Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[Duds13]

That is a problem here, too. Probably always was, even before climate change, as we’re a good bit south of you. I try to do my winter processing before lunch, while the ground is frozen hard, since the sun starts softening the surface when air temp hits about 28-30F. On cloudy days, I can usually process all day, as long as it was below freezing the night before and air temp remains below about 34F.

We get stretches of a week here or there, with overnight lows around 0F and daytime highs near 20F, but our most common weather throughout the majority of winter is 15-20F overnight and 30-35F by mid-afternoon.



Same. I was burning nothing but oak for about 8 years after Hurricane Sandy, then mostly hickory after a rare 2019 tornado took out most of our local hickory, but now it’s nearly all ash. You’ll always see some walnut in my stacks, which makes interesting color patterns when stacked amongst ash, since my own yard is about half walnut trees.

Ash is low BTU, and rots too quick in log form. But it is nice to split, and is way less messy than hickory, which is a friggin dusty mess thanks to our powder post beetles. Walnut seems to be near ash on BTU scale, but leaves so much ash volume in the stove that I’ve grown to hate burning walnut.

Oak is probably my favorite overall, only because I have enough inventory to let it dry for 4 years. But I know oak is the nemesis of many wood burners, as they don’t allow nearly enough time for it to properly dry. Three summers is about the minimum dry time for most oak species, esp. white oaks, if you want to burn them in any modern (cat or non-cat) stove.

What would be your pound for pound best wood if you rated the following on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best?

1. BTUs
2. Dry time (shortest time length would get a score of 10)
3. Ease of splitting
4. Burn time

Beech?

 

[dodge man]

I’d say oak and hickory. They don’t necessarily split that great depending on the tree but with a hydraulic splitter it doesn’t matter as much.

 

[Duds13]

I’d say oak and hickory. They don’t necessarily split that great depending on the tree but with a hydraulic splitter it doesn’t matter as much.

Even though Oak takes a good 3 years to season properly?

 

[Gordon Gould]

I agree Beech is high on my list.

gg

 

[dodge man]

Even though Oak takes a good 3 years to season properly?

I’ve read one summer is enough? What I’m burning right now is about 25 to 26 months old since it was split.

 

[goeduck]

It was very difficult, at first. But like anything you have to do frequently enough, your mind adapts, and it eventually becomes second-nature.

If you’re used to backing up regular landscape or boat trailers, you know everything it reversed from backing up a vehicle. The front axle on this trailer reverses everything a second time, albeit with an extra chance to jack knife, but that articulation point also opens up additional ways to snake it around a corner, as I have to do there.

So now my only real problem with it is that, after a full winter of backing that thing up, I look like an amateur at the boat ramp each spring! I have to re-train my brain when switching from that wagon to a regular trailer, whereas it used to be second nature to back up boat trailers, without having to really think about it.

I have an old Massey 245 without an FEL at one property that has a trailer ball on the front cattle guard. Nice when I have a lot of trailer moving to do and it saves my neck which is a problem for me. On the property that I live on I have a quick attach frame for the FEL with a receiver built into it which I use to put boats in and out of the water on my boat ramp. Like you said, when I have to use a public boat ramp and my pickup, I have to re-train myself.

 

[Hoobie]

Our neighbor likes to make some big wreath decorations for their porch ands asks me for boughs. Sometimes she makes a large one in the shape of a horses neck and head for the gable end. Pretty neat looking. I brought her a top and some limbs today.


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gg

Good neighbour Gordon!

 

[Duds13]

I’ve read one summer is enough? What I’m burning right now is about 25 to 26 months old since it was split.
View attachment 1930555

Beautiful pic!

I frequent another website dedicated to wood burning and everyone there insists Oak needs 3 years. I guess in the right conditions you can get away with 2 years but has to be perfect conditions.

 

[John_Mc]

Even though Oak takes a good 3 years to season properly?

If I split and stack my Oak in single rows exposed to the sun and wind, I can get it ready to burn (under 20% moisture content - usually around 15% or so) after two summers of drying. Most other species I can get there on one good summer: split and stack in the spring, and it's ready to go in the fall.

 

[dodge man]

Most of my wood gets covered with a sheet of old metal roofing. That helps but I wish I had a nice big wood shed. This is where I store mine. It’s an older picture when I was building a short retaining wall but the same setup with old metal roofing covering most of the stacks now. I started writing the dates on the stacks with a paint marker. Originally I just wrote the year on it and I realized that wasn’t good enough and started adding the month also. What I’m burning now I just wrote the year. 2022 so it could be 2 years old or 3 years.