Reaping the benifits of hard work
 

so most of you knew I didn't fish that much this year. 6 times to be exact. New job, coaching little league and coaching hockey took a lot of time
any free time i had, there was one thing i did which while I was doing it i wish i was fishing

cut/split and stack wood for the wood stove


bull work to say the least

hand split

16 chord / 2 triaxes of log lengths

now its middle/late november...41 outside right now.......74 in the house

kids getting a kick out of running around in shorts and t shirts, no socks

dog is loving it as well

bone warming heat...love it!!!

Got my wood pile, too. I gave up hand splitting 5+ years back and went with a hydraulic splitter mostly since I didn't have time to hand split.

Splitter doesn't get a whole lot of use (sits idle much of the time), so I do lend out....

wood stoves
 

Thats what I am doing yesterday and today. Throwing wood into the back of my truck, taking it across the yard and stacking it much closer to the the house. Just five cords though. Have another five cords to cut and split this winter. Nothing like the heat. Nothing like the smell outside. I especially like the smell when I toss in some apple tree into the fire. I do that early and purposely, so I can take the dog for a walk and smell it all the way down the street and back.

I did 8 cords. Cut down during last winter. Hauled out in the Spring and split all summer. I have a Quadra-Fire and a Vermont casting. last winter I burned 200 gallons of oil and that was for hot water. I burned all 8 cords but the house was never cold. Oh yeah, I split using a 208 splitter.

For those who don't know a 208 is 2 arms and an 8 pound splitting maul.:)

I have the same splitter as you, but mine is probably in worse shape than yours.:uhuh:

Funny how much you can do if you put your mind to it. I'm 64 had a quad bypass in 03 and am currently battling bladder cancer. Yet, I split the 8 cords all summer in 80 and 90 degree heat and it gave me an emmense sense of satisfaction.

i hear ya paul
don't get me wrong..when i started.....couldn't wiped my own ass my arms hurt so much

plus...the calus build up on your hands..shaking peoples hands after splitting all summer...they look at you kind of funny

i agree with the satisfaction..many times I catch myself at 9:00 at night as i am splitting saying to myself.....you have time to split a couple more rounds...then you look at the pile that you split and just smile

208 if funny stuff
I use the maul for the bigs.....but picked up the fiskar pro axe (2 lbs) for the 16" stuff...it helps a lot

Ive been burning wood since 78 built a woodsplitter in 92 because i have arthritis big time. the best part about the woodstove is no heating bill.

just my opinion...because i have cut & split allot of wood
(not lately because i'm in an oil heating only situation
for a short time period...)

but you save some to split via 208 when the temperature dips
to ZERO so that there's some ice inside the log.... it's 20% moisture
having frozen....

that's the easiest time to split wood
(not necessarilly for this season)
if your NOT using a wood splitter...that is...

that's when it JUMPS apart :bounce: with EASE

I've got five cut and split,another 4 or so cut but not split saving that for spring.
I use a sledge and wedge,I love the workout.
79 in my house :uhuh:

I burnt wood till 14 years ago, nothing is close to the speed of a splitting hammer. Save the splitter for the hard pieces. I think if oil keeps going up I might have to start burning wood again. Maybe I can get my kids to cut it, ya right.

Bought my house in Oct of 06, since then I have only put two oil deliveries in the tank (100 gal ea.) We heat with wood as well. The hardest part was getting my wife to take it seriously. She was not so disiplined about loading the stove when I wasn't home. Now she loves it. I usually burn around 5 chords a year. I am currently cutting a three acre lot for next year. I always split by hand til I used a friend splitter, now I have a Cub Cadet 27 ton.....and haven't looked back.

Bought a wood stove last year... love it

You could get enough free wood this year to last you 5 years. We probably have 10 cords just sitting on the side if the road.

Always had one growing up and they were great.
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i also heat my house with wood,but luckly i only use a cord a season maybe a little more if it gets below 0 a lot.i do like my house on the cool side right aroud 62 degrees.

grew up on wood an coal...never again...gas hot air..coldest months only run about a 150.00...turn the dial....wood in these parts run upwards to 350-400 dollars a cord....no trees here on the elbow of the cape so theres no free wood to be had.

I cringe at the thought of cutting and splitting having done it in the past to feed five little birds.
Many a January and February splitting in just a cotton t shirt.
28 to 32 trees to a cord on the lower cape. That's a lot of moving around for one cord. Hand spliting with an Oregon mall,haul out two Studerbaker pickup truck loads per cord(2'x4'x16') and dump in a dealers yard for the big price of sixteen dollars per cord.wow,talk about geting rich.
Today I like the smell of gas heat.
.

grapenuts ... ya just lost your title as the King of Scrounge... no free wood??

sweat equity and gasoline aside, the cost of wood has been zippo... scrounged a full pickup of oak for next winter not too long ago, and this years heat was cut split and stacked last March....as easy as it is to get my house to 80 degrees, I am like lifishvt, don't like it that hot...don't think that it must very good for ya either!

old goat..Studebaker huh?.. early style, or the later ones.. either way, they were workers.

9 tons of pellets in the basement

It's 71 upstairs

LOVE the heat. Mix top end softwood with cheap hardwood. Nice burn.

I have this knob on the wall that just by turning it my house warms right up without the need for dragging in tons of wood. Thanks to this knob and other modern things I got to fish 118 nights this season.

The last one to use my wood stove was my son 14 years ago when he was 16 years old. He hid his beer in the wood stove so I wouldn't find it and take it away. He knew it was a place I would never look.

No splitting wood here,or stories of free wood to load & haul.but I'll admit it dose get tough when you have 4 T-Stats to turn up:jump1:
Nuttin beats forced hot watah:devil2:

glad to pass along the title...only wood I pocket now is plug wood...bouy it feels some good.....ya gots to remember I work most of my time outside..last thing I need to do when I get home is to f... with more wood at the end of a work day..bark/bugs/ashes/luggin wood.....got gas?

8 cords a year for me too.

Had to get a splitter though....wifes not getting any younger....:)

Reaping the benifits of hard work


Jim , I thought you were talking about your SONS :)

Have a great Holiday


VB

I drove down the Cape to pick up my dads electric splitter yesterday. Supposed to be pretty good for smaller diameter logs. I'll put it to good use this coming weekend.

BTW, there are still fish on the Cape.

"Wood heats twice", as they say.

Or at least my father used to say.

Once when you split it, and then again when you burn it.

**Not applicable if you're using a hydraulic splitter.

Every year in the late winter before the sap started to move we'd fell a bunch of trees on our property that took damage over the year or were too crowded among other trees. By the late summer they're ready to cut into rounds and haul out of the forest. And then split as fall moved in.

In his 60's now he finally broke down and bought a hydraulic splitter. Bet he still swings the maul on occasion though for a little exercise.

In his 60's now he finally broke down and bought a hydraulic splitter. Bet he still swings the maul on occasion though for a little exercise.[/QUOTE]

Kinda like me Pete. I had the hydraulic splitter but went back to just the maul this year

Funny thing - we had the scouts camping up Piemma's way Saturday and the only wood on the ground in the camp was too big, too green, or too rotted. Drove around for an hour looking for all the Firewood signs that mysteriously disappeared since August and did not see one when they used to be more frequent than road signs.

Finally found a guy working over the remnants of several trees and he directed us to another fellow (Scout father too BTW) to pick up some wood for the campfire.

Wood burned good and was also used in retiring several flags.

Why the hell didn't you call me? I was home all weekend and with 8 cords all split and covered you could have had all the dry oak you wanted for the kids.