Runnin' Loads

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So I haven’t been doing to many pretty loads lately, lots of trash wood being burned though.

I can’t wait to be done burning ...

Finally got around to rebuilding my splitter into a non oil leaking, proper height, non frame flexing, modern engine ... wood splitting machine.
Total investment, bout $200. 100$ for the splitter originally, 50$ in oil, 40$ for the Honda, 10$ in seals
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She split’s !!
Keep on ... Running Load’s !!!
 
Been a busy number of weeks now. Finally managed to carve out the time to haul and process. All the split stuff was processed on site from smaller and very much not easy to load/haul logs, so I cut and split on site to minimize loads and maximize fuel. With both sets of bed sides on making a 4 foot box, she can hold almost exactly 3 full cord, which makes me happy. It takes ~7-8hrs to buck, cut, split, and load for a full heaping run with just me working solo with my 30ton NorthStar. Otherwise with regular logs, in, loaded, strapped, and out in 20 minutes flat.

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The old corn crib is filling up nicely and should hold about 12 cord max fill.

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With this whole pipeline ordeal, I am trying to wrap up my loads quick before gas prices spike here in the Midwest due to peoples utter stupidity. I loaded a little extra last night to run heavy and carve out one less load necessary.

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She was definingly heavy, but it wasn't until I was at the gas station 40mi up the road that I realized just how heavy. She was riding the overload springs more than I cared for....whoops. But she trucked on like it was nothing, all-be-it with the equivalent body roll of a fat chick in a water bed.

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Last night was the final full load for this year. 17 logs in total, about half being hackberry, a quarter cherry, and a few walnut and oaks in there. The cherry's are destined for my mill, the walnuts and oaks are too knotty/crooked so they will be firewood alongside the hackberry. Im looking at about one more 3/4 load to finish off the year, but that load is going to have some monster 40" diameter cherry short logs on it (hence overloading this past trip to make room).
 
So I’m done all my splitting except for the green block which can wait a while.

I definitely like the new working height of my splitter, no more sore back, no more dickin around blocking it and having to work around them, soooo enjoying a modern engine that starts easily!! I was a lil concerned that 4hp wasn’t going to be enough but it was perfect and used very little fuel. Only 4g to split all of that over 7 evenings.
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I was more than over full in my box so I split that last load onto my 1T and stacked it off to the side.
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Keep on .... Running Load
 
Got another load of willow today. Campfire wood is selling quick and this stuff dries quick.
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I haven't cut much softwood but I did cut some cypress in February. Dry by April, and into the stove - not much weight to it but it all burns. I'm sure that willow will please the campers who want to see nice flames dancing.
 
I haven't cut much softwood but I did cut some cypress in February. Dry by April, and into the stove - not much weight to it but it all burns. I'm sure that willow will please the campers who want to see nice flames dancing.
That willow is actually an austree-willow hybrid. Its used for fast growing wind breaks on acreages around here. Its soft and light, mostly water.

Here are my loads from this weekend. The first one is some kind of elm, the second load is walnut and sawmill scraps. Should be enough to keep me busy for about 2 or 3 weeks.
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Willow is a hardwood cowboy. It is a good chunk lighter than cypress when dry too. If they stuff you had was Leyland then it's actually quite dense, others less so.

Well technically, I didn't say it was a softwood ;) . I was absent-mindedly thinking it though in a throwback to my ignorant pre-AS days where I regarded heavy wood as hardwood and light wood as most likely softwood. I guess such a generalisation is more often accurate than not but definitely not always. Even balsa is a hardwood and can be as light as 50kg/m3. Needles vs leaves is probably a better rule of thumb but even then I'm not certain that is always the case.

I honestly don't know what the ?cypress is and I don't know whether it is dense compared to others or not, but compared to the local stuff that I normally burn it certainly isn't. I probably wouldn't go and get more unless I had a specific purpose in mind but it has been ok to burn, just not for as long as I'm used to. The bark though is full of resin, catches easily and gets things going really quick. Some noodles, a few bits of bark and we're away.
 
That willow is actually an austree-willow hybrid. Its used for fast growing wind breaks on acreages around here. Its soft and light, mostly water.

Here are my loads from this weekend. The first one is some kind of elm, the second load is walnut and sawmill scraps. Should be enough to keep me busy for about 2 or 3 weeks.
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I just read up on the austree willow. 6-10ft of growth per year, that's really moving!

I've been enjoying seeing your pics this year. How much have you been selling? Is it in bundles or larger quantities? It sure is nice to have wood that dries so quickly so you don't need to have as much lying around seasoning.
 
I just read up on the austree willow. 6-10ft of growth per year, that's really moving!

I've been enjoying seeing your pics this year. How much have you been selling? Is it in bundles or larger quantities? It sure is nice to have wood that dries so quickly so you don't need to have as much lying around seasoning.
I sell bundles by our drive through, as well as two gas stations consistently buying bundles. I sell the majority of it in bulk though. People usually just want a pickup load or two for the summer. I had one real busy week then we got a week of rain so it slowed way down. Ill have to take a picture of the wood yard when I get off work.
 
Well technically, I didn't say it was a softwood ;) . I was absent-mindedly thinking it though in a throwback to my ignorant pre-AS days where I regarded heavy wood as hardwood and light wood as most likely softwood. I guess such a generalisation is more often accurate than not but definitely not always. Even balsa is a hardwood and can be as light as 50kg/m3. Needles vs leaves is probably a better rule of thumb but even then I'm not certain that is always the case.

I honestly don't know what the ?cypress is and I don't know whether it is dense compared to others or not, but compared to the local stuff that I normally burn it certainly isn't. I probably wouldn't go and get more unless I had a specific purpose in mind but it has been ok to burn, just not for as long as I'm used to. The bark though is full of resin, catches easily and gets things going really quick. Some noodles, a few bits of bark and we're away.
If you're talking about White Cypress it's fairly hard and dense as far as softwoods go. In fact it's around the same as Oak on the Janka scale.
 
If you're talking about White Cypress it's fairly hard and dense as far as softwoods go. In fact it's around the same as Oak on the Janka scale.

White cypress is about the same as Mountain Ash in density. This stuff is not white cypress though, and I have had a little of that. Definitely lighter. The main thing I don't want from my firewood is to leave huge amounts of ash that I have to clean out every few days and I burned this softwood every morning and evening for a month during April/early May and didn't have to empty out the heater once so it wasn't bad in that respect.

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