A Window View Of Some BTUs

[Battenkiller]

I was just looking at my plantation from the spare bedroom window and realized I could see most of my wood from this vantage point.

In the background is a mix of big pine logs and some good oak, maple and black locust mixed in.

The stacked wood is mostly white ash, but behind it is some leftover oak and hickory from last year, and a mixed load of cherry, black birch and some more black locust. The back of this stack isn't visible, but it extends back another 8-10' to the basement door. The stack is about 5' tall. There is another shorter stack of ash behind the main one, but you can't see much of it from here. The loose pile is a nice fat cord of almost 100% black birch, with another cord coming this week... a good start on next year's wood. There is another cord in the basement, so I should be fine for the rest of the season. If all goes well, I'll have two cord of well seasoned black birch to start next year. Which makes me very, very happy.

In the very back you can faintly see the result of last week's fire that almost got me calling the FD. You can see the charred pallet in the front, but most of the blaze was behind the pallet. The wind was ripping from the northeast (toward the right), and you can see why I'm so lucky it wasn't blowing from the southwest (toward the left) like it usually does around here. There is also a lot of dry wood behind the pine logs. If they caught and spread to the logs and got them going (3-4 cord there), who knows what I'd have left here. A shift of the wind after they got ignited and I might have lost my beautiful 1994 Camry wagon... or even my house.

 

[Lynch]

some big logs ther bud my saw wouldnt get thought those . would have to roll them a few times by the looks
nice start tho

 

[Battenkiller]

some big logs ther bud my saw wouldnt get thought those . would have to roll them a few times by the looks
nice start tho

First thing the guy said when he dropped them off? "Hope you got a big saw."

Yeah, I'll have to roll them. Finally broke down and bought a peavey for that task. They're not as big as they look in the pic, biggest one is only 34" I believe. My biggest bar is 20", so I won't have a problem, but I will have to roll them a bit. I bought them for chainsaw carving bears out of, so I only need to make a couple cross cuts in each one. Standing the big sections up so I can carve on them will be a bigger challenge than cutting them to length. A five foot long section will weigh about 1200 pounds.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Battenkiller, what happened to all your snow?! Well, we lost ours too. I see a little white out there this morning so we got a little overnight but just a very light covering.

That fire must have been a bit scary!

 

[Battenkiller]

Dennis, we had 7" on the ground just a few days ago. Nice to get a break from that dang cold, though. With my basement install and the way I've been cranking it during that extended cold snap, there was so much heat stored down there that it's stayed at 71º day and night with only one fire a day just before going to bed. That usually isn't the case in January, when I'm ordinarily getting up at around 5 AM to get that baby cruising hot again. Seems once the mercury rises above 40º here, there is enough retained heat to keep the chill out of the place for quite a while.

As far as the fire goes, I'm one of those birds that stays cool as a cucumber in almost any crisis, then gets scared as hell thinking about "what might have been" scenarios later on. Now I look at that scene and just shudder. I've spent a lot of effort over the years to assure that I can heat with wood without burning the place to the ground, but I never thought that using a stove might burn it down from the outside. I'm gonna go out and get a big metal trash can and dump everything in that from now on. It's actually a lot easier than making a dozen trips out to the garden to spread it out (seems almost always in high wind), and it will put to rest my fear that this could occur again.

BTW I'll let you know how the peavey works out rolling those big pine logs. You aren't the first guy to say the cant hook was superior, but the guy at the saw shop was insistent that the peavey was the correct tool for the job, and it seemed to work on the bigger stuff he had on the ground near his shop. He's a real savvy guy, and all the local loggers and tree service guys who run Stihls go to him with their saws, so I went with his recommendation. If it doesn't work well on the big stuff, at least I can use it to chase crooked wood dealers off my property when they show up with a short load.

 

[oldspark]

Hard to tell from the picture but your white ash looks like Green ash to me.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Battenkiller, I know what you mean about the scary part after the thing has passed. My most extreme was one time when I worked in a shop. I heard a scream and went running. We had some women working with little presses and one got her hand where it was not supposed to be. Just as I got there she fainted and I caught her as she was falling. I carried her clear through the shop into the office and then someone else took over. As I was standing there talking to the big boss I suddenly got so weak I could hardly stand. Then I went back into the shop and could hardly walk, yet I had just carried her that entire distance! Amazing how that happened.

On the cant hook vs. the peavey, there are some who really like the peavey but I always preferred the cant hook. For sure both will work and maybe it is whatever you started out with. When I was logging I never knew of any loggers who used a peavey as everyone used the cant hooks. No doubt though it might be a regional thing too. For sure you had best like it because that is what you have. lol.


Oldspark, that does look like white ash to me. I've never seen green ash so it is difficult to compare but methinks the bark looks very similar.

 

[Battenkiller]

Hard to tell from the picture but your white ash looks like Green ash to me.

Dennis is correct. I've never even seen a green ash before. Maybe the reason why is found in the distribution map below:

 

[SolarAndWood]

Maybe the reason why is found in the distribution map below:

We can only hope EAB follows that map. Maybe they won't like the cold elevations any more than green ash does?

 

[oldspark]

Maybe the reason why is found in the distribution map below:

We can only hope EAB follows that map. Maybe they won't like the cold elevations any more than green ash does?

It kills both Green Ash and White Ash correct?

 

[SolarAndWood]

Maybe the reason why is found in the distribution map below:

We can only hope EAB follows that map. Maybe they won't like the cold elevations any more than green ash does?

It kills both Green Ash and White Ash correct?

Yep, but one can still hope.