Firewood

The weather turned cold, the snow fell, and we ran out of firewood.  Completely out.  I figured we were about 2 cords short when I was cutting over the summer.  So, I cut some of the standing dead trees on our property and that got us by for a few days.  My neighbor told me that I could have all the dead wood on his property.  Most of that wood looks like it had been lying on the ground for years and is way to rotten.  So we cut a little over there that I knew was good and surveyed the rest.  It looks like there could be 8-12 cords of good cherry and ash.

I began the day deciding to cut down the 8 foot maple stump that was in the backyard.  We cut down the tree 3 years ago and the stump was through the deck, so it couldn't come down until now.  After cutting through, it took the tractor to push the stump over.  Once I got the log cut into firewood length pieces, that's when the fun began.  The logs were too heavy for the tractor to pick up with the bucket, so I brought the log splitter over, however, the logs were to heavy to maneuver under the splitter.  The next option was to cut the logs in half.  That effort resulted in a ruined chain when I hit an embedded nail in the log.  At that point I decided to bring out the old fashioned splitter, a sledge hammer and a wedge.  Another fruitless attempt.

Feeling totally defeated, I gathered everything up and walked away.  I wasted a whole day trying to split 4 maple logs, 40 inches in diameter.  I grabbed my chainsaw, crossed the creek, and started cutting the downed trees on my neighbor's property.  The first logs I cut into were starting to get punky, but still burnable.  Then I found several good loads of cherry and ash.  I carried one 8 foot log across the creek with me on my way back to get the 4-wheeler.  At 6:30 PM, I finally had a load of wood in the house, enough wood to get through until tomorrow evening.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get 6-8 loads cut and hauled across the creek before I start work.

There are two lessons learned today

1. Cut more wood than you think you'll use.  Cutting wood in the snow and cold, when there is no more wood in the house is not fun.
2. Don't overlook the dead trees in the woods.  80% of the logs I cut into that I thought were rotten, were actually solid, seasoned wood.