Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

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Around here everyone is trying to get their heating needs sorted out now. Propane got very expensive last year and very scarce also. Electricity doesn't jump up and down but people always assume that electricity is expensive so they use other fuel types even though propane was likely more expensive at the worst of it. Oil has been declining as a choice of fuel for years so not that many new homes use it. Wood is just too much work for some people, lots of people are away from home all day so they only use wood as supplement heat and then there are the people who are afraid of wood and burning.
The crazy part is that people didn't do the smartest thing they could have done which was to make their home more efficient. Sales of insulation, new windows, doors, plastic and drywall should have been thru the roof. I'm in the housing business and Insulators say they were no busier this year than last. Lots of people I know got bigger propane tanks put in so they could fill up during lower summer prices, I bet none have done any work towards sealing their houses up. I'm not much better though I said I was gonna come up with some way to dry clothes using my OWB and a propane dryer and haven't done a thing towards it. We hang most of our clothes in the basement and use the heat from the furnace to dry them. Only use electric dryer a few times.
 
I'm in the building business and we have installed quite a few new windows and doors to help them combat their heating bills.
Good for me :)
I wish they would all update and upgrade their homes.

You and me both, Dave! NC is turning around finally, but RR is still lagging, which is a bit of a shock after so many years of putting off repairs and replacements and last Winter's Polar Vortices... You'd think they'd all be lined up at the door!

Best to you!
 
Managed to get to my windfall on Saturday - although I should have likely been doing others things instead. Like moving wood inside. Just had to run the saw for a bit though. Had to clear a trail in first.



It wasn't quite as big as I was remembering when I finally got to it. But still a lot of wood.

Worked at the top.



Forgot to get a pic of the first load but got one of the second.



Still have a third to get from the top, not sure when I'll get back there again, next couple of weekends look kind of busy. Then I'll go at the trunks - there's three of them there, and they're still pretty long. I'll just start cutting shorts off the top until it starts lifting, maybe. That's a pretty big rootball to keep an eye on.
 
That was about as much as I could likely handle with the ATV and that trailer. This was my first go round with long lengths on it, usually just haul splits with sideboards, so I wasn't sure how much to pile on. Had some rough ground before I got to a road, then had some long hills to get up. It handled it OK, but I was down to 2L getting up the hills and it was leaving tracks. Low range & 4wd is a must for this stuff- the old AC is a workhorse.
 
Nice go there NS !
Had a fellow stop at the shop this morning , looked at my RonCo log hauler ver 1.0 , plopped down a bunch of greenbacks on the counter and placed an order :)
He'll get a RonCo log hauler ver 1.1 , gonna go with 15" rims , no atv tires .
 
No cutting planned but I'm in upstate NY for the week. Took a walk through my buddy's woods tonight when we got here and discovered a thick stand of Ironwood. Lots of 8-10" and many smaller trees. One beauty was about 14". And the assorted other white, chestnut, and red oak, hickory, hard maple, cherry, and black birch. You east coast guys deserve a "you suck" for being spoiled with all of this good wood.
 
Some of those Sugar Maples are already providing fall colors, just beautiful! Saw one down here yesterday already had Red, Yellow & Orange.

Heard that when the early settlers sent letters back to England describing the fall colors, the folks in England thought the settlers were hallucinating!
 
So, all chores done, ate chow, still had some daylight. Perfect splittin weather, real cool, light breeze, no skeeters or sweat....so, I'll see if me elbow is up to it yet. Go out to the pile, plop a fat willow oak round in the tire, commence to mauling it. It cracks and starts to split, then just stays stuck there. Why is this thing not coming apart? There's some wood strings, but I should be able to yank this dude apart... Hmmmm...look closer..what is this...FOUR real intact wires holding the two halves together! hahahaha! complete with buried staple that popped out! Never touched a wire with a saw, but I was suspicious of it.

voice mode= the ghost of Sam Kinnison "It never ends"!
 

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So, all chores done, ate chow, still had some daylight. Perfect splittin weather, real cool, light breeze, no skeeters or sweat....so, I'll see if me elbow is up to it yet. Go out to the pile, plop a fat willow oak round in the tire, commence to mauling it. It cracks and starts to split, then just stays stuck there. Why is this thing not coming apart? There's some wood strings, but I should be able to yank this dude apart... Hmmmm...look closer..what is this...FOUR real intact wires holding the two halves together! hahahaha! complete with buried staple that popped out! Never touched a wire with a saw, but I was suspicious of it.

voice mode= the ghost of Sam Kinnison "It never ends"!
You must live right
 
Nice go there NS !
Had a fellow stop at the shop this morning , looked at my RonCo log hauler ver 1.0 , plopped down a bunch of greenbacks on the counter and placed an order :)
He'll get a RonCo log hauler ver 1.1 , gonna go with 15" rims , no atv tires .

Nice. Make sure you give us some pics of build 2.

Er, 1.1.
 
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