New Member Fire Wood

I went to my cottage this Friday, found a huge spruce tree had fallen from a wind storm. I mean big 30 inch diameter at the base , must be 200 ft tall. I started to cut it up into fire wood. Three day later after one gallon of chain saw gas and 1/2 gallon of chain lube . I am only 1/3 done , so far 2 cords of soft wood and i cord hard. it brought down other trees. I am going back this weekend with a buddy to finish .
buy the time i am finished i will have 9-10 cords stacked wood . 6 hard 3-4 soft. good for the winter .

 

nice tree like that would have made some great boards. Makes nice firewood too.

 

the trouble was it weighed about 10 tons. I had to cut into pieces 1 foot long . anymore an i could not pick them up .

 

RandyT pointed out that there could have been some valuable board-feet in that tree. Even though you might not get big bucks out of it, still you might have gotten some party money out it. A local lumber contractor might be willing to send in a forest timber hauler w/truck into your area. Somebody is bound to have routine route of theirs nearby. Holy crapoly, do I ever have to dodge the overfilled lumber trucks every week on these roads around here.

You sure got no shortage of firewood your way! Prep-wise, you're rich! Got edible animals in your back yard, on and on, ... Blessed by God you are. When it hits the fan, there's not gonna be any employed game wardens about.

Who knows, you might get some Russian uniformed visitors. You may already have the following phrase memorized, "Ne strelaete, ya znayu secrety!" Do you, ha ha ha?! For those unfamiliar, "Don't shoot, I know secrets!" (Is that spelling correct? It's been so many years now.)

Where I'm living now, there is a dangerous amount of dead trees leaning (i.e. may have already dried out, but not gone to rot quite yet; one just saws through any endangered species living in the dead tree). Five gallons of gas would allow me to go get some decent firewood. But there's all manner of good'ol'boys selling firewood here (my back is to sh##). These fellers could use the extra money; I'd pay them full retail. Making the younger Heartlanders happy makes me happy.
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I went back this weekend pass and finished the cutting up on Saturday . I have four splitting axes. I tried to split with everything including my maul ( like a sledge hammer with one end like a axe) . No way . Went to bed pissed. that night it got real cold -10. Next morning i tried again wood split like a dream. So if you have trouble splitting wait until wood is frozen solid. It was a wonderful experience to split huge logs with just one blow. I felt like superman.

 

Old geezzer, what do you pay for a full cord in you neck of the woods ? up here it is $70 . free delivery if you buy 4 cords.

 

Couldn't tell you, Bill. Forestry, state by state, issues permits for cutting, then you do your own.

I'm getting so crippled now that I'm going to have to purchase it from some healthy fellow. I don't think I have enough, therefore looks like I'll be finding out what the costs are. OK, I'm going to look online now.

One fellow has seasoned for $100/cord. If you get "select", pecan/cherry/oak/hickory, it's $120/cord. This guy delivers for these prices. Sounds expensive, however my health has gone seriously wrong and it looks like it will take a month to get back to semi-me. Have had surgeries to put my arms back on -- rotator cuff, right arm was an unholy mess (had to re-insert/re-position biceps; resurface bones). Now this current mess. Were I a dog, I'd take me out hunting and not come back with me.
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Sorry to hear that, take care . Bill

 

I pay $50.00 a cord . I could have it delivered by some hard up guy that would cut , split and deliver it for $50.00 . But I prefer to buy it cut and split and I load it up and haul it . The reason being , the guy I buy from And I haven't even ever meet to the best of my knowledge . He simply cuts the wood , splits it and piles it up in a semi remote area " no houses around " He leaves a plastic bucket for customers to put their cash in and load up the wood in the appropriate amount and simply leave . He has no idea usually as to who comes to his wood pile and loads up . It isn't unusual for there to be many hundreds of dollars in that plastic bucket waiting for him to come by and collect . I wouldn't be surprised if there sometimes is close to a thousand dollars in that bucket in cash . I have weighted the cash down with a rock to keep it from blowing away on a windy day . --- This is a testament to the honesty of the people in the rural Ozarks . Mess up , cross them and you will receive the same type of justice seen 200 years ago . When I posted on here a long time ago living here is like going back in a time warp . I wasn't kidding .

 

Keeping firewood up off the ground. You'd still have to spray a bunch of malathion under this in some attempt to slow termite infestation.

But as far as a quickie solution, this'll work ... until the blocks start to sink into the ground due to the rains and the weight of the wood. This would work were the blocks set on top of undisturbed red clay or tamped earth. To protect the wood, you'd need to put some tarp atop. Keep firewood 50 ft away from your dwelling. Termites will travel fifty feet straight up from the water-table line; they'll also travel horizontally or diagonally to get to a tasty wood supply. To prevent getting snake-bit or spider-bit, poke at your woodpile with your walking staff or use a long handle cultivator rake to pull the fire-logs out.

 

I use roofing shingles left over from doing my roof. But i do nor have termites in my area .

 

Are you sure that there are no manufacturers of tiny winter coats for termites?

Seems this termite found one: