Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[chipper1]

That’s what I thought

How many acres did you have logged .
I don't know what grade of logs you had pulled out of there, but that sounds like enough tops that I would be selling them off to someone who sells firewood. By the time they get all that cleaned up you'll have plenty of dead standing and whatnot to clean up.
If you start now the basswood will be topsoil by the time you finish all those tops.

 

[chipper1]

22 single shot today. Saw three grouse but no shots.

Funny how that works, could have easily shot the one the other day, should have grabbed it lol.

 

[chipper1]

I have some elm mixed in as well for the cold. I had cut some dead standing and that was next in the pile, only reason I called it shoulder season wood. I maybe have a couple days of box elder and I am done. Main staple will be sugar maple with mixed ash and elm. Never paid attention to the difference in burn time between the two, ash just dries quicker. I got nothing bad to say about elm though. I got a gasser OWB so it all burns well. Maple just relights quicker and gets hotter faster.

The bad thing to me about elm is how stringy it is for splitting, but if you split it when its frozen it goes much better. I just moved a bunch of it around on my big wood pile when I was cleaning up today, looked real good, it will all get sold though. Hauled in the premium red and white oak tonight as well as a couple sticks of black locust for myself .

 

[chipper1]

Even in the summer. Oh wait. SNOW flakes.

I was just called a snowflake a couple days ago, not sure what their definition of a snowflake is .

 

[Logger nate]

When I was a kid, up in the Big Creek area, we'd kill em with a stick for camp meat during hunting season. Sticks didn't make any noise

That’s pretty cool. Seen a few blue grouse in that area too, little bigger than spruce and ruff grouse. Have killed a few with rocks, arm gets kinda sore by the time I hit one though, stick might have been better, lol.

Moose are good for something besides eating, they make good scrounger fuel.
Morning Evening lol

 

[farmer steve]

Pressure is off, I'm . Took it with the Cross Bow using a climbing tree stand … not bad for my age!

Rack is OK, but nice body size, dressed about 140.

Good job Mike. Which saw do you use for butchering? Deer tracks all over that chopped up sweet corn patch right beside where we were sawing at the GTG.

 

[Cowboy254]

Stihl burning here, a little scrounged peppermint in there at the moment. Most of the ash in there is from scrounged black locust but I'm waiting until summer finally arrives before I clean it out. This next week looks intermittently cold as well so we'll have a few more fires. Experience tells me that once we stop burning full time here, you can bank on at least a face cord's worth or more of burning with the odd cold fronts that come through.



Me, I'm happy to have more fronts and more rain at this time. Bushfire season is scary here and the more rain at this time, the better.

 

[steved]

I was just called a snowflake a couple days ago, not sure what their definition of a snowflake is [emoji23].

The one's around here are just flakes, or morons, take your pick...nothing political.

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[steved]

That’s pretty cool. Seen a few blue grouse in that area too, little bigger than spruce and ruff grouse. Have killed a few with rocks, arm gets kinda sore by the time I hit one though, stick might have been better, lol.

Moose are good for something besides eating, they make good scrounger fuel.
Morning View attachment 771505Evening View attachment 771504lol

Moose drool...they have a beer too...

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[svk]

Well it’s 25 degrees and light winds. We had just a dusting of snow overnight. So it’s not bad in the stand.

My stand is in a birch tree that has now died so the clock is ticking. Options are to put poles in where the trunks are and scab to the nearby maples or simply rebuild. We’ll see.

 

[steved]

Well it’s 25 degrees and light winds. We had just a dusting of snow overnight. So it’s not bad in the stand.

My stand is in a birch tree that has now died so the clock is ticking. Options are to put poles in where the trunks are and scab to the nearby maples or simply rebuild. We’ll see.

Free standing with pressure treated posts is the only way to go...they can't get dead any further and will be there long after us. We've been stand hunting for nearly 35 years, started with stands in trees, free standing out of junk wood, and finally went whole hog...

We put up two new stands, all pressure treated with pvc foam board for siding...they will outlast both my father and me. The decks have 1 inch gaps between the board that allow crap and snow to drop off.

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[U&A]

Updated on the coal shovel i made..... it sucks. Holes either need to be WAY wider or i just need to make a rake. They are currently.375” wide. When you scoop them up it takes to much effort to shake the ash out and all of it still will not come out.

coal/ash separator shovel, Revision 2 under way[emoji1787]


Sent while firmly grasping my redline lubed RAM [emoji231]

 

[MustangMike]

I'm just building a screen out of rat wired to sift the ashes I shovel out so I can save the coals and return them to the stove. Foolish to waste the best stuff, heck the used to make and sell charcoal up near where my cabin is.

 

[MustangMike]

Good job Mike. Which saw do you use for butchering? Deer tracks all over that chopped up sweet corn patch right beside where we were sawing at the GTG.

The only sawing I do (with a battery reciprocating saw) is to shorten the legs before skinning and to remove/save the skull cap and antlers.

I use a knife to remove both shoulders, then both hind quarters, then fillet out the back straps. The less you use a saw for butchering, the better your meat will taste. Unlike beef, fat and bone marrow from a deer make meat taste worse. It takes longer, but I do everything I can with a knife.

I cut the backstrap 3-4" long and grill it like fillet mignon. I make steaks out of everything I can from the hind qtrs. and the shoulder, and make burger with the rest (mix it with real chop meat about 60/40).

Make sure you do not over cook venison when grilling. It is very lean and will get tough as shoe leather. It is best rare/med rare. A marinate with Olive Oil, Kikkoman (soy or teriyaki), sliced ginger root and other spices will remove all gaminess.

 

[farmer steve]

I was just kidding about the chainsaw. The old Wright (reciprocating?) saws came with a meat blade.

 

[panolo]

The bad thing to me about elm is how stringy it is for splitting, but if you split it when its frozen it goes much better. I just moved a bunch of it around on my big wood pile when I was cleaning up today, looked real good, it will all get sold though. Hauled in the premium red and white oak tonight as well as a couple sticks of black locust for myself .

With the SS it don't split so bad. I've never seen a stick of locust. Best wood I have seen is iron wood but it is all small.

People go wild for oak around here. Think it's mainly because of burn time in the fireplaces and stoves and lots of old lore. I was BS'ing with a log truck driver and he says people are nuts with the calls. Won't buy a good firewood mix with oak, ash, maple, elm, birch if he is sold out of oak logs.

 

[motorhead99999]

How many acres did you have logged .
I don't know what grade of logs you had pulled out of there, but that sounds like enough tops that I would be selling them off to someone who sells firewood. By the time they get all that cleaned up you'll have plenty of dead standing and whatnot to clean up.
If you start now the basswood will be topsoil by the time you finish all those tops.

Almost 600 acres everything they cut was 24” plus. Very little wind where they cut also so very tall straight trees. Only time it gets wind is out of the north east

 

[woodchip rookie]

Updated on the coal shovel i made..... it sucks. Holes either need to be WAY wider or i just need to make a rake. They are currently.375” wide. When you scoop them up it takes to much effort to shake the ash out and all of it still will not come out.

coal/ash separator shovel, Revision 2 under way[emoji1787]


Sent while firmly grasping my redline lubed RAM [emoji231]

I use a fry strainer. The kind they drop chicken nuggets into the fryer with. Works pretty good.

 

[H-Ranch]

So I've harvested most of the easy pickings in my woods that are close to the trails. I have some standing dead ash but I'll leave them in storage unless they become a hazard. There are also quite a number of ash trees on the ground. Today I found a couple 16-18" mostly suspended from the ground and went off-roading with the JD 420 and trailer to retrieve them. A little past it's prime in the foreground but solid 6 feet down.

 

[farmer steve]

So I've harvested most of the easy pickings in my woods that are close to the trails. I have some standing dead ash but I'll leave them in storage unless they become a hazard. There are also quite a number of ash trees on the ground. Today I found a couple 16-18" mostly suspended from the ground and went off-roading with the JD 420 and trailer to retrieve them. A little past it's prime in the foreground but solid 6 feet down. View attachment 771665

Just watch those standing dead ash. They rot from the bottom up pretty quick once they die. Lose a lot of BTU'S in the bottom once they go bad.