A little fun in 92F heat

[KJamesJR]

Some people live for this heat. They soak it right up. I don't understand it. When the mercury hits maybe, 80f I slow right down. This coming from a guy who lived in Southern AZ for eight of his young adult years. Give me -12f and sunshine, I'll work all day with the right gear.

 

[showrguy]

Hey Ashful, have you ever run-a supersplit kinetic splitter ??
It’ll save you huge amounts of time processing, mine is 8x faster cycle than my hydraulic was..
Best firewood tool I ever bought..
If you were closer you could come borrow mine for a spell..

 

[heavy hammer]

I'm one of those that love the heat but I know not everyone feels the same. I know at work we were already given the heads up for callouts for possible strom/ power failures. This heat can be rough on the system, but I don't think the heat will be here for long enough. By Sunday we are supposed to have a cool down but we will see. I have an out door weeding to attend tonight at 4 going to be warm!

 

[Ashful]

Hey Ashful, have you ever run-a supersplit kinetic splitter ??
It’ll save you huge amounts of time processing, mine is 8x faster cycle than my hydraulic was..
Best firewood tool I ever bought..
If you were closer you could come borrow mine for a spell..

Thanks, showrguy! No, I’ve never run a kinetic. Maybe it is something I should have explored before I dumped an additional $1000 into hotrodding my current hydraulic splitter, but part of the reason for me going the route I did is that I was getting enormous stuff, probably averaging near 40” diameter for several straight years. I needed a splitter that could go vertical, and so this 22-ton hydraulic job fit the bill. All of the modern kinetic splitters I’ve seen are horizontal only, but perhaps there’s one that can run vertically.

Of course, more recently I am hauling from a different location, and I’m getting more manageable (14” - 18” dia) stuff. If I had known that at the time I rebuild my own splitter for better speed, I’d have probably given more thought to going kinetic.

 

[Ashful]

... of course it was only a few months ago I was hauling home this 5000 lb. stick of red oak:

In light of our 110dF heat index forecast for this weekend, that January weather looks downright pleasant.

 

[Ashful]

Come on, man up, bring some water

Got a call from a neighbor while eating lunch, to come drop a dead 27” DBH maple. Had to lever it over opposite its lean by hammering wedges into the kerf of the back cut, which was no fun in full gear under the full noon sun at 110F heat index. That 30 minutes was enough outdoor work for a day this hot, I left the neighbor to cut it up with the help of his brother, once I had it on the ground.

 

[heavy hammer]

It was hot today I mowed and worked around the house today till about 7, about 9 hours out in it. Now some storms have came through and cooled things down into the 70's.

 

[SpaceBus]

It hit 87 at my house, but we have no AC. Downstairs stayed 75, but upstairs was every bit of 85-87. I put a small floor fan on low pulling outside air through our bedroom slider and we had no issues last night for bed. Ten minutes up the road in Cutler it was a full 5f cooler.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

It hit 87 at my house, but we have no AC. .

It would be downright dangerous, even life threatening with out AC in most of the east coast this week. I only have 16000 total BTUs doing my 3000SF at home but it can keep it at 70-75 in almost any outside temp. Without that it would be 90 plus in the house. This past week Im rehabbing an old house with no air but fortunately there's a lot of basement work to be done so its under 80 down there. The rest of the place is unbearable. Good news is forecast starting Monday will be unseasonably cool, Tuesday is 76 high and 56 opvernight .That should cool things off.

 

[EODMSgt]

Haven't done anything firewood related since the heat and humidity rolled in. I did get ten truck loads of wood chips spread that Asplundh left for me. Been spreading the stuff out in an area that they opened up when they did the power line easement clearing. Eventually I'll plant a bunch of dwarf apple trees there.

 

[Ashful]

I’m building new firewood racks (with roof!) in my air-conditioned barn/shop this weekend. I have the t’stat set in the 60’s. [emoji14]

The only outside work I’ll be doing today is the weekly cleaning of the chicken coop, and maybe walking between the pool and the bar at the local pool, this evening.

 

[SpaceBus]

I just hung a ventilated storm door and I am going to do some grading work on the tractor in a bit. The difference being it's only 80f here. Now that I have a cross breeze in the house I'm not worried at all about the heat.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

The only outside work I’ll be doing today is the weekly cleaning of the chicken coop.

Id save that job for tomorrow when it will be 20 degs cooler. But hanging out at the bar and pool
,thats definitely a job for today.

 

[chemie]

I process 5 to 15 cords per year. I burn 10 per year pretty consistently, but processing is feast or famine, depending on weather. Yet one more reason to keep a few years ahead.

Do you burn 5 cord per BK in a year?
I dont know how much we burned last year since it was our first year. But I just finished processing wood of about 3 cords of mostly black locust from fell dead trees of many years and I was thinking I am good for the coming winter. If I am not mistaken I read before that 3 cords is the average of a BK burner.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

. If I am not mistaken I read before that 3 cords is the average of a BK burner.

That would be in an AVERAGE house. Ashfuls house is anything but average and with multiple stoves and fireplaces. Not sure the SF but its way over average.

 

[paulnlee]

Lasted 45 minutes stacking. Gotta get it under cover

 

[Ashful]

Do you burn 5 cord per BK in a year?
I dont know how much we burned last year since it was our first year. But I just finished processing wood of about 3 cords of mostly black locust from fell dead trees of many years and I was thinking I am good for the coming winter. If I am not mistaken I read before that 3 cords is the average of a BK burner.

I’m more like 3 cords in one, and 6-7 cords in the other, each year. I do one load per day in the one stove, and two to three loads per day in the other. I guess I’m seeing both ends of the BK experience, pretty much always low and slow in one, and sometimes wide-open in the other.

Those only running 3 cords per year are either running pretty low all the time, or have a shorter heating season than me. My house probably makes my season longer than others in my same zone.

 

[chemie]

I didn’t do any MC measurements but would this much heat help split and stacked firewood to season even though it is humid?

 

[Ashful]

I didn’t do any MC measurements but would this much heat help split and stacked firewood to season even though it is humid?

Yes. Don’t think that 50% RH translates into your wood MC% going up. As long as wood remains many times heavier than air, by volume, one will have little bearing on the other.

 

[Ashful]

Picked up another two loads of hickory. Here’s the last one, waiting to be unloaded when I get home later.

That’s roughly 150 linear feet of 8” to 16” logs per load.

In the meantime, enjoying a late afternoon pool party:

Will be adding it to this pile when I get back home.

 

[Ashful]

I have crappy timing. Last week had great summer weather, but were tied up with other plans. Back at it this weekend, and it’s 90F with 95F heat index. Another two loads of white oak, here’s one of them.

That’s 30 feet of 22” average diameter, should stack out to almost a cord per load.

 

[JSGAuto]

Your tough to work in this. I am not far away in NJ....other then stacking, its to hot for me.

What brand Tongs are those? I am setting up my trailer much like yours is. Sweet setup!

Jim

 

[Ashful]

I bought the 32” version first, since I was doing almost exclusively big stuff (> 30” diameter) for several years.

Heavy Duty, SOLID STEEL 32" Swivel Skidding Tongs, for Logging, Forester, Timber Cutting https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EGLM0Y2/?tag=hearthamazon-20

Later, I added the small pair, since the big pair really doesn’t hold on well to anything under maybe 14” diameter:

1918 Earth Worth | Skidding Swivel Tongs | 17 Inch | Red https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0788TB5FB/?tag=hearthamazon-20

To be honest, I’ve been favoring a choker more recently, for dragging logs onto the trailer with the winch. My choker is a 10 foot length of 5/16” chain with a slip hook on one end and a grab hook on the other. It’s often a PITA to get this around a log that’s on the ground, but I find that the tongs can be tricky to set on some trees when working alone. I was even thinking of changing the slip hook on my winch cable to a 5/16” grab hook, but the problem is that I would need to find a 5/16” grab hook with a 3/8” pintel, as that’s what you’d need to get it onto a 5/16” winch cable with re-I forced eyelet.

Do note that a winch set up with 5/16” cable (eg. 7500 lb.) can easily break 5/16” chain, I should really be using 3/8” chain to be “legal”. But I’m already heavily invested in 5/16” chain components, and I haven’t had issues, as I’m only dragging logs. The grab hooks on both sets of tongs are also 3/8”, though... so maybe I should bite the bullet, and just upgrade everything to 3/8”. That’s a lot of weight, and a lot of money, for the amount of chain I carry with me.

I still prefer the tongs for dragging trees off the trailer with my front-end loader, though. I can often grab a log and drag it off, without even having to get off the tractor to set them, if the log diameter is in the sweet spot of the tongs I’m using.