Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[BackRoad]

Mr. Winterdeere, it is a thing of beauty to see all that wood split and stacked so uniformly.

That's a huge amount of captured sunlight, stored energy and invested human effort!

It's like putting money aside to save for retirement...your future self will look back and greatly respect and appreciate your present self!!!

 

[WinterDeere]

Thanks! Yes, we do save a good bit of money by burning so much wood. Our house is very old, and relatively big, so a bit of an energy hog. Every little bit helps.

I'm noticing we're going through more fuel this year, the first year we've kept the door to the third floor open, as my daughter is now using the bathroom up there. With that door closed the last dozen years, we had a whole floor of the house that I kept relatively cool, as a buffer between our second floor bedrooms and the roof. Now that's been reduced to just a few inches of insulation in the rafter space, and our rafters are noticeably narrower than the modern 2x10 dimensional ubiquity.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering, "why so many sheds?" instead of just one big pavilion... I looked into this, and anything over 100 sq.ft. must get a zoning permit. Zoning permits are tracked for total impervious surface, and for each additional 1000 sq.ft. impervious, you must get a drainage study. I already knew I'd be adding more patio space, and likely adding onto my carriage barn at some point, so didn't want to add any more than needed to the total. So, now I have several 16' x 6' = 96 sq.ft. wood sheds, each just a hair below the limit for the permit requirement.

 

[ning]

I'm up in the hills and there's not a lot of people who buy stuff in totes; when I was buying totes, the only remotely reasonably priced ones were very dirty with questionable stuff in the bladders, so I told them to keep the bladders and sell me the cages only, so I've ended up with lots of cages with no poly for covers.

 

[BackRoad]

I ran into the size constraints for a storage shed I built while an expat living in NJ. Made it 12'x16' to stay under 200 sf, which would have triggered code enforcement, $$$ inspections, concrete footers to the frost line, etc. The windows were salvage from a local Habitat for Humanity facility and the board and batten siding was all Amish milled from where we live now.

Also used wood salvaged from rebuilding the deck to build a firewood storage shed, though not quite as elegant as yours.

Actually wish I had both of them here on our PA property!

 

[BackRoad]

Mr. Gordon, are you getting wood cut for the mill? Haven't seen recent updates on your winter forestry activities...

 

[Gordon Gould]

Mr. Gordon, are you getting wood cut for the mill? Haven't seen recent updates on your winter forestry activities...

I'm still at it. A little slower than normal since New Year. Caught a bug that took me 2 weeks to get rid of. Back to near normal last week. Made a couple trips to the log yard last Friday.

gg

 

[Rockbadchild]

-30deger Celsius the oil was frozen for the chainsaw, the fire was a little bit more then straying dry this time!!

 

[BackRoad]

Good to see you're at it Mr. Gordon!

 

[BnRidge]

-30deger Celsius the oil was frozen for the chainsaw, the fire was a little bit more then straying dry this time!!

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Thanks for the inspiration. I will be bon firing and maybe some roast beast in the near future. -5f here, businesses and schools closed, Wisconsin, sacrilege.

 

[Gordon Gould]

-30deger Celsius the oil was frozen for the chainsaw, the fire was a little bit more then straying dry this time!!

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-30*C (-22*F) ....more things frozen than your bar oil I bet

Nice big fire and steak will fix that though.

gg

 

[Rockbadchild]

-30*C (-22*F) ....more things frozen than your bar oil I bet

Nice big fire and steak will fix that though.

gg

The moustache and the car battery was frozen solid, I was fine as long as i was moving or by the fire. I was scouting and breaking trail for dry firewood. It’s been -40 degree over night for a few days in row now, it broke today with 3*F and light snow for the next few days.

 

[BackRoad]

3° F = finally, Spring is here!

 

[cmyoung2]

Moving logs around, arch originally designed to be moved with a BCS 2 wheel tractor, modified to hook to anything now. The BX 2230 is handy for reasonable logs and slopes.

The mill is a WM126, the loader is a L3600, handles most of the heavier stuff. A little snow left, but it only got up to 25 today.

 

[cmyoung2]

Couple of shots of my firewood "processing". Use a rebuilt Huskee splitter with a GorillaBac winch for the big rounds(covered by the white plastic "flag". Throw directly into the IBC tote, move to the outdoor water stove with the L3600. That is all the weight I want to pick up on our slopes, very iffy even with loaded tires and a ballast box. But it does save multiple touches of that wood. Most of the time I will split directly off the truck or trailer, saving a couple of touches.

 

[Gordon Gould]

^^^^ I can see from allyour tracks that you have been working in the snow to make firewood. How often do you have a chance to do that where you are ? Makes the work a little harder. Stay warm !!

gg

 

[cmyoung2]

North west NC mountains. Occasional snow. But right now the challenge is cold, like everywhere in the south. Last couple of nights close to or below 0. I think it got up to freezing today. But as long as I'm moving and the wind isn't too bad it is ok. And as long as the water doesn't freeze...

 

[goeduck]

North west NC mountains. Occasional snow. But right now the challenge is cold, like everywhere in the south. Last couple of nights close to or below 0. I think it got up to freezing today. But as long as I'm moving and the wind isn't too bad it is ok. And as long as the water doesn't freeze...

Below 0? Holy carp! I am hunkered down at +28F at night.

 

[WinterDeere]

We've been below 0F each morning this week, going up to +12F to +15F highs in the afternoons. Thankfully that ends today, but now we're swinging to the opposite extreme, a near-record January heat wave.

It would be nice to have a string of "normal" weather again, like 10F nights and 30F days. I have logs piling up that need processing, but I won't be able to do that in the coming rain and mud.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I'm not sure that there is any such thing as normal weather any more. It looks like we will warm up a little (high 20's) for a couple days then back to below zero. Today was nice 8* this morning and 18* and sunny this afternoon.

Last fall I experimented with a crane and trailer for firewood.

I puttered around with some improvements to make it more user friendly during some of those recent cold days. I added some fold-down RV/trailer stabilizers to help hold the hinge post plumb.

They look a little spindly but are supposed to be good for 1000 lbs each. Way more than I need for what I want to do and cheaper than making something. Easy adjustment.

I made a level out of a pipe clamp so I could see while I was adjusting, and not have to adjust then check with a torpedo level several times to get it right.

I had a small pile of wood buried out in the woods so this afternoon I went out to pick it up and see how the changes worked.

The stabilizers and level helped a lot. One adjustment to get it plumb, dropped the stabilizers, and didn't need to adjust again.

I also made one side of the bunks fold-down for easy unload. Want to unload onto a cutting table (next project) instead of the ground.

gg

 

[WinterDeere]

I'm not sure that there is any such thing as normal weather any more.

Oddly enough, it seems as if my mere mention of it "normalized" the weather! The forecast was reading highs near 60F and rain for next week, when I had checked it four or five days ago. But now it's shifted to +6 to +41F, over the next 7 days. Our normal is roughly 20F - 33F.