Firewooder’s Motivation Thread

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B3BA22BE-02ED-49B9-A45E-DBED73A5F82B.jpeg Howdy Gents!
Longtime member here and long time wood burner. But between my kids’ activities, getting older, and work life, or just plain life getting in the way, my love for woodcutting and gathering has taken a back seat lately. I used to live for woodcutting/burning season and getting the saws back to my wood lot.

Lately I think I’m getting soft. On the eve of my first fire of the heating season show me some pics of woodcutting motivation to get me out there! I’ll start with one but that was a month ago! Show me some stacks!
 
Well, my company solved one of the dilemmas you mentioned a couple years ago by moving my division to Bangalore. Kids grew up and moved out, though now I have a Grandson who loves to work with his Grandpa. That leaves me with getting older. Sorry, no cure for it. Still my 11 year old pup and I spend time almost every day in the woods. Now that the weather is cooler, we cut, split, haul, and stack - at a pace appropriate for our maturity.

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This is what keeps me going.
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Wow that's cheap. Propane is around $3/gallon here for pickup.


Anyhow, I get up every morning, process wood, try to fit a few projects here and there and then before I kmow it, 12-14 hrs has gone by and it's time to go home.

Lather, rinse, repeat.
Last vacation i took was 6 months ago to be with family after someone passed away.
 
Fish now, before the lakes freeze. Cut firewood when it's too cold to fish.

Motivation is warm toasty house and no fuel bills.

Besides. It's never too cold to fish!!!

Cut firewood after you drill/chop holes , and set up your type, and then start your fire. Then start cooking the venison and chille, steak on a stick/dutch oven, while you wait for a bite.

If your beer freezes, pour in a shot of Allen's 100 ginger brandy.......

Here is a friend who just got a nice salmon........

johns salmon.jpg
 
My motivation is cleaning up as many ash trees as I can. I'm not cutting for firewood anymore I'm cutting to get dead trees on the ground before they find their way on top of somethig.

I've got a bunch of EAB killed that are too scary to drop safe through the canopy. Last storm brought down enough wood for a year or two. Keeled over at the stumps but standing dead ready to burn. Will buck, stack and cover them in the woods. I make stacks ~6' high sometimes a double, off the ground stacked on some straight ~5" limbs, and cover the tops of the piles with lumber covers I get for free. A 6' high X 12' long, double wide stack, has some cordage in it when the lengths are 22"

I'm not screwing with the bad hangers or dropping the ones with dead tops...... Standing dead I can drop safe I do, if butt logs are sound I mill them. Ash makes lovely lumber, too bad it will be gone before our kids grow up.
 
I've got a bunch of EAB killed that are too scary to drop safe through the canopy. Last storm brought down enough wood for a year or two. Keeled over at the stumps but standing dead ready to burn. Will buck, stack and cover them in the woods. I make stacks ~6' high sometimes a double, off the ground stacked on some straight ~5" limbs, and cover the tops of the piles with lumber covers I get for free. A 6' high X 12' long, double wide stack, has some cordage in it when the lengths are 22"

I'm not screwing with the bad hangers or dropping the ones with dead tops...... Standing dead I can drop safe I do, if butt logs are sound I mill them. Ash makes lovely lumber, too bad it will be gone before our kids grow up.

I'm taking down the straight ones and the ones on the edge of the woods that lean toward the yard. I'm also taking down any in my yard. There seems to be clusters of ash trees around my yard and property. I'm also going to cut as many small ones this winter that dont show signs of the EAB before they get bigger and die. I'm still waiting on asplunda to take down the 45 ash trees around the power lines. It seems never ending. If they aren't going to fall on anything then let them fall whenever they want to. If I cant handle cutting them then they stay and I hope for the best.
 
Taking a break now until I sell some but a productive Summer and Fall.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Taking a break now until I sell some but a productive Summer and Fall.
f0c57437121a15c8ac94594e53b5f71a.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I couldn't imagine selling firewood. I'm sure my way of processing my wood is not efficent but the amount of work I put into wood heat doesnt seem worth it to me to sell a face cord for 75 dollars. My dads friends son asked to buy a face cord off me to fill his firewood sale and I told him no. They sell "seasoned" wood meaning it looks dry and is split mine is aged 2 years and hand split. It's worth more to me than a few dollars.
 
I couldn't imagine selling firewood. I'm sure my way of processing my wood is not efficent but the amount of work I put into wood heat doesnt seem worth it to me to sell a face cord for 75 dollars. My dads friends son asked to buy a face cord off me to fill his firewood sale and I told him no. They sell "seasoned" wood meaning it looks dry and is split mine is aged 2 years and hand split. It's worth more to me than a few dollars.
It’s easy work as long as you cut atleast 2 cords a week year round. You start skipping weeks and you’ll be sucking air. Just like missing a workout if your a worker outer. I think it’s easy money. But I can cut, hand split and stack on trailer a face cord in 45 minutes. I get slower after 3-4 right now. But come January I’ll be able to do 6 in 45 each and still have energy to go deliver it.

If my wife’s in the mood for it we can do some super fast in the evenings together. I burn a full tank of fuel. (90% of a tank is usually 2 face cords) I’ll cut half the tank. Then split it and put a new chain on and finish the tank. Wife starts loadin and just throws it on the trailer. I help when I finish splitting, but She isn’t usually far behind me. 2 face cords in an hour easy.
 
It’s easy work as long as you cut atleast 2 cords a week year round. You start skipping weeks and you’ll be sucking air. Just like missing a workout if your a worker outer. I think it’s easy money. But I can cut, hand split and stack on trailer a face cord in 45 minutes. I get slower after 3-4 right now. But come January I’ll be able to do 6 in 45 each and still have energy to go deliver it.

If my wife’s in the mood for it we can do some super fast in the evenings together. I burn a full tank of fuel. (90% of a tank is usually 2 face cords) I’ll cut half the tank. Then split it and put a new chain on and finish the tank. Wife starts loadin and just throws it on the trailer. I help when I finish splitting, but She isn’t usually far behind me. 2 face cords in an hour easy.


I have my dad help me with a lot of my big tree cutting. The last tree cutting I dropped 3 large ash trees after work and cleaned them up out of the driveway. Then the next day I took care of all the limb clean up. That weekend my dad helped me cut up all the trees and stack it. The tractor and kids helped too. It took about 3 hours to cut and stack about a cord. If I had to split it too that would be another 2 days. I do this stuff after work and in my free time. I help install a furnace and ac on a Saturday almost every week of the year and make 5 times of what i could selling a face cord for. I cant imagine selling wood even with free help lol. If firewood were my job I'd make it happen but you firewood guys do a lot to make money.
 

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