I know it's summer but. Hows the wood shed?

DH and sons cut all the wood for this year in March from leftover falls from logging in FIL's woods. I keep warning him about leaving the piles back in the woods, as I am afraid of theft. We burn wood and coal, so he's going for coal next week.

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Cindy in PA

The rule on fire wood should be to cut in the winter when it is cool and use that wood the next winter.
DH has always done that until this year. Even though we use dead fall or storm downed trees, they still need to season more after they are cut.

We have a small stack left over from last winter and we just cut up a large dead fall tree a few days ago, and that is all we have so far.

I could just skin him!
We don't live in the north but I am always amazed about how much wood we do use here in SW Mo.

DO NOT burn green wood! Flue fires can burn down your house fast!

Be sure your flue is good and clean before you build that first fire and if you have stove pipe clean it out every month in the winter.
Burn your fires hot! People think a hot fire causes flue fires but that only happens if you have been building low fires first. That happens because in the Fall it is not that cold so you don't need a very big fire and then you get a cold snap and crank the thing up after it has had plenty of creosote build up.
Then, yes, you will get a flue fire.
Have a safe, warm , snug Winter.

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Corky

LEAD ME NOT INTO TEMPTATION. I CAN FIND IT BY MYSELF.

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...Anch=imgAnch29

A few years ago but we are 2/3 full right now....we have enough wood cut and split for 3-4 years.....building a second woodshed this Fall.

I still have my meat chickens in one bay of the woodshed pictured this year.

We have 2 good-sized Elms that are standing dead to cut as well...

For anyone considering building a woodshed I highly recommend like the one pictured as come Spring I have 2 empty bays for either kidding goats or later for meat bird raising....Loads of flexibility....bays are about pallet wide so we use free pallets as doors (attach as needed)....the big bay is tool shed.

Hopefully by next week we will have all our wood in. We burn about 2 cord a season so its not too much work for us to call the wood guy to deliver it to us.

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You Know You Need More!!!
Crashy

I’ve collected over a cord lately; but of course, most of it’s not split yet.

Do you folks actually get to burn all of that firewood? Must be nice. Last year I might, have had the opportunity to burn some sticks of firewood a dozen times or so. After having several cords stacked up here and there get consumed by mushrooms, I stopped cutting it... with global warming and the tropical nature of this part of Texas, figure I can just get the chainsaw and cut some wood off of a dead tree down below the house when I need it...

I am indeed jealous if you can really burn firewood on a regular basis...

and Alex, it looks like you've got a nice lil reclamation project going on there...


24 days

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

No shed here either. We burn 7-8 cords a year, I'd say 6 of that is split with just as much on the other side of the splitter in rounds and we are still hauling more in here. We don't buy wood because everyone calls us when a tree goes down; well, it feels like that.

LOL I thought my family was the only ones out there cutting and stacking wood. I guess great minds think alike Anyway, I know we have several cords already stacked and a couple more that needs to be split and then those will be stacked. We already have wayyyyyyy more than what we started last winter out with. Our goal this year is not to use the propane at all and just use wood for heat. We'll see how that goes

Kelli

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Just finished up splitting 4 1/2 cords from an ice storm 18 months ago. Lotsa trees came down in that one. I chopped and split what I needed at the time and let the rest lie where they fell. Those things have been lying around the yard waiting for me to get off my lazy butt. Another 2 cords to go for me. Took me several weekends as (a) I only get a couple of hours at a shot and (b) I don't have a splitter. It takes quite a while to split all that by swinging the maul.

==>Our goal this year is not to use the propane at all and just use wood for heat.

We set the propane's thermostat on 45. If we're not there and no one's stoking the fire, we want the (propane) heat to kick in to keep the pipes from freezing. Since we both work, and are out running about trying to GetThingsDone all the time, the propane still kicks in several times a week.

On a related note: One of the things I'm trying to do around my personal homestead is to stay away from electrons and petroleum powered stuff. Anyone use one of those manual splitters -- something like this: http://www.bizrate.com/oid293093097.html

Looks like it's powered by a car jack. Do these things actually work?

We don't have a manual splitter...mostly we use gas powered one...BUT...

I do have my kids split firewood and kindling for my baby cookstove and they are just 10 and 11 yo...one weighs 62 one is 86 pounds and they can chop ash and beech birch quite easily....when its about 0 degrees out hand splitting is easy....frozen rounds "pop" when hit....we have lots of chopping days here in Maine and its good exercise in mid-winter Better to chop wood than the husbands neck after a spell of Cabin Fever

not to drift, but about the farmall...it needs a ring job. who knows what else once you get it tore down. probably (well a part of the job i guess) the cylinders will need honed. it is a smoker and has lost power. i have not seen it run for a few years. my legally blind uncle who was in charge of it has passed on. he probably last fiddled with it three years ago.

having the sight problem as he did and no real income, he had no money to put in it. the magneto has long been forgotten about. he used a marine battery and a charger. he rebuilt the foot accuated starter switch using rubber from an inner tube. he was legally blind mind you, lol, the dear ole' soul.

i seem to remember some shifting issues in one of the gears. probably a syncronizer or such. if i am not mistaken one of the gears may be missing a tooth.

so, a cylinder/ring job
a charging system
and probably some tranny work although i think it shifts ok generally, it just is not perfect.

this unit rolled off of the truck in this neighborhood brand new in 1946. he remembered when it was delivered.

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this message has probably been edited to correct typos, spelling errors and to improve grammar...

"All that is gold does not glitter..."

I finished splitting and stacking this Winter's wood Saturday. Since I only burn it on the weekends now, it just takes 2 cords. Next year, God willing, I'll be retired and it will take about 5-6 cords to get through the cold season here.