Steve's County land firewood adventures (pic intensive)

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Steve NW WI

Unwanted Riff Raff.
Joined
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Location
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I decided to start a new thread on my woodcutting on county land up north. For some background, read here: http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/180223.htm

I got the first load cut and hauled home today, and I'll get it split tomorrow. Here's the story in pictures, for those of you who can't read :D :D :D

First a sight not often seen: The steel bed of my wood hauler. I shoveled a 3" base of perfectly good bark, chips, and dirt out for two reasons: 1, I figure that loses about 10 cubic feet of hauling capacity. 2, John Q Sheriff does not enjoy the windshield of his cruiser plastered with said chips, and I have some well traveled roads to run on. Note the bike lock securing about $12 worth of gas and oil, more on that later:

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Here's the first pair of victims, the left one is 12" DBH, the one on the right 17":

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My ole truck is the perfect rig for out here. By perfect, I mean that nothing I can do to it will make it look worse than it already does. City boy trucks that have seen wax, or for that matter water with soap in it any time recently would not like the brush, stumps, and whatnot I crossed to get to the blowdowns. It'd probably be easier to bring an ATV and trailer and haul rounds to the road, but the permit says no to that. I had to cut a drive through my logs so I could get in to load em up:

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Remember the bike lock? It makes a handy gas and oil can hanger when you're loading the truck:

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Right after this picture, my camera went AWOL. After I was loaded, I spent 45 minutes trying to find it back, before I remembered snapping this pic, and then setting it down to unlock the gas and oil cans - finally found it between two blocks of wood, where it had slid down

Here's what's left of those two after a good load on the truck. There was evidence here of a poor schmoe cutting and carrying smaller stuff out to the road. If he wants the tops, he can have em, otherwise I'll clean em up on a weekend trip when speed isn't as important.

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If the poor guy is around while I'm up there, I'll do my duty as a fine upstanding AS member and do my best to infect him with CAD-Dolmar strain, probably even haul a load down the hill for 'em. Lots of wood to go around up there, no reason to be anti-social.

Got more pics coming - stay tuned.
 
Here's a couple shots of the load I took home. 6 rows of 16" pieces. Why 16" you ask? I do have a big wood furnace that takes 24", but it's gonna get put out to pasture after this season, if not before, and the shorter stuff will fit whatever I get. Also, I had to try out the Mingo I got for my birthday that's been collecting dust since July. I've been meaning to order a 24" wheel for it, but haven't gotten to it yet. Plus, I did a little experimenting with some shorter pieces, if I load 2-3 long pieces in the bottom, the rest of the firebox on this stove will take 16s sideways, so it's still useable if I do keep this stove another year.

I know, shut up and get to the pics, side view:

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Rear view:

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Another side view, from the roadside. This is the heavy half ton, little axle but big springs. I had a cushy ride home, never touched the bump stops:

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I have these two in mind next time I get up there (hopefully Thursday, but ya never know for sure), the stumps from the two I cut today are in the foreground. There's a lot of wood in the 4 trees that were joined at the base before they tipped:

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Now it's fun and games time! I'll find a totally useless gift to give to the person who guesses closest to how much wood, split and stacked, this load comes out to. Bonus question: What did the scale at the quarry by my house read with this load on? I'll give a hint on this one. Empty weight is usually 4800-5000 depending on fuel, probably 4850 today.

Here's the official rack-o-measure I made up just for you guys. 3 8' sections, the 2 end posts are 50" above the 4x4s. Center ones are shorter, but it's all recycled from an old fenceline, so ya get what ya get!

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Splitting and stacking pics will be put up tomorrow after work, so get your guesses in! I promise, the prize will NOT be a box of MiniMacs!
 
nice truck. it sure seems to be handling that load well! and i just LOVE that headache rack!!

i'll guess you got close to but a little less than 3/4 cord from that load and i'll bet you were right around 8,000lbs-8,200lbs
 
1 row and a portion (1/2)of the next 3/8 ? of a cord and 7881
 
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Don't know about the wood but that ridge in the back ground with oaks and the lower area with poplars has got me thinking about deer hunting!
 
Nice haul Steve! The ole LAIRD chevy is like a rock! :rock::D

Wondered who was gonna catch that first. Next plate will be a NY "BLAZIN" tag in honor of your sharp eye!

Well done. Looks like a very nice area to cut in.

It's nice and open here, a bit uglier further in, but I've been in a heck of a lot worse places cutting wood.

LOL He knows that I check for warrants.:hmm3grin2orange:

Did it just for you buddy! "Custom" plates will continue to provide limited comedic influence on my threads.

Don't know about the wood but that ridge in the back ground with oaks and the lower area with poplars has got me thinking about deer hunting!

I'll be up there with a rifle in hand 2 weeks from Sunday, I spend opener hunting here at the farm. Good luck to all you Minnesota hunters when ya head out this weekend. I'm jealous a little bit of the earlier and longer season you guys have, but it's hard to beat only having to take 3 days off work to get a 9 day hunting season in over Thanksgiving week.

Heading out to split as soon as I finish my breakfast.
 
hard to beat those old chevys but nice to have one to try and beat
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Nice truck. That lift gate sure would be handy sometimes.

The wood is split and stacked, measurements and pictures taken, resized and ready to post after work. A couple of ya are close on the cordage, weights are all over the place, I'll keep ya guessing and not give any more info on that one.

Total time for this load:

1:40 drive time
1:30 cut and load
2:15 split and stacking

5 and a half hours basically to do this load, I can improve the cutting and loading time some now, probably down to an hour if I don't deal with tops too much, and splitting would be faster if I weren't still looking at 8 hours at work tonight, I took it pretty easy today.

I'll say this, the nice even lengths from using the Mingo sure makes for some pretty looking rows, the nice straight grained wood helps too. I need to get used to only backing the ram on the splitter 1/2 way open and I'll save a little time there.
 
Yep! That's some fine looking wood for sure. Lucky to have an open place like that to cut. It kind'a makes up for all the bad times. Right around 3/4 of a cord maybe a little more. Looks like nice wood to split.

Good Job!!
 
looks about like what i haul out on an average trip. i've only rolled accross a scale once thou, so my guess is its a 2500lb
load, so 7450lbs total. BTW, great rig, and i love the headache rack. i just got myself a "new" hauler, trying it out this weekend.
an 87 heavy half 4x4, cant wait to load her down
 
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