Felled, bucked, split and stacked a cord today!

[tom reinbolt]

Felled a dying ash tree--real nice 14 inch diameter straight as an arrow tree. The top cracked off upon impact, so there was no clean up of that. Pulled the tree with my front loader to my splitting area, bucked and split it about 30 minutes ago.

Makes me wonder--I did all in about 2 hours today--it helps when the tree is 50 feet away from my stacking pile. Here's the rub--I burn probably 4 cords a year--let's assume 5 for safety.
5 cords is about 15 hours worth of work--let's round up to 20 hours figuring fatigue and hassle.
I can sell a cord for $200. So in essence, it would cost me $1000 a year in firewood, plus fuel for the saws/splitter, and chains, etc.

In three days I can cut/split/stack all the firewood I need for a year.

My salary in three days can't touch what I would pay for propane for the year--I would fill up 3 times a year if I did not have a wood burning furnace. It's about $800 a fill up--I don't know what next year's propane will cost.

So I would spend $2400 on propane per year plus the cost of the wood--I "earn" $3400 in about 20 hours.

 

[philoshop]

Not too much to wonder about there.
Nice!

 

[chucker]

! you did well you old mizer! (just kidding ) a saving today will warm you an yours many more times then the big smile the propane man would of had.... it's called sticking it to the big wigs on wall street.... stay cool in the working heat and cut more wood to further the "pain" to the "PRO"s.....

 

[zogger]

And if you lived in a trailer, you could keep dragging your house and stacking area to where the trees are!

hahahaha!

hey, that's not bad a cord that fast. I once did two full cords in one day, log to stacked and was whipped. flogged.

 

[philoshop]

And if you lived in a trailer, you could keep dragging your house and stacking area to where the trees are!

hahahaha!]

Another 'beer sprayed on the keyboard' moment! Thanks buddy.

 

[Jere39]

Take some of that bag of cash you "earned", and buy a camera to share the fruits of your work with your friends here.

 

[tom reinbolt]

Working on the camera--I still have about 20 ash that need to go--gonna pace myself for a few years at least

 

[jrider]

Sounds like a good day but you really got a full cord of wood from a 14" diameter tree? How tall was this thing?

 

[mainewoods]

Must of had a **** load of limbs on it to get a cord of wood from it.

 

[zogger]

Must of had a **** load of limbs on it to get a cord of wood from it.

I have kept sort of a rough track in my mind as I cut small and harvest a lot of small limbs off of trees. Well formed spreading deciduous trees I can get pret near 1/3rd more wood over just taking the main trunk. To me it is worth it, a lot more wood that can go directly on the stack without splitting, less mess where I need to travel in the woods and fields, and lots more enjoyable small saw easy trigger time.

Firewooding to me is a productive hobby and sport. where it to be a business I would take the entire tree and process the limb wood into chips, and develop a market or practical use for the chips.

When the big chipper here was working, I used the chips as mulch walkways in the garden, it really helped with weeds, made it look nice, and I never observed any adverse effect on the garden plants.

I also sometimes used the chips as erosion control and would fill runoff gullies.

But, that was back when the thing was working, plus I had access to a nice dumptruck with a chip bed box on it. I have neither now so oh well, back to what I always did, cut small and use it all.

 

[lon]

And to think I was proud of myself yesterday for cutting rounds, splitting with a splitter and stacking a cord of wood and it took me all day! Guess I really am getting old and slow! But I still had fun!

 

[Jere39]

You are very good. Anyone felling, hauling, bucking, splitting, and stacking in a day is getting it done. I can, and often do get a cord from a standing dead Red Oak, like this one. But this one was about 20" across the bottom.



(Long, kind of boring video of bucking and single hand Cant Hooking)

Took about 20 minutes and one tank of mix for the bucking. I halved about the first dozen before hauling them to my splitting pile.



I still split with the Fiskars, but I admit, this straight grained Red Oak is just almost too pretty to subject to a hydraulic splitter:



And, I also admit, this day we took a break before squaring off this stack at a cord.

 

[tom reinbolt]

I have ALOT of help--a 30 HP FWD front loader works wonders --although I just drug the tree about 40 or so feet. My MS290 with a new chain is also a plus.
A splitter too helps.

I still have the horsepower in me also. All those years powerlifting has its benefits--I'm ready for that maple that's leaning against another tree--must be a good 30 or so inched in diameter. Stay tuned--I'll get to that when it dries out a bit.

 

[cnice_37]

If you average a cord felled, bucked, split and stacked in 3 hours I MUST be doing something wrong! I don't care if I dropped it exactly where it was felled and stacked without a single limb, I'd be hard pressed to do that.

Also, you paid yourself twice.... You either buy the propane or the wood, not both. You are still ahead of the game I am just not seeing those numbers play out.