Official 2011 Firewood Countdown Thread

[C.Wilcox]

I thought it might be entertaining to track people's firewood progress over the spring, summer, fall to see who's on top of it and who's going to wait until the short days of December to get started. What are you cutting, how are you cutting it, and how are you splitting? Are you a one tree at a time with a chainsaw and 6 pound maul person, a pulp truck delivered to your driveway person, or maybe you own your own woodlot, firewood processor, and dump truck. I'd like to hear how everyone else does it. You oil burning guys can just sit back and laugh at us as we scramble around like ants.

I typically fall into the "wait until the last minute group", but not this year. I finished a major (major for me at least) tree clearing project for a friend this past weekend. 7 big oaks (reds and whites) and 3 really nice, tall spruce. I'm guessing it's about 5-6 cords and when added to the leftover supply from this past season I should have all my firewood for the house and the evaporator for the next 2 years. Splitting for me involves a lot of quality time with the maul over the summer, but I'm seriously thinking of upgrading to some hydraulic help this year.

[tuckermtn]

with the additon of an RO and a low season for sap production, I have 90% of my wood already bagged and undercover...never been in this situation before...

[red maples]

I have about a cord left from last year. I am the tree at a time guy with the maul. but last year I got the grapple load of pulp wood for a great deal so I have been working on that right now and have another cord done. when I am all said and done with stuff I should be at 4-5 cords..I think.. I have some more in the woods. last year I used a wheel barrow but I am done with that thing have a cart for the tractor I just have to finish the bridge over the stream and grade in a road to get the wood out I have about 1 full cord split and stacked in the woods and a few more trees down to cut up I haven't had to take down any live trees yet still clearing dead standing but I on'y have 2 smaller hickorys an ash, and 2 maples that broke off in the wind storm, for the house.

my goal is 1 hour a day splitting wood!!! that goes by pretty quick. I am going to try to get the bridge done over the next 2 weeks.

[ennismaple]

I've got more than 1/3 of next year's wood left over from this year thanks to the Force 5. All I have to do is cut and split 2 logs trucks of white pine and we're good to go for next season. Not having to split anything smaller than 8" will be nice and will speed up the process a lot! The homemade hydraulic splitter on the back of the old yellow Massey won't get as much of a workout this year.

[sugarmaker43]

I burned just about everything last season, good thing the season ended when it did or I would have gone after the house wood. I have two years of wood logged out and ready to cut and split mostly from thinning out a new area to tap last fall and winter probably 20 plus cords. I like cutting wood and my two boys are a great help but I have started the RO search. Probably won't happen this year but certainly soon. Keep your saws sharp.

[steve J]

I had about half my wood left but as luck will have it a gentlemen is building a post and beam house just up the road from me and milling all the beams off his property I am going to have access to all the slab created by this should be a couple years worth of wood. Otherwise I am a couple trees at a time and I split with a 12 ton log splitter that I bought for 500 last year great investment.

[Lyle]

Next years supply of wood is split and stacked under cover (thats a first for me). I burn pine and hemlock for the evap.. I have about half of next years hardwood done for the gasifier to heat the house. Hope to have that done in a month or so. I cut a tree at a time, draw the log lengths out w/ a JD 3000 and split w/ a hyd. splitter.

[driske]

We burned roughly 25 cord making this years syrup, and 7 cord more for the house. There's enough left in the shed for next season's house wood, and maybe 25 cord or more of 3' split chunks for the evaporator.
That leaves us free to start assembling inventory for 2011-2012. With 140 acres to keep tended of it seems an insurmountable job just thinning defective wood, and keeping ahead of the dying ash.
Jonsered 2171, Oliver 1850, home made splitter, and several stout 2 wheel trailers. Strong back and weak mind to keep it all humming.:emb:

[red maples]

delete this one it went twice for some reason???!!!

[red maples]

I think splitting wood by hand is kinda meditational once you get into a kind of rythem I think about all sorts of stuff. I first split the whole rounds into around 3 inch wide pieces then take a hatchet and start hacking off nice small chunks.

it all goes good until you hit that piece of spruce with 30 darn knots in it or that chunk of white pine that has large 4-5 inch knots in it and you beat the hell out of it and finally take out the chainsaw and rip it down!!!:evil: thats just destroy and conquer!!!!:evil:HA HA HA take that PINE!!!:lol:

[Ausable]

I thought it might be entertaining to track people's firewood progress over the spring, summer, fall to see who's on top of it and who's going to wait until the short days of December to get started. What are you cutting, how are you cutting it, and how are you splitting? Are you a one tree at a time with a chainsaw and 6 pound maul person, a pulp truck delivered to your driveway person, or maybe you own your own woodlot, firewood processor, and dump truck. I'd like to hear how everyone else does it. You oil burning guys can just sit back and laugh at us as we scramble around like ants.

I typically fall into the "wait until the last minute group", but not this year. I finished a major (major for me at least) tree clearing project for a friend this past weekend. 7 big oaks (reds and whites) and 3 really nice, tall spruce. I'm guessing it's about 5-6 cords and when added to the leftover supply from this past season I should have all my firewood for the house and the evaporator for the next 2 years. Splitting for me involves a lot of quality time with the maul over the summer, but I'm seriously thinking of upgrading to some hydraulic help this year.

Well - about 22 years ago - The wife and I moved from the city up to our cabin on a job transfer in the middle of December and then the education began. No problem - we have lots of firewood and I have a chain saw. Yep - lots of firewood was about two face cords of mixed stuff and the chain saw was a 12" Poulan to feed a wood eating Ben Franklin - We had lots of snow our first winter here and quite cold - thought we would freeze to death - till we had a propane furnace installed to save us when we ran out of firewood. Well won't bore you with the rest of it - cause I'm sure most of you have been there and done that - but - We upgraded in a hurry and never ran out of firewood again. Oh - the Ben Franklin was the first thing to go - Replaced with an Earth Stove that we still have. Now that I'm in the Old Geezer status - we buy most of our oak house wood which we stack and cover. We usually cut another five face cords of dead ash to supplement the oak. For the Sugar Shack we have lots of Hemlock, Popple, Balsam Fir etc - we still cut and split for that. Our Kids are great - Our oldest Son (The Organizer) Has been bringing a small army of our children and their spouses and our adult grandkids and their spouses and we have a tree thinning party in late Winter - Drop, cut, split and stack a lot of mixed wood on that day and we clear the snow away and cook and eat outside - The Sugar Shack is a handy thing to have. Well -- gotta get busy - have a ten face-cord pile of oak I gotta stack and some big rounds of ash thats gotta be split (hydralic splitter) these days ---- Mike

[farmall h]

Well, looks like the first tree to cut is a large Beech that blew down on the main line during the sap run. Didn't hurt the line..just stretched it to the ground. I despise cutting Beech..snappy curly branches. Will do tomorrow. I have a Central OutDoor Boiler which will take about ten cord from Nov-May. Only burn hard woods in that. Been thinkng about burning strictly hard wood in the arch for next year...wood seems to take forever since I got out of logging 8 years ago. Now that I look back on it I wish I had kept my skidder. It was pretty easy to drag down 6 cord in a couple hitches! See my profile picture (farmall h)..that is the skidder!! I have been trying to convince the wifey that a dozer w/winch is a necessity to keep the house warm..not to mention the sugarhouse..oh, and honey look at all the landscaping around the yard I could do for you......ah, yah, riigghht. We'll see.;)

[3rdgen.maple]

Half the wood was done last year for the sugarhouse that was suppose to be burned up already. This year the really bored neighbor is cutting wood for the sugarhouse in trade for some syrup but we will see how that one goes. What I do is drop the trees and skid them out to a landing. Then block and split. Now the clear stuff I split by hand as it just seems alot faster than using the splitter. When I get lazy or knotty crap it goes on the 3pt splitter. Already started on wood for the house and man there is alot of pine that got infested or blown down in the woods. There is enough pine alone for a couple seasons. All of the 100 acres I own. Cutting wood for me is like anything its fun till you do it too much.

[maple flats]

My wood is all ready for the next year and a half. I process by droping several at a time to thin a section. Then sometimes I drag them out either with the tractor with a log arch on the hitch arms or the excavator depending on how firm the ground in that section is. The tractor (firm ground) is faster but can only pull one big or 2-3 smaller full length trees limbed, The excavator can go thru wet ground and pull about double or even triple if there are not too many turns to navigate, but is far slower (only 1.1mph= real slow walk). Then I stock pile logs (full length, piles maybe 10' wide and up to 5' high in middle, for a good day to process. I use a chainsaw and splitter. When younger I used a mall for easier stuff but can do all day with splitter but tire in about 2-3 maul. I also run a sawmill and all year I cut slab just to get rid of it. I burn a mix, mostly hard but at times up to about 25% soft. My first storage place is under the 3' overhangs on each side of the sugarhouse, then everything else is stacked on a couple of poles to keep it off the ground, and I use 2 trees to stack between. I have these in several more open sections along my woods roads.

[Rhino]

We have lots of wood/pallets left over from last year also due to the lack of sap this season. All the pallets that we had cut in half close to the sugar shack door are gone so I will bring a few loads this summer instead of transporting what is stock piled away from the sugar shack. Thats one thing about pallets, they last a long time without rotting due to the air that can flow through them. As far as small round wood, We have permission to clean up a logging job where all the tails are in big piles where the processor sat. Will use the prentice log loader/trailer i bought last year to fish them out. They are not piled neatly so that will take a while longer to load. Last weekend we mounted a pintle hitch on the back of our Farmi winch, so now i can hitch the log loader trailer to the back of that and winch wood right to the loader. One good thing about all the left over wood is if we keep up with cutting new stuff, it will be tinder dry by the time we burn it. would of rather had more sap and less wood though.

[wally]

pretty much have all the sugar-wood ready for 2011, other than putting it in the sugar house (need to re-roof it first). but, it's all split and stacked.

getting close to having 2012s cordwood for my house all set. 2011 is all split/stacked, awaiting movement to the woodshed. hope to have most of 2012s by the end of may.

[Dennis H.]

I now think I got all the wood cut just need it split for the next 2 seasons!!

I have been wanting to get rid of a few oaks that have been competeing with the maples and I got them down before the leaves got on the trees.

I took down a huge poplar that will make a ton of firewood once split. It should be easy splitting even by hand.

[maple flats]

with the additon of an RO and a low season for sap production, I have 90% of my wood already bagged and undercover...never been in this situation before...

tuckermtn, you say "bagged" please explain.

[red maples]

I would assume he means bagged as in I bagged a Deer last hunting season.

I am up to about 2 cords pine and fir split and about 2 hardwood for the house so far and more trees down in the woods just have to cut them down and ge them out.

I am just about out of split poplar,I like it for the fall and spring when you just need to take the chill out of the house, it then goes out with no residual heat. but I have another 1/2 cord for next fall chunked up just need to split but that goes pretty quick.

the house wood goes way quicker because I don't have to cut it so small!!!!
I can cut and split a 1/2 a cord a day easy by hand. sugarin' wood is about 1/4 cord or less a day.

the first year I was in this house it needed a little work. the wood stove was missing a glass front(30 Year old russo glass front high heat) dorrs handle blower and a few other little things $450 dollars later all set ready to go. so the first year went through 5-6 tanks of oil. the second year got 2 cords of woods plenty right ...wrong...cut it down to 3-4 tanks oil...3rd year new siding , all new anderson windows, and 3.5 cords of wood...2-3 tanks oil. 4th year 4.5 cords 2 tanks oil...this year 5th one, 5 cords wood on track for 1.5 tanks oil(we only use it for hot water now)

and I haven't paid for split cord wood for 2 years and I don't plan on it ever again!!!!!

oh yeah ...really hate splitting spruce!!!!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Mine is all cut and split for next year. About 3/4 of it is already stacked in the building and letting the remainder lay out in the sun for a couple of months before hauling it in and stacking it.

The new 30 ton Northstar splitter sure speeds up the splitting tremendously with the 4 way wedge.

[220 maple]

I finished the season with three sticks of firewood under roof, and not much more outside. After I took my wife with me to the Pa. Maple Festival and we stopped at a Camp in Maryland before we got to Pa.. She asked them how much wood that they had stacked outside of their camp and they said they like to have a three year supply. That when my wife said that I was three years behind. Needless to say If I don't get some wood cut this summer she may have grounds for divorce.

Mark 220 Maple

[Hal]

I've got about half my wood left from this year, one cord cut, split and piled from my thrashing around on fence lines this winter, another two cords of that stuff cut up but not split, and maybe ten cords of tree length piled up and waiting. On my other yard is most of a truckload of tree length that was delivered last fall, and I will be getting a load of softwood slabs sometime next week. Besides that I have maybe three thousand board feet of logs that will get sawed sometime (soon I hope), which will be good for another cord or so of slabs. Then another ten rods or so of fence line to finish clearing. If I get it all done there should be enough for my house, sugaring for a year and a half, and some to sell. If I only get the slabs sawed up and the rest of the cut wood split there will be more than enough for sugaring next year.

[adk1]

what does everyone like to burn..once I get up and running Iwill be burning white pine and hemlock

[Ausable]

what does everyone like to burn..once I get up and running Iwill be burning white pine and hemlock

We heat with wood - So the Oak, Ash and Maple are for the house - White Birch too if the bark is off. For Boiling Sap - have lots of Hemlock and Popple also burn Basswood, White Birch with bark, Balsam Fir and all the junk wood laying about.

[adk1]

We heat with wood - So the Oak, Ash and Maple are for the house - White Birch too if the bark is off. For Boiling Sap - have lots of Hemlock and Popple also burn Basswood, White Birch with bark, Balsam Fir and all the junk wood laying about.

exactly that is what we will do. We heat with wood as well. I ahve alot of pine/hemlock for an evap once I get one!

[red maples]

I do the same hard woods for the house and pulp woods for syrup. If the creasote builds up it just burns out no poroblem in the evap stack but bad for the house.

and Poplar for early fall and late spring in the house.

Put up another 1/2 cord sugarin' wood today. gettn there. close to 6 cords everyday if I get more then good for me!!!:)

Gotta get a few more hardwood trees on the ground. I have a bunch of wood to gather from this past winter. but I am trying to get everything split and stacked at the house before I bring in any more...and with all the spring stuff going on now trying to get some fishing in tomorrow and gotta start on the garden soon. still doing spring clean up of branches etc around too....oh so much to do !!!!!!:rolleyes:

[red maples]

Ah officially reached 4 cords sugarin' wood today!!! :) yee ha!!! 2 more to go.
then on to house wood.

[maple flats]

red maples, at least I see you have your priorities right, sugar wood first, then house wood!

[heus]

I am going to burn split slab wood in the evaporator this year. I have cut several dead green and white ash trees the last couple of months for the house. One of them was a 137 year old white ash, no branches until about 50 feet up. We heat with 80% wood. This year we went through about 7 cords of hardwood heating the house. I made the mistake of burning mostly small rounds in the evaporator. Even after a year of seasoning they still sizzled. This year my sugar wood will hopefully be nice and dry. I have had 5-6 bundles of slab wood sitting for 5-6 months waiting to be cut. I am way behind on the house wood this year due to getting into sugaring. Since I am cutting so late I will pretty much only burn ash in the house, since it doesn't need as much seasoning time.
Actually, I found the mapletrader when I was on hearth.com and arboristsite.com
Do you think a Ford 641 Workmaster could pull a decent size log? I kind of doubt it.

[THCPrecision]

The way that I look at it with tractors is that you can pull what you weigh For the most part A 641 is about 30hp depends who you ask and weighs between 3500 and 5000 lbs depending on options and weighting ( tire balast and wheel weights. Biggest factor is even a homade logging arch to get the but of the log off the ground. Winch is nice but expensive. Also terrain plays a big factor is it wet hilly or rockey. with my old ford 1900 and a fransguard winch I could pull a pretty big oak log 20-28 inch on the but about 28-20 ft on the flat and bigger in the snow . The winch enabled me to get the but off the ground reducing friction and adding traction to the tractor. But I had 4wd and a loader to counter balance the pull so the tractor didn't carry the front too much and if it did get hung up the log or the winch would act as a wheelie bar and keep me from going over. The older fords could pull quite a bit with good tires and properly counterbalanced especaly with a dif lock and good tires. the low range is nice to have though not all had the low range I think that they might have been referd to as Sherman transmisions . Maybe not fast but it will move a good log if you are carful about how much you let the front end come up off the ground.

[heus]

Thanks for the info THC. I suspect that my problem will be traction. The tractor has plenty of power but the tires are not loaded. This is my first Ford. I had two old Allis Chalmers WCs, and a WD45. The Ford, with the three point, makes those tractors seem ancient (even though the 45 and the 641 are the same year).

[jmayerl]

Wow guess I'm way behind. Seeing that this was my first year and I made a homemade arch the day after I tapped my first 25 trees ever. I cut and gathered wood each day as I needed it from the back yard. good thing it was a short year because I couldn't believe how much wood I went though. My wife already says I talk about maple syrup too much. I am in negotiations for a used 2x6 arch from a friend, and already have permision from a family member to tap there 300 trees. a coworker told me the other day I could come clean up all the wood I wanted from there 40 acres. I told the wife that I'm just getting my ducks in a row. Wait till we are out spliting wood and moving a arch in the middle of the summer! hippy:)

[C.Wilcox]

Got about half of my lumber logs sawed into planks this past weekend so now I'm drowning in spruce and oak slabs. Between those, the slabs I'll get off the logs I haven't cut yet, and the leftover cord of spruce from last year I have way more firewood than I need for the 2011 season. Also cut and split enough oak for the house for this coming winter and beyond. I wish that meant I was completely done with the firewood, but I have quite a pile of logs lying there yet to cut up and split. I don't mind the cutting, but the splitting by hand is pretty slow in the summer heat.

[adk1]

Done, been done since begining of April