Wood Stoves

[caleb]

36 degrees today tugged me out into the woods.

I went after some red oak deadfall that had been down for long enough to take off the bark and rot away the sapwood.

How it started:



How it went:



How it ended:

[j44ke]

How many trips out with the sled for that stack?

Your dog has the best grin.

[caleb]

How many trips out with the sled for that stack?

Your dog has the best grin.

I usually lose count of trips, but I think it takes about 10 sleds to fill a truck.

Yesterday I made the mistake of underestimating how hard it would be to fill a truck with red oak by sledding it out about 150 yards on a swamp.



I wore snowshoes, and the first haul out breaking trail was pretty brutal. By then I'd already bucked a log and felt like I needed to follow through hauling it out.



It was two below when I left the house, and it maybe got to five above while I was working. I was working in a sweatshirt and sweat from inside the helmet kept freezing in the face screen.



We headed home pretty beat, resigned to wait for spring to cut more wood, hopefully in a spot with vehicle access.

[72gmc]

That’s an honest day’s work!

[j44ke]

I was going to say - the satisfaction of beating yourself up in the cold to get warm!

[Tom]

To me there's something very primal and satisfying to cut wood for burning to keep warm. I enjoy it. I can't stand to cut trees or hear trees cut where I live now because its not for that.

[caleb]

Started today helping a friend clean up some storm damage.



Spent the afternoon working on some maple.





Went for a swim.

[lumpy]

That looks like a Park Tool peavey. Do they call it the PV-1?

[j44ke]

Is that lower trunk rot a thing in maples? I've cut up three like that.

[caleb]

Is that lower trunk rot a thing in maples? I've cut up three like that.

I'm not sure.

My theory is that these trees were about 50 yards from a turnoff on some state forest land, and people liked to pin targets to them. I suspect the bullets created tunnels that allowed water in and started the rot.

When I first dropped the trees down with cuts near the breaks, I hit a bunch of bullets. I ended up cutting out the bottom six feet or so and leaving them since I didn't especially want to bring them home with me.



Not cool, and I was glad I brought an extra chain along.

Everything above about six feet was solid with no rot.

[j44ke]

I'm not sure.

My theory is that these trees were about 50 yards from a turnoff on some state forest land, and people liked to pin targets to them. I suspect the bullets created tunnels that allowed water in and started the rot.

When I first dropped the trees down with cuts near the breaks, I hit a bunch of bullets. I ended up cutting out the bottom six feet or so and leaving them since I didn't especially want to bring them home with me.

...

Not cool, and I was glad I brought an extra chain along.

Everything above about six feet was solid with no rot.

That's really interesting. I hadn't even considered something like this.

[caleb]

That's really interesting. I hadn't even considered something like this.

I wonder if you might get something similar if woodpeckers or some other boring animal really went after a tree.

[Todd Amunrud]

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Neighbor had a huge old river birch taken down. Our sauna stove takes up to 14”. Split and stack then slab the rest with the chainsaw mill for possibly our kitchen cabinets. Hoping to do a large remodel in 4 years.

[Todd Amunrud]

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The Fiskar splitting axe is awesome

[caleb]

How it started.





How it's going.

[rwsaunders]

Amazing that nobody was hurt, as that's a decent size tree.

[j44ke]

Must have made a sound. Looks like the crumpled conduit might have burned. Was this from the storms yesterday now approaching our area? Rot in lower trunk? Both?

[caleb]

Must have made a sound. Looks like the crumpled conduit might have burned. Was this from the storms yesterday now approaching our area? Rot in lower trunk? Both?

It did wake us up at about 2am. Localized winds of 60mph were reported, and the base of the trunk had a spot that was about 1/3 rotted where it broke.

A neighbor said he saw flames shooting out of the electrical mast before it shorted everyone on our pole (sorry neighbors). Thank goodness for stucco or we very well might have had a house fire.

We ended up without power for about 48 hours, which was much shorter than it could have been. A fix like this is a four step process of getting the electrical company there to drop the line; getting the tree cleared; getting an electrician out to fix the mast; and then getting the power company back to put the line back up. You can imagine that on the last Sunday in August there aren't exactly electricians watching their phones waiting for you to call. Fortunately, family called in a favor to get someone to do our mast, and I was able to remove the tree.

I think this was the nudge/shove we needed to get the power line buried. Downed trees are one thing, but power lines are a different sort of problem.

[caleb]

Amazing that nobody was hurt, as that's a decent size tree.

Talking with a neighbor who's been around since the 70s, it turns out that's only half of it. The other half of the V went in the 90s, which is why the stump is c-shaped.

For scale, the bar on the saw is 20". If that's only half the stump, then this was originally a pretty good sized boxelder.

Our lot has lost three large trees over the past 15 years or so, and now it's really time to get replanting.

[caleb]