Processing 2013-2015 wood - pics

[maplewood]

Digging into the 12 cord pile for 2013-2015 seasons.
Yellow birch, maple, elm.
Some big pieces we're setting aside: a friend is going to loan us a splitter! First time we'll use one in at least 5 years!
(Big pieces for me is about 20" diameter. I'm letting the splitter on the property only because it's gnarly yellow birch.)
But the easy ones we're splitting and stacking now. Haven't broken out the wedges yet.

Just starting out:

Now we're about 3.5 cord stacked, another cord laying about:

And one more view, from the far right:

The stacks are about 35' long, 5' high, 16" pieces.

We'll have this done in a few more weeks. We're just going at it a few hours at a time. After this, we'll finish harvesting 5 more cord of softwood from my own property (you can see the start of my 6 acres in the background of the last pic). We burn about 14 cord / winter. Half hard wood, half soft wood. The soft wood is a mix of poplar, fir, pine and white birch, in that order. We can let the softwood dry for one summer, and it will be down to 20%. All our wood goes into the basement in the fall, on an in-floor heated slab.

I've already got a cord of softwood in a little pallet shed I build last year (it's full now):

And another 1.5 cord is stored next to my 7 cord of hardwood I've already got for the 2012/203 season, just around the corner from the area where all these pics above are from:

Yeah, that's a lot of wood!!
(I'm not much of a poser like Quads, but you can see the yellow handle of my maul in the centre of the last photo, and just catch a glimpse of it leaning by the trailer wheel in pic 3. The 45 horsepower 4WD 5440 Belarus is my 4-wheeler!)

 

[Oregon Bigfoot]

Wow!

 

[thewoodlands]

Looks great Maplewood.

zap

 

[Jags]

I think you got this firewood thing figured out.

 

[ScotO]

You got it down pat, maplewood! Looking good.

 

[NH_Wood]

Looks great - lots of work there! I like the pallet shed! Cheers!

 

[Woody Stover]

14 cords a year?? You've got your work cut out, just replacing what you've burned. Is that for heating other buildings as well as your home?
I'll have 14 before too long but that'll have me 6+ years ahead of the game...

All our wood goes into the basement in the fall, on an in-floor heated slab.

Drying wood by roasting it...I never thought of that.

 

[Flatbedford]

That is a huge amount of wood to collect every year!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Maplewood, you can be very proud of your work and it sounds like you have a lot of work to do to! Are those 14 cord full cord or face cord? You are also to be commended because of getting that wood ahead of time so it has time to dry decently.

 

[nate379]

You don't have problems with the stacks getting wobbly? One of mine is about that length and I ended up having to put a pallet upright in the middle... after it fell over 3 times... broke the air cleaner cover off my saw the last time too

14 cords/year isn't that crazy. My brother's wife's uncle burns about 100 cords/year, lives in Houlton, ME.

 

[maplewood]

Thanks for the comments.
14 full cord, not face cord.
Stacks don't fall over, but I check them and re-align if necessary.
The pallet shed is a favourite of mine, because it cost me about $2. I'm going to make another one this year.
As the kids move out, and I have less DHW to pre-heat, maybe I can cut back a bit.... That, and 1000 gallons of storage!

BTW - Kahn wii get hay petition going two putt eh spel chequer bach on this sight?

 

[tfdchief]

I love pics of firewood! Great looking pile of wood you got there Maplewood!

 

[ditchrider]

That's a lot of renewable resource there. (wheels turning in my head) That's a good incentive to work on my supply for 2013. Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[wingsfan]

You are a very busy man at 14 cords a year and trying to get ahead...Nice work....

 

[maplewood]

I'll have most of it done after the Easter weekend and post the final pics.
Thanks for all the encouragement. It is a big chore.
So glad to be getting it done now, while it's cool out!

 

[ailanthus]

14 cords/year isn't that crazy. My brother's wife's uncle burns about 100 cords/year, lives in Houlton, ME.

.

Ok, I'll be the first to bite - 100/year, seriously? I'm trying to figure out if this was posted on April fools' day.

 

[nate379]

100-125 a year. He is a dairy farmer. Has a wood boiler that sends water to the house/attached garage, indoor pool, a milk parlor, shop (60x80ish) and maybe another building as well.

.

Ok, I'll be the first to bite - 100/year, seriously? I'm trying to figure out if this was posted on April fools' day.

 

[goosegunner]

Maplewood how does your Econoburn handle the bigger splits?

I split mine smaller, in the playing card size but I burn mostly Oak. It dries a lot better if I split small.

It sure would save time if I split bigger pieces.

gg

 

[goosegunner]

Maplewood how does your Econoburn handle the bigger splits?

I split mine smaller, in the playing card size but I burn mostly Oak. It dries a lot better if I split small.

It sure would save time if I split bigger pieces.

gg

 

[maplewood]

Maplewood how does your Econoburn handle the bigger splits?

I split mine smaller, in the playing card size but I burn mostly Oak. It dries a lot better if I split small.

It sure would save time if I split bigger pieces.

gg

I can burn some nice size hardwood. Because I mix half hardwood and half softwood in my woodroom, I
always have some nice split softwood on hand. So I'm putting my hardwood on top of either a nice bed of
coals, or on top of some softwood that will catch on fire very easily.

For the first 2 years of burning in the Econoburn I had fairly small splits of hardwood. 95% were ones that
I could grab from the end with one hand. I had split it small because I didn't know how the new-to-me boiler
would work, and I was afraid of bridging. Now that I know I can burn so much softwood, my seasoned
hardwood for next season, year 3 for the Econoburn, has a LOT of larger pieces. Many not split at all. I don't
forsee any problem with the larger pieces at all.

BTW, I had a few pieces that I couldn't split at all. They barely fit through the door. But if I put them on top of
other pieces, they always burned, and I never had bridging problems.

If you have a nice mix of small splits and larger pieces, I'm sure you can do the same. Put the smaller ones
on the bottom, to make sure the fire gets going, and put the larger ones on top.

What say you other users?

 

[maplewood]

Well, except for about 2 cord of chunks left to split, we're done!
(The splitter I'm going to borrow needs a switch repaired, so I'm on hold until it's fixed.)
From the original 12 cord, I've got 8.5 stacked:

Let the sun shine! Let the wind blow!

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

Incredible...thanks so much for the pics, you do a great job preparing your wood.

 

[bogydave]

You need a little bigger shed LOL
Great pictures.
WOW, that is allot of wood.
Nicely cut, split & stacked.

We know how much work went into that!!
Great set up & processing area.
Good job

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I just love seeing nice wood piles.

 

[maplewood]

Thanks for the positive comments.
Yes, pics are good. Nice to see how the other fella does it.
The processing area is super - away from my house, mostly gravel and gets lots of sun and wind.
It's a great place to take a lawn chair in the summer and sit and relax in the middle of all those BTU's!
There's a slight breeze and the sun is shining on the stacks this morning!

Okay. Back to work. Got to put up 4 more cord of poplar and fir, and start the next two projects:
1. A sand shed, about 8' wide, 8' tall and 80" deep. Made out of log posts and pallets. Should be done by fall.
2. A log framed garage / barn, 26' x 32'. To house my tractor and my brother-in-law's wheel chair van. Goal: 2014.