My Firewood System

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That's my main pet peeve about firewood.... how many times I end up handling it. YIKES! It gets old.

Cut the tree down.
Haul the tree out of the woods.
Cut the tree into firewood length rounds.
1. Throw the rounds onto the trailer to drive it home.
2. Throw the rounds off the trailer.
3. Pick up the rounds onto the splitter.
4. Throw the splits aside.
5. Stack the splits.
Wait 2 years................................
6. Throw the splits into the cart.
Take the cart to the house.
Dump the splits into the basement.
7. Stack the splits in the basement.
8. Load the splits into the stove.

Anything to help handling them one less time! :laughing:

Nice job on the racks and dolly with chains. :thumbsup:

The biggest tip I can give you Moss for off-homesite wood gathering is for you not to take it home. Hire that job out to a wood hauler. My guy is perfectly content with $165 I give him to load, take stems to my house and unload. In the pic, he is 19 miles from my wood lot and on a Sunday even! Two of these loads cost me $360 that day for approximately 14 cords of wood. I'd be there a month of Sundays attempting this job completely by myself.
So in this case, you've eliminated 1, 2, and 4 if you split right at the rows and stack as you go. If you could build a containment box in the cellar and dump right into this, you could eliminate 7. Who needs to stack already dried wood. In my case, i simply remove 2 stairs in the bulk head, throw a piece of plywood in there, and just dump my wood into the bulk head and cart the wood into the stove.
All of this handling is what has given pellet stoves a good name.
One last thing: don't think to handle wood without a log hook in one hand. You would not believe how things will speed up as you gain propensity with one and makes it so much easier to get rounds to the splitter

 

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This is a project I finished some time back, but I'm very happy with it and decided to share.

I built a set of firewood racks out of 1 1/4" tube, so I could haul wood from the shed to the house. They have some old chain welded to the top-piece so I can carry them using the FEL and my chain slots.

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Here's a photo of the racks full of wood being carried by the tractor.

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Once I get close to the house, I use a little Harbor Freight hand truck to move the wood to my deck. I welded a little chain-slot onto the hand truck to help secure the load.

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Here are three of the racks staged next to the chimney and a sliding glass doorway.

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I forgot to show the canvas cover I sewed to protect the wood from rain and bird-poo :smiley_aafz:. It's open on the house-side so I don't need to take it off to get wood.

The nice thing is that I now don't need to stack wood in the bucket, then carry it from the bucket to the staging area and stack it yet again.

To me, there is no better way than to containerize or palletize wood for this wood burning game we do.With that said, my attempts with this method was an utter failure and here's why: I burn 5-6 cords per year. I have 3 years worth of wood waiting in the wings (wood processing lot). This would necessitate 16-17 built palettes for one years worth of wood. I would need twice this amount for the two year drying time. When I take the palettes to the wood shed, they take up so much room to manipulate and store, I can't get half of the wood in there when they are palletized. The palettes seem to get beat up very quickly so one is always having to repair and fix the darn things. Lastly, I've discovered I have very little patience making palette containers. It all came down to doing it the old way. That's me and heck, I prefer a gear tractor to HST.

 

[JPinnell]

I use collapsible wire baskets. These would be very similar in size to the IBC Tote Cages. Pallet-ainer is one brand and 7 baskets works out to be a cord. About 1 basket per week is what we burn in an Englander NC13 that keeps 1500sqft toasty. The newer high efficiency stoves are great, but they like DRY DRY DRY wood. That means 3yrs seasoning for red oak which is what is most common here.

We burn just under 3 cords a year in the house, so I now have 60 baskets. I also have some larger baskets for the workshop wood stove, but I "might" burn a cord+ out there on the weekends and that stove is not as picky. I load all the "junk" in the bigger baskets for the shop stove. Unfortunately I'm into the baskets about $25ea which is a HUGE amount of money for a "firewood system" but . . . NO ROT, less handling, and they STACK!! I have some old rusty ones that I know are 30yrs old. I also have some newer that I've acquired. They all look like they will last another 40+yrs. So I'm spending $50/yr for convenience

I drop the tree and cut into 8ft logs. I usually then move these with the Kubota B7800 over to be split. I split and stack right into the baskets and then store/stack these with the tractor. Depending on time of year I usually tarp the baskets for Fall/Winter as accumulated leaves hold the damp. This Spring I'm going to build a 16x20 wood shed, just the roof, and stack the wood baskets 2 high under there. When it is time to burn I haul a couple baskets up to the house and stack on the deck.

 

[Paul Thornton]

What do these baskets look like?

 

[MossRoad]

The biggest tip I can give you Moss for off-homesite wood gathering is for you not to take it home. Hire that job out to a wood hauler. My guy is perfectly content with $165 I give him to load, take stems to my house and unload. In the pic, he is 19 miles from my wood lot and on a Sunday even! Two of these loads cost me $360 that day for approximately 14 cords of wood. I'd be there a month of Sundays attempting this job completely by myself.
So in this case, you've eliminated 1, 2, and 4 if you split right at the rows and stack as you go. If you could build a containment box in the cellar and dump right into this, you could eliminate 7. Who needs to stack already dried wood. In my case, i simply remove 2 stairs in the bulk head, throw a piece of plywood in there, and just dump my wood into the bulk head and cart the wood into the stove.
All of this handling is what has given pellet stoves a good name.
One last thing: don't think to handle wood without a log hook in one hand. You would not believe how things will speed up as you gain propensity with one and makes it so much easier to get rounds to the splitter

Thanks for the tips.

I have to thin the woods of the locust trees anyway, and I hate to see them go to waste. They make great firewood. I do enjoy the time in the woods (most days), and I also like the heat the stove gives off VS the gas furnace.

I just have to figure a way to get the pole-length logs onto the trailer so I can cut them directly at my splitter/wood storage area and I'd be happy. Crane or winch or some combo of both is what its looking like. Anything to cut back on the multiple handling.... other than building a $250,000 house in the woodlot!

I can't remove any steps.... they're concrete.

 

[moriboy]

There are a lot good ideas here. I have also tried many different methods in order to improve my efficiency and reduce handling. Cutting rounds on the ground and then having to lift them into a trailer was a real bummer. What worked good for me was to lift the logs and position them over my trailer using my excavator. I would then just cut and let the rounds drop into the trailer. At that point, I could unload them near the house and split and stack. That was the best I could come up with. But I must admit, my firewood days are all but over....

I now have a pellet stove.

 

[dragoneggs]

Thinking out loud here... What about using the thin plastic wide wrap to wind around tight and secure your split wood on pallets? I don't exactly know how you would stack and wrap but that stuff is disposable and strong for what it is.

 

[JPinnell]

What do these baskets look like?

Wire Containers, Wire Container in Stock - ULINE

They come in all sizes. I like the ones with the half drop front gate. Easier for the kids/wife to help load. If you are scrounging though you have to take what you get. Its important to get them all the same size or at least enough to make a year supply if you plan to stack them. They are hard to come by for less than $50ea around me. Material Handling and Pallet Rack Companies do sell used ones, but at higher prices. I tracked the last 40 down from a local factory closing down. Craigslist is an option too.

Another thing, keep in mind your lift capacity. The baskets I use end up about 700lbs full. The empty baskets themselves weigh 100lbs.

 

[CalG]

Having heated solely with wood for nearing 30 years, I can say that I have lifted way too much of too many trees.

But, I also can say (and feel), I'm in good health, the effort is on my terms and I can stop any time I choose. The work gives me a feeling of satisfaction that does not come when I observe the fuel oil delivery truck that fires the DHW boiler.

AND...

I have no need for a membership to the exercise gym!

I'm careful, but sometimes my back barks at me after a full day. The loader on the tractor is a real boon when working the big stuff.

I can tell you all one thing for certain. Working a load of logs into 4 ft "cordwood" rows and then processing it to 18 inch stove wood is the most F*&^k *$% way to work up firewood there ever can be. I did it this year to verify the load quantity. It's not worth knowing! ;-)

But it's all out there drying for next year...and the year to follow... Heck, the woodshed is still mostly full! ;-)

 

[JimR]

I do the same thing but I use these old totes to carry the wood.

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That bin looks like it would work very well.