Moving Firewood

[scott_vt]

The problem?

M I C E!

My wood piles have loads of mice in them. I have found three mice nest so far this year. And we have not burned much wood since its been so warm. We stopped bringing the pallets to the back porch because of the mess and the mice. We had 4-5 mice in the house a year or so ago and they got in because of the palletized wood. What a ^&*() mess they made. No more palletized wood.

But what to do about the danged mice?

Later,
Dan

Mornin Dan,
Yeah tell me about the danged mice !!! I have a bunch of wood stacked up in the basement near the woodstove. The problem is that one of my kids that doesnt live home anymore forgot their key to get into the house, so they know I sometimes leave the back bilco door unlocked. They went in the house that way and neglected to close the door at the bottom of the stairs ! Well I got back home from being up in Vt and found nesting material that the dang mice brought down the stairs, my worst fear was confirmed the other day when I saw one of the little monsters down there ! Im in the process of trying to eradicate the little monsters as we speak ! Your right you dont want them, even in your basement !

 

[Youare]

I like working up the wood pile and don't mind moving it to the pre-burn location. I made a trailer a few years ago that I tow with my Kubota L3000DT. I made the trailer to hold 1/2 cord of wood and made it narrow enough to be able to reach across from one side for ease of loading and unloading.

All my wood is stacked in rows about 20 feet long that I can drive along side. Loading the trailer is easy and quick this way. The wood is then stacked on the back porch which can hold about 2 cords. The stove we use the most is just inside the back door. There is a stove in the cellar, the stairway to the cellar is right in line with the back door 10 feet from the door.

I can remove the treads, they slip into metal stringers. This allows me to just throw the wood down into the cellar where it is piled along a wall right next to where the stairs are. I can put about 1/2 a cord there. I can park the trailer within 15 feet of the cellar stairwell it takes less than 1/2 hour to move the wood from the trailer to the cellar.

As far as mice go we have three cats who have taken care of any mouse who happens to make the mistake of coming in out of the cold.

We have heated our house totally with wood for the past 33 years, in fact we do not have any other form of heat. I really enjoy getting the wood cutting and splitting it and sitting in front of the stove on a cold winter day.

Randy

 

[Youare]

Here is a picture of about 2 hours and 15 minutes worth of splitting. I forgot to include it in the last post.

Randy

 

[srossman]

Here is a picture of about 2 hours and 15 minutes worth of splitting. I forgot to include it in the last post.

Randy

Is that Hand split or machine Split????

 

[dmccarty]

I can't imagine using a wheelbaro to transport it. We would go through at least 1 load a day.

Well, the wheel barrow is not a the old style one wheel, wheel barrow. Its one of those rubber maid things with two big wheels. It holds quite a bit of wood if it is stacked the right way. I figured one stacked wheel barrow is about 1/12 to 1/15 of a cord. It usually lasts 2-3 days on a normal cold day if its good firewood. I have some punky wood I'm burning right now that is not so good but thankfully is been warm so we are not using much. No fire for two days.

Later,
Dan

 

[ultrarunner]

My Uncle converted to Pellets and never looked back... his system is totally automated.

His home is on a down slope. He converted the small storage area under the detached concrete block garage to pellet storage accessed by a small steel door in the garage floor.

Once a year, the pellet truck pulls up to the garage and fills the storage area through the trap door. The pellets are automatically fed to the boiler in the house basement by an underground vacuum system.

The ash is automatically cleaned into a metal waste can by suction also.

It has been two years and no problems...

Does anyone make there own pellets?

 

[civesnedfield]

How about something like this. I have seen larger ones just can't find them online right now.

Carry-On 3-Pt. Hitch Hauler, Model# 803 | Category 1 Attachments | Northern Tool + Equipment

 

[Rara Avis]

I palletized my firewood for two seasons. We have a perfect spot on the back porch that has a 6-8 foot roof overhang. We would have to throw a tarp over the wood if it was blowing rain but it worked pretty well....

The problem?

M I C E!

My wood piles have loads of mice in them. I have found three mice nest so far this year. And we have not burned much wood since its been so warm. We stopped bringing the pallets to the back porch because of the mess and the mice. We had 4-5 mice in the house a year or so ago and they got in because of the palletized wood. What a ^&*() mess they made. No more palletized wood.

The wood piles are on the pallets covered by tarps. I just fill up our big wheel barrow every 3-4 days. It keeps the mess down and no mice. Thankfully the wood is stored uphill from the house. A few years ago it was downhill from the house and I would push the wheelbarrow UPHILL if I did not want to start the tractor. Its good excercise!

I like the idea of the shrink wrapped palletized wood and I think it would be somewhat easy to workout a system to slide it into the basement. But what to do about the danged mice?

Later,
Dan

Rat Zapper 2000, Electronic Trap for Rats, Mice, Rodents

 

[SLOBuds]

How about something like this. I have seen larger ones just can't find them online right now.

Carry-On 3-Pt. Hitch Hauler, Model# 803 | Category 1 Attachments | Northern Tool + Equipment

It looks like that box sticks out pretty far - on top of the fact that it holds 2500 lbs, seems to me like there would be a lot of leverage by the time you put weight out towards the back section. 2500 lbs on the far rear end would probably make the FRONT end of the tractor a little bit 'dippy'. Right?

Otherwise, I like the look of that design. Price is good, except that shipping bumps up total cost pretty high.

That hauler is definitely big enough to hold my Lazyboy recliner, plus one TV remote control. But at my current body weight, well, that's where the leverage is a problem.

 

[Youare]

Is that Hand split or machine Split????

I have a SuperSplit wood splitter. 30 percent was stringy birch which I am glad I didn't have to split by hand.

Randy

 

[SkunkWerX]

It's time. Going down to 32F tonight. Time to stack the firewood by the back door. This thread has me "motivated"

This year , having the FEL, I will bring a couple of pallets under our back porch, then dump a few bucket loads and stack it up. If the pallets are 4x4, and I use two of them, I should be able to get about 3/4 of a cord on them.

 

[jimmer2880]

Rat Zapper 2000, Electronic Trap for Rats, Mice, Rodents

I have used 2 different brands of these in the past. They work great for a while, then they start to loose their effectiveness. It seemed like once a couple mice got a good shock, instead of killing them, they all stayed away.

 

[crossfire190]

Thank you everyone for all of your great ideas. I picked up a 3 Pt. CarryAll from TractorSupply and I built up a pallet to hold the wood. I have to load it and empty it by hand, but it still beats anything else I have tried.

Thanks again!

 

[HarleyEnough]

I've built a box out of pallets to move my wood in and out. See pictures here (Click the thumbnails for full size):

yourdomain.com • View topic - Custom Homemade Equipment or Implements

 

[ChuckinNH]

Here are a couple of ideas that might be adaptable to the problem of more wood per load....
I believe that the 3pt mounted attachment in the picture is a dumping unit.

 

[tommu56]

There have been some great suggestions so far.
So how do you guys get your wood UP to the level where the stove is?
For example, where there are stairs or steps to a deck or porch?
Mine is like 8' up to the first floor. Any suggestions?

Rob can I see you building an elevator in your shop?

tom

 

[pat32rf]

I also live in snow country and use wood as my main heat. The older I get the more efficient (lazy) I get as well.
The first thing I did was build a proper woodshed so I could keep my supply dry. I drag/carry the logs to the woodshed, then cut,split and pile them. The shed is about 8' wide,7'high and 7' deep.
I also built a bolt-on snow bucket extension for my FEL and have a removeable woodstorage unit on the front porch. This unit is about 5'wide,5'high, has an open front and the wood gets stacked in it until it gets moved to the fireside wood box in the front room.
I have to handle my wood twice (once it is in the woodshed) but it is easy to pull wood off the top of the shed pile and chuck it down into the FEL. Then I place the FEL bucket right in front of my front porch storage and stack it.
If you are dumping into a basement stairway then you save restacking.
I found that my woodshed was too small for a bad winter so I made a few pallets that I can lift with my forks. Most pallets I have seen however require you to bend over to unload them. Mine are open front design that I can cover with old lumber tarps. I staple the tarps in place, then store these "skids" somewhere out of the way until needed.These also get positioned opposite the front porch unit and the wood transferred over, without a lot of bending and lifting.
I am 63 with arthritus and its only because of the QD bucket and forks that its possible to use wood instead of installing an oil burner.

 

[garry]

I have some plastic pallets now and they would work nice with this setup.

where can a person find plastic pallets?

 

[randy41]

when my boys were teenagers i never had to carry in firewood but now that they've grown up and moved on and i've gotten older i'm back at it. theres something wrong with this system.

 

[SpringHollow]

where can a person find plastic pallets?

I got mine used locally for only $2/each - they are quite expensive new. He contacted me a couple of weeks ago and has a couple of hundred more if someone wanted to pay shipping. Someone else was selling 4 of them for $8 each.

Ken