An hour a day

[Steve NW WI]

I start a new job tomorrow. It's back to good old 3-11 shift, so I'll have some time in the mornings to kill. It's also almost an hour a day less spent behind the steering wheel, so I've decided to devote that time to something productive.

FIREWOOD!

The plan - hatched over a couple cool ones in front of the campfire while grilling some pork chops and taters and surfing AS (ain't WIFI wonderful?) is to spend an hour each day doing something firewood related, maybe cutting splitting, stacking, etc, or maybe just as simple as some saw maintenance or whatever. I make the rules, so there ain't many. I don't plan on doing any "real" work if it's above 70° or below 0°, and of course there will be days when other things have priorities as well.

I'll use this post as kind of a blog as we go along, and knowing me there will be plenty of pictures as well.

There'll still be all day cutting days this winter most likely, as getting everything running and where I want it can burn an hour itself sometimes.

Any guesses how much I'll be able to accomplish this way?

(Heads for house with the leftover beer and computer, the sun just went down and the skeeters woke up)

PS No I'm not counting AS time as firewood time...it'd be way more than an hour if I did!

 

[H-Ranch]

That's a great plan. I spent an hour tonight splitting the rest of the 24" oak that blocked my driveway several weeks ago. I kinda forgot how easy oak splits with the maul after dealing with mostly hickory lately. Squeezed in a little clean-up time around the property too.

I'm going to try to get in time every day too now that it's less than 90 degrees - the last 6 weeks have been better for beer drinkin' than workin'.

Now if I just didn't have to quit my job to make more time in the day. Oh what the heck, sleep is over-rated anyway...

 

[bsearcey]

I like that plan. Wish I had enough wood in my yard to make a plan like that for myself.

 

[aandabooks]

If it were me, I would spend the all day cutting sessions just cutting wood and bringing it in. Leave it in whole rounds in piles near to where you split and stack.

With your one hour per day, concentrate on splitting the wood and getting it stacked. I find that by the time I haul everything to the timber, get the saws gassed and fired, my hour would be up and it is time to head in. I always figure I need at least 4 clear hours to go the the timber or it is just not worth the loading/unloading.

 

[loadthestove]

If it were me, I would spend the all day cutting sessions just cutting wood and bringing it in. Leave it in whole rounds in piles near to where you split and stack.

With your one hour per day, concentrate on splitting the wood and getting it stacked. I find that by the time I haul everything to the timber, get the saws gassed and fired, my hour would be up and it is time to head in. I always figure I need at least 4 clear hours to go the the timber or it is just not worth the loading/unloading.

:agree2:Sounds like a good plan

 

[dingeryote]

Make it 4 hours a day, three times a week.

One hour just gets the steam up and rust off the bearings.LOL!!

I hate to get a rythm going and have to quit before I'm ragged out.

I like your plan though, and Congrats on the new Job!!

Afternoon shifts are the best!!
Roads are already plowed by then.LOL!!

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[Steve NW WI]

Thanks for the replies guys. And Dinger, I'm pretty happy to be in a position where I can leave a job for another one. Many folks out there having a hard time finding a job at all.

The cut it all and split later plan works best for this kind of idea, except for one little problem - snow. If it snows anything like it's been raining this summer I'll have 50 piles of rounds I can't find back until April LOL!

Most of my cutting is in the back 40, so if I can be properly loaded and ready to go, I can be cutting in less than 5 minutes. The woods is also pretty isolated from prying eyes, so bigger stuff like the tractor and splitter can stay there without much worry about theft. Still don't trust leaving saws and such out there though.

Methinks that tomorrows gig will be stacking some apple and cherry cookin wood that's been occupying the bed of the truck for some time now.

 

[Circle B MN]

I try to work on firewod in some means everyday but Sunday. Not a real religious man, but a tired one after six days. The normal routine is to saw logs and rounds on Saturday, then each evening during the week I bring home a load of rounds and split it as it comes off the truck. If I have time, I'll stack some, else I try to stack for an hour every morning before work.

 

[spike60]

An hour a day really adds up, and you can get a ton of work done that way. But to sort of echo what dinger said, there will be days when you don't want to stop after 1 hour. If that's the case, then just go with it for another hour or whatever. That'll make up for those days when the weather shuts you down, or something else comes up that you have to deal with.

 

[amateur cutter]

I like the hour a day thing too, great way to relax after work. I try to bring the rounds back here on Saturday's, after cutting, then spend an hour or so splitting & stacking in the evenings after work. Lately it's been so hot, that I've been working on the splitter I just bought. I'll post pics in new thread on that.
BTW Steve, congrats on the job, I used to do the long commute thing too, & it just got really old. I make a little less now, but work from my home/shop, & love it! A C

 

[Art Vandelay]

Sounds like an excellent plan to me. Pecking at it a little bit a day will keep ya from getting burned out on it.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Day one:

Apple and cherry still on the truck. I did make a home for it with the mower and post pounder. I got distracted while mowing and wound up mowing the field roads as well. I can call it firewood work, since 2 of the roads lead into the woods, and it'll cut down on the chance of a fire when things get dry later this fall.

I spotted some nice white and red oak seedlings in different places along the trail, none of em where I want them to be. Is it too early in the season to do some transplanting? I won't be able to get water to them easily after they're moved, in case that's a factor.

Total time for the day: 1 1/2 hours.
Wood added to the stacks: 0
Expenses: about $5 in fuel for the mower

Off to work, I guess...

 

[Curlycherry1]

My brother tries to process 1 load of wood on his Timberwolf processor at least 4 nights per week. It takes him and his wife a little over an hour and a half to do a load. That is 7 face cords per load or just under 30 face cords per week.

He keeps all the nice good logs for himself and lets the daytime helper process the harder (and slower) to process stuff.

Last week on vacation I helped him each night and we got er down to less than 1 hour per load a few nights in a row.

Oh, and I totaled up what he has piled on his property. Not including the stuff he has dumped in windrows waiting to be piled. Drum roll.......he had 1437 face cords of wood stacked. In case you need a better measurement system, that is 2.2 miles of wood stacked 4' high.

 

[KMB]

My brother tries to process 1 load of wood on his Timberwolf processor at least 4 nights per week. It takes him and his wife a little over an hour and a half to do a load. That is 7 face cords per load or just under 30 face cords per week.

He keeps all the nice good logs for himself and lets the daytime helper process the harder (and slower) to process stuff.

Last week on vacation I helped him each night and we got er down to less than 1 hour per load a few nights in a row.

Oh, and I totaled up what he has piled on his property. Not including the stuff he has dumped in windrows waiting to be piled. Drum roll.......he had 1437 face cords of wood stacked. In case you need a better measurement system, that is 2.2 miles of wood stacked 4' high.

Sounds like he's got a good system going...and a bunch of processed wood!

Kevin

 

[cat-face timber]

If you can keep going with the one hour schedule, you will get alot done in a short time! The problem I see is when I start something, I keep seeing different things that need doing.

 

[bluestem]

I'd wait to transplant those little oak trees till this fall, they'll have a better chance then. Hey that would take you probably about an hour to do so put it in your calender for sometime in mid October! Flag them if you won't get to it till after leaf drop.

Hope your first day is going well!

 

[TJ-Bill]

I`ve been on the 1 hour thing for awhile. It was 2 hrs but now it`s 1 hr during the week. I`ll come home and I have 1 hr to cut wood or work on the splitter or do wahtever I want then I`m in with the family doing whatever needs to be done. My only thing about the 1 is that an hour and fly by in a hurry and most of the time just seems like your just getting warmed up when it`s time to call it quits. But if you know you only have an hour you`d be surprised what you can get done!!

 

[Hugenpoet]

I start a new job tomorrow. It's back to good old 3-11 shift, so I'll have some time in the mornings to kill. It's also almost an hour a day less spent behind the steering wheel, so I've decided to devote that time to something productive.

FIREWOOD!

The plan - hatched over a couple cool ones in front of the campfire while grilling some pork chops and taters and surfing AS (ain't WIFI wonderful?) is to spend an hour each day doing something firewood related, maybe cutting splitting, stacking, etc, or maybe just as simple as some saw maintenance or whatever. I make the rules, so there ain't many. I don't plan on doing any "real" work if it's above 70° or below 0°, and of course there will be days when other things have priorities as well.

I'll use this post as kind of a blog as we go along, and knowing me there will be plenty of pictures as well.

There'll still be all day cutting days this winter most likely, as getting everything running and where I want it can burn an hour itself sometimes.

Any guesses how much I'll be able to accomplish this way?

(Heads for house with the leftover beer and computer, the sun just went down and the skeeters woke up)

PS No I'm not counting AS time as firewood time...it'd be way more than an hour if I did!

Sounds like a nice way to use some of your extra time, good luck my friend.

 

[songofthewood]

If you can keep going with the one hour schedule, you will get alot done in a short time! The problem I see is when I start something, I keep seeing different things that need doing.

:agree2:

 

[ihookem]

What kind of job did you get? They are hard to come by in northern Wisconsin. I though you farmed.