Work Done In 2026

[thewoodlands]

I'm late, thanks for the reminder.

We put in more firewood today, Beech & Ironwood. I had the tractor block heater plugged in so I put the bucket on and I moved snow from a few areas to some snow storage areas, parts of the driveway just got wider.

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

I put up a new bird feeder today and finally got my new handle on my maul. The handle wouldn't fit so I had to work it down slowly with an angle grinder.

 

[begreen]

I took apart a bird feeder with a poor design yesterday. I had to drill out pop-rivets to clean the bottom. <grr> I may be replacing it soon, but a good new one that fits on a pole and is squirrel proof is about $150.

We're in the move a cartload from the shed to the porch woodbox phase. One thing I noticed yesterday is that we have a lot of hornet queens overwintering in the pile. They are dormant and easy to pick off, but if they get in the house and warm up, then they fly all over trying to get out. Yesterday we located almost a dozen and I expect we missed a few.

 

[Dieselhead]

I'm late, thanks for the reminder.

No problem Zap, thank for the post!

 

[Dieselhead]

So far this season I have been hitting the spruce pile pretty hard and had almost a cord of mixed hardwoods, all good stuff like copper beech, red+white oaks, hard maple and black birch left over from last season to get through. The lengths were kind of all over the place and twisty and knotty so I’m kinda glad to get through it finally. Today I tapped into a 4 cord row of the same woods as above plus shagbark hickory and black cherry. The biggest difference is with this row back when I split it in ‘22 I had stepped up my wood game and they are all cut to my preferred length and most if not all are nice and straight and will pack the stove perfectly. Previous to this pile I always eyed up the lengths of rounds and some were over and some were under my 17” preference. This row was solely meant to have been my 25-26 seasons wood but through a big yard project I had tackled since 2022 I came into all the Norway spruce I’ve been burning instead. I don’t think I will get through half of this 4 cord stash but that’s ok I’ll run it next season.

I filled the wood rack and also topped off the spruce tote. The wood rack holds a face cord, the tote is about 3/4 of a face. Just as I finished a quick snow shower came through. It was cold and damp but otherwise a perfect day for firewood.

 

[MRD1985]

I reloaded the porch rack on Friday. Ash on the left, and hickory on the right with a little oak mixed in.

I also finish splitting up all the free oak, I should be able to get it stacked this week.

 

[all night moe]

Nothing done here at home today. Left for work at 7am and got back around 5. Let out all the dogs, one by one, isolated the father so I could go get the son and bring him out without a brawl.

Yesterday, or the day before, I unloaded a face cord into the lair. Moved half of it. There's some still on the stairs. Nothing scheduled for me tomorrow. Have some work not far from here that I have to follow up on first. May do that, or work on firewood around here. Plenty of other things to get done too. See what happens.

 

[NickW]

Nothing wood related because I'm stuck in "no mans land"... Nowhere to go with anything if I process it until I get dirt moved and retaining walls up next year, nowhere to go with logs if I cut up tree's, new storage area in the attached garage isn't available until the crap there gets moved after the pole shed is up. A few weeks to a month of wood only left in the basement.

Put up some bird feeders, clearing snow, working on a wood trim order, trying to keep vehicles operational (car has a code, truck still needs work and won't start in the cold, broke another shear pin on the UTV plow and keep breaking the winch rope that operates the plow, etc 🙄)

 

[stoveliker]

Not much here either.
I cleaned out piles of leaves from under the wood shed. There was way more than I expected. Good to do as it'll help with the air flow through the 3" gaps between the 2x12 floor boards.

And a chit-ton of balls my son "keeps loosing, I don't know where"...

Changed cables on my garage door as one was breaking a few strands.

Started with enlarging the veggie garden (converting grass to garden, fencing, and adding compost etc.) - with progress depending on the weather and frost.

 

[MRD1985]

Got the oak stacked and top covered. Math says 0.708 cords.

 

[stoveliker]

Does your math (to the third digit) take into account the additional space in the cribbed stacking at the ends?

 

[MRD1985]

Does your math (to the third digit) take into account the additional space in the cribbed stacking at the ends?

Nope. So maybe take off .008 🤣

 

[Dajolu]

Working through some red oak rounds that are semi punky. It seems like it is still decent wood for burning someday. I’m not sure if I should stack this less quality oak on its own or put it with the other wood I have recently processed.

 

[GG Woody]

The biggest difference is with this row back when I split it in ‘22 I had stepped up my wood game and they are all cut to my preferred length and most if not all are nice and straight and will pack the stove perfectly. Previous to this pile I always eyed up the lengths of rounds and some were over and some were under my 17” preference.

Isn't it great when we run into a row where we previously stepped up our wood game!
I used to 100% remember which wood came from which tree, now I'm probably closer to 60% recall. It sucks that every so often I will stack something that future me isn't all that proud of🤣usually there's much more than a stick or two of it...
We had the top of a large Fir tree break off in our yard, too much of it and it's branches made it into the pile, I'm finally through burning it!
I've been cutting 17.5" lately.🙃

 

[GG Woody]

Working through some red oak rounds that are semi punky. It seems like it is still decent wood for burning someday. I’m not sure if I should stack this less quality oak on its own or put it with the other wood I have recently processed.

Decisions, decisions...
I'd just mix it in with whatever piles I have of the same age and curse myself later... Unless you have a dedicated uglies pile that you can section off...

 

[stoveliker]

Isn't it great when we run into a row where we previously stepped up our wood game!
I used to 100% remember which wood came from which tree, now I'm probably closer to 60% recall. It sucks that every so often I will stack something that future me isn't all that proud of🤣usually there's much more than a stick or two of it...
We had the top of a large Fir tree break off in our yard, too much of it and it's branches made it into the pile, I'm finally through burning it!
I've been cutting 17.5" lately.🙃

Yeah, I'm looking forward to next year. This year has a lot of shorties (8-10" long) and uglies (10x10" knotty pieces). Stacks almost toppled out of my shed... In fact, I remember (these are 4.5-5 year old) that once the front stack did. Noise in the evening, looked out, didn't see much. Next day, wood on the ground and a light went off above my head.

Next year it's 3/5 red oak and 2/5 black locust. The locust still will have some shorties (who throws away locust...), but it'll be much better, as from then on I started splitting and donating all shorties and uglies to my neighbors, which greatly improved my own stacks

 

[GG Woody]

I split some frozen green Doug Fir a couple weeks ago (I know work done 2025...) That will be my nicest firewood ever... A treat for future me, maybe 2028/29?

 

[Woody Stover]

Working through some red oak rounds that are semi punky. It seems like it is still decent wood for burning someday. I’m not sure if I should stack this less quality oak on its own or put it with the other wood I have recently processed.

I find that it's only the sapwood on Red Oak that punks, but the heartwood stays good for a long time. Sometimes I'll let the sapwood rot to the point that I can almost strip it off with my hand, then I scrape it off by sliding a hatchet blade along the sides of the rounds.
Yes, it's slower and a lot more work, but I seldom get to the Red Oaks right after they fall; I have 'em lying all over the place right now. 😦 Probably dries a little quicker with the bark/sapwood gone..

 

[thewoodlands]

Nothing for firewood work being done but the snow, rain and ice has kept me busy this winter. When I'm inside it's cooking, keeping the fire going along with some cleaning of the house.

Tomorrow I'll be pushing all the wet chit off the driveway down in the woods so we can get ready for a third of an inch rain starting on Friday. Maybe I should get my skates sharpened.

 

[NickW]

Hauled the unfinished decking boards into the basement from the garage to warm up so at some point I can seal them. The sealed ones are stacked on pallets under snow. I think there's 74 yet to seal. It will have to be done in 3 batches due to space constraints.

Did some cleaning and rearranging in the garages to create enough space to hopefully get the truck started and indoors. The pole shed materials are supposedly being delivered the end of next week, so I have to get the truck running and moved so I can finish clearing snow for access for the builders.

The truck still needs a bit of work, but the car code comes first... The code is for the MAP sensor, so first I'll check it out for moisture in the connection and the vacuum lines as it came on driving in slush before I buy a new one.

 

[all night moe]

Moved the rets of that half cord off the stairs today. Yesterday I eyed down that job. The yard is on a grade, if I don't wait for good conditions to do the job, I'll get my truck stuck.

Today I unloaded that heavy half cord out of my truck into the lair. I went to the store after and picked up, some household supplies, dog food, and stuff to make a nice big casserole of backed mac n cheese with burger mixed in, and topped with a browned third cheese and bacon. This was my last attempt. Disrespected and shunned, the #nmGFa can go where the womanizer is blowing sweet nothings in her ear. I am done.

Tomorrows another day. Now I know my path.

 

[stoveliker]

Just cleaned out a lot of ashes, and ran the soot eater thru the flue, vacuumed behind the cat etc.
No surprises found, which is good.