Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[rarefish383]

Bonfire update!

I took the last couple of cubes of peppermint down this morning.

View attachment 906528

I had some negative feedback on farcebook a few days ago, with a few women saying that it is dreadful seeing all that wood being wasted and that it should go to the needy who can't afford to buy their own. Yes, apparently I am supposed to spend my all of my time, effort and money cutting wood to give away to people I don't know. Now, I've given away some, maybe 20 cubes or 6 cord or so over the last few years, but for armchair critics to have a go at me while I'm putting 70 hours of unpaid labour in my own time and at my own expense for a community event....well, I thought that was mildly unreasonable. So I enjoyed throwing some beautiful split peppermint up on there and posting it for them to choke on.

I threw on 5 cubes of light material today. I know it doesn't look it, but the pile is nearly 12ft high now. I hope to get it near 18ft by the end. We'll see. It all depends on gravity and leverage. It is 52ft in circumference.

View attachment 906529

Wow! I look forward to this event every year!

 

[H-Ranch]

Truckload two from my new best friend this week. Backed right up through his neighbor's yard to the wood pile and he even helped load. My kind of free giver.

And made a few more flame box elder boards that I picked up yesterday. .

 

[chipper1]

Truckload two from my new best friend this week. Backed right up through his neighbor's yard to the wood pile and he even helped load. My kind of free giver.
View attachment 906670
And made a few more flame box elder boards that I picked up yesterday. .
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Those are nice deals right there , very hard to refuse.
I had a hard time refusing all that locust this spring, so I didn't lol.
What's that dark colored previously dead standing wood, Ash?
Like the color in that box elder.
Relocated a raccoon to the "park" out back this evening, realized I have a good sized limb down on the trail. I think it's dead red oak from what I could see in the dark, that will help fill the last row in the woodshed, I have another dead standing locust that could take care of the rest or a bit out of another pile out back. It's nice to have choices for wood that will be burned in 22/23 .

 

[chipper1]

PL Premium works great on plastic and magnesium, but is not meant to be immersed in gas/oil.

Also works great on metal, I fixed my file cabinet with it. Sand metal, than dampen before using. It glued the hanger for the roller on the file cabinet just fine!

Make sure you clamp things, it expands a bit when drying.

I fixed this MS 460 for a local tree guy 2 1/2 years ago and it is still in service. I had a broken case and cut the corner off of it.

Looks like it's holding up great for a full time cutter.
I just broke this faucet sprayer . Installing a new to me kitchen sink and it fell off the counter, then when I tried to grab it I dropped the circular saw into the old sink, wham, it slammed into the bottom of the cabinet, I had already removed the sink .
I was at a buddies and he makes pens and other cool stuff on his little lathe, I found the right sized brass tube to fit one side and the other was slightly loose, then we epoxied them together. It also had a little tab with a button that clicked into the sprayer to hold the insert into the sprayer(you can see it in the first picture before the tab broke off), I wasn't able to get that to hold, but I made a little fix for that too lol. Seems to be working great for now, I think I'll buy another sprayer off eBay I found as it's only $48, seems like cheap insurance that my fix will hold. I also plan on looking for a allen style set screw to replace the screw I cut down to hold it in place, what's funny is no-one would probably even notice, I may leave it that way just for fun .

 

[H-Ranch]

Those are nice deals right there , very hard to refuse.
I had a hard time refusing all that locust this spring, so I didn't lol.
What's that dark colored previously dead standing wood, Ash?
Like the color in that box elder.

Yep, he had me at free, which sometimes gets me into trouble. LOL
I believe it is ash - the EAB lines are very faint now but most of the wood is still solid. There is a mix of other stuff in there too, including box elder, but no more like yesterday's haul.
Can't believe you're considering filling out the woodshed with oak. Pfffttt

 

[chipper1]

Hot tank or the mart, if the block was at the shop. If it was an in frame repair, lots and lots of brake clean and rags. And yes good catch, I meant devcon lol.
Here's a pic of the mart. Think dish washer on steroids.
View attachment 906040
Thats a qsk60 cummins crank set up in it. Big v12 diesel. Worked a treat. Just hose them off when they come out from it.

Sweet, I think I need one of those , but that would mean I'd have to do all that heavy work.
When I went to Nashville Auto Diesel they called the standard transmission class, "finger pinching 101" . I'd rather run the equipment than work on it, same with saws, even though I'm pretty mechanically inclined. After I finish the chicken run there's a kohler motor on a zero turn mower waiting for me, just got the new head gaskets yesterday, I'd rather be mowing.
Do you work on them start to finish, or specialize.

 

[chipper1]

Yep, he had me at free, which sometimes gets me into trouble. LOL
I believe it is ash - the EAB lines are very faint now but most of the wood is still solid. There is a mix of other stuff in there too, including box elder, but no more like yesterday's haul.
Can't believe you're considering filling out the woodshed with oak. Pfffttt

In the past free got me into a lot of trouble, now it just gets me in some trouble lol.
It sure is dark, that white ash must have got the notice from coke .
I know, maybe I should just throw it in the bonfire stash piles, but then I'd get a hard time from someone about wasting good wood on a bonfire like @Cowboy254 , sometimes you just can't win.
Did you get all that wood cut up out this way, or still lots to go. Hows that 441 doing, still making it.
I've got a lot of wood on the neighbors I can have that's down or dead standing HBBL(highly burnable black locust), not that I need more, Im not sure how many yrs worth of BL I currently have.

 

[chipper1]

This vid popped up on one of my hunting forums. It was shot up in @svk 's neck of the woods.

That's fun, I like those time lapse or one yr videos like that.
My neighbor had one going at the creek behind out places for 6 months, then late last month someone took his SD card on that one and erased the other cameras he has out there . He's pretty sure it's the same guys who were spear fishing for steelhead back there, that's totally illegal here.

 

[H-Ranch]

In the past free got me into a lot of trouble, now it just gets me in some trouble lol.
It sure is dark, that white ash must have got the notice from coke .
I know, maybe I should just throw it in the bonfire stash piles, but then I'd get a hard time from someone about wasting good wood on a bonfire like @Cowboy254 , sometimes you just can't win.
Did you get all that wood cut up out this way, or still lots to go. Hows that 441 doing, still making it.
I've got a lot of wood on the neighbors I can have that's down or dead standing HBBL(highly burnable black locust), not that I need more, Im not sure how many yrs worth of BL I currently have.

That ash has probably been dead 15 years and down for several. Dark woods with no sun and it turns pretty black.
For sure you just can't win sometimes. I am just giving you grief to mock all the oak snobs out there (and you know who you are!)
Still lots of wood over there. I did break through on the back trail the last trip over. I think that would provide me with perpetual firewood though - I'm sure that there is more than 9 cord of dead stuff and new growth every year.

 

[chipper1]

That ash has probably been dead 15 years and down for several. Dark woods with no sun and it turns pretty black.
For sure you just can't win sometimes. I am just giving you grief to mock all the oak snobs out there (and you know who you are!)
Still lots of wood over there. I did break through on the back trail the last trip over. I think that would provide me with perpetual firewood though - I'm sure that there is more than 9 cord of dead stuff and new growth every year.

Kinda like the locust in the woods here, it will get pretty dark too, but then it starts growing moss on it. Cutting hard dead locust is bad enough on chains, then add the dirt/moss to it and you're touching your chain up about every tank. The good thing is that you can usually cut quite a bit on a tank since most of it is 15 and under. I need to get to the one dead standing leaner, I want to try my skidding winch/the new clutch out.
Shoot, I can take it, Lord knows I certainly dish it out lol. I don't mine dead oak, I just hate having to wait 3 yrs for it to dry and then if you didn't do anything with it it could rot, not a problem with locust .
I bet there is, it was a mess back there, like a bomb went off . When you have a wood that big, it's hard to run out, especially when you get other wood given to you .

 

[farmer steve]

When you get tired of hauling firewood with your wheelbarrow.

 

[Cowboy254]

G'day fellers,

We're getting near the pointy end now. I tossed the last loads of bark/twigs/leaves on today then leaned up the tops, getting them as high as I could. Comfortably my biggest so far.





That's my nearly 14 year old son there for reference. Should be good when it goes up, I'll make sure someone gets a video. Poles to go on in the morning and noodles around the base for ease of lighting. I'll put a line of noodles up to each little 'package' I'll have hidden inside. Uncapped milk cartons half full of diesel. There will be about 10L of 20/80% gasoline/diesel mix for pouring on before ignition. I'll have a butane flamethrower on a stick to light with. Should burn!

 

[rarefish383]

That ash has probably been dead 15 years and down for several. Dark woods with no sun and it turns pretty black.
For sure you just can't win sometimes. I am just giving you grief to mock all the oak snobs out there (and you know who you are!)
Still lots of wood over there. I did break through on the back trail the last trip over. I think that would provide me with perpetual firewood though - I'm sure that there is more than 9 cord of dead stuff and new growth every year.

I’m an Oak snob and proud of it. Although, last year my wife said she didn’t want to burn, so I sold all of the two year old Oak in my shed, to a friend. Then a cold spell moved in and she asked where our wood was? Then she said she meant she just didn’t want to heat the whole house all winter. She still wanted fires on real cold days. So I moved a pile of Ash up on the rack. First time I ever burned all Ash. It starts easy, burns hot, doesn’t last as long as Oak. Ash is good wood, just not as good as Oak.

 

[rarefish383]

G'day fellers,

We're getting near the pointy end now. I tossed the last loads of bark/twigs/leaves on today then leaned up the tops, getting them as high as I could. Comfortably my biggest so far.

View attachment 906724

View attachment 906725

That's my nearly 14 year old son there for reference. Should be good when it goes up, I'll make sure someone gets a video. Poles to go on in the morning and noodles around the base for ease of lighting. I'll put a line of noodles up to each little 'package' I'll have hidden inside. Uncapped milk cartons half full of diesel. There will be about 10L of 20/80% gasoline/diesel mix for pouring on before ignition. I'll have a butane flamethrower on a stick to light with. Should burn!

I used to throw the gas on and let it drip down and get aerated, pour a thin trail of gas back 10-15 yards, dip the end of a long stick in the gas and make a torch, then light and touch it to the trail. It would run down the trail and make a nice “ wha-umph”. But it disappointed my friends. They thought I was going stand next to the pile and throw matches at the gas and blow myself up like the idiots on you tube.

 

[svk]

As far as fire starters go, diesel is cheap and lights with a match. As long as you don’t get it to vapor form (by pouring it on hot coals), it’s pretty easy to work with.

I was in high school and poured some on coals....then as I was approaching with a lit match WHOOM as soon as it hit the cloud of vapor and I didn’t need to worry about the hairs on the back of my hand or lower arm for the next few months lol.

 

[chipper1]

As far as fire starters go, diesel is cheap and lights with a match. As long as you don’t get it to vapor form (by pouring it on hot coals), it’s pretty easy to work with.

I was in high school and poured some on coals....then as I was approaching with a lit match WHOOM as soon as it hit the cloud of vapor and I didn’t need to worry about the hairs on the back of my hand or lower arm for the next few months lol.

I like to use diesel too, but then I grab a can of "starting fluid" and a lighter then torch it .
That Starting fluid does great for "starting" fires of all types, and it really gets people who've never seen me do it wondering.

 

[chipper1]

G'day fellers,

We're getting near the pointy end now. I tossed the last loads of bark/twigs/leaves on today then leaned up the tops, getting them as high as I could. Comfortably my biggest so far.

View attachment 906724

View attachment 906725

That's my nearly 14 year old son there for reference. Should be good when it goes up, I'll make sure someone gets a video. Poles to go on in the morning and noodles around the base for ease of lighting. I'll put a line of noodles up to each little 'package' I'll have hidden inside. Uncapped milk cartons half full of diesel. There will be about 10L of 20/80% gasoline/diesel mix for pouring on before ignition. I'll have a butane flamethrower on a stick to light with. Should burn!

That's awesome .
Do you have any problems with the lighter debris flying out, or does it just launch 40 meters into the air and go over everyone.

 

[old CB]

Regarding the excellent "year on the beaver dam," that reminds me of a guy who approached us about 8 yrs ago when (I believe) the whole trail cam thing was kinda new. He put out two cameras on our place: one along the creek on the west side of the place, and one along what I called "the interstate highway for wildlife" on the east side of the place. Over a few months he got shots of everything that moves in this country, from mountain lion (wearing a collar) to rabbit to countless shots of a magpie hopping around. But the best was a series of four shots of a young muley doe--looks like a two yr old.

I had asked the guy when he mounted the cameras (which had infrared capability for night shots) if they would spook or adversely affect animals. He said, "No, the most common reaction is curiosity." So those four shots of the young doe:
1. Doe just ambling along toward the camera
2. Doe looking up with ears signaling "WTF?"
3. Tail end of doe approaching
4 Camera view just a large eye of doe about 2" away and filling the shot.

I would reproduce them here, but due to a recent inadvertent deletion of years of email I can't. I've got a tech-savvy Mac guy lined up to try to recover the deleted stuff, as it should still reside in this device.

 

[olyman]

That's fun, I like those time lapse or one yr videos like that.
My neighbor had one going at the creek behind out places for 6 months, then late last month someone took his SD card on that one and erased the other cameras he has out there . He's pretty sure it's the same guys who were spear fishing for steelhead back there, that's totally illegal here.

hope he catches them,,and has a little CHIT_CHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[svk]

hope he catches them,,and has a little CHIT_CHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lots of camera theft here too...