Thursday, October 13, 2011

Cutting firewood

A few days ago, even though we weren't quite finished with our busy season, we found ourselves with a few hours free while the tankards were drying. What should we do with those few free hours? Quick, let's cut some firewood!

The days have been getting colder and it's time to use the woodstove, but up to this point the only wood we had to burn was scrap wood from the shop... which, while it burns hot, also burns too quick for long-term warmth. We needed some logs to make a decent fire.

So Don tuned up the chainsaw...


...and started cutting.


Within fifteen minutes or so, he'd cut enough rounds for about half a cord of wood. He was astonished by how quick it was to cut wood when the logs are stacked like this.


Then we pulled the wood splitter around, and he and I took turns splitting wood.


We also discovered a yellow jacket nest in the maul portion of the splitter. This would have been a more distressing discovery if the wasps weren't sluggish with cold. As it turned out, they were the ones in distress because every time one crawled out of the splitter, it got, well, splitted. Or splatted.


Took about an hour to split the whole pile.


After this, it was the girls' task to stack the wood on the porch.


We'll do a lot more splitting this month, but for the moment it sure is nice to have a stack of firewood within easy reach!

10 comments:

  1. Wow just amazing what was accomplished in a short amount of time. Your family works like a well oiled machine.

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  2. Do you ever worry about termites getting in your house with wood that close? Just curious.

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  3. And here I thought that when he was talking in his article about waiting until it was snowing to cut firewood, it was tongue-in-cheek. LOL
    So how many times did this one warm ya?
    -G

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  4. Sorry, but I will not be letting my wife see this post! Makes my hours of labor look pretty dismal. LOL. by the way I'm not really sure I like ya'll anymore;)
    Happy burning and here's to the warm glow of a fire.
    Jealous,
    Reno Redneck

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  5. Nothing feels richer than a big shed full of good wood!

    A. McSp

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  6. those wood splitters are worth their weight in nickels these days...when hubby and i did firewood we did not have access to splitter and we always ended up taking days instead of hours to get the job done. we ended up changing out our wood fireplace into one that used propane gas logs for as we have gotten older it became too dangerous to chance the ice to haul in an armful of wood. with that load of wood you have you oughta stay warm for a good long while.

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  7. Anon 2:14, the wood isn't stacked against the house long enough to attract termites. We use about six cords of wood per winter, so the woodpile is always in flux. Plus wood is only stacked on the porch during colder months when termite activity is likely to be virtually nonexistent. So we're safe!

    - Patrice

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  8. Hi Patrice, I'm glad you brought up firewood and your stove. I have been meaning to drop a note to you and ask if you can recommend a brand of wood stove that you like. We will be building a new house soon and I want to install one as a backup.

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  9. Anon 7:38, I'm afraid I can't recommend a brand of woodstove because our only woodstove is an antique parlor stove made in 1926 or so. (Here's a primer on our woodstove: http://www.rural-revolution.com/2011/01/heating-with-wood.html )

    The newer woodstoves have all sorts of fancy features ours doesn't have, but truthfully they're also more efficient and clean. Probably your best bet is to visit two or three woodstove stores and get recommendations. I say two or three because that way you'll hear sales pushes from different salesmen, and if they're all pushing the same brand, there's probably a reason. Also, get on Amazon or Consumer Reports and read reviews. Good luck!

    - Patrice

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  10. Anon 7:38, you could also try checking out www.lehmans.com.They have a pretty good variety of wood stoves.

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