Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

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I am not an expert but that looks more like a bracket mushroom than a chaga. Our chaga is always black on the outside. May want to check on that before ingesting.

If you know something that I don't, I apologize for posting.
We call Our FUNGIS up here (That looks similar to SS396 Driver) Elephant Ears. We grab it before it dries and most of the time saute them in butter.
 
about towing weight on small hydrostatic mowers ,it is covered in the manual . What I have seen is that any low end hydro mower is around 250 lbs. I asked a cub cadet dealer if that was rolling or dead weight and he did not know exactly but said most likely rolling weight. With that I kept a belt drive manual shift mower around to pull a trailer and use the ball on the hydro mower for pulling it out when I get stuck.
 
Did it for decades, this is the first year I have not sold firewood in quite some time. This year I focused on some milling projects to build the hunting stands.

Having a white-collar job, I mostly did it to get some fresh air and stay in shape. Always all hardwood, and rarely got over $200/cord.

Before I got my hydro splitter (about 10 years ago), I split it all by hand!

When I used to heat my house with wood (before I established sources for wood) I used to buy a load of logs, cut them up with my 044 (my only saw for 18 years) and split 6 cord / year by hand to heat my house. Was good exercise and helped keep me in shape!

When I was doing firewood for others, I would remove trees for free if they let me take it for firewood. It was a lot of work, but everyone was happy, I covered my costs and earned "saw money", so house money was not used for my saw obsession! I currently have 14 runners and several incomplete projects.

As I've slowed down the last few years, the desire to build more saws has diminished ... I've got a pretty good collection and sometimes don't even use all of them in a given year.
Now that the 338-06 has you playing with rifles again. I think it’s time to get the G A D fired up again!!!

Lord knows I have it BAD!!

Guys, Uncle Mustang and I are hitting my pals Farm tomorrow. I have 6 other family members that have taken a deer from there, but somehow they elude him. He’s seen them, but either out of range or no good backstop.

Give us a little prayer tonight that he connects tomorrow. We have a few bucks running around and a ton of doe

Come on, let the big buck walk out tomorrow!!!

Pic is one of the better days there, but there have been multiple three deer days there
62809408810__7305C103-FE62-4E88-8F33-7F216935C04E.jpeg
 
I understand. I didn't have hydraulics until 2013. I was 37 then. Which is STIHL pretty young for sure. Went in partners with two other neighbors on a 27ton for sale at Walmart. I think we each paid $430. Up until then I split wood with hand tools from the time my dad determined I had enough lead in my ass to swing a sledge. It was all for our own use though. I stihl grab the hand splitting tools and swing'em around a bit to keep'em from getting too rusty. Lol, and as you say. It's good exercise, or as my RDC in boot camp would say. "It's good for the mind body and soul!"
Third grade my dad decided I was old enough to become his splitter 🤣

It was outta necessity, he got deathly ill and everyone in the house stepped up in one way or another
 
I had a friend who forages year round look at . He said it was Chaga I’ll have them looked at again but my main reason for harvesting it is it makes great firestarter . This is the other side of the mushroom definitely black on the outside View attachment 1132142
Yeah, that part is definitely Chaga!
 
At least frame one. I'm gonna have the butt logs milled into 3/4× material for sheathing. The price of plywood is outrageous on Kodiak. I bought two sheets of 5/8 CDX last month. $46 a sheet! I was like "Holly Sheet!!!"
Lol, 1/2” in Cali during the Coof was over $50. weeks before…$9 at HD.
Somebody made shitloads of $ during that farce.
 
Yesterday afternoon I go back over to my woodpile to drop off my full gas can for my logsplitter. Hanging out at a 2 week old scrape is a doe a little bit smaller than the one I got here earlier yesterday morning. I was in my truck and she left soon after I got out. Then I go home to get my tractor to move a bin of firewood from the logging area back to my house. Lo and behold there is a 6 pointer sniffing and pawing at the new scrape. I have been peeing on it every other day. I think I am upsetting him a bit. He sees me on the tractor and could care less. I watched him for a few minutes and he left heading for my house. I wish the pictures were clearer. In the last photo he was standing still. All I could think of is why did you leave the shotgun at home. It was getting darker by the last photo. He was in no hurry to walk away with me there. I think that they love hearing my tractor run.
 

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Now that the 338-06 has you playing with rifles again. I think it’s time to get the G A D fired up again!!!

Lord knows I have it BAD!!

Guys, Uncle Mustang and I are hitting my pals Farm tomorrow. I have 6 other family members that have taken a deer from there, but somehow they elude him. He’s seen them, but either out of range or no good backstop.

Give us a little prayer tonight that he connects tomorrow. We have a few bucks running around and a ton of doe

Come on, let the big buck walk out tomorrow!!!

Pic is one of the better days there, but there have been multiple three deer days there
View attachment 1132173
They can destroy a lot of crops quickly. One year they hit my farmer friend's pumpkin patch taking a nibble out of each pumpkin. Another year they did in his green bean crop. That year I counted 3 bucks and 9 does out in one of his fields on Thanksgiving night. They were having a deer orgy.
 
As to the scrounging firewood I took a few pictures at the site my town here in CT has open Tue, half a day on Thurs, and Sat. I believe this is all brought in by the town and they do seem to have spread some of it out for easier access. Last time I went I was able to back up to more of a log stack and it was mostly downhill to the truck bed.

yellow hat huy mini.jpg

This one shows the roll off containers which some of it goes into, probably supply outpaces demand of town residents.
adjusted image with roll off container in bkgd smaller.jpg

This is the last bit getting unloaded across the splitter.
unload to splitter smaller.jpg

full load smaller.jpg

I guess it is a good set up, minimizes the chainsaw noise in the neighborhoods at least to a good degree not everyone can work in the time frames available. A good portion of the users there split manually and load their trucks or trailers so knot stuff is more common than normal whole blow down. This time I hardly got any ash, last time was almost all. I think most of it was standing dead. My guess is they go around and gather up what the contractors for the overhead wires on poles leave, why work on the side of the road the town has a single axle container truck with log loader and brings the stuff here.


a couple more in thumbnail but I reduced their size anyway
both saws mini.jpg

Dolmar spike mini.jpgknot clean up mini.jpg
 
So, since my wife likes to make coal all day while I’m at work….


What gloves do you guys all wear when loading your stoves??

When I was a kid, my pop has these NASA looking fireproof gloves

I’ve been a cheap @$& all these years, but I’m thinking it’s finally time to invest in some good wood stove gloves

What do all of you guys use?
Most work gloves will work but insulated fireplace gloves are a staple for me. Awkward for detailed manipulation but excellent for most of what is needed for when working near the flame or hot coals - especially when loading ash bucket when hot coals get shoveled into the ash.
 
No deer, but I saw one. All alone, so it was likely a buck, but could not make it out so I didn't shoot.

Found out that range finders don't work in the fog, and that it is better to leave the scope on 3 (not turn it up to 9) in the fog!

I watched him slowly go across the field for about 5 minutes. Was hoping he would come a little closer, but he kept getting further away, and more into the fog!

At least I saw him! Thought I would see more, but the nearby dump starts making a terrible racket after 7, and the only stuff I saw after that was a cat (numerous times) and some squirrels.
 
So, since my wife likes to make coal all day while I’m at work….


What gloves do you guys all wear when loading your stoves??

When I was a kid, my pop has these NASA looking fireproof gloves

I’ve been a cheap @$& all these years, but I’m thinking it’s finally time to invest in some good wood stove gloves

What do all of you guys use?
Ove-glove
You can actually pick up burning logs :p
Fun at campfires
 

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