Harvesting Firewood - Timing, felling, decking, rounding, stacking
If you live in the norther hemisphere this is the time of year that you will be burning last years hard work. It is also the time that you should start working on next years firewood supply. During fall, the trees prepared for the cold winter to come by absorbing the energy that was stored in their leaves and needles, back into the heart of the wood. This causes a higher BTU content in the wood due to the increased level of sap. It is therefor best to fell the trees after they have dropped all of their foliage, and before the new spring growth starts - if you are harvesting deciduous trees it is also less messy to harvest in winter.
Once I fell the trees I plan on burning next winter, I cut them into logs that are equally divisible by the length of the rounds I want. A standard measurement for a round is 16" but I personally cut at 15" - therefor the logs you see above are 10' (120"/15" = 8 rounders per log). If you prefer the standard 16" round then log lengths could be 8' or 12'. These logs are then decked on 4x4s to keep them off of the ground. I can then round them when I have time throughout the season. A TIP that I learned the hot way - deck your logs in a place that will be shaded during the summer. Most of the time I am rounding and or splitting my logs in June when the days can be quite warm.
This is the technique I have discovered that I prefer when stacking my rounds to keep them off the ground before I split them. Try to place the larger diameter rounds on the bottom, decreasing the size as you build up. I can get about a full cord per pallet (these are 4'x6' pallets). This style of stacking also allows me to stack high without the need of building corners or pounding T-posts into the ground to keep the rounds from rolling off.
Do not split in the sun if you have the option... HOT!!!
Plan ahead so that you will be splitting in the shade. You will be thankful that you did.
Or better yet, borrow a hydraulic splitter from a friend. This one is a DIY home-build unit that attaches into the hydraulic system of my tractor. It was the first season I used it and I am now too spoiled to go back to hand splitting the whole winter supply.
I highly recommend stacking your hard earned wood on pallets to keep them off of the ground. I also drive 8' T-posts every 3 pallets. This replaces the need of "building corners" to keep your rows stable. Another tip that I learned, from my dad, a few seasons ago to improve stability, is to lay small diameter "jumper pieces" between parallel rows and stack wood on top of them to tie the rows together. This is done every 3 feet or so along the row at about 2 and 4 foot heights.
And enjoy the fruits of your labor during these long cold winter nights.
This is not necessarily the most efficient way of harvesting and processing firewood, but it works well for me. It keeps the wood well preserved, gives it proper time to cure and allows me to process it as I can without feeling crunched for time. If you would be interested in any tutorials, possibly video tutorials of how to fell, please up-vote and leave a reply telling me what you would be interested in. Thank you for reading!
I would love to see more posts on dealing with wood, heat, insulation or whatever. I would love to have a source of info to send people to. Anyone interested in my foraging posts could probably use your posts too.
Thank you for the feedback @fernowl! I can certainly do more! I will be felling some trees here soon and would like to make a video. I also did an air ducting project earlier this year to help circulate the wood heat through out the house. Maybe that could be something worth while to talk about also. I look forward to your foraging posts as I would love to learn more on the subject!
I try to post at least one foraging or perennial food growing post per day. Might miss a day here and there, but I try for daily.
I would love to learn more about your ducting project. My husband and I were working on plans for a system to attach to all the sun facing windows that could easily convert to a thermal heat source in winter and a heat blocking system in summer. But he passed away before we had everything worked out. I am visually impaired so the chances of me finishing the project are slim. Perhaps someday, when you have nothing to do, (yes I know that is funny) I could tell you the basics and let you see if it is workable? I would love to see the bugs worked out of it and plans drawn up to help others reduce their heating and cooling costs. The more people we can help get away from the power companies, the better.
That sounds like a really neat project with some great potential! I would love to hear more about it!!!
Basically it would be an open sided wooden box that would fit over the entire window and be attached with hinges on one side.
There would be two removable inside sections. One white to reflect heat, one black to absorb heat, depending on the time of year.
The bottom of the box would be on hinges also, allowing you to open the bottom to draw in air from inside the house. Near the top would be another hinged part that could be opened to allow the heated air out into the house. (hot air rises)
It would work best with windows that could open from top and bottom so they could be opened a inch or two during the hottest time of the year, creating an inflow for cooler air rising and being pushed back outside after it is heated, rather than being allowed to build up inside the box and warm the house.
I thought it would also need a peep hole or a hinged area to allow you to look outside if you heard something, but Larry thought I was being silly, lol.
We played around with different ideas that we never had time to physically try out. I could see in the winter, adding a set of black painted metal pipes to absorb heat and let it rise to go out the top would probably be helpful, but not 100% necessary if you live in mild climates.
The box could have insulation, especially for summer months, but in milder climates simply using a heavy weight cotton fabric of white and black would probably absorb and reflect enough.
For the outside, I had planned to do decorative painting, but it could be finished with corner rounds and such, then sanded, stained and varnished for a more natural look.
The idea came about because the front of my house faces directly west. In the summer it gets fairly hot in Atlanta. We had hung some heavy decorative throws across those windows because my son and DIL work nights and sleep in the day. It helped but is was getting so hot in those windows that the blinds literally melted and were turning brown like they almost caught fire.
It would not have to be a very deep box. I thought probably about 4 inches for the first try. That would mean it could probably be made with only 2 sheets of ply wood and a few hinges. But I have severe vision problems and power tools are beyond my abilities.
If it is something you think might help you and your family, please, by all means go for it. There might be a better solution out there, but this one is cheap enough it need to at least be tried.
Hard work but so worth it! Beautiful pictures, and the hydraulic splitter is so cool!! Great tutorial, and yes to felling tutorials please!!
Thank you @karenfoster! The pictures are personally my favorite part ;) And YES! I will do the felling video tutorial. Will be my first video; Fun! Thank you for following and commenting ❤️
We bought 10 cord of 8 ft lengths this year, my husband sawed it into rounds and split half by hand, half with a log splitter. We didn't plan ahead, wood heat is relatively new to us, but the wood seems relatively dry. Learning as we go! At least we'll have lots of dry wood for next year
Planning certainly is paramount! I learned the hard way ;) Haha. If you have your wood for next year under a tarp, be sure to "let it breath" from time to time by taking the tarp of during sunny weather. Otherwise you can get a lot of mild growth and some of the wood in the center might not fully dry - I learned this the hard way also... lol
Thanks for tips :)
Love this One!!!
Great pics and especially love the last one... dog's all tuckered out!
After all the hard work he did supervising me through the process ;) Haha Thanks!
Excellent post and I love the looks of that hydraulic splitter! Nothing makes mommy happy more than stacks of firewood. I cut it, she burns it.
I fought using one for many years and now I am hooked! Leave it to a farmer friend to build one like it in his shop :) And same here; I harvest, she burns. Is a perfect arrangement!
Nothing like enjoying the warmth of wood burning that you cut yourself. Nice job!
I am enjoying it at this moment as I cruise @Steemit :) Almost a little too warm at the moment, if that is a thing Haha - Love burning maple!
it's fascinating, all of the planning that goes into this. makes sense, though, considering that you're heating a space that you're living in. you want as little smoke into the house as possible, and the most warmth you can get.
I have had some cold winters before getting my system down and PLANNING ;) There is no switch or thermostat to turn up when out of dry wood.
Stacking is one of the things that looks so easy but can be disasterous when it isn't done right, eh? Stacks falling down in a storm in the middle of winter is the worst!
I love it!!! I have a lot of cinder blocks laying around to! What a great way to stack your rounds!
It really makes a difference. The rounds that are left on the ground with the sawn side down never seem to dry completely and I so prefer to chop them dry.
Love the splitter! We have one that looks almost exactly like yours and it totally changes the world! I can do the splitting instead of my man having to do all but the smaller rounds.