Today's tree is tomorrow's firewood

[Dobish]

Tomorrow I am having a few trees taken down. I don't really want to, but I feel like the pine lost a lot of branches, and the box elder is growing into the power lines.

There are a few dead elms that are going to be taken down. Question is, what diameter is it worth keeping, and what goes into the chipper?

 

[firefighterjake]

What size is worth keeping is a rather subjective decision. Some folks don't like to bother with the smaller rounds, feeling as if they just take up valuable space and take longer to process. Other folks figure it's still heat and they can use the smaller rounds to really pack the firebox.

Me . . . I used to leave smaller rounds in the woods or on the burn pile, but since I have plenty of room, a fair amount of time and figure since I'm killing the tree I may as well use whatever I can (within reason) I tend to take smaller rounds. Generally speaking I'll take most anything if it is 2 or 3 inches in diameter or larger . . . sometimes smaller if it is a highly desirable species. Wood = heat . . . regardless of the size of the wood.

 

[drz1050]

Generally, I'll keep anything bigger than my wrist.
Elm is a pain to split.. have fun!

 

[StihlKicking]

Generally, I'll keep anything bigger than my wrist.
Elm is a pain to split.. have fun!

^^^This^^^


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[kennyp2339]

I like the anything bigger than wrist size or 3.5", as far as the pine tree I would chip all branches regardless, there just a pain to work with.

 

[Dobish]

Elm isn't so bad with the dht 22

I think if I were processing it all, I might go a little smaller with what I keep, but after moving a few loads of 1-2" sticks, I think the 2.5" rule is good. I still have a good pile of smaller stuff, and can always find more I'd I need to.

 

[FaithfulWoodsman]

On lesser burning wood I keep anything 3" and up. On the good stuff I keep anything 2" and up. I like being able to completely fill the box overnight, especially with the hotter small pieces.

 

[Dobish]

so they showed up today at 8:30 and started getting to work. I was debating taking down the spruce, but decided to go for it..... One of the elms is going to stay for a little while longer, since the top was too close to the power lines, but everything else was going to keep them busy. They fired up the chipper and they were going to drag up a few of my slash piles for me too.

I didn't have a chance to snap a picture of the nicely stacked piles, but i got another 1.5 cord stacked last night and out of the way. I had 1/2 cord of honey locust (that makes 1.3 total, yEAH!) 1/2 cord of russian olive, and 1/2 cord of willow, aspen, maple, and asst fruit.

This leaves me around 1.5 cord of elm, box elder, peach and pear to split that has been drying for around a year, 1/2 cord of russian olive and elm that is about 6 months aged, and then on to the next round of elm, spruce and boxelder.... I'm curious to see what some of the fresh elm moisture content is, since i am getting really low numbers on stuff that was cut last spring....

 

[Dobish]

i just drove by and they were just finishing up taking down the spruce.... they threw the limbs in the chipper, and they were working on the box elder.... i didn't take any pictures, but I will get one when I get home tonight!

They left me nice 18" long rounds....

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

If I'm cutting the tree down, I keep everything for the stove that won't fit into the old super tomahawk chipper shredder. It takes up to 3", but depending on the species, I probably only feed up to 2" for hard wood. I then use either the fiskars pruning saw or 12" chop saw to cut to 16" length for the stove. I have burned cords of this smaller stuff over the years, I like it to start the fire and fill gaps between the splits.

 

[Dobish]

If I'm cutting the tree down, I keep everything for the stove that won't fit into the old super tomahawk chipper shredder. It takes up to 3", but depending on the species, I probably only feed up to 2" for hard wood. I then use either the fiskars pruning saw or 12" chop saw to cut to 16" length for the stove. I have burned cords of this smaller stuff over the years, I like it to start the fire and fill gaps between the splits.

their shredder does up to 6".... so I didn't want to go that big! I am thinking about making a quick sawbuck jig to get through the smaller stuff.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

their shredder does up to 6".... so I didn't want to go that big! I am thinking about making a quick sawbuck jig to get through the smaller stuff.

I figured the pro's chipper went bigger, I think my guys have a 12" model. That would be a lot of good firewood, and leave us only stuff that requires splitting.

We are having 4 big tulip poplars and 2 medium black walnuts taken down any day now. They are going to leave the logs in lengths that they can move with their crane for me to cut. I have not decided what to tell them about the branches, as there will be plenty to keep me busy with just processing the logs. I guess I'll see what they say when they get here, I don't want to slow them down any more than necessary as, they gave us a good price, and a big slash pile on the lawn, I can do without.

 

[Diabel]

I tend to keep stuff around 2.5 to 3 inches. I cut it smaller 12" or so. It fits nicely just below the griddle.

 

[Dobish]

Well, they are down!

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Well, they are down!

Nice raised beds. Looks like you'll get more sun on your garden now? I always like two for ones, and when you can heat with wood, you can turn liabilities into assets.

 

[firefighterjake]

Generally, I'll keep anything bigger than my wrist.
Elm can be quite easy to split most of the time if you have a hydraulic splitter!

I fixed it for you.

Most of my elm is standing dead . . . but even the fresh cut stuff isn't too bad with a hydraulic splitter . . . although once in a while I get a piece that gets a bit mangled (cue the music for Jags and his awesomely mangled wood . . . which I thought was elm.)

 

[Dobish]

Nice raised beds. Looks like you'll get more sun on your garden now? I always like two for ones, and when you can heat with wood, you can turn liabilities into assets.

I need to make sure they don't get too much sun, since the sun is brutal.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

I need to make sure they don't get too much sun, since the sun is brutal.

Now, that is a problem I don't have!

 

[Dobish]

they came back and started work at 8am today. I told them to leave stuff in 6' sections, and I can deal with it from there, i just didn't want to deal with the brush!

They started taking down this guy that is basically right up against the house and the back half is dead.

 

[Dobish]

the stuff from the front yard is mostly cut down to size and all stacked ready for splitting. I sort of covered my gate with firewood, so i can't open it, so i'll probably pick through this stuff slowly. I have another 1/2-3/4 cord of boxelder tossed over by the splitter. I also finally got around to cutting up the maple that was buried under the boxelder branches! I'll probably end up driving the splitter up through the double gate and splitting up here, or taking a few whacks with the fiskars and getting a workout tossing these guys over the fence. Behind the spruce rounds, there is 1/3 cord of juniper, and a little further down out of the picture is 1/2 cord of elm that has been drying for a little less than a year (i split one, and it was at 18%)



the back yard still has around 3 cord of elm that needs to be processed, but I figured i would clean up the parts that people see first! Most of the stuff that came down in the back was dead, so i'm pretty good I just put myself 3 years ahead....

 

[Dobish]

finally moved the boat out of the way... you can really see how my stacking technique has changed..... far right was get it out of the way and off the ground until i could process it.... middle is more recently stacked and split, all nice.... pile on the left is the pile of uglies and other crap that I needed to get out of the way to move the boat. Stack behind that is a nice stack of elm, russian olive, willow and pine, and the stack behind that is the remainder of the boxelder that needs to get split and stacked somewhere..... behind that is some stacks of maple, locust, elm and willow.

Once i get the stuff that just came down all split and stacked, i am seriously thinking about moving all of these stacks and restacking it all...

 

[Dobish]

a few days ago, i rented out my splitter to a friend and I wanted to make sure it was all warmed up before I gave it to her. i ended up splitting 3/4 cord of box elder and was giddy at how quickly it popped open! i figured since she'd have the splitter for a week +, it was a good time to finish bucking up the rest of the logs and getting it all stacked and out of the way until I could get around to splitting it. yesterday afternoon i spent about an hour cutting everything down to size and tossing it down the hill to where I plan to stack it.

I did notice (as it was getting to be dusk) that I was getting a lot of sparks as I was cutting through the elm bark, which confirms my theory why my chains can't stay sharp. After grinding them all back it was surely better, and I was able to actually get through some of the bigger stuff with actual chips, not sawdust after 2 cuts.

Last night i ended up taking advantage of the supermoon, and went out to clear up the messes I had left, and try and do something with the wood before it snows on thursday. I ended up temporarily stacking a little over 2 cord of rounds, ranging from 6" to 20" dia.... i am now down to around 20 minutes with the chainsaw, 4-5 hours with the splitter and a few hours moving and stacking and i will be 2 years ahead (i hope). So far this year i have burned .09 cord

 

[CheapBassTurd]

Just bartered a splitter by giving the owner all the wood he needs and I get to
store the splitter here to provide us both with stock.
Time to clean up my pallets of rounds !