# 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 Firewood



## Zack (Jan 30, 2014)

I bought a load of log length that will hopefully last me through the next 2 burning seasons.  It came yesterday and here are the pics to prove it.  Now it's time to give my Husky and Fiskars a workout!


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## gzecc (Jan 30, 2014)

Nice looking stuff. Mix of oak, maple and ash?


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## Zack (Jan 30, 2014)

gzecc said:


> Nice looking stuff. Mix of oak, maple and ash?


 
The logger that dropped it off said it was mostly oak with a bit of maple and hickory.  This is just my 2nd year of wood burning so I'm not too good at recognizing wood type without leaves on it.


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## paul bunion (Jan 30, 2014)

First log load for you?   Looks like fun.          You are going to be buried in chips and saw dust come Saturday afternoon.


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## woodsman416 (Jan 30, 2014)

That should do it!


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## Zack (Jan 30, 2014)

paul bunion said:


> First log load for you?   Looks like fun.          You are going to be buried in chips and saw dust come Saturday afternoon.


 
Not exactly, last year I bought 4 cords of 8' logs from a tree service that were delivered in 2 dump truck loads.  Those logs were bigger in diameter and more knotty than these so I'm looking forward to working up this load since these look easier to split.  This is the first time I got a grapple truck load.


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## Missouri Frontier (Jan 30, 2014)

welcome to the forum Zack. Nice load. pretty straight looking stuff. a couple hours with the Fiskers ought to be very rewarding.


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## ErikR (Jan 30, 2014)

Very nice! I've been considering doing about the same thing. There's a rural newspaper that gets stuffed in the mailbox weekly. In the want-ad section there's always a listing for 8' long Oak, 10 cord minimum, truck load @$55 a cord + delivery (52 miles away), discount given for multiple loads. I've been tempted to call. Maybe this spring, before any road restrictions go on, but after the 3' of snow in the yard starts to melt. I have no where to put it right now.


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## gzecc (Jan 30, 2014)

Zack said:


> The logger that dropped it off said it was mostly oak with a bit of maple and hickory.  This is just my 2nd year of wood burning so I'm not too good at recognizing wood type without leaves on it.


 
Try to id the oak, its not hard with a little knowlege. I would separate it. It will be your slowest seasoning wood.


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## velvetfoot (Jan 30, 2014)

Is that a paved driveway  ?


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## shoot-straight (Jan 30, 2014)

gzecc said:


> Try to id the oak, its not hard with a little knowlege. I would separate it. It will be your slowest seasoning wood.



x2


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## NH_Wood (Jan 30, 2014)

Looks great and good luck processing. I haven't had a log load to cut yet - perhaps someday - I think I'd ask for one more bottom support log in the middle to make it easier to buck along the length. Cheers!


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## Bad Wolf (Jan 30, 2014)

Welcome Zack.. Where are you in CT? I've been looking for some log length wood.  What did he nick you for that?


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## Zack (Jan 30, 2014)

Bad Wolf said:


> Welcome Zack.. Where are you in CT? I've been looking for some log length wood.  What did he nick you for that?


 
Thanks Greg, I'm in Hebron.  Where are you located?  I paid $750 for this load, which is advertised as 7-8 cords.  Seemed like a fair price to me given other ads I've found for log length in the area.


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## Bad Wolf (Jan 30, 2014)

We're neighbors!! I’m in Colchester.
Normally I’m a scrounger but I’ve been struggling to get a couple years ahead so I might just bite the bullet and buy a load.


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## WiscWoody (Jan 30, 2014)

As your neighbors watch out their window wandering if you've gone off the deep end... And their thinking,  what the heck is he doing with all of that wood!! Does he have some sort of paper mill over there or WHAT?


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## WiscWoody (Jan 30, 2014)

I haven't seen a paved driveway in a long, long time!


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## Backwoods Savage (Jan 30, 2014)

Welcome to the forum Zack. 

You'll like cutting that wood and splitting too. Good that he laid down some logs to stack on as it will make your work easier. The only thing I would warn is that most times it takes oak 3 years to dry good and I would think in your area it would take this long. This is one more reason to get on the 3 year plan; 3 years ahead always solves over 90% of wood burning problems.


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## mustash29 (Jan 30, 2014)

Too dark to take pics + my pc is rather sick right now so I can't post them anyway but.....

Called a CL add last night, an excavation contractor in Stonington who is working on clearing land for a 12 unit subdivision.  Fresh cut green oak, cut & delivered for 85 per cord.  Ordered 10 cord.  He was here at 4pm, 5pm & 6 pm already.

The log length guys in this area are usually 100 - 110 per cord.

This guy is based out of Danielson:  http://newlondon.craigslist.org/grd/4302192492.html


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## velvetfoot (Jan 30, 2014)

hermancm said:


> I haven't seen a paved driveway in a long, long time!


I was asking Zack.  Those outriggers can do a number.


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## paul bunion (Jan 30, 2014)

velvetfoot said:


> I was asking Zack.  Those outriggers can do a number.


The truck outriggers?  My guy usually one of the 6x6 pieces that I have lying about for a cushion.   One time he didn't.     I now have a souvenir dent in my driveway and I always make sure there is a piece of 6x6 lying there for him.


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## velvetfoot (Jan 30, 2014)

I've heard of steel plates too, but I don't think my guy has them.  I have mine delivered out by the road so it's not a factor.  I have had them delivered off the driveway in the past, however, the driveway was gravel then.  There are some advantages to gravel.


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## WiscWoody (Jan 30, 2014)

Since it's cold when the outriggers are deployed hopefully they won't do too much damage.


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## Zack (Jan 31, 2014)

velvetfoot said:


> I was asking Zack.  Those outriggers can do a number.


 
Yes, it's a paved driveway.  Fortunately no dents were left, probably since the ground was frozen.


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## Zack (Jan 31, 2014)

Backwoods Savage said:


> Welcome to the forum Zack.
> 
> You'll like cutting that wood and splitting too. Good that he laid down some logs to stack on as it will make your work easier. The only thing I would warn is that most times it takes oak 3 years to dry good and I would think in your area it would take this long. This is one more reason to get on the 3 year plan; 3 years ahead always solves over 90% of wood burning problems.


 
I'd love to get 3+ years ahead, but I have to ease my wife into having more wood stacked in the yard.  She thinks I'm crazy for getting this much wood now!  I need to get it stacked up nice and tidy so it doesn't look like such an "eyesore" to her.  We only have 1 acre that slopes down from front to back.  I don't want to stack wood in the back yard since I don't have anything but a wheelbarrow to bring it up to the house when needed.  Now I stack it along the side property line so I only need to move it about 50' into the house to burn.


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## Zack (Jan 31, 2014)

mustash29 said:


> Too dark to take pics + my pc is rather sick right now so I can't post them anyway but.....
> 
> Called a CL add last night, an excavation contractor in Stonington who is working on clearing land for a 12 unit subdivision.  Fresh cut green oak, cut & delivered for 85 per cord.  Ordered 10 cord.  He was here at 4pm, 5pm & 6 pm already.
> 
> ...


 
Wow, $85 a cord is a great price.  Nice score!

I called JP Bernier too and left a message on his voicemail.  Then I missed his call back and his message cut out about halfway through so I didn't get any pricing info.  I called him back and left another message but haven't heard anything from him since then.


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## Zack (Jan 31, 2014)

Bad Wolf said:


> We're neighbors!! I’m in Colchester.
> Normally I’m a scrounger but I’ve been struggling to get a couple years ahead so I might just bite the bullet and buy a load.


 
Wow, small world!  I'd love to be able to scrounge wood, but I don't have a truck.


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## mustash29 (Jan 31, 2014)

Just tell the wife you are going to build a property line privacy fence out of single row stacks.

A square acre is 208 x 208.  Stack that 4' high with 18" splits and you have 39 cord, minus whatever width you leave open for a driveway.


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## mustash29 (Jan 31, 2014)

Yeah, score for sure.  A co-worked just filled up with oil @ 3.72 / gal.  My 10 cord for 850 = 228 gal at those prices.  10 cord will last me 2+ winters.


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## Zack (Jan 31, 2014)

mustash29 said:


> Yeah, score for sure.  A co-worked just filled up with oil @ 3.72 / gal.  My 10 cord for 850 = 228 gal at those prices.  10 cord will last me 2+ winters.


 
My cousin has a big Victorian house and she told me last week that she already burned over 500 gal of oil this winter(she has two 350 gal tanks)!  I'd hate to get the oil bill to fill those tanks.  I filled up my oil tank last June and used about 150 gal since then, mainly for hot water.  I'm glad I burn wood!


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## Cascade Failure (Feb 1, 2014)

Zack said:


> My cousin has a big Victorian house and she told me last week that she already burned over 500 gal of oil this winter(she has two 350 gal tanks)!  I'd hate to get the oil bill to fill those tanks.  I filled up my oil tank last June and used about 150 gal since then, mainly for hot water.  I'm glad I burn wood!



Years ago I rented an old Victorian in Norwich; a big, poorly insulated place. I had to fill the 275 gal oil tank every three weeks! I was so happy to get out of there.


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## Backwoods Savage (Feb 2, 2014)

Zack said:


> I'd love to get 3+ years ahead, but I have to ease my wife into having more wood stacked in the yard.  She thinks I'm crazy for getting this much wood now!  I need to get it stacked up nice and tidy so it doesn't look like such an "eyesore" to her.  We only have 1 acre that slopes down from front to back.  I don't want to stack wood in the back yard since I don't have anything but a wheelbarrow to bring it up to the house when needed.  Now I stack it along the side property line so I only need to move it about 50' into the house to burn.



I understand with some people why the ladies don't like the wood stacks but I've also found that just the mention of a wood pile turns them off. For some odd reason they have a strange way of looking at things. Personally neither my wife nor I find a nice wood pill unsightly. 

Would your wife find these to be ugly? Of course, minus those few splits that weren't yet picked up before the picture was taken.


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## mustash29 (Feb 2, 2014)

My oh my, that is sexier than a girly magazine.


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## bmblank (Feb 2, 2014)

You're looking at the wrong girly magazines...


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## Zack (Feb 3, 2014)

Backwoods Savage said:


> I understand with some people why the ladies don't like the wood stacks but I've also found that just the mention of a wood pile turns them off. For some odd reason they have a strange way of looking at things. Personally neither my wife nor I find a nice wood pill unsightly.
> 
> Would your wife find these to be ugly? Of course, minus those few splits that weren't yet picked up before the picture was taken.
> 
> ...


 
Those stacks look much better than the mess of logs, rounds and splits in our yard now.  I spent about 8 hours this weekend cutting and splitting and hardly made a dent in the log pile.  Hopefully she will appreciate the stacks more once the yard is cleaned up.


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## WiscWoody (Feb 3, 2014)

Years ago I got tired of wearing the skirt and the wife the pants. I left for the house in the great northwoods, got two loyal dogs and life has been soo much nicer since., lol


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## velvetfoot (Feb 3, 2014)

Key word:  loyal.


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## Zack (May 14, 2014)

I finally got most of the truckload of wood processed.  It took me longer than I expected, 50+ hours to cut, split and stack 7.5 cords.  The back 4 rows are red oak and the first 2 rows are mostly hickory and a bit of another species unknown to me.  The pile of knotty pieces on the end will have to wait until I can beg, borrow or rent a splitter since they just laughed at my Fiskars.  I raked up 14 wheelbarrow loads of chips from cutting.  Hopefully the grass will come back eventually!


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## Bwhunter85 (May 14, 2014)

Nice looking stacks!   A lot of work went into that!


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## Missouri Frontier (May 14, 2014)

Zack said:


> I finally got most of the truckload of wood processed.  It took me longer than I expected, 50+ hours to cut, split and stack 7.5 cords.  The back 4 rows are red oak and the first 2 rows are mostly hickory and a bit of another species unknown to me.  The pile of knotty pieces on the end will have to wait until I can beg, borrow or rent a splitter since they just laughed at my Fiskars.  I raked up 14 wheelbarrow loads of chips from cutting.  Hopefully the grass will come back eventually!


 

the grass will return. great job Zack. I'm sure your T5 will love all that good wood. your stacks look nice. Thanks for the pics.


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## Missouri Frontier (May 14, 2014)

Backwoods Savage said:


> I understand with some people why the ladies don't like the wood stacks but I've also found that just the mention of a wood pile turns them off. For some odd reason they have a strange way of looking at things. Personally neither my wife nor I find a nice wood pill unsightly.
> 
> Would your wife find these to be ugly? Of course, minus those few splits that weren't yet picked up before the picture was taken.
> 
> ...


 
Dennis, mine sqeaked about the wood pile at first. then the wood heat comma set in and that shut her up for awhile. funny, she doesn't complain about the wood pile in the winter. go figure.


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## HybridFyre (May 14, 2014)

That's awesome. I'm not far from you, i'm in North Stonington. I think i'll definitely get a log log to try and get ahead as scrounging is allowing me to barely get a years worth since i'm burning about 4-5 cord a year. Having a 2 year old doesn't help. Thanks for the pricing info, i was wondering what prices would be around here.


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## WiscWoody (May 14, 2014)

Ooh! Yummy wood porn there!


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## Zack (May 14, 2014)

HybridFyre said:


> That's awesome. I'm not far from you, i'm in North Stonington. I think i'll definitely get a log log to try and get ahead as scrounging is allowing me to barely get a years worth since i'm burning about 4-5 cord a year. Having a 2 year old doesn't help. Thanks for the pricing info, i was wondering what prices would be around here.


 
I don't have a truck to scrounge wood and I burn about 4 cords a year too so getting a log load delivered made the most sense.  I have a 2 year old and a 5 month old so having the wood right outside the house to work on while they were sleeping was convenient.


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## HybridFyre (May 14, 2014)

I'm impressed you found time over a couple weeks to get it done. That would take me well over a month but that's probably because i'm always juggling 10 projects at once.


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## Zack (May 14, 2014)

HybridFyre said:


> I'm impressed you found time over a couple weeks to get it done. That would take me well over a month but that's probably because i'm always juggling 10 projects at once.


 
It took me almost 2 months in total.  The logs were delivered at the end of January, but then got buried under snow until mid March when it melted.


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## mustash29 (May 14, 2014)

Log length is definately a chore.  The 2 loads I got in the past were fun to proccess, but a PITA at the same time because some of it was pretty good diameter.

Late Jan I got 10 cord (mason dump loads) of fresh cut (mostly oak, a little maple) delivered for a steal.  So far we have 1/2 of it split & stacked.  That was done on 2 days about 6 hrs per.  Including cleaning the stack area, re-arranging new pallets, junking the rotted ones, lunch breaks, etc, we maybe put 15 hrs in max.  Me running the 31 ton MTD and she stacking right next to me.

On a side note, there seems to be some good scores showing up on CL as folks get working on their outside projects.  I've already missed out on a few due to my work schedule.  Grrrrrrr.


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## paul bunion (May 14, 2014)

14 loads of chips in the wheelbarrow sounds right.  I get my logs laid parallel to the driveway and roll them out for cutting.  Cleanup of a knee deep pile of chips is much easier on a paved surface.


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## kennyp2339 (May 14, 2014)

Got a delivery of lengths last fall, man still sore from that lol, I figure its about 7.5 cords. I'm researching new stoves to make my pile last, (blaze king) don't wanna do one those every year.


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## jaychino415 (May 15, 2014)

Backwoods Savage said:


> I understand with some people why the ladies don't like the wood stacks but I've also found that just the mention of a wood pile turns them off. For some odd reason they have a strange way of looking at things. Personally neither my wife nor I find a nice wood pill unsightly.
> 
> Would your wife find these to be ugly? Of course, minus those few splits that weren't yet picked up before the picture was taken.
> 
> ...



Those are some awesome looking stacks.


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## Zack (May 15, 2014)

paul bunion said:


> 14 loads of chips in the wheelbarrow sounds right.  I get my logs laid parallel to the driveway and roll them out for cutting.  Cleanup of a knee deep pile of chips is much easier on a paved surface.


 
I'll try that method next time.  I don't have a cant hook or peavy to roll the logs so I just cut on the pile where I could get rounds off easily.


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