Stacked the last load this morning!

[Nick Mystic]

Last week I cut down one final oak tree that had been dead for 5 or 6 years, but remained standing. It was about 100 yards from my woodpile and I took all the wood out by hand and with a wheelbarrow. I ended up with a bout a half cord which I split about even between my "burn next fall" pile and my 2016 stack. I've got nine cords put under cover now with over three of those cords already dry for three years. So, I'm hoping no trees come down for awhile and I can take a breather!

 

[Woody Stover]

Without pics this thread is a stretch, at best.

 

[Locust Post]

I don't see no oak...just you sitting by the stove. You must be asleep and dreaming.

 

[Nick Mystic]

You're right Woody Stover, so here you go!



Here is my mother load: Three eight foot wide covered bays reaching seven feet high stacked two rows deep with 20" splits. Tacked on to the far left is about nine feet of 8 foot tall rows that I throw a tarp over when it looks like rain.



Here is a better view of the left hand stack.



This stack is the result of the 32" diameter oak tree that had been hit by lightning two years ago that I finally dropped about six weeks ago. The stack is 11 feet long, eight feet tall, and three rows deep.



This is the back side of what I call my carport stack since it is under a carport like roof where I store my garden tractor, lawnmower, etc.



This final stack is behind a retainer wall in a different part of the property. It is 8' tall and about 7' wide, one row deep. All together I estimate I've got about 9 cords worked up! The majority of this wood has been hand carried a piece at a time either to a wheelbarrow or the trailer I tow with my garden tractor to get it home and to my stacks. If you aren't familiar with the terrain of western NC foothills I'll tell you that it consists of a lot of ravines, so I probably scaled a couple thousand vertical feet up and down in the course of moving all this wood! Some of this wood was carried as far as a quarter mile or more by hand! I take my two dogs for a two mile hike out back every morning and I brought a few of these trees home one round at a time carrying one log home each day for months at a time! I hate to see good fire wood go to waste!

One last thing, I don't have a splitter, so all this wood was worked up with a 12 lb. maul or wedges and a sledge hammer for the snarly stuff!

 

[Paulywalnut]

Nice. Very impressive covered stacks.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Nice Nick but what are those 2 snow shovels for?

 

[Nick Mystic]

We can go years without seeing snow here (no snow last two years), but when it hits we can get hammered. The first year we moved here we got 14" of snow in one day! The wife and I hand shovel our 150 yard long paved drive and then we shovel another 30 yards of private road leading up to our house because it is a hill and in the shade. If we don't shovel it the neighbors with 4 wheel drive compact the snow into ice and then we are stuck here till it melts!

 

[bogydave]

Nice stacks
12# maul , want you on my side
Most all of it oak?
Looks to be some different bark in a few stacks, pine?

 

[Nick Mystic]

I had a large pine tree come down a couple of years ago, but it was over a ravine, so it wasn't touching the ground along most of its trunk, so I let it sit in the woods until I had room under one of my shed roofs to store it. Early last fall I finally cut it up and hauled it home. I was happily surprised to find it was reading around 15% moisture after splitting. Then later this spring I discovered another fair size pine tree out back that was standing deadwood. It looked like beetle kill, but very solid wood. I dropped it and worked it up. Most of the rest of the stacks are filled with oak or a little sourwood that often came down as collateral damage with some of my other drops.

 

[Defiant]

Nice stacks, how many cord do you estimate? Sorry just read it 9, I'm working on my tenth before I call it quits

 

[Nick Mystic]

I plugged my data into one of the cord estimators and came up with around nine cords.

Earlier I said I was using a 12 lb. maul for my splitting. Well, this morning I brought the maul into the house and weighed it in case I was overestimating its weight. Turns out it weighs 15.2 lbs.! No wonder that thing wears me out! It's one of the big red triangular wedges. I only weigh 136 lbs. so I have to swing some weight to get stuff to split.

 

[ScotO]

That's more like it, Nick.....
Nice stash......I'm thinking your about ready to take the next step in your addiction.......the Firewood Hoarder's Club....

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/firewood-hoarders-club-ltd.52839/

 

[Backwoods Savage]

We can go years without seeing snow here (no snow last two years), but when it hits we can get hammered. The first year we moved here we got 14" of snow in one day! The wife and I hand shovel our 150 yard long paved drive and then we shovel another 30 yards of private road leading up to our house because it is a hill and in the shade. If we don't shovel it the neighbors with 4 wheel drive compact the snow into ice and then we are stuck here till it melts!

Now that took a lot of work! I've used a scoop shovel way too much in my life and would really hate to have to use one much now, especially for clearing snow. We got a snow blade for our atv several years ago and it has made winter life much, much easier.


EDIT: That is way too much maul to be swinging! 6-8 is about the max we every use. Yes, I've swung some big ones but never owned one. Those buggers are killers.

 

[wesessiah]

nice stacks! nick's description of the terrain in his area is understated compared to how i would have claimed, lol. his area is in eyeshot of the mountains, so he does have some rough terrain.