The cordwood we’ve bought, probably like the cordwood you’d buy, doesn’t look anything like what I bring in myself. Commercial firewood is relatively straight and of uniform length, and it’s solid — not a hint of pith or decay, which would be bad for business.
There’s a difference between harvesting to sell and harvesting to burn.
A little bit of punk doesn’t bother me. I don’t get heartburn when I cut into a hollow tree, either. As long as the wood is, say, 90% solid, I’m fine with it.
The same goes for odd and crooked pieces. The last cut on a limb or a trunk often yields a chunk that’s a lot shorter than the rest. Forks and crotches, because they don’t stack easily, usually are left out of commercial cords. I keep every one.
Shorts are perfect for adjusting a lay or boosting a draft. Crotches, which are naturally dense, burn a long time. I don’t mind that they’re more difficult to stack.
Waste not.
Up to this point, I’ve devoted virtually all of my woodcutting attention to three downed trees (or parts thereof) on The Mountain’s north slope. And there’s one more to address, beginning today.
I have a firm grasp of my objective — supplying firewood to heat the cabin — but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded occasionally how much progress I’m making.
The wood yard is a good measure, certainly, with piles of bucked wood waiting to be split and properly seasoned. And this morning I happened across photos of the roadside oak I dispatched recently, captured the morning after it fell. Here’s what it looked like eight months and two days ago:
And this is what the same spot looks like today:
To me, that’s striking not only for how dramatically the scene has changed, but for how little of the fallen tree remains. Progress, indeed.
The fourth and final (for now) north-slope oak would present a different kind of challenge. I approached it this morning in the usual way, with the same tools. Like the dangler I dropped last week, it was quite the tangle.
Pruning away branches with our battery-powered pole saw (I chose all-electric today) went faster than I thought it would. I got a good look at the base of the crown, which, though hollow where it had snapped off of the trunk, was worth going after.
As long as I was there, I put it all on the ground. Then, with plenty of battery remaining, I went ahead and bucked it to stove length. I fetched the sled from Dancing Tree, set it near the work and loaded as I cut.
The last step was using the winch to skid it up to the Ranger.
This was a tougher test of my system than yesterday’s pulls were. The sled weighed probably twice as much. Though it covered the same distance, it climbed about eight vertical feet — a 16% grade.
It worked just fine. I dumped the bucked wood next to the trail for pickup later.
My last 20V 4Ah battery still had life in it by then, and I knew just how I wanted to use it.
This tree damaged two smaller hardwoods when it came down last May. They weren’t yet standing dead, but they would be soon enough. I felled both.
And that’s when I ran out of battery. Bucking will happen another day.
Tomorrow, I believe.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable