Firewood operation

D7E · Mar 21, 2008

Was recently asked if i use a processor to do firewood.....Not at all ...100-200 cords a year the hard way 4 chainsaws ,Cut and loaded into dump trailers ,Hauled to yard ,Split with tractor splitter and axe,Delivered in 1/2 cord or 2 cord loads.
Land is cleared in 3 stages .
#1...CAT goes through in -20 temps and clears between good trees pushing brush into piles.
#2...Cat pushes trees over in warmer weather to get stumps up and trees are skidded into piles
#3...Cat goes back through pushing tops and stumps into same piles.

Land is Worked with disks and deep tillers and raked with a home made tractor mounted root rake.

I have some pics in summer of windrows and finnished land that i could find (would have to scan)....?

davidseaquist · Mar 21, 2008

Thanks for sharing pictures of firewood land cearing business.

ToadHill · Mar 21, 2008

Most of that looks like Aspen, is it and if so how does it burn. I have a pile of it but I didn't think it produced much heat.

Dallas_Lilly · Mar 21, 2008

ToadHill said:
Most of that looks like Aspen, is it and if so how does it burn. I have a pile of it but I didn't think it produced much heat.

Aspen is all I burn in my 2000 sqft home with temps in the teens at night all winter long. It burns plenty hot just not for a long time like oak or juniper. My wife just has to get up and throw a few logs in it at night

I burn about 10 cords a year.

Egon · Mar 21, 2008

Pound for pound most woods have very similar BTU ratings.

cjcocn · Mar 21, 2008

Egon said:
Pound for pound most woods have very similar BTU ratings.

You're right - poplar is pretty light!

Highbeam · Mar 21, 2008

You might be surprised how much you like burning the "junk" wood like cottonwood, aspen, willow, etc. I have been burning cottonwood non-stop 24/7 since late last year. Just takes a bit more loading but not as much as you might think. The charts show cottonwood as about a third to quarter less dense than doug fir which is the only real alternative and considered normal wood up here in the NW. No big deal.

The trees shown in the photos are pretty big for the cold north. I expected to see a bunch of small pine poles. Would love to see the forest action stages as you describe and the amount of slash taken compared to the amount of wood harvested.

john_bud · Mar 22, 2008

200 cords a year without a firewood processor!

You da man!

j

D7E · Mar 23, 2008

Highbeam said:
You might be surprised how much you like burning the "junk" wood like cottonwood, aspen, willow, etc. I have been burning cottonwood non-stop 24/7 since late last year. Just takes a bit more loading but not as much as you might think. The charts show cottonwood as about a third to quarter less dense than doug fir which is the only real alternative and considered normal wood up here in the NW. No big deal.

The trees shown in the photos are pretty big for the cold north. I expected to see a bunch of small pine poles. Would love to see the forest action stages as you describe and the amount of slash taken compared to the amount of wood harvested.

Trees are generally white poplar/Black poplar with a little oak and maple ,Most poploar is 12-16 inch with 22inch being biggest so far .
These pics are All i could find at the moment.....??????
I will take some fresh ones when i get a chance.

CATMAN · Mar 23, 2008

This may not work for your system, but have you thought about processing the wood right where you cut it. This should eliminate one extra lifting motion on each piece of wood. Cut to lenght, pickup/lift, split, goes to elevator, up into wagon. DONE. Maybe the windchill factor is too great out where you have to cut the wood, or it would require an extra tractor or something out there. Just an observation.

My dad's procedure of wood cutting/splitting works as I descibed, then we throw two wagon loads down the old "coal" chute into the basement for the winter.