New to Wood Burning

[Woody5506]

Hello everyone, I have lurked the boards long enough and finally decided to join. As the title says, I'm new to wood burning as of this year and so far am pretty hooked to everything about it. I'm big into scrounging and haven't paid a dime for any of my wood so far although I'm not sure I'll be able to keep that up for the rest of the season. Scrounging, splitting, stacking and of course burning are all incredibly satisfying to me. The pic (if it shows up) is about half of my wood stash right now, mostly unseasoned.

I bought PE T5 stove as my first stove ever and it seems great, though I really have nothing to compare it to. I look forward to many years of using it and reading/contributing to this board.

 

[HisTreeNut]

Welcome & congrats on the stove.
Don't worry, scrounging is an addiction and the more you do it, the more you find, and the more you find yourself doing it...

To loosely paraphrase a movie...if you scrounge for it, the wood will come.

 

[firefighterjake]

Here's an official welcome . . . from a lurker to a member . . . I was wondering who that was peeking in through the windows here at hearth.com.

 

[James02]

It is addictive... I don't even have a stove anymore but keep coming back... Hoping to be burning this winter though...
Good luck...

 

[Wickets]

You could write a 'how to scrounge' book by the looks of things...thats quite a stash youve got going just from scrounging

 

[Babaganoosh]

I've scrounged about 10 cords in the past 2.5 years myself. It can be done. I use the same type of rack set up to do. I find it works well. I had them orientated like you did along the fence but would have run out of room. So eventually I turned them 90 degrees and made them 50% longer so each holds half a cord. Then I set them up in sets of 2. I leave enough space to mow and walk between the racks. I'll probably put stone down like you have but keep the space between racks.

I've got a few more other places but I'm using them up as I transition to using that area.

 

[Woody5506]

Cool! I like the rack system we use. Doesn't get much easier. I'm usually able to scrounge the 2x4's and 4x4's at work so I just end up buying the cinder blocks.

I've slowed down a bit this month with splitting wood partly due to the wet weather. I actually prefer to work in the cold when the ground is frozen but lately it's been in the 40s and I don't really like playing in the mud. Basically if I can scrounge one pickup load a week then I feel good. Sometimes it's more, usually not less. I haven't missed a week since getting the stove.There isn't a whole lot of people around here who scrounge for wood.


These are both from last week -

 

[Bad LP]

...and your a GM guy. You got some help loading a few of those big fellas in there.

 

[kennyp2339]

Lol - I got the same truck, any problems with check engine lights or regen? I've had nothing but problems with mine.

 

[Woody5506]

Yes I lucked out, I picked those up from a tree service. He wouldnt let me cut them up myself on his job site to load myself so the guy loaded them with a Bobcat. Getting them unloaded at my house was interesting...but hey I guess beggars can't be choosers.


Kenny - the truck runs mint with almost 200k miles on it but that check engine light is constantly on! Sometimes it goes off, but not really. Last issue was some emissions thing, and the day after having it fixed the light was back on.

 

[blades]

GMC=General Motors of China

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Welcome and good job, keep scrounging ! Those stacks look like if you added one more split the sides would bust, so full to the brim !

Nice work, keep scrounging and posting on here....

 

[Woody5506]

Thanks Woodsman. I had one blow over a few weeks ago so I did some readjustment. Had another wind storm since that and no mishaps that time

 

[Bad LP]

Oh really? My 2015 2500HD has a Fort Wayne Indiana sticker on it.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Welcome from a former lurker to a member.. this is really something. I thought that i would never have a addiction, till i got into wood . I was clean. Now its burn 24/7, when i thought i would make a occasional fire on the weekends. To driving the neighborhood looking for fallen trees or dead wood.. I am sitting on 11 ish cords right now all free wood. Last year i had 1 major score. The farmer around the corner did a bunch of clearing and had halled all that he cleared into a burn pile. I asked him if i could take it, he said really he didnt want me in the field. I told him that i would bring my track michene and there would be no damage to the field and i could see he was ready to say ok.. i offered to smoke him 2racks of ribs for the wood and he jumped all over it. I wound up with 3.5 cords off of that deal. I drove past the mans brothers house the other day and he cam out and offered me a bunch of trees . Heres a pic. This one alone is like 100'

 

[Woody5506]

Very cool! Nothing like free wood to add to the satisfaction of it all. I may have to cave in this weekend though and buy a bit of seasoned wood. This being my first year, I only had one load of maple logs I got from a house in the ghetto that I estimated to be a couple years old, moisture between 13 and 25. Everything else I have won't be ready til next year or probably after.

As I'm writing I hear the wind whipping pretty good outside. Odds are there will be downed trees on CL tomorrow.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Very cool! Nothing like free wood to add to the satisfaction of it all. I may have to cave in this weekend though and buy a bit of seasoned wood. This being my first year, I only had one load of maple logs I got from a house in the ghetto that I estimated to be a couple years old, moisture between 13 and 25. Everything else I have won't be ready til next year or probably after.

As I'm writing I hear the wind whipping pretty good outside. Odds are there will be downed trees on CL tomorrow.

This is my first year also. I wound up with 2 wood sheds and 8 cords of wood and didnt even owne my wood stove yet. This site got me ready to burn. What a great place. Thanks to all.. we have never been so warm. I am a scrounging michene. I should be sitting on 14 cords by the end of march.