What’s your favorite part of firewooding?

[ChadMc]

What sight do you like better? A fresh cut line up of rounds or a neatly stacked row of splits? This is from today. A straight ash blow down 100 yards from my house. In the woods with my young boys and dog. Doesn’t get much better

 

[Prof]

That is a thing of beauty! Wood cracking with one swing on a cool Fall day makes me smile.

 

[Grizzerbear]

Nothing like fresh saw dust and rounds in a row. Fresh stacked wood is great but you look at it for years.

 

[andym]

The first and last stick of wood to go into the furnace for the season. I enjoy all of it, but spring is always welcome. Other highlights are leaving the woods with a heavy trailer load of wood, finding an extra specially prime tree to cut, and waking up to a warm house. And of course, a warm place to dry gloves etc.

 

[Isaac Carlson]

I love all of it, bit seeing the wood stacked after it's split kind of feels too final to me, sort of like a funeral. The work is done and it's time to enjoy it, but I don't really feel it.
I love the excitement of finding another tree to cut, watching the saw drop through the wood, the rounds rolling, loading the truck until I can't fit another piece, the loaded drive home (that's one of my favorites), unloading isn't that much fun yet, and then hearing the crackle when the wood splits open. I love making a big pile of splits, but we have started stacking right off the splitter now and that works very well Because you don't have to go back and stack it later. Watching the rows grow as it is stacked up is different. I don't know what it is, but it's almost surreal, the one part I don't really feel. I don't know why that is. Maybe because I know it's getting stacked only to be burned up. I'm not sure. It feels good to have wood stashed, but I think I like seeing a big pile vs stacks, at least for the feeling of "look what we got done". Is anyone else that way?

 

[Gearhead660]

I enjoy just getting out in the woods. Will take that over anything.

 

[NickW]

I love the joy of finding a new source. I also really like seeing my stacks grow, but I'm new to this "3 years ahead" thing... Getting close though. Been busting my butt. Don't really get to cut in the woods much, but my latest source has all the rounds I can haul already cut to length sitting in his pasture...hard to pass up!

Absolute best thing may be cutting logs in my processing area while the wife and boys are splitting and stacking! Unfortunately 7 of the last 8 cords were all by my lonesome...

 

[ChadMc]

I love all of it, bit seeing the wood stacked after it's split kind of feels too final to me, sort of like a funeral. The work is done and it's time to enjoy it, but I don't really feel it.
I love the excitement of finding another tree to cut, watching the saw drop through the wood, the rounds rolling, loading the truck until I can't fit another piece, the loaded drive home (that's one of my favorites), unloading isn't that much fun yet, and then hearing the crackle when the wood splits open. I love making a big pile of splits, but we have started stacking right off the splitter now and that works very well Because you don't have to go back and stack it later. Watching the rows grow as it is stacked up is different. I don't know what it is, but it's almost surreal, the one part I don't really feel. I don't know why that is. Maybe because I know it's getting stacked only to be burned up. I'm not sure. It feels good to have wood stashed, but I think I like seeing a big pile vs stacks, at least for the feeling of "look what we got done". Is anyone else that way?

That’s funny. I do like that feeling however my OCD kicks in and says “get this stacked!” On Saturday I split for a couple hours. Had the big pile going and thought yeaaa that’s a lot. Then stacked that afternoon and realized it wasn’t that much haha.

 

[kennyp2339]

I like all aspects of it, but I think my favorite part is unloading and piling the logs were the splitting is going to occur, thats usually the first time I can start gauging how much "gold" I have, my second is once its all split and stacked, landing area cleaned up, my reasoning us because I usually have the fire pit going and a nice cold beer waiting for me.

 

[BigJ273]

Stacking is by far my favorite part. Ice cold beer, and the sound of money in the bank.

 

[Wood1Dennis]

I enjoy just getting out in the woods. Will take that over anything.

Absolutely! Winter in the woods is the best season.

 

[WoodBurnerInWI]

Like many here, I enjoy all the aspects of gathering, cutting and splitting the wood. I first started all this crazy wood stuff back in 2016, before we moved into our current house. I come from a long line of wood burners and intended to do the same, even if I live in the suburbs. I've been out in the woods felling trees and cutting dropped off logs in my driveway. It's all fun to me and it gives me a crazy variety of wood. If I could go back and change anything, would I? Yes, I would have started processing my logs earlier then 2016

 

[Caw]

I enjoy the whole process but splitting is my favorite part. Im still plenty young so I do it all by hand while I still can. It's great exercise and extremely satisfying to clean one swing a giant piece.

Give me my 36" fiskars, a pickaroon, a maul+sledge for tough pieces, some music, a couple beers, and the fire pit and I can go all day. We often have little splitting parties where the wife/kids and some family comes over after I've gotten a log delivery and we all take turns crushing rounds. It's a great way to spend an afternoon.

I do the most stacking myself due to severe stack OCD. I just like it to look clean! My oldest is actually a great little stacker in the making but being only 5 he's vertically challenged lol.

 

[Stinkpickle]

Stacked. Order out of chaos.

 

[firefighterjake]

Splitting . . . followed by stacking.

 

[thewoodlands]

For me it's when I shut off the saw or splitter and the sounds of the woods come alive, usually it's an owl on the backhill or up in the hemlocks. We also love seeing the new fawns each year and once in a while we see a red fox or some coyotes. The black bear hasn't been around since we stopped feeding the birds.

The bear pic was about 40 yards from the house on the southside and the fox was doing some hunting/resting around the stacks about 40 yards on the eastside of the house,

 

[jatoxico]

That's a smart looking little fellow. None of our fox(es) seem to be around right now and have moved over about a 1/2 mi. My friend sees them nightly on his camera system.

Cutting in the woods is my favorite part. I like managing the wooded areas around my place. Being in suburbia, albeit with fairly large lots and pretty heavily wooded, I don't get as much cutting in the woods as I would like.

Still, my new neighbor is clearing his overgrown lot and told me to take what I can before a crew comes in. It's a vine and brambled covered mess but lots of downed and dead standing wood.

Got in about 2-3 hrs of cutting and hauling downed locust. Went through 2 full tanks of fuel so had some fun. I may get a chance to go back once more before he clears but there's many more cords than I could take.

 

[Zack R]

My favorite part is felling/bucking, the smell of the saw and sawdust, and then the fresh pine smell when its all stacked up.

Least favorite part is tarping, and clearing snow off of the tarp and digging out wood mid winter. I need to build a proper wood shed.....

 

[mcdougy]

The exercise....both physical and mental. Whether its the pleasant calm of the mind or the slight burn in the muscles. Being a part of nature is what I love.

 

[ChadMc]

The exercise....both physical and mental. Whether its the pleasant calm of the mind or the slight burn in the muscles. Being a part of nature is what I love.

I love the exercise as well! The mental side is fascinating to me. I look outside at my stacks every morning sipping coffee and think “ok I have 5 cords in the shed, 4 cords stacked and drying, about 2 cords of rounds and I have a dozen trees that I can think of that need to be dropped.” I feel like every morning I do math in my head to keep planning a head. My wife thinks I’m nuts but there’s nothing her and the kids love more in winter then the wood stove!

 

[mcdougy]

I love the exercise as well! The mental side is fascinating to me. I look outside at my stacks every morning sipping coffee and think “ok I have 5 cords in the shed, 4 cords stacked and drying, about 2 cords of rounds and I have a dozen trees that I can think of that need to be dropped.” I feel like every morning I do math in my head to keep planning a head. My wife thinks I’m nuts but there’s nothing her and the kids love more in winter then the wood stove!

Yes....I find when I'm i n the bush i often reflect on how many of my kin have been in the same situation (chopping firewood) and think of the reasons they were cutting wood and their lifestyle. It seems to really ring loud that I like trying to slow life to more simple requirements like them. And how "hard" work is essential. Sometimes it drifts to wanting to experience life 100+ years ago where survival is the ONLY focus. For some reason I find it all very natural and calming. Family is important to me.
And let's not forget there is a giant slice of "hunter/gatherer" that is undeniably extremely satisfying.

 

[jatoxico]

And let's not forget there is a giant slice of "hunter/gatherer" that is undeniably extremely satisfying

That's astute. My neighbor has a stack of bucked logs he told me to take but I preferred to cut my own.

 

[stoveliker]

That's astute. My neighbor has a stack of bucked logs he told me to take but I preferred to cut my own.

Hm, depending on where you are on LI, I'd be interested

 

[ElmBurner]

My favorite part is probably bucking and splitting things. It's satisfying to use the chainsaw and maul to break down a tree.

My least favorite part is finding a way to get the tree from vertical to horizontal...mostly because my timber is *waaay* overgrown and the trees inevitably get hung up. I've been working along the edges first to thin it out, as well as cutting stuff that's recently hit the ground naturally.

 

[peakbagger]

I like the to visit areas I thinned out a few years ago. It takes a couple of winters for the ground disturbance to settle out and 5 to 10 years for the crowns to fill back in but unless I point it out to folks it just looks like healthy woods. Where I used to cut the owner wanted me to leave the stumps high as it was easier to deal with them with his bulldozer plus I usually cut in winter on snowshoes so the stumps definitely remain.