Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[Oldmaple]

Shape fits, as well as multiple stems and the way it died back, but the bark looks like Norway maple to me. In New England at least, silver maples have pretty shaggy bark. I've found all maples will get darker staining in the heartwood, especially when old or infirm.

Norway is pretty close to sugar in density, and like sugar is great firewood. Takes longer to dry though, silver dries very quickly.

Norway:

Silver:

to Benjo. It's Norway Maple. Bark is a dead giveaway.

 

[farmer steve]

Neil, great pics and a great education, I have never heard of a Skoda, very cool!!! (And a great firewood hauler).

When I first started heating with wood, I used to bring it home in the back of my 1980 Pinto Station Wagon. Back then, Pick Up trucks were not allowed on NYS parkways, so I had access to wood that no one else would take. I remember once loading 2 big heavy rounds of Oak in the back (had to flop them in, could not lift them) and it was so heavy I thought the front of the car would come off the ground!

That is how I heated my house when the price of heating oil tripled from 50 some odd cents to over $1.50 per gallon in just one month, back when there were gas lines, and odd/even fill up days, and stations would run out of gas before you reached the pump!

I built a 55 gallon drum wood stove and got a chainsaw out of necessity. (A Homelite Super II). My first Father In Law was a tree surgeon and taught me how to fell trees, but I have learned a lot more since joining this site.

had one of of those pinto wagons Mike. it was the first brand new car i bought back in 1974. it was my first "hotrod" B-60 -13's on the rear with traction bars. cragar aluminum slots. had the 2000 cc motor. i think it had a holley 2 BBL carb on it. wish i could find my pics of the hand painted desert mural on the tailgate.

 

[MustangMike]

My 1980 had the 2.3 ltr 4 with a 4 speed, a bright Yellow Station Wagon! They had fixed all the problems with the Pinto by then, the non power Rack & Pinion steering was so good, they later used it in the Delorean, and it was the only car I knew of with non power disc breaks (up front), and they worked great! The only option my car had was an AM radio. (At the time, Imus was on AM 66 in NYC).

Always wanted to put the turbo charged 2.3 ltr T-Bird Turbo Coupe motor in it. The T Bird was 3,200 lbs, the Pinto Wagon only 2,600, it would have flown, and would be 5 spd instead of 4! FYI, the 2.3 Turbo T-Bird was faster than the 302 V-8 T Bird, so imagine that motor in the light wt Pinto!

FYI, that was my first new car also, all previous cars were used Mustangs!

 

[Agent Orange]

had one of of those pinto wagons Mike. it was the first brand new car i bought back in 1974. it was my first "hotrod" B-60 -13's on the rear with traction bars. cragar aluminum slots. had the 2000 cc motor. i think it had a holley 2 BBL carb on it. wish i could find my pics of the hand painted desert mural on the tailgate.

Now you should really find those pictures, that sounds like a badass bean! Especially with the mural.

 

[zogger]

mini hotrod ford sleepers..had a GF early 70s. Her dad got her a little four banger commuter car to go to college with. We are out tooling on the freeway one day and I said, hey punch it out for a few seconds zooba, well over a 100 fast, that thing would haul the mail. I said cool. We get back I open the hood and look, dang thing had actual headers and two big carbs on it. I don't recall the engine size but it was an english ford a cortina gt, straight inline 4 banger.

 

[MustangMike]

I believe that may have been a Murcury Capri??? Great handling also if it was.

 

[JustJeff]

Mercury also imported the Capri with a v6. 2.6l I think, narrow 60 degree v. They scooted pretty good. This was mid 70's prior to the fox body.

 

[LondonNeil]

european ford cortina biggest 4 pot engine was a 2.0 Litre, called the pinto engine (was it used in the car you call the pinto?) can't remember exact figures but think it had something like 95bhp, but easily tuned with a Kent cam and a decent carb to plenty more. the Capri came with 1.6 and 2.0 Litre Pinto 4 pots, and late on with the v6 Cologne engine, 2.3 litre in the capri i think. the Colgne came as a 2.6 litre too but not sure that was used in the Capri over here. I may be talking about totally different cars to you guys though I'm thinking of these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Cortina and these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Capri

 

[JustJeff]

That's it. The Capri was popular here in Canada in the 70's. Until 79 when the new bodied mustang and sister car, Mercury Capri came out. The old v6 capris would get up and go for what they were. I know they pissed off a lot of v8 guys Top speed was around 125 mph from the one highschool buddy who had one.

 

[JustJeff]

Ice melted today and finally got power back after 42 hours. Thank goodness for wood heat!

 

[farmer steve]

not exactly a scrounge 'cause i paid $10. i have been driving by this shed for a good #of years and always looked at the pile of wood stacked inside. there was a public auction at the property today and i know the auctioneer. ask him if they were selling the wood. tells me the owner said sell everything that ain't nailed down. mulberry,hickory,locust and walnut.just need to split it. and that's the first load.

 

[dancan]

Not much scrounging today but it sure was a nice day for a drive

I drug back the logs that I had bunched last weekend before the tractor decided it wanted some attention .

I did noodle a few more blocks from that large pine blowdown and drug a few them home

 

[MustangMike]

That Capri looks very familiar Neil, when I was in college and had a 68 390 Mustang GT, a guy gave me a ride in one to impress me with it's handling.

It may have influenced me to get the 70 Boss 302 Mustang Body, which handled pretty well with BFG Radial Trans Ams on it even though I stuffed a 427 Ford engine under the hood. At the time, the Trans Ams were the ONLY wide radial tire you could buy, and they were new on the market. The big craze in tires at the time was the belted wide oval, took the radials a little time to catch on! I mounted them on 15 X 7 Keystone Mags.

The attached scanned pics include my 70 Boss Mustang (Blue), my 68 Factory 428 CJ (Black), and some of my old friends at a party long ago!

 

[svk]

Pics don't open for me but those cars are legends.

The true big blocks (429,460) make more power but there's some serious mystique about the old FE motors.

 

[MustangMike]

To open it I have to click it then open the pull down.

Let me solve the mystery for you. The 429/460 had canted valves and were capable of providing more power, and the Boss 429 (with Aluminum heads) was the same wt. But, the engine had larger bore spacing, so if both were against the firewall, the longer block 429/460 had more wt in front of the front wheels, which means it handled worse and launched worse. That is why in 69 a lot of the Stock Car racers ripped out the Boss 429s and returned to their 427s.

Also, the cross bolted mains and side oiler blocks of the 427 were more durable.

Finally, the OHC 427s made more power than any of the 429s! Mickey Thompson's Funny Car with a SOHC 427 was the first to break the 200 MPH barrier (now they break 300 MPH).

The 427 would have dominated stock car racing except that NASCAR banned the DOCH 427 from competition after it won it's first race. Ford then used the tunnel port heads, which had a sleeve for the push rod through the center of the intake port. They produced 550 hp, and could run all day long!

 

[svk]

Right, My previous comments exclude the ohc 427

 

[JustJeff]

Thank God that Ford never made a chainsaw, there'd be no wood left on the planet!

 

[zogger]

To open it I have to click it then open the pull down.

Let me solve the mystery for you. The 429/460 had canted valves and were capable of providing more power, and the Boss 429 (with Aluminum heads) was the same wt. But, the engine had larger bore spacing, so if both were against the firewall, the longer block 429/460 had more wt in front of the front wheels, which means it handled worse and launched worse. That is why in 69 a lot of the Stock Car racers ripped out the Boss 429s and returned to their 427s.

Also, the cross bolted mains and side oiler blocks of the 427 were more durable.

Finally, the OHC 427s made more power than any of the 429s! Mickey Thompson's Funny Car with a SOHC 427 was the first to break the 200 MPH barrier (now they break 300 MPH).

The 427 would have dominated stock car racing except that NASCAR banned the DOCH 427 from competition after it won it's first race. Ford then used the tunnel port heads, which had a sleeve for the push rod through the center of the intake port. They produced 550 hp, and could run all day long!

Friend of mine had one of those sohc engines in a comet. I never saw or heard of him getting beat at the old woodward and telegraph scene in dee-troit.

 

[farmer steve]

happy Easter ya bunch of wood sawin. wood haulin, fiskars swinging and hydro lever pullin scroungers.

 

[nomad_archer]

Nice. Yeah the A400s are kind of pricey. I don't really care about fancy guns, wood stock, etc. I just want something reasonably priced that I'll be able to use for clay targets. There's a skeet/trap club right up the road from me that I'm hoping to visit once a week. The A400 is the replacement for the 391 right? I shot the 390 and 391. The 391 was a beautiful gun but prefer the simplicity of the 390.

Nothing complicated about the A400 on a mechanical scale . I bought mine for an everything hunting to clays gun. It needed to be light to walk miles and miles for small game and Turkey but manage recoil well and cycle 7/8 oz low velocity reloads for clays.

The most important thing is fit. I have a hard time finding guns that fit me. I am 5'6"with short arms. I like the gun although it cost a bit more than I planned. I do like wood stocks I just can't do synthetics yet. The key for me was it came stock as a lefty gun. That's a major reason I bought it since left handed semis are hard to come by.