Wood Heat Thread ~ post pics

"Fun" is in the eye of the beholder...

 

I corrected that post for you

 

That would be right if I wasn't totally allergic to beer...seriously.

 

Hard rootbeer, hard ciders, hard ginger beer, hard orange beer...

 

First fire of the season. Time for all jackets and hats to smell of wood smoke.

 

You say that like it's a bad thing

 

Had my wood stove lit off three times so far...

 

For years I have harvested lodge pole pine. I burn maybe 1-2 cords a year to supplement my furnace and just enjoy a fire. I have a small electric 5 ton splitter that will go through pine all day long. 3 years ago I cut down my brother's house huge apple tree and most rounds are 10-12". The splitter backs off without penetrating 1/4 inch. The wood is as dry as burnt toast. Hand splitting the 18" long rounds is very hard for me. I also have 1 cord of cherry that I got hold of this year. It's still green. I would like to rent a splitter once and do it all. What ton splitter should I rent? They have a 20 ton and up. Cost goes up with size. Will 20 ton split 10" diameter 18" long dry apple and green cherry?

 

20 ton should take care of the little bit you have.
I understand the wood being a mother f*cker to split. I got some maple, about 20" across. Most of the wood I get is pine, so I split primarily with an axe instead of maul until I am dealing with bigger pieces, then wedge & sledge. I was literally bouncing my axe off the maple trying to get it started. I eventually worked it to using 2 wedges, a 10# sledge, and 8# maul.

 

Ask the rental shop if the pump is a two stage pump, if yes then you should have no problem with the splitting.

I have a 22T North Star powered with a 5.5 hp Honda engine and a two stage pump. No problem with 22 inch knotty ponderosa (slices through the knots, crossway too, instead of splitting them) nor the occasional cottonwood I get.

I liked splitting with a maul until my neck told me to find a different way. I burn from 6-8 cords per year as the season runs from Sept through May (sometimes into June too.

 

Got the last of mine split and stacked today. With luck and a couple of mild winters this is 2 years worth. I keep it covered and try to stay a year head. The longer stack is the oldest and will be burned 1st.

 

Have yet to light mine. It's been in the 30's and blustery the last couple of days, and it's supposed to be in the 30's and windy/rainy for the next few days, though. So we might touch it off just to get the core of the house warmed up. At the very least I'm sure we'll be cooking our first Sunday Breakfast on the wood coookstove this Sunday.

 

On the contrary, it acts like a pheromone to my wife haha

 

Smoke cologne you say? How you doin?

 

First fire of the season.

 

We had our first last night

 

I went home sick on Tuesday last week, and kept a fire going almost constantly until I left about 5 hours ago. Kept thermostat saying 64-68 the whole time for 3000 sq ft house, although we don't use the bottom level. Oz, to you that is 18-20 and 284 sq meters. I need to replace the windows with something about 40 years newer and a whole lot more energy efficient but I don't have the funding for it currently. That will probably be about a $25000 job.

 

This is the most I dared to put in my truck, all Live Oak, seasoned and ready to burn. There was another thread where someone claimed a full cord on their Tacoma: bullshit. I wouldn't buy Wood from that guy. This is three rows of cab high and one row of bed high and I am in the neighborhood of 1/2 cord.

 

That beer is taking up room. I'll move it for you.

We hauled 4 split cords in our long bed Taco this past summer. Got really good at packing it in. No sides on the bed; took us 4 trips per cord.

 

Those are the empties.