Gathering fallen timber for firewood

[tmcj]

I see on here where a lot of folks utilize their tractors to retrieve firewood with a lot of creativity, and very successfully. I figured this may be a great source of information since I know very little on this subject. Here's the deal...

My father has about 26 acres of wooded mountain ground that we use for hunting and general recreation type stuff. It will be mine someday, hopefully not for many more years, of course. But naturally I treat it as my own, just the same. I also have access to another lot roughly the same size,, owned by my aunt. This was all part of my grandparents family farm at one point. There is always fallen trees all throughout the properties. I have spent the past 20 years clearing whatever falls across truck and atv trails and the like and typically bring some wood home for the fire pit for picnics, parties, and whatever. The rest we let lie where it falls. Since I have had my tractor this chore is much easier, of course, and I'm considering getting into using this firewood to help heat my home also.

We have an oil furnace and will continue to use it for the main level of the house as needed. I am only interested in a wood stove for the basement as a secondary heat source. I have no desire to cut down healthy, live trees. But we have a lot of fallen timber just laying there cluttering up the woods and going to waste. Utilizing it would kill two birds...cleaning up our woods and providing a heat source.

I'm not new to cutting up the logs but I am new to using firewood for a home so I would have a lot to learn and it would be an investment to get started. Of course I need to buy a wood stove and get it properly and safely installed. I also considered a grapple for my tractor to help move logs. Mahindra Max 26xl. This property is about 3-4 miles from my house, but I have a trailer to transport the tractor, or could drive it, and I have a dump trailer to haul wood home with. I actually enjoy the work involved with firewood, but then again, it is completely recreational at this point, lol.

So I need a wood stove, a grapple, a splitter, and an education on firewood. So from you more experienced folks does this sound like something worth getting started with or not worth the money, time, and energy involved?

 

[tmcj]

I would love to clean up areas that look like this and keep them cleaned up, and utilize the wood.

 

[Peter 315]

If the wood is rotted it's not good for fire wood.. Maybe make small burn piles..

 

[pmsmechanic]

If you do decide to go this route realize that heat in the basement will help keep the whole house warm. Have you got a way to get wood into the basement other than carrying it down the stairs? That gets old quick.

Also think about the wood you want to harvest. Any wood that has started to rot has very little heat value in it compared to good solid wood. You might be farther ahead by salvaging used pallets for firewood.

When hunting we always would look for a standing tree that had been killed by lightning. They were dry and not rotted.

 

[WranglerX]

Actually it depends on how much of logging operation you want to be involved in.... In simplest level I personally cut logs into fireplace lengths (on site of fall) and use FEL or trailer to transport to where it will be split and then stacked.... For splitter I bought a uses splitter ($200) with blown motor and put a cheap HF 6.5 HP motor ($137) on it and am happy..... You can get really carried away with what you think you need!.... I can cut and split enough wood in half a day to last me for weeks in our wood stove that supplement our forced air system.....IN fact I have wood from several years ago still stacked and probably going bad from age and will donated to a family in need as I do most every year......

BIGGEST thing you need to learn is HOW TO USE CHAIN SAW SAFELY..... Chaps, ear and eye protection.... Also how to sharpen chain saw chains...

Probably best thing you can do if spend cold winters day on YouTube and watching videos on recovering logs for woods, chain saw use, wood splitting.... You will see some really low-end simple ways and some very exotic ways and some ways that will scare the **** out of you......

Biggest thing with wood burning stove is learning to regulate heat, how much wood to put in and how to regulate damper (air flow)....After a couple of fires you get the hang of it....

Don't make all this to complicated....

Dale

 

[TerryR]

We have 12 acres, mostly wooded, in the mountains of North Carolina. It produces enough fallen wood in areas I can access with my tractor to keep us in firewood for a nightly fire in the fireplace in fall and winter months. I find that generally it's fine for the first few years after it falls, but how long depends on the species and how long it was dead before it fell. After five years, or less, most of it is pretty well gone. Sooner for the sections that are actually in contact with the ground.

 

[WranglerX]

I would love to clean up areas that look like this and keep them cleaned up, and utilize the wood.
View attachment 681142

IF wood is rotted best thing you can do is move it into a pile to either burn (if it will) or rot and clear the ground for access and new growth..... But keep in mind rotted wood breaks down to return new life into soil....

Dale

 

[MossRoad]

I heat about 80% of our home with wood for the past 10+ years. Here's what I've found.

From an activity point of view, it's quite enjoyable to go into the woods, harvest, split, stack, season, burn, etc... it's healthy activity and a renewable source of fuel.

From an economic point of view, if you put a monetary value on your time, it's a loser. :laughing:

I spend about 80 hours a year working on firewood to save about $1000 in natural gas over the winter.

If I spent 80 hours working a $10 an hour job, I'd make $800. Add into that the cost of a chainsaw, a splitter, a wood stove, a proper chimney, transportation of wood to my home, and all the associated costs, it's a money loser.

Yet I still do it because I enjoy it.

 

[BlueKnife]

I would love to clean up areas that look like this and keep them cleaned up, and utilize the wood.
View attachment 681142

A lot of the wood on the ground in that picture is going to be rotted and not much good. It'd be better for the health of the forest and the remaining trees to just let it finish rotting and feeding the soil. "Cleaning up the woods" is actually unhealthy for the forest, unless you live in fire country. Any logs that aren't rotting can certainly be used for firewood, although it looks as if you have a lot of elm, which sucks to split.

 

[MF243RedTop]

When I have to transport firewood from another location. I try to keep the longest lengths possible. Let the tractor do all the work possible.
Whether by dragging whole/half lenghts or loading long lenghts on trailer and unloading with tractor.
Once they are to my cut and split area, which is right beside the log splitter only then do I cut the logs to burning lengths.
Cut, place on splitter and stack directly into bin for storage..
I'm not a fan of cutting short burning lengths in woods and handling by hand a couple or three times before splitting and stacking.