Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

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One of my ex co workers was born in Pakistan, and his family moved to London. First time I heard him talk I almost fell over laughing. His first language was farsi (I think) and that was not acceptable living in the uk, so he and his family all learned english, save him mum. He has a very strong British accent and spokr all the British words that we dont typically use here state side. When he would get frustrated he would unintentionally revert back to his native tongue, but still with the British accent. Funniest guy I ever heard talk in my life.
 
That's cool. I have had some syrup from a few sources that was definitely not cooked down enough. My go-to guy finally retired in his mid 80's two years ago.
Tends to be a problem whe you use a thermometer to test it's done 7° over the boiling temp of water at your elevation. Ive overdone some and you get very thick syrup with sugar crystals on the bottom like rock candy i scrap it out and munch on it , If you use a crappy thermometer it's a crap shoot. The hydrometer works all the time
 
Tends to be a problem whe you use a thermometer to test it's done 7° over the boiling temp of water at your elevation. Ive overdone some and you get very thick syrup with sugar crystals on the bottom like rock candy i scrap it out and munch on it , If you use a crappy thermometer it's a crap shoot. The hydrometer works all the time
That's exactly what I did with mine. Even boiled water to confirm the thermometer here. It said 210° so I did sap to 217°. And i stopped the second It read 217°. It was my first experiment so I didn't want to over do it for sure. Thinner is only a problem that it's a little runny, but too thick and can't pour it on pancakes. I read a couple of black walnut blogs that said they preferred it thinner so figured that was a good side to err on. That, plus my shoestring operation can't afford a fancy hydrometer. [insert smiley here since the site can't seem to]
 
Then there was today. The fields were muddy so I drove thru the bush to get a couple more loads home. I have rub rails on my wagon and only had a half load on it. This spot was tight but I figure the wagon would just slide around the tree like it usually does. Rotten Hemlock hooked onto the front corner post.

We need a few more angles on this...
 
This spot was tight but I figure the wagon would just slide around the tree like it usually does.

This was seven years ago. The tree was supported by another tree, and not attached to the ground. I didn’t rub it by much, and it came down across the hood. When this happened I already had another cab and front clip to put on it, but hadn’t started on it yet.
601EB9F1-9DD4-4052-98B3-BEFBAC931C09.jpeg

At the time I had someone tell me he wouldn’t believe the tree in the picture fell on the truck unless I showed him a picture of the tree on the truck. I told him it didn’t stay on the truck, and I was okay with him not believing.
17711D82-E197-49BF-8E9D-50639F04EDCE.jpeg

After I cleared it.
FE49C70B-D3C5-4745-9075-A58028B62B00.jpeg
 
Cowboy some pics just for you…….. My wood source.
1616645275475.png


On the topic of what wood you’d burn if you get the choice. I’d go Ironbark which is way harder and denser than oak, up from that Gray box and at the top of the list ultra-dense Gidgee or Mulga. This is a pic of Mulga from my recent trip to the outback.
1616645316061.png


And finally look what arrived in the mail just after Xmas. Still not run it yet though as I don’t do wood cutting here in summer!
1616645361104.png
 
There are other fuel friendly containers that could be used. Not free, or cheap, but a bit more predicable.
View attachment 896703

We use these for chainsaws on the hiking trails. They work good, they have an o ring to seal. We have three red for fuel, and two green for bar oil. They're 1 liter bottles, but the fill line is only about .8 liter. To me you shouldn’t be able to call it a 1 liter bottle unless you can put 1 liter in it.
 
Cowboy some pics just for you…….. My wood source.
View attachment 897011


On the topic of what wood you’d burn if you get the choice. I’d go Ironbark which is way harder and denser than oak, up from that Gray box and at the top of the list ultra-dense Gidgee or Mulga. This is a pic of Mulga from my recent trip to the outback.
View attachment 897012


And finally look what arrived in the mail just after Xmas. Still not run it yet though as I don’t do wood cutting here in summer!
View attachment 897013
Congrats, that will be fun to run :chainsaw: .
 
This was seven years ago. The tree was supported by another tree, and not attached to the ground. I didn’t rub it by much, and it came down across the hood. When this happened I already had another cab and front clip to put on it, but hadn’t started on it yet.
View attachment 897004

At the time I had someone tell me he wouldn’t believe the tree in the picture fell on the truck unless I showed him a picture of the tree on the truck. I told him it didn’t stay on the truck, and I was okay with him not believing.
View attachment 897005

After I cleared it.
View attachment 897006
That was a close call :surprised3:.
 
One of my ex co workers was born in Pakistan, and his family moved to London. First time I heard him talk I almost fell over laughing. His first language was farsi (I think) and that was not acceptable living in the uk, so he and his family all learned english, save him mum. He has a very strong British accent and spokr all the British words that we dont typically use here state side. When he would get frustrated he would unintentionally revert back to his native tongue, but still with the British accent. Funniest guy I ever heard talk in my life.

I had a guy from India on my shift who made a several year pit stop in the UK before coming to the U.S., he drove taxis in London. I was the supervisor, he called me govnurr. Ha ha. Interesting combination of accents and terms.
 
That was a close call :surprised3:.

Yup! It tweaked the door, clipped the cab and popped the windshield out, and went diagonally across the hood. Made the radiator leak, and I had to remove the fan shroud, it wouldn’t center on the fan anymore. Drove it home. People thought I rolled, nope! Still had 19 miles to get through a 9 out of 10 rated trail, difficulty wise.
 
Well, the guy who has bought fire pit wood from me for the last 6 years sold his cabin this winter. Not that I need the sales at this point in my life (I hardly have time to keep myself stocked) but it was nice to have him as he’d buy any species of wood that I had, it didn’t need to be seasoned, and I could deliver it at my leisure. I’ll guess I’ll just be putting a lot more balsam and aspen into the burn pile as I’m doing cleanup jobs.
 
Maybe the new owner also needs wood? Stop by, or send him a note, telling him that you are 'the guy', and would like to keep being 'the guy'.

Philbert
Cant say that’s a bad idea although I’m not really looking for new orders.

Selling firewood is kind of like me buying local saws that I don’t really want. I always say yes even though I shouldn’t sometimes. Lol.
 
Ended up with just shy( like 8 oz )of 2 gallons of nice amber syrupView attachment 896944View attachment 896946
Also used a syrup hydrometer for the first time made life much easierView attachment 896947View attachment 896948
I swapped over a few years ago to to using a sap hydrometer from Tractor supply, digital thermometer didn't cut it. Past 2 years I've done wood only boil off and skipped using the kitchen stove. I am getting better at it using the spoon test and noticing how the syrup boils up allot harder when it's done but I still double check with the hydrometer. I have over cooked it in past years as well and the maple sugar at the bottom was great, almost addictive to eat.
 

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