Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[H-Ranch]

Split some of the wood I cut this morning and still lots left to split. Probably should have spent less time splitting and more time hauling before dark. Some of the big cottonwood rounds will be a wheelbarrow load each. Tonight it's just oak.

 

[cantoo]

Brufab, the day before I had a piece of bark in it also. Take out the valve stem, use screwdriver to pry apart from rim and air nozzle to blow the crap out. I was in a rush to get to the bush before it got warm out but normally I would break the beam on the tire, clean it up, apply bead sealer and pump it back up to 60 lbs. Tire likely has a couple of thorn holes in it and I never noticed it being down a bit. I only get a couple of years out of front tires. Crap always happens when I'm in a rush. Had a load of firewood to load and deliver, 1st pull on my conveyor and snap. Good thing I have several conveyors.

 

[Brufab]

Oh no cantoo! That stinks. Atleast you got back up conveyors. Seems like it always happens on the first or 2nd pull.

 

[djg james]

Played around a bit and cut some small slabs from a crotch piece from the beech. I will stack and sticker them with about 100 lbs on them and dry them for a year. I'm thinking of making a charcuterie platter. They're rough but I should be able to smooth them out.
View attachment 970905

Seal the ends of those boards right away or they will likely split. I use wax or AnchorSeal.

 

[H-Ranch]

Oh heck, if I have to go check the OWB anyway, might as well take another load. More oak, so those of you who are not oak snobs may want to avert your eyes.

 

[WetBehindtheEar]

You need to use it in reverse. Pure water comes out one pipe and everything else which is now concentrated sap goes into your boil bucket . A good RO will only remove the water . Hard to explain but basically you throw out the water and keep the runoff opposite of using it to make drinking water. Sounds like the guy was doing it wrong or may have had crappy sap to start with .
Never heard of the zero oxygen thing mine sit in buckets and get agitated transferring to the collection bucket then to the evaporator. But I do know boiling will remove oxygen from water. That’s why I have to oxygenate the wort with O2 after the boil or the yeast is very slow to kick in fermentation of the beer

I often struggle to get my beers to ferment down all the way. They usually go crazy in the first week or two but slow and stop to the point of just sitting there.
Here's my 2021 Holiday Cheer - smoked porter with Door County cherries on secondary. It was initially VERY cherry forward with a very subtle smokiness on the finish.
I'm hoping the cherry mellows out a bunch.
But my ABV is only about 5.5% where it should be around 7.5%

 

[MustangMike]

We even did some HVBW syrup yesterday that is amazing!

I don't do sap or have the time during Tax Season to do it, but a friend/client who is not far away does, and I have lots of Black Walnut on my property.

So, I should make an arrangement with him to do some Black Walnut syrup? Appreciate your thoughts.

 

[H-Ranch]

So, I should make an arrangement with him to do some Black Walnut syrup? Appreciate your thoughts.

Here's my thoughts, Mike: I tapped 10-12 HVBW trees all over 10" diameter last year and got 9 gallons of sap over a couple weeks. That boiled down in a day to less than a quart of syrup. It doesn't last too long for pancakes so you'll probably be doing it for the novelty, not for long term syrup supply. The sap does go sour so you have to boil it or store it after more than a few days (I froze it in basement freezer.) You can do it on the cheap pretty easily and it's an interesting project. Actually doesn't take a lot of time besides the boiling part.

 

[H-Ranch]

AS Scrounger creed: Neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night... or something like that... Anyway, this morning in the cold rain I got another load of oak put away.

 

[chipper1]

AS Scrounger creed: Neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night... or something like that... Anyway, this morning in the cold rain I got another load of oak put away.
View attachment 971033

Maybe you should come over here and show me how that works... BYOWB .
We have an inch of sloppy wet snow on everything now , good thing I was jamming late last week and thru the weekend , not feeling bad about taking it easy today.

 

[H-Ranch]

Maybe you should come over here and show me how that works

You have your own donk! (Like @Logger nate 's son carrying logs for him.) LOL

I rarely dedicate full days to firewood duties so I try to get a little done every day, even in less than ideal conditions.

 

[muddstopper]

You have your own donk! (Like @Logger nate 's son carrying logs for him.) LOL

I rarely dedicate full days to firewood duties so I try to get a little done every day, even in less than ideal conditions.

Its very easy to get in a routine of scrounging wood. Just post a picture of a wheelbarrow full and you will get a ton of support from the regulars here

 

[chipper1]

You have your own donk! (Like @Logger nate 's son carrying logs for him.) LOL

I rarely dedicate full days to firewood duties so I try to get a little done every day, even in less than ideal conditions.

That's why I said bring your own wheelbarrow, you ain't using my boy lol.
I do need to get a couple wheelbarrow loads into the house, getting a little low.
Snowing here, but it looks like it will be letting up within the next couple hrs so I'll be back outside.
Most of the wood I need to split is now done, but I still have a couple larger rounds to noodle and then a few sticks of mulberry to buck/split. I was hopping this snow would hold off and I could finish that today, then work on removing the elm stump, that's a lot of work , but nothing a few gallons of diesel and a couple days of work won't take care of. Maybe I should just rent a medium sized excavator .

 

[GrizG]

Grabbed another saw and spent a bit more time in the bush. We got hit hard awhile ago with some high winds. Lots of widow makers broke off and still hanging way up in trees. Ash borers have really taken a toll also. It's a shame that I didn't log the ash and sell them to a sawmill but that wasn't the original deal I made with the owner of the land. As you can see in some of the pictures the ash is in bad shape.

At least the valve wasn't ripped off the wheel.

 

[H-Ranch]

Just post a picture of a wheelbarrow full and you will get a ton of support from the regulars here

That's a great idea!

 

[Brufab]

Cottonwood splits?

 

[H-Ranch]

Cottonwood splits?

Yep, and lots of them. Cuts easy, splits decent, and will be fine for shoulder season. Actually I try only to burn the good stuff when it's needed. Otherwise I'm fine burning the junk wood.

 

[JRM]

Got us a load split up tonight. 6ft x 16ft trailer stacked between 2 and 3 ft high.
Barely put a dent in the pile

 

[svk]

Did someone say Donk?

 

[LondonNeil]

I try not to let them get to bad. The side with the broken cutters got rocked at some point and the cutters where noticeably shorter from cleaning it up. Set depth gauges with a husky roller guide so even with the difference in cutter length still cuts straight. It was missing 7 cutters on a 52dl chain.

I think you got your monies worth!