of 60]

You loaded those by hand! That's crazy. The big one looks to be 20" across! I hope they're light as that many logs on a normal car hauler would be way too heavy and hard to load without risk of them falling onto the highway.

Thanks for the pics. They're great.

Highbeem
These logs came out of the bush with 22% to 24% moisture content. Standing dead at least 3-4 yrs. You can see the checking on the end just after they were cut. I wanted the big ones to give the new to me Husky 272XP a work out. Well sorta. I couldnt bog it down. YeHa
The logs were heavy enough to make a person grunt end over end but not too heavy not to do it buy hand, if you know what I mean.
N of 60

 

[North of 60]

OK I have a problem... Even though my sheds are full , I couldn't stand staring down in the field from the house knowing it still had to be split. The weather has cooled down so I rented a splitter and kept busy this weekend. One less thing to do next spring.
N of 60

 

[SolarAndWood]

That's a nice use of days with 18 hours of sunlight.

 

[basswidow]

What happened to the FISHING?

Sure looks like a nice area.

 

[North of 60]

What happened to the FISHING?

Sure looks like a nice area.

Like I said I think I have a problem/obsession. :red: I did get out on the Friday afternoon though and picked up these with my two boys before the weekend really started. Put a few in the smoker while I was processing the wood. Now thats the kind of multi-tasking I am able to do. :lol: