When I first started burning wood and was new to scrounging with my wild thing and an E150 van a very good day was 1+cords from breakfast to sundown during autumn no-leaves on trees period. Optimal wood length was twenty inches long.
I left the house on a saturday morning with saw, liquids, lunchbox, toolbox and vitamins.
Travel time averaged 30min or more one way on the back roads and hoping the ground was dry and hard so my van wouldn't get stuck.
This was a couple years before I'd found AS so my knowledge was about the same as any other new-to-woodheat person.
Once on site and situated it was methodical; clear the area around the base of the tree, clear the area where the tree was supposed to fall so limbing would be safer, sometimes a weed wacker was needed, and then clear two escape lanes, just in case.
Then go through the face, back cuts , run like hell and wait for the dust to settle.
The limbing usually goes quick, except for the ones that got stabbed a foot or more into the ground when the tree fell, then make a nice rabbit pile to get all of it out of the way and to keep the landowner happy. Then buck to the stem, get those rounds close to the van and take a lunch break, since the saw is cooled off its a good time to tighten and sharpen the chain, refuel the saw, tuck in the shirt as well as get the chips out of the underwear, blow nose, and put the earplugs back in.
Round two; buck the stem and trim those now muddy limbs that got stuck in the ground when the tree fell over. Here's where a hand dolly with pneumatic tires really comes in handy but that was one year away yet but it became a high priority on my mental " next time " list. Anyway, the stem is bucked and now start with rolling the largest rounds to the van get them stacked inside closest to the front to spread the weight as much as possible, this gets really fun and hard on the back as each row gets close to the ceiling. I forgot to mention, the van had four captains chairs since we'd recently had a child, so only seven feet of bed space but full height/width.
Okay, the whole tree is loaded to the top/sides and the doors just close, with the gap between the front and rear seats taken up by the smallest limbwood to make the most of the trip, help distribute weight, and not to waste anything, good thing the rear tires were overinflated twenty or so pounds before leaving home. The saw, fuel, bar oil jugs and toolbox were in the passenger area and the cooler was between the front seats so I can reach that last sandwich and dew to make it home with my eyes open. At this point, it's about two to three in the afternoon with 'too dark to work' at five .
Home, back has that tired soreness feel to it, you know it, the ' better be careful or yer out for two weeks' type of soreness. Gravity is in my favor now, since the borrowed splitter is similar to a didier with the beam resting on the ground so I start splitting from the back of the van and the small/medium rounds make for a good muscle warm up without risk of injury and the rounds will just get rounder but are stepping down from the van to the splitter beam so it is not too bad. One advantage at this point being home, naproxen washed down by swill so it kicks in when the biguns are coming out.
Splitting until the van is empty, hearty hot supper, real meat and potatoes type of meal that you can smell while you are putting the saw on the bench and getting things ready for the next venture and loving how distracted you are by the yummy smells and growling of the innards.
The sun is down, but there is just enough light to run the extension cord to plug in the light hanging in that tree that the wood is going to get stacked against. Time for serious swill and being very aware of how tired and just a wrong step can put the back out for a couple weeks. Smart thing to do is put on the radio with some bluegrass so the pace is steady but not too fast, besides, there's two hours to stack before it's time to read bedtime stories to the kids, plenty of time to get one months winter heat stacked up and empty the hot water heater to start relaxing in a long hot shower.
That was eight years ago, one months heat or just a bit over one cord was quite a full day for this gypo firewooder.
Nowadays, I pick up the phone, the logs come to me and six hours gets a cord cut/split/stacked on pallets for the tractor to put out in the sun/wind for drying. Two cords in one day is long day now. That van was a killer but many of us have a 'grin and bear it' starting point.
