Time to stack wood

[tcreeley]

6 cords were delivered Friday. Time to start stacking. 4 cords will be for next year. I used to get it dumped near to where I stack it, but using the bucket. it doesn't matter anymore. I am finding that 8 buckets is about 1 cord. I have a five foot bucket. I keep forgetting how new wood is heavier than old wood! A pulp hook makes a big difference in pulling pieces out of the pile.

View attachment 389999View attachment 390000

 

[dave1949]

I need to cut some firewood for next winter. I have most of what I need split, stacked and tarped but I'll add some to that just trying to stay ahead.

 

[tcreeley]

Raining right now- was a good day (cool) to stack!

 

[dave1949]

Tomorrow through Monday should be great days. Sunny and mid-60's is the forecast.

I think I'll wait until the leaves are off before cutting.

 

[peterc38]

I have close to 10 cords stacked and ready to go, about half of which I did last summer and fall, the rest I did this spring and summer :thumbsup:

 

[lockhaven]

Tomorrow through Monday should be great days. Sunny and mid-60's is the forecast.

I think I'll wait until the leaves are off before cutting.

something to think about: if the trees have leaves on them that have not begun to die it is better to cut them now. The leaves will continue to take moisture from the tree speeding up the drying process.

 

[zing]

5 loads like this made the Saturday of the labour day weekend live up to its name. It will take me a while to chunk it up, but this will last me a couple of years and I won't actually burn any of these until next winter. My furnace will burn round logs no problem, so the only splitting that I have to do is enough to make sure I always have a few of sticks to light the fire and make a few coals. Ones that first batch of split ones has burned halfway down, I cna just feed round ones in from that point. :thumbsup:

 

[Western]

You Northern boys, sure can go through some wood and understandably so, we also did when I was a kid living much further North.

I have about 2 cords, I split it as we use it to try and thwart fire ants from moving in a tight stack. Since our drought has been so bad and so long, I still have many dead, or dying Oaks to cut (widow makers). We only supplement with fireplace, so not a dire need, but the wife likes a cozy fire and I like her cook'n, so a fair trade:thumbsup:

 

[dave1949]

something to think about: if the trees have leaves on them that have not begun to die it is better to cut them now. The leaves will continue to take moisture from the tree speeding up the drying process.

Thanks. I've heard that and have done it a few times. I think it works pretty well but the drying effect probably slows down as the leaves dry off and start falling in fall.

This fall I'm up to my armpits other projects that need reasonably dry weather as long as it holds out. So, I thought I would let the wood cutting slide since it is ash under 12" mostly and won't be used until next winter.

 

[tcreeley]

I've always heard that cutting after the trees are dormant for the winter, after the freeze means that there is less sap in the trunk and limbs as it is in the roots. The wood will dry faster. Once the sap starts to flow again, more drying time is needed. Either way, one does what one can.
Up here, winter has been a traditional wood cutting season- easier to move the logs over the snow -sliding on log boats when horse drawn or not. In the spring there is mud and the local roads and highways are too soft to transport the wood. In the past, the fall was a rainy season - mud. Summer was hot and buggy.
Of course skidders and the more modern methods handle it all at any time of year, but mud season is still mud season!
It is always something to see a pulp truck (semi) back into a field or woodlot to load up. I once watched a skidder shove the back end of a trailer around to keep it from getting hung up as it was backed in to the log pile.

(But up near Moosehead Lake, this is the preferred way!)View attachment 391210
snopes.com: Logging the Northern Way

 

[lockhaven]

I guess it depends on the part of the country you are in and the type of wood. Oaks store water in the trunk, lots of it. By cutting a tree in full foliage and just that laying it down nothing more. The leaves will continue to use the water stored in the trunk until it is all gone then the leaves wilt and dry up. Most all of the water is gone. This is evident while splitting, even trees dead for years with intact bark water will be seen being pressed out of the wood. Trees cut with full leaves do not show as much water if any. Like I said maybe different types of trees farther north drain all the water before the big freeze.

 

[MacLawn]

I cut and stacked some last week. Used my new Stihl MS251. Had new fireplace put in last year and it takes only up to 16" pieces, so I had to recut some! But, that thing puts out the heat using very little wood! Love it. I've got a heap of dead dogwood, that is the best firewood I've ever used! Of course, one doesn't usually say, hey, let's go cut some dogwood!

 

[RobertBrown]

5 loads like this made the Saturday of the labour day weekend live up to its name. It will take me a while to chunk it up, but this will last me a couple of years and I won't actually burn any of these until next winter. My furnace will burn round logs no problem, so the only splitting that I have to do is enough to make sure I always have a few of sticks to light the fire and make a few coals. Ones that first batch of split ones has burned halfway down, I cna just feed round ones in from that point. :thumbsup:

That trailer is dang spiffy......I've never seen one like it.....no suspension, but a steering link. Good on flat ground and holds a lot of weight.

 

[boltz]

Is trailer, hay wagon style running gear? Just bought a running gear from an old hay wagon and put new floor, beams and tires on it. Loaded 5 cords freshly cut and split maple on it and am going to pull it around to deck in front of house so that I don't have carry fire wood up stairs in winter. Still have room for a 2-2 1/2 more cord, but floor has quite a wow at outside edge, so may just lower piles and be sensible with weight. Used hemlock beams turned on their sides, but floor was what ever I could scrounge up from old barn boards. Zing's wagon looks pretty good though.

 

[CobyRupert]

5 loads like this made the Saturday of the labour day weekend live up to its name. It will take me a while to chunk it up, but this will last me a couple of years and I won't actually burn any of these until next winter. My furnace will burn round logs no problem, so the only splitting that I have to do is enough to make sure I always have a few of sticks to light the fire and make a few coals. Ones that first batch of split ones has burned halfway down, I cna just feed round ones in from that point. :thumbsup:

Have you put a log through the rear window yet?

 

[zing]

That trailer is dang spiffy......I've never seen one like it.....no suspension, but a steering link. Good on flat ground and holds a lot of weight.

Wow, lotsa questions all of a sudden.

It is just a hay wagon frame with the tube at the bottom shrunk in to about as small as it will go. Then a plywood deck and some 4x4 uprights. It isn't even mine, to be honest. My neighbour owns it but doesn't have room to store it indoors so he asked me if it could go into my equipment shed, then said "use it all you want, if I need it I will come get it." He is a pretty great neighbor, even before the wagon arrived.

 

[zing]

Is trailer, hay wagon style running gear? Just bought a running gear from an old hay wagon and put new floor, beams and tires on it. Loaded 5 cords freshly cut and split maple on it and am going to pull it around to deck in front of house so that I don't have carry fire wood up stairs in winter. Still have room for a 2-2 1/2 more cord, but floor has quite a wow at outside edge, so may just lower piles and be sensible with weight. Used hemlock beams turned on their sides, but floor was what ever I could scrounge up from old barn boards. Zing's wagon looks pretty good though.

Yep, exactly. A hay wagon. 5 cords is a lot of space and a lot of weight, must be some wagon!

 

[zing]

Have you put a log through the rear window yet?

Bounced a couple off of it but nothing that became a passenger yet.

This is a couple years supply, so I don't have to do it very often. I have been thinking about a headache rack for the truck for a while, mostly as a tie down point for hay and lumber, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet because I normally have a tonneau cover on.

 

[SPIKER]

I helped drag out 2 pickup loads of wood today with a local guy who worked as same place I DID. He just bought the place down from me and I have the woods with plenty of downed usable wood. let him have it for 60 bucks and was well over a cord along with my tractor and labor for 3 hours so was a bargain...


Mark

 

[RedNeckGeek]

I'm about a half day short of finishing my bucking and splitting for this year. This'll be my first year using a wood stove, so I hope with our relatively mild winters, ten cords will be enough. Once it starts raining the little road back to the wood piles gets too slick for the tractor, and I need it to pull the logs out before I can limb them and buck them to length. But it's a good feeling to see all that wood stacked up neatly on the pallets and all ready to go, and know I won't be out suffering in the summer heat swinging the chain saw around. At least until next Spring...