Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[John_Mc]

around here all the old barns are made with aspen … they are 80/100 year old still solid but last foot is rotten out … if you want to do a wood culvert or a buried retaining wall Aspen is a great choice … can make 50 years with one made of aspen…

I never really thought of Aspen as particularly rot resistant, especially when in ground contact.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I never really thought of Aspen as particularly rot resistant, especially when in ground contact.

It isn't, a hundred-year-old tree is a lot different than today's fast-growing trees.

SR

 

[wolc123]

I have to rethink how l process firewood.
Before it was how l did it being a logger.
Skid stems to a landing, cut em, split them, stack em all right there on the wood lot.
Easy stuff when you had the acreage.
Now l have “footage”” to do so.
Have to think “small” now.

The only time I didn’t realy enjoy working on firewood was during the 3-4 years between when I started dismantling my great great grandads old post and beam barns, and when I finished my woodshed.

Stacking wood outside on skids and covered with tarps in an area like ours, that gets lots of heavy snow and frequent rain, is horrible. Being able to spit, stack, and store under a roof makes all the difference.

 

[Jstpssng]

It isn't, a hundred-year-old tree is a lot different than today's fast-growing trees.

SR

Good point. They say the same about white pine. Back in pre-Revolutionary days, pine was used for ship masts.

 

[arrow]

Good point. They say the same about white pine. Back in pre-Revolutionary days, pine was used for ship masts.

All of my outbuildings at the old place were built w white pine.
40 years later they are all in great shape.

 

[goeduck]

All of my outbuildings at the old place were built w white pine.
40 years later they are all in great shape.

The house I grew up in had pine T&G boards on the wall in two of the boy's bedrooms. Soft wood, they are in rough shape. Kids!

One of my rentals has pine T&G boards on the ceiling, looks great.

 

[arrow]

The house I grew up in had pine T&G boards on the wall in two of the boy's bedrooms. Soft wood, they are in rough shape. Kids!

One of my rentals has pine T&G boards on the ceiling, looks great.

Kids and hurricanes…..about the same damage.

 

[Gordon Gould]

The house I grew up in had pine T&G boards on the wall in two of the boy's bedrooms. Soft wood, they are in rough shape. Kids!

One of my rentals has pine T&G boards on the ceiling, looks great.

Speaking of pine brings back old memories. There was a family owned mill 7 miles down the road and across the river in NH. They would buy my softwood logs.

I would buy pine, hemlock ,spruce, and fir lumber from him. Used quite a bit building our house from 2000 to 2005.We lived in the basement two years and then moved up stairs one room at a time as they got finished.

He been out of business quite a while now and I'm old and slow.

gg

 

[Thomas]

Speaking of pine brings back old memories. There was a family owned mill 7 miles down the road and across the river in NH. They would buy my softwood logs.


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I would buy pine, hemlock ,spruce, and fir lumber from him. Used quite a bit building our house from 2000 to 2005 while we lived in the basement.


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He been out of business quite a while now and I'm old and slow.

gg

" and I'm old and slow."

You maybe but you still put LOT of these nowadays youngster to shame!!!

 

[shooterdon]

Built sides for the old F250 so I could carry two face cords of loose stacked wood.

Test run today to a neighbor to see how it worked. Delivered two cords of oak. I talked him into taking 20" long splits as that is more efficient if you have a firebox big enough. More wood per armload and more wood in the stove/fireplace for a longer burn. I can produce faster with only 4 cuts per log instead of 5. I get 102" logs, so cut at just under 17" or just over 20" so I do not need to deal with ends...we call them cookies.

The truck has a dump bed. He loved that we could tilt the bed , stage the splits on the tailgate, and stack without dumping wood on the ground and having to bend over. We got both cords stacked in 35 minutes.

Picture shows the truck under the outfeed conveyor of the processor. Nice to be a able to run directly into the bed. Got both cords processed in under two hours working alone. That included changing a chain and a minor repair to the unit. Looks like I can do a face cord in 45-50 minutes with minimal effort.

 

[arrow]

Built sides for the old F250 so I could carry two face cords of loose stacked wood.

Test run today to a neighbor to see how it worked. Delivered two cords of oak. I talked him into taking 20" long splits as that is more efficient if you have a firebox big enough. More wood per armload and more wood in the stove/fireplace for a longer burn. I can produce faster with only 4 cuts per log instead of 5. I get 102" logs, so cut at just under 17" or just over 20" so I do not need to deal with ends...we call them cookies.

The truck has a dump bed. He loved that we could tilt the bed , stage the splits on the tailgate, and stack without dumping wood on the ground and having to bend over. We got both cords stacked in 35 minutes.

Picture shows the truck under the outfeed conveyor of the processor. Nice to be a able to run directly into the bed. Got both cords processed in under two hours working along. That included changing a chain and a minor repair to the unit. Looks like I can do a face cord in 45-50 minutes with minimal effort.

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Conveyors are key to efficiency in firewood production.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Conveyors are key to efficiency in firewood production.

Back in the '70's time frame the farm family down the road had 8 kids. They had a wood furnace in the cellar of the big old house. Every fall a logger would drop off about 12 cord of log length firewood in the door yard. The father and 2 oldest boys would work at the log pile blocking off the pile and splitting with mauls. They had about 50 feet of roller skate conveyer, like grocery stores used to have, going from the pile around a corner of the house and to a cellar window with a shoot. The 6 remaining kids would fire brigade the splits along the conveyer and down the shoot. They would work at this on and off for weeks until it was done. People would drive that way just to see it - something to behold, a family at work.

gg

 

[wolc123]

Back in the '70's time frame the farm family down the road had 8 kids. They had a wood furnace in the cellar of the big old house. Every fall a logger would drop off about 12 cord of log length firewood in the door yard. The father and 2 oldest boys would work at the log pile blocking off the pile and splitting with mauls. They had about 50 feet of roller skate conveyer, like grocery stores used to have, going from the pile around a corner of the house and to a cellar window with a shoot. The 6 remaining kids would fire brigade the splits along the conveyer and down the shoot. They would work at this on and off for weeks until it was done. People would drive that way just to see it - something to behold, a family at work.

gg

Things were certainly a lot tougher for the folks up north, prior to global warming. Burning (12) full cords of wood, to heat a house thru winter, seems mind boggling to me right now. That is (6) times more wood than it takes to heat our house.

I’m way up north myself, less than 30 minutes from the Canadian border. I’ve been averaging less than (6) face cords a year, over the last (5) years or so, to heat our fairly well insulated, 2000 sq ft ranch house.

 

[arrow]

Things were certainly a lot tougher for the folks up north, prior to global warming. Burning (12) full cords of wood, to heat a house thru winter, seems mind boggling to me right now. That is (6) times more wood than it takes to heat our house.

I’m way up north myself, less than 30 minutes from the Canadian border. I’ve been averaging less than (6) face cords a year, over the last (5) years or so, to heat our fairly well insulated, 2000 sq ft ranch house.

You mustn’t be burning 24/7 wolc.
6 face cords is about equal to a cord and two thirds. For where you are that would be fantastic but your house would be more than “ well insulated”.
I would guess that you’re supplementing with wood heat.
For me it’s the other way around.
I recall in the late 80’s early 90’s how you could heat a mega insulated house with light bulbs.
I have R-30 in the roof and R-17 in the walls and l go thru 3 cords with the stove in the living room burning round the clock. Mostly all oak.
My old house took 5-6 cords with the stove in the unfinished cellar.
Both houses are. 1700-1800 sq.

Back in the '70's time frame the farm family down the road had 8 kids. They had a wood furnace in the cellar of the big old house. Every fall a logger would drop off about 12 cord of log length firewood in the door yard. The father and 2 oldest boys would work at the log pile blocking off the pile and splitting with mauls. They had about 50 feet of roller skate conveyer, like grocery stores used to have, going from the pile around a corner of the house and to a cellar window with a shoot. The 6 remaining kids would fire brigade the splits along the conveyer and down the shoot. They would work at this on and off for weeks until it was done. People would drive that way just to see it - something to behold, a family at work.

gg

good story Gordon.

 

[John_Mc]

6 face cords is about equal to a cord and two thirds.

If we are assuming 16" long pieces, 6 face cords equals 2 full cords.

For where you are that would be fantastic but your house would be more than “ well insulated”.
I would guess that you’re supplementing with wood heat.
For me it’s the other way around.
I have R-30 in the roof and R-17 in the walls and l go thru 3 cords with the stove in the living room burning round the clock. Mostly all oak.
My old house took 5-6 cords with the stove in the unfinished cellar.
Both houses are. 1700-1800 sq.

A local friend here in the Champlain Valley of Vermont built himself a super-insulated 1550 sq ft home (not including the 880 sq ft unfinished basement). He heats it with a little over 1 cord of firewood a year. Even in a bad year, he's still under 1.5 cords. I've been in his house on multiple occasions in the winter, and it's always comfortable. The house has no other heating system other than his wood stove.

 

[Jstpssng]

I just read about a place downstate which makes houses which

meets the “passive house” efficiency standard, which means it uses thick insulation, tight air-sealing, solar panels and other features that can result in net-zero energy emissions

I'm not sure that I want a house which is that air tight.

 

[wolc123]

You mustn’t be burning 24/7 wolc.
6 face cords is about equal to a cord and two thirds. For where you are that would be fantastic but your house would be more than “ well insulated”.
I would guess that you’re supplementing with wood heat.
For me it’s the other way around.
I recall in the late 80’s early 90’s how you could heat a mega insulated house with light bulbs.
I have R-30 in the roof and R-17 in the walls and l go thru 3 cords with the stove in the living room burning round the clock. Mostly all oak.
My old house took 5-6 cords with the stove in the unfinished cellar.
Both houses are. 1700-1800 sq.

good story Gordon.

There are (2) natural gas furnaces in the basement of our L-shaped ranch, one for each wing. They only run on winter days when the temperature at sunrise is above 35 F. It gets too hot in the house if we use the wood stove when it’s that warm.

I thought we were only going to use (5) face cords last year because the winter started out very mild. Spring was colder than normal though, so we wound up using a total of (6), right on the average.

 

[KennyG]

I just read about a place downstate which makes houses which


I'm not sure that I want a house which is that air tight.

Houses which are very airtight should also include a heat recovery ventilation system which brings in fresh air and heats/cools it with exhaust air. When I remodeled my house and added insulation and new windows I added a system to exhaust air from the basement and bring fresh air into the first floor.

 

[John_Mc]

Houses which are very airtight should also include a heat recovery ventilation system which brings in fresh air and heats/cools it with exhaust air. When I remodeled my house and added insulation and new windows I added a system to exhaust air from the basement and bring fresh air into the first floor.

Exactly. We built a tight house and included a Heat Eecovery Ventilation system (which also works to cool incoming air in the summer if we have been running the AC).

In hot, humid southern climates, people may want to consider an Energy Recovery Ventilation system, which also recovers relative humidity in addition to the heat/cool recovery.

 

[arrow]

If we are assuming 16" long pieces, 6 face cords equals 2 full cords.


A local friend here in the Champlain Valley of Vermont built himself a super-insulated 1550 sq ft home (not including the 880 sq ft unfinished basement). He heats it with a little over 1 cord of firewood a year. Even in a bad year, he's still under 1.5 cords. I've been in his house on multiple occasions in the winter, and it's always comfortable. The house has no other heating system other than his wood stove.

It’s nuts what some homes are capable of energy efficiency wise but it is definitely the way to go.

If you are using traditional methods of measuring cordage, you’d be correct.
I learned a long time ago that this would be a falsehood of actual wood volume and is why l said it was less. Just a guess of how less on my part but maybe too less. I should have said more like a cord and 3/4’s.
I’ve always measured out to 10 ft instead of the 8 for stack length to account for air space.