Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

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I thought you guys might appreciate seeing why this Ash has been such a battle (its half or more split now, about 2m3 /little over half a cord so far). As you can see its lovely straight grained and clean stuff

34175519635_9dc635b155_c.jpg
33333070584_6a13e2b1f4_c.jpg


At least it does split now its a bit drier
 
I thought you guys might appreciate seeing why this Ash has been such a battle (its half or more split now, about 2m3 /little over half a cord so far). As you can see its lovely straight grained and clean stuff

34175519635_9dc635b155_c.jpg
33333070584_6a13e2b1f4_c.jpg


At least it does split now its a bit drier
I've frequently seen stump and crotch pieces like that. But if the whole tree is wavy you've definitely got your work cut out for you!
 
I'm guessing a tree exposed to a lot of wind?


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Not sure, but i suspect so. it came from a tree guy. the largest pieces are over 30 inch diameter, I've had a huge number of massive crotches, aloough I think the photo'd splits were a straighter round, and almost all of it has had either barbed wire, washing line, chickenwire, brick or concrete in it. I got stitched up on that tree!

It is splitting now, but I'm getting alot of splinterery shards, and a lot of ugly mis-shaped splits. at least the splinters make kindling, and my 19 month old has started helping daddy, she collects these and adds them to the stack as I collect the bigger splits :)
 
I thought you guys might appreciate seeing why this Ash has been such a battle (its half or more split now, about 2m3 /little over half a cord so far). As you can see its lovely straight grained and clean stuff

34175519635_9dc635b155_c.jpg
33333070584_6a13e2b1f4_c.jpg


At least it does split now its a bit drier

Is it softwood - it looks a bit like it from down here. I picked up a load of some variant of cedar and I thought I'd be able to smash it apart no worries. It just absorbed every hit and took ages to gradually convince it to give up. It had a grain that looked a bit similar to your pictures. I turned one into a chopping block, I reckon it should last a while!
 
With that figure, isn't there a higher purpose for the wood than firewood? I started cutting rings from a gum log a while ago but couldn't split the first few rings because of the grain. The rest of the log got the ends sealed and I'll be back to slab it sometime because the figure in it was intense.
 
Hey @KiwiBro , you've got some catching up to do.

I trooped out to the Lady Farm today. It was a rubbish day, rained most of the time but held off a bit in the afternoon. I went up and saw an old friend.

22nd Feb 2.jpg

But today I wasn't cutting firewood, I was scrounging bonfire wood. There were lots of branchy bits that didn't qualify for Mt Cowboy but will do for a bonfire. I also had some admirers today.

22nd Feb 1.jpg

I loaded up a trailer load of bluegum crapwood and headed home, or at least I tried. Getting up the muddy ramp proved a problem even in the Lady Farmer ute with 4WD, low range and diffs locked. Three goes later, I squeaked my way out. Didn't get a good picture of the load but you're not missing much.

22nd Feb 3.jpg

Here's one of the bonfire stockpiles after I unloaded, should be a good one come 20th May. There's more in other piles and a large amount of miscellaneous combustible stuff to go in there.

22nd Feb 4.jpg

:)
 
Hey @KiwiBro , you've got some catching up to do.

I trooped out to the Lady Farm today. It was a rubbish day, rained most of the time but held off a bit in the afternoon. I went up and saw an old friend.

View attachment 574517

But today I wasn't cutting firewood, I was scrounging bonfire wood. There were lots of branchy bits that didn't qualify for Mt Cowboy but will do for a bonfire. I also had some admirers today.

View attachment 574519

I loaded up a trailer load of bluegum crapwood and headed home, or at least I tried. Getting up the muddy ramp proved a problem even in the Lady Farmer ute with 4WD, low range and diffs locked. Three goes later, I squeaked my way out. Didn't get a good picture of the load but you're not missing much.

View attachment 574518

Here's one of the bonfire stockpiles after I unloaded, should be a good one come 20th May. There's more in other piles and a large amount of miscellaneous combustible stuff to go in there.

View attachment 574520

:)
Cowboy, is that your house in the background? It's a bit blurry, but it looks like a beautiful house, Joe.
 
Ash is very hard, used for baseball bats and shovel handles, etc.

Indeed. Over this side of the pond its used for axe and sledge handles a lot, american hickory is rare on our tools. I'm told its the favoured hardwood over here. almost as much heat as oak and it normally splits very easily, my tree is the exception. It grows quickly for a hardwood and one reason its loved for firewood is its dries fast, primarily because it is only about 30% water when growing, most woods are 40% upwards

At least it should be good when i finally get to burn it.
 
Not really scrounging, its my father in law let's me go down back, backside of field & cut my firewood but just started a couple days ago & figured I'd share. I should have already cut trees down, but last Oct my truck died, between work & cold temps I spent about a month & a half putting in a remanufactured engine, laying in driveway. Anyways, here's a few shots from a few days ago.
ab134d2c187f47caa95cbf3ed344db3c.jpg
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e9b7c18a8eef6eff4c207af071300daa.jpg
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I just measured my softwood stack , I'm still burning up here but I've got one cord of softwood left then I'd have to dip into some dry hardwood that I had for next year .
I've started my next winter's softwood pile , 1 cord stacked , I'm gonna mix this Zoggerwood in the softwood piles .
I'd better find some more wood .
 
Indeed. Over this side of the pond its used for axe and sledge handles a lot, american hickory is rare on our tools. I'm told its the favoured hardwood over here. almost as much heat as oak and it normally splits very easily, my tree is the exception. It grows quickly for a hardwood and one reason its loved for firewood is its dries fast, primarily because it is only about 30% water when growing, most woods are 40% upwards

At least it should be good when i finally get to burn it.

Ah, I see. You don't learn much about wood just by looking at it, it seems. You have to cut it, lift it, hit it, swear at it, split it and finally burn it before you know it. I'm sure you will enjoy a bit of payback when burning time comes.

I don't know if its the same over there but people in these parts call all sorts of trees all sorts of different things depending on what they've heard or how it looks or what their grandpappy used to call it. There's a eucalypt that grows on elevated areas here commonly called alpine ash, yet Tasmanians call it Tassie oak. It is neither an ash or an oak, so things can get confusing. One person's ash is not necessarily the same as they next person's ash (cue @Philbert ).
 
I just measured my softwood stack , I'm still burning up here but I've got one cord of softwood left then I'd have to dip into some dry hardwood that I had for next year .
I've started my next winter's softwood pile , 1 cord stacked , I'm gonna mix this Zoggerwood in the softwood piles .
I'd better find some more wood .

I thought you said you had so much wood it was coming out of all sorts of places? :crazy2:
 
I thought you said you had so much wood it was coming out of all sorts of places? :crazy2:

Well , at home you know , not much wood , racks are empty , furnace still going , barely enough hardwood left for the 2019 burn season so I'd best find more wood for home , I don't want to be caught short , might get a Polar Vortex at any time .
I'll just call the piles at the undisclosed secret locations "Strategic Reserve" lol
The total count from that houselot will be interesting , 8 cord of Zoggerwood hauled from it so far and not even a dent in that "Strategic Reserve" pile lol
2cm of snow on the way for tonight ....
 

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