At Home In The Woods

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Wood has many ways of warming you up before you ever burn it.

 

[Obed]

Wood has many ways of warming you up before you ever burn it.

Yes Kyle, that's very true. After I finished cutting and splitting by hand 2 1/2 pallets of wood, I was worn out, I mean so exhausted I ached. After supper I treated myself to a long tub bath in our claw foot tub. Then my wife rewarded me with freshly baked homemade cookies. I WILL work for food!

 

[brin]

Yes Kyle, that's very true. After I finished cutting and splitting by hand 2 1/2 pallets of wood, I was worn out, I mean so exhausted I ached. After supper I treated myself to a long tub bath in our claw foot tub. Then my wife rewarded me with freshly baked homemade cookies. I WILL work for food!

Oh geeez, this is now an X rated thread....:laughing:

 

[hawkeye08]

years ago when we heated with wood stove, we would get a firewood permit, take the pickup and trailer (pickup box trailer) to the woods and work hard to get both loaded with fresh cut firewood. We unloaded and did it again and again until we had enough for the winter. Then we would rent a splitter for the day and split it all. I wanted my own splitter but could not justify the expense at the time. We heat with propane now so no need.

Renting might work for you until you find the one you want...

 

[Obed]

Well Obed---after all this time I know you to be tenacious, but in this case I think with the number of chores you do, this is one you will `tire` of in the not distant future...Now if there is some `magic` I don`t know about, then the fire will take a fairly constant amount of attention, with the additional occasional shot of smoke in the house, and on your hands....I love the fire for it`s ambience, but after an all day one, I am looking for an excuse not to have another one too quickly, as the novelty wears off if it s overdone.....

You certainly deserve whatever you desire after all the trials and tribulations you have gone through, but I would bet a dollar to a penny after the first cord of wood is burned , the novelty of the pioneer will have diminished....It is very nice to have the option with a power failure, to be able to warm the room, but what you really need is a generator--not a splitter We`l see if you share your thoughts Tony

Tony,
I suppose we could get tired of building fires. Yes, there's some work in it. The nice part is my wife does most of the fire burning and tending. She works part time so she has more available time than I to tend the fires. If we both worked full time, it would be very tough to keep a fire going.

Here's one thing I've convinced myself of after yesterday's log splitting. A log splitter is DEFINITELY in my future. I have an awfully large pile of logs to cut up and split. I can't image my splitting that whole pile by hand. Splitting all those logs by hand would definitely wear off the "novelty of the pioneer".

Obed

 

[easygo]

While you are still splitting by hand put the log to be split onto a stump or another log. You will not have to bend over so far while splitting and it might improve your aim a bit. Just be very careful! If you miss the wood the maul will keep going and sometimes it attempts to split toes or other body parts. Kudos to you for not giving up.

Edit: if that is an 8lbs maul you should try a 6lbs instead. Much easier to use and very effective.

 

[clemsonfor]

Tony,
There's some wisdom in your comments. I have little doubt that we will regularly use the fireplace. Yes, the FP still has some question marks. Recently it has been burning very dry ashe firewood fine. However, ashe burns a lot like pine. We have to evaluate how it does with mixed hardwoods. If I continue to see problems with getting enough combustion air into the firebox, I do have the option of removing the automated air control mechanism to allow more air into the FP.

I know my wife; she loves a fire. She is at home several days during the week and will keep a fire going. Thus I really expect to go through some firewood. I do believe a splitter is in my future. I'm just waffling on what to get.

Obed

Get yourself a nice high end wood stove! You will use the same amount or wood and get 100x the heat off of it. I have a High valley catylist stove. The wife resisted for a few years as she likes the looks of it and seeing it. Well this one has a glas door and you can see the fire. We use to heat the room barely to low 70s for 4 hours each day. NOw i can use a similar amount of wood and heat the house all day on that ame quantity of wood. The room can get well past 80 F in the dead of winter depending on what part of the house we open up to allow the heat to flow to. I have a large first floor, bout 2500sqft, not really an open plan either, we use 2 fans and sometimes the blowers on central units to distribute the heat. I figure i cut an easy $100/month off the cold months!

 

[955Lincoln]

That track loader is becoming a permanent addition to your property. I hope he is letting you use it as it's saving him money storing it there.

 

[srossman]

Here's another tip for splitting wood. Put the wood in an old tire to keep from having to stand up the piece of wood to split it again. Before I bought my splitter, I would go out every day and split for 1/2 hour or so and then quit for the day. Great exercise and doesn't wear you out has much.

 

[bem1965]

Dear obed,

Whatever you do do not buy a splitter without testing it!
You could always load some wood in your truck and take along. If it is more work using the splitter than it is useing your axe, do not buy it.
I have seen a lot of horrible examples of what is sold as log splitters in the US, and many of them are completely moronic, more work than chainsaw and axe. Many types of splitters appear to be made to drop your logs as many times as possible in the dirt or snow for no other reason than bad engineering.

Compare log splitters to washing machines, see how easy it might be to sell a agitation washing machine in Australia today when almost everybody have seen the cylyndrical models.... Same with splitters! I am all for buy local, but I would never buy a Swedish made machine just because of its origin.

Time how long it would take you to split logs with the FEL or excavator (back-hoe) compared to the logsplitter!! Use FEL to grind wood into soil and compare to wood after useing splitter..... If FEL method is cleaner donｴt buy the splitter!

I would reccomend you to buy a horisontal splitter with electric hydraulic engine.

Se if you can find a importer for Balfor A5-A9 VOR | Balfor
Or become a importer yourself!

Take a gander at this Log Splitter, Wood Splitter - Super Split(R) check out the videos :thumbsup: At least if you lose a hand you can sue them, right? Good concept, ergonomic and safety nonexistent. Might be possible to rebuild to a great splitter.
The Speeco SpeedPro, seems like an updated version of the Supersplitter. With some safety mechanisms built in! I would go for that if you want to buy US made

For myself I am useing chainsaw and axe, gives me lots of excersise and a sore back. Since prices are so high I sell most of my timber and buy electricity for heating (heat exchanger). Use firewood for nice fires in fireplace and kitchen stove only.

Ramble ends....