Work Done 2023

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Got some tree service wood last week. Oak mostly good a few punky pieces but no complaints. Some of those rounds are like 25 inches thus there are extremely heavy. Time to get to work.

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Got some tree service wood last week. Oak mostly good a few punky pieces but no complaints. Some of those rounds are like 25 inches thus there are extremely heavy. Time to get to work.

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Cut to your length?
 
Since the temps will warmup, we put in two loads of pine. We still have two plus face cord of pine left if we need it.

Not counting what we have inside, we still have five face cord of hardwood left we planned on burning this year, I hope the pine can get us through until it warms up enough so we can stop burning.

For the heating season of 2021 - 2022 we saved four face cord of hardwood that is still stacked, if we can save another four face cord this year we'll have eight for this coming heating season.

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Good lord you guys are way ahead of me. I need to borrow the splitter from a friend and get stacking! Also planning to build a solar kiln and will be following the VT kiln plans. Hopefully this will help me get some maple, birch and pine ready for next fall. The red oak I have my doubts about but am splitting them small and will see how it fares in the kiln.
 
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I started back up on felling some dead or damaged pine on our house lot. The first pine will be used in the outside fireplace, the second pine is small but will get split and stacked for use in the wood stove and the third pine lost its top from some high winds, I pulled that out on the trail with the tractor and used the forks while I bucked it up.

We plan on planting some Norway Spruce in that area.

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I'm behind on cutting this year but also did not burn as much as normal thanks to a warm February. Having fun with some white oak, which I've been working on for a year now. Down to the big rounds and its making we work...splitting by hand. Worth every swing.

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Good lord you guys are way ahead of me. I need to borrow the splitter from a friend and get stacking! Also planning to build a solar kiln and will be following the VT kiln plans. Hopefully this will help me get some maple, birch and pine ready for next fall. The red oak I have my doubts about but am splitting them small and will see how it fares in the kiln.
Heck, that lighter wood might be good to go by fall, even without a kiln, if stacked single-row with good prevailing wind broad-siding the stack, and 4" splits. But you can't afford any mistakes if you don't have dry wood for next season.

Well, I rolled the dice on the rain holding off this afternoon, but they came up snake-eyes--got rained out with about two hours of daylight left. 😩
I was planning to get all the rounds outta there, then cut the bracing branch from under the trunk of the White Oak, but no dice. I WAS able to get a quad load at least, rotty sapwood skimmed off with the new little top-handle saw. 👍
I've so far gotten about half the rounds that those guys bucked last year.

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I take whatever I can get here in the desert - and I have to drive for it. In the last 2 weeks, I've collected some low-grade stuff on my first 2 trailer loads - poplar, Russian Olive, and a real low grade pine/cedar type. My luck improved today. I asked a homeowner about a pile of Honey Locust by their power pole. They said, 'Help yourself.' Locust is the best wood I have access to.

I had to noodle several rounds in half. Great score. I had a couple of feet left in my 12.5 foot trailer. I stopped by a house and was okayed on one 35" round of Siberian elm. I quartered it and loaded - my trailer was mostly full (~1 cord). The locust was cut by the power company. Some rounds were 25" long - oh well. I'll cut them in half and have lots of short firewood pieces.
 
I take whatever I can get here in the desert - and I have to drive for it. In the last 2 weeks, I've collected some low-grade stuff on my first 2 trailer loads - poplar, Russian Olive, and a real low grade pine/cedar type. My luck improved today. I asked a homeowner about a pile of Honey Locust by their power pole. They said, 'Help yourself.' Locust is the best wood I have access to.

I had to noodle several rounds in half. Great score. I had a couple of feet left in my 12.5 foot trailer. I stopped by a house and was okayed on one 35" round of Siberian elm. I quartered it and loaded - my trailer was mostly full (~1 cord). The locust was cut by the power company. Some rounds were 25" long - oh well. I'll cut them in half and have lots of short firewood pieces.
That is a nice haul! Locust and elm I’ll take any day.
 
I did fell another 3 or 4 dead pine today in the area we plan on planting some trees, only on of the trees that came down today will make it in the wood stove, the rest will be used in the outside fireplace.

The last two pictures are of a widowmaker, it's just hanging on.

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No pics, but we cut two more dead pitch pines at my friend's place. He stacked them for next season. (I gave him one of.my three racks of pine that's dry now to close out the current season of burning with his new Drolet.)

And I built a small, three stack shed next to my garage. One stack is already filled with fir. Should be good next season. This is my emergency (winter colder than my limited storage in my main shed has space for) stock. So I will fill two stacks with 1-year-drieable softwood. And the third stack is for the fire pit.
 
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How high do yall stack. 5 ft wide 4 ft tall 8 ft long i feel i can go another
2 ft at least. But not trying to extend the drying time lol
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Height does not affect drying time much, imo. It is the width and the spacing between the stacks that affect drying time.
Go higher - as long as it doesn't fall over (or you have kids that might bump a ball into the stacks and then get covered in falling wood) - but put 4" between the rows so the wind can go thru.

And top cover it once the stack is complete.

I've stacked up to 7 ft high. That's about my limit for stability.
 
Height does not affect drying time much, imo. It is the width and the spacing between the stacks that affect drying time.
Go higher - as long as it doesn't fall over (or you have kids that might bump a ball into the stacks and then get covered in falling wood) - but put 4" between the rows so the wind can go thru.

And top cover it once the stack is complete.

I've stacked up to 7 ft high. That's about my limit for stability.
No kids. Seben feet is hogh lol. I might shoot for that cause i want ro sabe mu palets for mixed hardwood for this comimg winter
 
If you cross stack like in the pic, and if you have long splits (as in the pic) it'll be more stable.

I'm 6'4", so 7' is easy for me. But the risk of a stack keeling over.gets.larger the higher the stack is.
 
Do you cross stack or single rows?
Single rows. That gives us room for 66 face cord of hardwood, I use t-post on the ends. We have room for 12 face cord of shoulder season wood in a different area.