What part of firewood do you like the least?

[Mike Van]

The cleanup part, but only as in chimney cleaning - I do hate that job.

 

[Adkpk]

I put stacking but actually I really like the whole deal. Burning being the top of the list. But then again I like washing dishes also.

Btw is that stacking job still available?

 

[ropensaddle]

Well my furnace when loading love to blow smoke into yer face
so smoke buggers is my biggest pet peave! Also when its going
real hot and am stuffing it for overnight and real cold like 15 degrees
and I run out in my underwear and try to throw a big back log in
and it don't really fit good; burning yourself trying to get it in

 

[Tazman1602]

A little poll just for fun.

I'm assuming that everyone on this site more or less enjoys sawing and splitting, so I didn't include them as poll options.

We had this discussion yesterday and my gripe was kindling wood. I go through a lot of it, since I use it almost daily. It's easy for me to get, cause I cut up the Exmark and Cub Cadet pallets. But I hate doing it, and I hate busting it up with the hatchet. So kindling wood gets my vote.

Before I built my wood shed 10 years ago, I would have picked storage, because messing with tarps, the boards to hold them down, and all the snow and ice that was usually on them wasn't much fun at all. The buddy I was talking to absolutely hates stacking. Monotonous and boring he says. Two years ago he paid some Jamaican guy $100 to stack all his wood one day.

My ex-wife would no doubt have picked "clean up", as she thought the hearth should be swept up every time you opened the door to the stove. But her opinion doesn't matter any more now than it ever did.

All in all I'd have to say stacking ranks right up there them. However. Springpoles and stupid woodbutcher tricks are my personal hate.


..........that and the fact it was just plain STUPID how I got whacked with the dang thing. Healed up now but that thing hurt for two weeks. I thought it broke my leg.



I remember a "crack" like a home run in baseball and starting to think "Darn that sounded like a hoooOOOOMMMMEEER AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

KYHOOYA

"Keep Your Head Out Of Your ARMPIT"!!!

 

[bowtechmadman]

Stacking is the worst...so I don't do it, I make a very large pile in a half arc around the OWB. Wife doesn't mind since the burner and pile is not visible from house or road.
Hauling is actually rather fun...get to challenge the Arctic Cat 650 TRV on how much she will pull.
I'm with ropeandsaddle on the smoke part. Especially when shoveling out ash...i end up covered in ash..blowing it out of my nose etc...

 

[JBinKC]

That one is easy the dust it creates in the house.

 

[Rookie1]

I dont like stacking. I guess im not that good at it or am in too much of a hurry, every summer some part of the stack falls over and I have to restack it.I would like to just toss iti into a big pile in yard like my father-in-law but I dont have a good spot to do it.

 

[spike60]

Btw is that stacking job still available?

Yeah, it looks like it will be opening up cause he fell off the wagon again, which reduces his ambition to near zero. I'll give you his number next time you come up.

 

[TriCountyLawn]

I hate loading the truck and trailer and unloading it. Dump trailer is on the horizon real soon. As well as a tractor or bobcat. I can deal with the rest

 

[mudguts]

Loading big rounds.

 

[cbrslider]

I hate stacking. It takes away from the fun of the whole job. I love burning wood and even going out to the OWB at midnight in single digit weather to load it.

Ray

 

[Bakemono]

Stacking. I hate stacking. Splitting isnt too bad because we have a gas-powered splitter. Hauling it isnt too bad because my truck easily hauls what I need. 2 truckloads of wood a year and Im good to go all winter. Cleanup isnt too bad, except for when one of the dogs decides to rip the bark off of a piece of wood and shread it into little pieces on the living room carpet (apparently our dogs think they are beavers). Even cleaning up the ashes isnt too bad.
Stacking is the only thing I hate. My woodpiles always seem to end up leaning one way or the other. Stacking wood is a lot like putting together a puzzle. Ive never been a fan of puzzles...

 

[buckbandit]

Since I'm not cutting firewood for my self I have to say stacking. There is never a shortage of firewood when your doing line clearance. Underbrush in the way, branches still attatched, humping it off the right of way. Nothing worse than being bent over all day.

 

[Another Bucker]

ugh...its clean up, again

Clean up is the worst for me... upright vac is a permanent part of the living room all heating season. Four+ cords = lots of vacuuming ...but now that heating oil is over 4 bucks a gallon it is less of an issue.

 

[strongback]

Transportation. By far. For me it was the most costly aspect of firewood. In order to get enough wood, without having to pay for it, I'd have to do a lot of driving. Not to mention that I'd have to handle the wood three times before I even got down to the real business of turning it into firewood.

For this year at least I've managed to eliminate that aspect by getting a local tree service to dump two truckloads of wood (I'm guessing 10-15 cord because I've already split and stacked 2+ cord and you can't even tell that I've been there) in my driveway. Transportation is down to moving the splits to the woodpile 20 feet away via wheelbarrow by my organic free labor force. I'm lovin' it.

 

[woodbooga]

I go with transporting. Much of what I gather (I own less of an acre) comes from offsite, within a reasonable driving distance from home. This is where the finding part comes in. If I'm out on a cruise and see a dump-bound trailer filled with wood, I stop and ask to take their load off their hands. During the course of the conversation, it frequently occurs that the property owner has other fallen trees, deadfall they'd like to see disappear.

Often, said trees are located where I can't back up my rearwheel drive Ford Ranger - so I need to transprt the rounds by hand to the truck. Sometimes only 10' but often as much as a 100' haul by wheelbarrow.

I was surprised to see the large # who voted for stacking. After splitting, this is my favorite. On nights when I can't get to sleep easily, instead of counting sheep, I stack wood in my imagination. I use the same basic principles dry masons use in building the stone walls New England is famous for.

Splitting kindling is a fun winter activity. I keep a heap of bark-off dry white pine for this purpose, and also have some construction folks who give me all the 2x4 ends I can handle.

 

[TJ-Bill]

I don't mind the work involved, even if it's splitting by hand. But I can't get over the mess it makes. I made the mistake of spilting 6 cord las year on the lawn.. still cleaning up the mess

 

[mtfallsmikey]

I enjoy cutting the trees down, bucking, and little else, really. I'm getting older and slower. I miss the days when I got "free" fuel oil. When I had my mechanical contracting biz, I did a lot of burner service work for a small oil jobber. My "retainer" for giving his customers priority service was free fuel oil. Kept the 'stat at 74 deg. all winter. Went on that way for 6 yrs. until he went belly up.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Well, let's see....

Finding wood? No problem, there's always roadside stuff around here after a storm, and I have a log processor that will give me all the butt ends and crotches I can haul. He'd be happy if I had a two ton truck. Whatever I haul, he doesn't have to pay to dump.

Transport? Nope, no problem. I pull into the log processor's yard, he loads up with his big grapple. Drive home, my boys unload, and have fun doing it.

Hmmm. Stacking? Nope. Boys again. Not quite as much fun.

Clean up? Nope. Boys again. Not fun.

Kindling? No, no problem. The littlest guy gathers it and puts it in a bin for me.

Starting to see a pattern here?


Storage is currently my bugaboo. Gotta build a woodshed. Have the spot picked, and plan to get it done soon.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Well I gota say portage. Lugging the big rounds out of a backyard to the street where there is a nice lawn where you cant use any equipment other than a wheelbarrow or hand truck.


So I guess that goes under tranportation on the poll.

I found this thing made my life a LOT easier when moving The Big Rounds (36"). 1000 pound capacity, and the wiiide tires really make it easy to roll with a big load. It was a hundred bucks very well spent. I throw a quick nylon strap around the wood, and away we go over lawn, gravel driveway, and dirt.