Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: Marc St Louis on April 09, 2014, 12:23:55 pm
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After several years away I moved back to my old house in the country last Summer. Because of the renos I didn't have time to cut any firewood, heat with wood here, so we had to buy our Winters supply. We have 300 acres so access to firewood is not a problem and that is what I was doing over the Winter months, I used my old Ski Doo and a double bunk sleigh. Most of what I cut was Red Maple with some White Birch, Black Ash and a bit of Poplar. Here's some pictures of what I cut.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/MSC/Wood/House1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/MSC/Wood/House2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/MSC/Wood/House3.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/MSC/Wood/House4.jpg)
The rows in the second pic are 2 deep while the ones in the last pic are 3 deep. All are about 6' high. We should have at least 2 years supply.
Then there was the shop firewood. Don't need as much for the shop but still need about 1 1/2 bush cords. Much of what I cut for the shop came from the tops of the trees.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/MSC/Wood/Shop1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/MSC/Wood/Shop2.jpg)
Of course I had to take advantage of the trials and get some bow wood
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/MSC/Wood/BowWood.jpg)
The 2 logs on the left are Rock Maple and the 2 on the right are Elm. Both trees were about 8" in diameter and the logs are at least 6' long.
The Deer really appreciated the buds from the Maple and Birch, they were not fussy about the Ash, and cleaned up the branches. I made sure to cut the hanging branches down so they would have access to them.
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youve definitely been busy
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Yes Sir you've been busy. Nice lot of wood you cut there. Way to get prepared early for next year. I need to do the same. dp
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Nice pile of wood,if you are like I was when I heated with wood,that ant near enough yet and with the winters yall have I feel sure it will take much more for you than for me.
Pappy
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Nice pile of wood,if you are like I was when I heated with wood,that ant near enough yet and with the winters yall have I feel sure it will take much more for you than for me.
Pappy
It's more than enough Mark. There's about 30 trees of wood in the stacked piles or about 10 bush cords. We heat with one of the new high efficiency wood stoves and have gone through just under 4 cords so far this year. There's still a couple more trees coming down around the house that were seriously damaged in a micro burst we had last Summer.
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That's a fine lot of fire wood. Should be good to go next winter! Almost enough to put Burn um up Chuck in a frenzy to use it up. I am down to my last layer in the wood shed which hasn't happened in 10 years! Its still below freezing each morning here so still using the wood! Joe
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Marc, how does the poplar burn. We heat strictly with wood and I prefer red oak but use white oak, locust(sparingly), maple(hard and red), sourwood, some birch but I have not tried poplar. We have lots of it here though.
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We have a lot of poplar too. It works great to get the real btu wood going.
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Poplar is good but burns quite a bit faster than dense wood and doesn't make a lot of coals. This is good during the day or on warm days, at night it's strictly Maple though. I find this new stove builds up coals a bit too fast so a wood that doesn't produce a lot of coals is a good thing especially in the morning when the stove is full of coals from the nights burn. I don't cut a lot of it but like to have some on hand.
We are still getting below freezing temps at night up here as well Joe. The days are decent though.
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We were below freezing last night but those temps are happening less and less. Our days are getting to the upper 60s and low 70s.
I think I'll cut a poplar an try it next fall. It would be good for mornings and cold rainy days. Red oak for the long cold nights.
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When I heated with wood I did the same. Popple on the warm days oak for the rest. Looks like you have been busy.
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Now how did I know there would be some bow wood too? ::) :laugh:
Del
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I hear in the old days of wood fired kitchen stoves that sassafras was a summer time favorite because it turned to ash rather than coals and didn't keep the kitchen hot all day. And it loves to burn, another gooder to get them oak logs going. dp
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Up here they cautioned against burning Tamarack because it was said to melt stoves.
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Locust will do the same thing down here, Marc. I don't mind a little locust but I don't like to burn too much.
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I like to mix it up if I have that kind of option. A little of this a little of that and like was already said, some is better for cold nights and some is better if the days get warmer. You all know that though if you've heated w/ wood long enough. ;) dp
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I've used a lot of different wood types, yes even Tamarack. Can't say I have come close to melting a stove with it but I did see my old stove glow once or twice while burning the stuff. There was an article in a Harrowsmith magazine years ago that said you could sustainably heat your house on 1 acre of Poplar by rotation cutting, maybe 500 miles South of where we live you could. Up here you would need 5 or 6 acres of Poplar and even then it would be touch and go
I looked at quite a few Maple before selecting the one I cut Del, I am very picky. The Elm I had been watching for many years. I noticed last year that some of the Elm were starting to die around this one so I figured I had better cut it before I lose it to disease.
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I have been burning wood for comfort for fifty plus.
But I got a story.
One day I was going by John's house. He was an old widower
we all sorta kept an eye on. He lived remote and had been burning wood since childhood. He was close to 90.
When I saw him it looked like he was having trouble with his chainsaw.
I went back to see if I could help. He was his stoic self I think, feigned help.
I guess I smoozed him a bit and he handed me the saw.
But there was this weird noise coming from his dwelling.
I asked him if he heard it? He said no, what are you talkin about.
I walked forwards and back and deduced that the high pitched noise was coming from his front door, which was open. I asked him to come with me. Again I asked can you hear that, as we approached the door. No was the reply.
When I entered the house it must have been a Swedish Dream.
All I would have had to do would be throw some water on the wood burning stove
that had a pegged thermometer at max 500.degrees.
I asked again, what is that noise John? He said, " I don't hear a noise".
I swearer I was at a loss until I looked behind a photograph of his mother in the bedroom .
That is where I found the first of three blareing smoke detectors.
Zuma
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Nice bunch of rounds you have stacked. Are you going to split them all soon? I can appreciate the amount of work that takes. I cut/split between 10-11 cords each year to keep my family and my older inlaws supplied. We have a gas furnace, but try to heat as much as we can with our Jotul fireplace insert. My inlaws heat similarly. I always scavenge wood where I can...from tree cutters in town, to blowdowns along fields, etc. It's a lot easier than cutting stuff up in the woods. I'm not picky about what it is if I can get it with minimal work. Sumac, poplar, sassafras, and even slightly punky wood are fine by me if I can get it easily...just so long as it's not pine/pitchy. I got lucky recently and have been cutting up mostly locust and some hackberry trees that a neighbor had taken down, which will probably get me to 8 split cords. I'll get the rest from few more girdled locust trees that should have a jump start on drying. Being mostly good, hard locust, this will be the nicest firewood we've had in a few years. I love burning wood, but man it is a lot of work.
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We burn firewood as well.
Most winters we burn somewhere between two to four cords of wood.
About all I ever cut is standing, dead oak.
We have an old, 40 to 50 year old, fireplace insert. It is not an effecient burner at all.
However, If you feed it it will pump out some heat. ;)
A few years back something came threw here and started killing the hickory trees.
No where close to all of them. 25% would be a good guess
Cut two out of the front yard last year got a 30+ inch diameter hickory in the back yard to cut this year.
Pat B. I have always preferred White Oak over Red Oak. ;)
David
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When you guys say "cord" are you all talking face/single cord or bush cord?
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Approx 4'x4'x8'. My cords are a bit short of a cord because my logs are cut to 18" to 20" long and not 24".
I usually burn between 4 and 6 cords each winter. Wood is our primary heat. We did build our house passive solar so when the sun shines the house heats itself and we stoke the stove as the sun goes down, before we go to bed and again first thing in the morning.
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hey joe, no frenzy needed, even with the restrictions I've been put on(one log per hr) I could make short work of those stacks >:D >:D O:)