Oak My Gosh...More Wood!

[Caw]

My tree guy sent me a text he was working around the corner from me and asked if I wanted the wood. Having no room to stack it or free time right now said yes of course. Ended up with what looks like about 3 cords of beautiful straight red oak logs!

I'm going to start bucking this weekend and leave it stacked in rounds on the driveway for a while. I need to burn a bit more to make room on the drying racks. If I add more racks my wife might murder me .

I tossed him $200 for this and the load maple/oak he bought me last time. He'd be happy with less probably but I want him to keep coming back.

 

[clancey]

She should...Yes....Gosh you have a load of wood there and I bet your wife wonders where that is going to go--lol poor woman---I have sympathy here---wives are always right....lol Looking good and the wood looks beautiful and go at it and get the job done so that you and yours can relax by the wood stove...Happy Holidays and feed that "worthless doggy too"..old clancey

 

[enordy]

Bargain! Nice catch.

 

[peakbagger]

The hassle with laying it in the driveway is its PITA to deal with snow (if and when it happens).

 

[rottiman]

The hassle with laying it in the driveway is its PITA to deal with snow (if and when it happens).

That much less driveway to plow................

 

[clancey]

Ha Ha---You got a point there maybe he should use that excuse for his wife when she gives him that look after she checks out the wood..lol "Less driveway to plow"--Yes...clancey..

 

[Caw]

The hassle with laying it in the driveway is its PITA to deal with snow (if and when it happens).

I dont mind. Our diveway is about 4 cars long and 2 cars wide so we just park a little further up during processing season. Plus it's less for me to snow blow!

 

[Caw]

Bargain! Nice catch.

I agree! In total its 4.5 cords of maple/red oak right at my doorstep for $200 which is about one winters worth of wood. Can't beat that price when you consider the wear and tear saved on my body from self scrounging. That adds up over the years.

 

[Simonkenton]

Good God what a beautiful stash of firewood. Can't beat oak.

 

[Caw]

Good God what a beautiful stash of firewood. Can't beat oak.

Agreed. This is for 2024/25 so it'll have plenty of time to season on the racks.

After the load I'm going to search out some red maple/cherry for 24/25 shoulder season. Here in New England we have an embarrassment of hardwood riches. I burn the less dense hardwoods during shoulder season and mix them with the oak in the firebox when it's not too cold mid winter. Then when it gets cold it's oak time!

 

[weatherguy]

That looks like a nice easy batch to buck and split, can't turn that down space or not.

 

[Caw]

That looks like a nice easy batch to buck and split, can't turn that down space or not.

Exactly! Perhaps you'd like to explain this to the wife.

 

[EbS-P]

At this rate when are you going into the firewood business? 550$ for a truly (sub 20% MC) cord?

 

[clancey]

When his lovely wife throws him out of the house next to the firewood he will go into the fire wood business...and he will wind up being a millionaire--lol lol--then she will take him back in..lol clancey

 

[Caw]

It's good profit considering the purchase price but when you factor in the time, labor, storage, and selling its horrible ROI on a small scale. It makes you appreciate why firewood is a high volume business model and most guys don't sell truly seasoned wood. You'd need a ton of space, equipment, and a crap ton of wood every year to make a living.

The weather has taken a turn for the better this week so I'm gonna start bucking today! 50 degrees and sunny all week (wtf this is Dec in New England) I'll share some pics as I go.

 

[Caw]

Progress with my oldest helping! Some big boy rounds for my 18" saw... that pickaroon is 30".

 

[Caw]

Wrapped up for the day since it gets dark at 4:15 now . Pleased with the progress though, I'd say I got close to 1/3 of it done!

 

[clancey]

Well you and your son sure does good work--now get a hot chocolate...clancey

 

[Caw]

Whelp, you can tell its really dense wood when I swing my log rite to move the rounds and it bounces right off! This thing is incredibly sharp.

 

[Caw]

Made good progress today. I'd say I'm about 2/3 through the pile now. There are mostly girthy logs remaining so it'll likely take a few more days to finish up. Took a load of sawdust to the dump today too:

 

[Caw]

It took some doing and I'm very tired but I managed to finish bucking before tomorrow's snow. I didn't want to deal with a sawdust and snow mess so I channeled some big log energy lol. Overall it's about 3 cords of Northern red oak aka my heat for 2024/25.

I did some math and at 63 lbs/cu ft this is approximately 24,200 lbs of wood. At about 7,000 BTU per lb of naturally seasoned sub 20% wood I'm looking at approximately 169,400,000 BTU.

Not bad!

 

[Caw]

Further math:

Assume 24/7 burning for 4 months

Naturally seasoned firewood has approximately 6,500 to 7,500 BTU per lb. I used 7,000 for the equation earlier.

168,400,000 BTU ÷ 4 Months ÷ 30 days/month ÷ 24 hrs/day =

58,819 BTU/hr

My stove is rated at 65,000 BTU/hr with cordwood and I use typically 3-4 cords a year of mixed hardwoods so this number makes sense given the on/off nature of shoulder season and different wood species.

Kind of cool to see the numbers work out. Also crazy to think of how much wood we use in lbs rather than cords! 24,000 lbs is serious weight!

 

[snojetter]

For further study, 24000#'s of wood go in the stove...how much weight is left over and shoveled out as ash?

Even though I see it every year, I'm amazed at how much volume of wood goes in my stove and how little I end up dumping on the ash pile.

 

[Caw]

For further study, 24000#'s of wood go in the stove...how much weight is left over and shoveled out as ash?

Even though I see it every year, I'm amazed at how much volume of wood goes in my stove and how little I end up dumping on the ash pile.

That would be an interesting project but one I'm not willing to do lol. I might weigh my ash bucket next time it's full though to get an idea and ball park how many buckets I refill through out a season.

The oak doesn't ash much however I burn a lot of maple which leaves a giant mess. I have to shovel out ashes regularly.

 

[bigealta]

JackPot! Great looking oak. All Hand Splittable looks like. The time saved having that dropped in driveway is Huge. And he gave you the good stuff, not the twisted knotty unsplittable junk.

Ha, and my wife is so addicted to the woodstove now, she would probably let me stack our whole backyard!