woodchip rookie
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Now who in the world would have put oil in the gas tank and gas in the oil tank??!!
Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)
- Thread starter mainewoods
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Erik B
ArboristSite Guru
And you never make the same mistake twice..you find a new mistake to make instead
mainewoods
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5 storms in 9 days, over 5 ' of poor man's fertilizer has fallen. Another 12-18" tomorrow. Scroungin's kinda tough goin'!
clint, spring is only 13 month's away?? lol enjoy friend!5 storms in 9 days, over 5 ' of poor man's fertilizer has fallen. Another 12-18" tomorrow. Scroungin's kinda tough goin'!
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Clint, looks like you got some real winter up there. We are still snow covered, but nothing like that! In fact, it all has a hard glaze on top of it from the freezing rain that re froze.
The only thing I'm scrounging right now is a few minutes to post now & then.
The only thing I'm scrounging right now is a few minutes to post now & then.
Cody
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Here in NW Iowa it's going to be over 60ºF on Friday, I'm sure we'll pay for it in March at some point in time but I've been taking the time to cut and split some oak.
at least the moose skidder has 4 hoof drive. throw another log on the fire Clint and5 storms in 9 days, over 5 ' of poor man's fertilizer has fallen. Another 12-18" tomorrow. Scroungin's kinda tough goin'!
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G'day troops,
Time to redeem myself today and try to get through a session without doing anything dumb. It was a nice sunny morning, fairly cool which is not typical for this time of year but excellent for a bit o' scrounge.
The first load came from the peppermint I cut up the weekend before last. There was some left over after I loaded up so it might have been half a cord all up. I'll get the rest another time.
I got that load home then came back for more. The tree I cut up before my little issue with my nuts was a narrow leaf peppermint, great splitting. Knocking these rounds apart took only a coupla minutes. The phone obviously struggled a bit with the sun/shade contrast.
Loaded up...
And the posterior view...
After loading up I didn't have much time left before I had to go and get prettied up for work. However, I had a little time to put half a tank through Limby before I headed off so that I could say that I did. First things first. Check my nuts.
Nuts very firmly attached. Then over to the other tree that saw Limby go to pieces the other day. Some beautiful rounds, 18 inches diameter or so of great burning wood in the smaller trunk.
I tidied up a couple of smaller limbs as well before I thought I'd better go to work.
An excellent morning, ending up with not far off 3 cubes back home.
Time to redeem myself today and try to get through a session without doing anything dumb. It was a nice sunny morning, fairly cool which is not typical for this time of year but excellent for a bit o' scrounge.
The first load came from the peppermint I cut up the weekend before last. There was some left over after I loaded up so it might have been half a cord all up. I'll get the rest another time.
I got that load home then came back for more. The tree I cut up before my little issue with my nuts was a narrow leaf peppermint, great splitting. Knocking these rounds apart took only a coupla minutes. The phone obviously struggled a bit with the sun/shade contrast.
Loaded up...
And the posterior view...
After loading up I didn't have much time left before I had to go and get prettied up for work. However, I had a little time to put half a tank through Limby before I headed off so that I could say that I did. First things first. Check my nuts.
Nuts very firmly attached. Then over to the other tree that saw Limby go to pieces the other day. Some beautiful rounds, 18 inches diameter or so of great burning wood in the smaller trunk.
I tidied up a couple of smaller limbs as well before I thought I'd better go to work.
An excellent morning, ending up with not far off 3 cubes back home.
nomad_archer
Addicted to ArboristSite
5 storms in 9 days, over 5 ' of poor man's fertilizer has fallen. Another 12-18" tomorrow. Scroungin's kinda tough goin'!
View attachment 558201 View attachment 558205 View attachment 558206
Where are your deer. Hard to believe they get around in that much snow.
nomad_archer
Addicted to ArboristSite
@Cowboy254 glad you have your nuts under control now. I would be lying if I denied losing a nut or two but never both at the same time. I now have extra bar nuts in the saw box.
My stupid mistake that I laugh at now was.... The day or two before leaving for a family vacation I was doing my oil change and had the truck up on ramps. I was draining the oil from the oil filter. The truck has a top mount filter with a drain. To do this I have the oil filter 3/4 of the way unscrewed. While I wait for the oil filter to quit draining, I climb underneath the truck and start hitting the drive shaft grease fittings. I get to the front drive shaft and the grease fittings are facing where I cant get to them and I have the 4x4 engaged so there is no turning that drive shaft. Ok start the truck disengage 4x4 and finish this up. About 1/2 a second after I started the truck I realized the oil filter was not on tight. Well I confirmed the oil pump is working fine. It is amazing how much oil you can spray around the engine compartment in 1/2 second. I finished the oil change and went to the self serve car wash and used the engine greaser. I kind of feel bad made a mess of the bay but I guess I am not as bad as some other people.
My stupid mistake that I laugh at now was.... The day or two before leaving for a family vacation I was doing my oil change and had the truck up on ramps. I was draining the oil from the oil filter. The truck has a top mount filter with a drain. To do this I have the oil filter 3/4 of the way unscrewed. While I wait for the oil filter to quit draining, I climb underneath the truck and start hitting the drive shaft grease fittings. I get to the front drive shaft and the grease fittings are facing where I cant get to them and I have the 4x4 engaged so there is no turning that drive shaft. Ok start the truck disengage 4x4 and finish this up. About 1/2 a second after I started the truck I realized the oil filter was not on tight. Well I confirmed the oil pump is working fine. It is amazing how much oil you can spray around the engine compartment in 1/2 second. I finished the oil change and went to the self serve car wash and used the engine greaser. I kind of feel bad made a mess of the bay but I guess I am not as bad as some other people.
Another excellent photo essay! That looks like real nice wood to work with.G'day troops,
Time to redeem myself today and try to get through a session without doing anything dumb. It was a nice sunny morning, fairly cool which is not typical for this time of year but excellent for a bit o' scrounge.
View attachment 558238
The first load came from the peppermint I cut up the weekend before last. There was some left over after I loaded up so it might have been half a cord all up. I'll get the rest another time.
View attachment 558239
I got that load home then came back for more. The tree I cut up before my little issue with my nuts was a narrow leaf peppermint, great splitting. Knocking these rounds apart took only a coupla minutes. The phone obviously struggled a bit with the sun/shade contrast.
View attachment 558240
Loaded up...
View attachment 558241
And the posterior view...
View attachment 558242
After loading up I didn't have much time left before I had to go and get prettied up for work. However, I had a little time to put half a tank through Limby before I headed off so that I could say that I did. First things first. Check my nuts.
View attachment 558243
Nuts very firmly attached. Then over to the other tree that saw Limby go to pieces the other day. Some beautiful rounds, 18 inches diameter or so of great burning wood in the smaller trunk.
View attachment 558244
I tidied up a couple of smaller limbs as well before I thought I'd better go to work.
View attachment 558245
An excellent morning, ending up with not far off 3 cubes back home.
DrewUth
Jack of all trades, master of none.
Hey it could have been worst- the tree could have sat back on your bar and chain and left it stuck haha.
woodchip rookie
Addicted to ArboristSite
Is peppermint hard stuff?
Good thing limby has attached nuts, like us!
Lost his nuts on Valentines day!
Thanks everyone for your concern about my nuts. The good thing was that with the captive nuts on Limby, I didn't lose them. Part of me wonders whether the captivity of the nuts makes them more inclined to loosen. However, I'm perfectly willing to accept nut-user error in this instance .
G'day woodchip, narrow leaf peppermint is not very hard. According to my reference book it is 7.1kN in hardness when dry while broad leaf peppermint is 8.4kN. The blue gum I was cutting was 12kN. Sugar maple is 7.3kN, black locust 7.5kN and white oak 6.0kN. The thing that makes it really easy splitting is the very straight grain and lack of interlocking of the wood fibres. So even though it is a bit denser than sugar maple and about the same hardness, it's really easy to split while I've heard that sugar maple can be pretty tough going.
For me, I rate firewood by density and ash content for burning preference but if I have to cut it myself, hardness (wear and tear on chains) and splitting really come into play (I only do it manually). I reckon peppermint is a really good compromise. It doesn't destroy my equipment and it is easy splitting so it's less time consuming. It has bugger-all ash so it makes great coals and burns down to nothing. It has BTUs a touch above black locust so it's not bad in that department. The blue gum that I cut has higher BTUs but it produces a fair amount of fine ash that annoys me and takes five times as many hits to split. If I had a blue gum and a peppermint lying next to each other, I'd cut the peppermint first .
I'll try to set up the Go-Pro to demonstrate the splitting ease on those good rounds in the second last picture. Cowgirl will have to help me, I have no idea how the thing works.
.G'day woodchip, narrow leaf peppermint is not very hard. According to my reference book it is 7.1kN in hardness when dry while broad leaf peppermint is 8.4kN. The blue gum I was cutting was 12kN. Sugar maple is 7.3kN, black locust 7.5kN and white oak 6.0kN. The thing that makes it really easy splitting is the very straight grain and lack of interlocking of the wood fibres. So even though it is a bit denser than sugar maple and about the same hardness, it's really easy to split while I've heard that sugar maple can be pretty tough going.
For me, I rate firewood by density and ash content for burning preference but if I have to cut it myself, hardness (wear and tear on chains) and splitting really come into play (I only do it manually). I reckon peppermint is a really good compromise. It doesn't destroy my equipment and it is easy splitting so it's less time consuming. It has bugger-all ash so it makes great coals and burns down to nothing. It has BTUs a touch above black locust so it's not bad in that department. The blue gum that I cut has higher BTUs but it produces a fair amount of fine ash that annoys me and takes five times as many hits to split. If I had a blue gum and a peppermint lying next to each other, I'd cut the peppermint first
.I'll try to set up the Go-Pro to demonstrate the splitting ease on those good rounds in the second last picture. Cowgirl will have to help me, I have no idea how the thing works.
Cowboy, I'm with you on your firewood scoring system.
Which leads me to my next question anyone using a fire place/combustion stove with an ash removal try. I find nothing worse then trying to remove hot ash and having it rise up with the heat as you try to gently place it into the ash bucket. Do fire places with an ash trays completely eliminate this or are they still quite messy?
What are the pros and cons?
Which leads me to my next question anyone using a fire place/combustion stove with an ash removal try. I find nothing worse then trying to remove hot ash and having it rise up with the heat as you try to gently place it into the ash bucket. Do fire places with an ash trays completely eliminate this or are they still quite messy?
What are the pros and cons?
Our stove has an ash pan and I still get some fines out when putting the pan back in... For some reason it creates enough of a seal to push air out.
Our insert is all shovel and pail.
I set up our small shop vac/ash vacuum when I'm working on cleaning to help keep it all under control. The vac has a fine dust filter and a bag.
I reckon the best thing to do is pick a night that looks overcast and relatively mild and either don't load it up in the evening or chuck a couple of bits in and leave full open so that it burns out and cools down and you don't get the ash flying everywhere in rapidly rising convection air currents when you clean it out in the morning. Or burn peppermint and only have to do it twice a year.
