What is your schedule for harvesting firewood for next season?
I've got my eye on a few trees that I want to come down. I'm hoping to get around to it in January sometime (especially if Santa brings me the new Husky). Do you let the logs sit a while before splitting & stacking? If we have a tough winter, the logs will be lost under the snow untill spring.
I realize I'm probably a little behind, (should have taken care of it in the fall before the snow) but as many of you know, I've been busy painting etc.
A lot of people won't split in the winter because the blocks are froze. Frankly, my Dad taught me its actually easier in the winter to split, if you do it right, and I've preferred to ever since.
Unless the trees have been standing dead for a good long time, I'd split 'em, stack 'em and let 'em sit till next season.
If you want my schedule for *next* season, then you are already 1 year behind...so better hurry up [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img].
Usually I cut them down and into 6-8 ft sections that I can carry out of the woods to my woodpile area (w/tractor) in the late summer or early fall (usually after grass mowing season is done and I have more free time).
After that is done, I start cutting up and splitting and stacking the load of logs that I dragged out the year before thru the winter.
Not sure that two full years is really necessary, but it works out well for my schedule. They dry as logs for one year and cut/split/stacked for another.
I am with you and usually add one more year to the drying time. I find out that the woodstove will let me know if I am burning one year old wood, two year old wood or three year old wood. Taking that moisture out by boiling it out in the stove does not allow all the energy to get out of the stove and into the room. Not to say that wood won't burn before that time, but it will not produce the heat. It can, however, produce a lot of creosote when not completely dry.
If dead wood can be found and cut up, then burning it next year has some possibilities, without the lack of heat or excess creosote.
"He who cuts his own wood is twice warmed". For me, that means doing all wood cutting, splitting, stacking etc. in the fall/winter when I need to warm myself up. I've never enjoyed doing it in the summer, just doesn't feel right.
Secondly, never burn what you cut in the same season. What I cut this winter will be used next.
Other than that, have fun and hope you get that Husky you're waiting for [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
<font color="blue">I've never enjoyed doing it in the summer, just doesn't feel right. </font color>
I'll second that! I think the noise + the physical exertion + the heat wears you out fast! After a couple tanks of gas, I've had enough (in the summer)
Sounds like I should down a few more trees & let them sit as logs untill next fall for the '04-'05 season. Might have to ask for some log tongs for my birthday (January).
We would always split ours in the dead of winter. Nothing like the noise of cracking into a log when it's minus 20 degrees F. The halves would fly about 20ft each way.
Now I buy it already split. I'm burning what I bought in Fall 2001.
I've always felt green wood was easier to split. Seems if you let it cure before cutting and splitting it "splinters" more and doesn't split clean. For those knotty chunks resisting my 8# maul, I sit down and take a break, pull out a black marker and draw a picture of my bosses howdy-doody face on the log while looking for stress cracks. Then its simply visualize and attack. One complete year in the dry is the absolute minimum cure time, I just finished burning about a rick of four year old wood that was way dry with interesting results. At first I thought I would burn it up in about 36 hours it was so dry. I quickly learned instead of loading 4 logs at a time as normal, I could load 2 at a time and let it burn way down farther in the coal stage without losing my fire and losing heat output. You see heat coming out the chimney but no smoke and the firebox is chalky white. I've got next year's in the dry already and am trying hard to get two full years ahead. Many more 70 degree days like lately and I'll soon be three years ahead.
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...instead of loading 4 logs at a time as normal, I could load 2 at a time and let it burn way down farther in the coal stage without losing my fire and losing heat output.
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Good point for very dry wood. As well, one can just lay another piece of dry wood on just a few coals and continue burning.
One thing I do with hard to split chunks of firewood (if I can't split it with two or three hits of the maul) is put it aside, and drop a cut into one end with the chainsaw about 6". Then hit in that chainsaw cut with the maul and it will usually pop open. If the piece looks too knarly, I completely cut through it with the saw. Much less work than physically trying to abuse it when it just isn't going to split.
If my firewood is blocked up, but waiting for splitting (when the urge comes), I turn the blocks on end. That way only one end dries out. Then when splitting time comes, I roll them onto the other end so the green(wet) end is up, and splitting with a maul is much, much easier.
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