Marc's Sunday or: cutting trees without landing them on the parents' sunroom

[Marc]

That- is a lot of wood.

As far as woodsheds go... I just go wtih the cheapest system possible, which involves using junk planks and logs on the ground on which to stack firewood... And I cover with a tarp (usually the $7 variety from Ocean State Job Lot) the wood I plan on using in the next two months - the whole season.

I bring in about two weeks worth of wood at a time for my woodbox in the garage with the tractor and wood wagon.

 

[from_the_NEK]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc
I have had some yellow birch be absolutely horrible and some really good to split. A lot depends on the wood.

Wait until we've had a few consecutive very cold days. Wood that's frozen through is much easier to split.

The tree was completely frozen on the stump (I cut it down in single digit temps). Many times the butt piece is the hardest to split no matter what kind of wood it is since the grain is twisting into the root system. I split a couple pieces from the other end of the tree and they cracked pretty easily.

Plan C: Wait until it is 25 degrees below zero. Bingo! Stump piece cracks fairly easily reqiring only 3 swings to split it :-D. I guess I just didn't let it freeze enough.

 

[Marc]

Plan C: Wait until it is 25 degrees below zero. Bingo! Stump piece cracks fairly easily reqiring only 3 swings to split it :-D. I guess I just didn't let it freeze enough.

Nice... I've been tackling that 32" dead elm I took down. That's splitting with the rash of cold weather we have but still is a bigger pain than anything else I've ever split. The first couple swings the maul will sink about 1/2" to 1" like it hit a sponge. If you can manage to hit the same exact spot three times in a row, and the round it small enough, it'll pop. Anything over ~16" diameter and I had to use a wedge. Tough stuff. At least there's enough of it, I'll probably get a month and a half out of this one tree.