Number One Reason NOT To Drop Firewood

First Day- after cleaning it up

The oldest boy and I were hauling in some firewood for the stove Saturday. I wear safety shoes when I split wood- it is only common sense! But we take off our shoes when we enter the house here. I never thought I might need steel toed slippers! My son was doing his best to imitate Daddy and carried a very large load of wood.... and one- of course it was the incredibly dense black locust bolt so large I wasn't sure it would fit in the stove door- fell. From the looks of things, the corner of the behemoth caught me right at the edge of the toenail, and the shock ripped my skin (and maybe a bit of muscle too, a bit too painful to lift up the flap and see). Anyhow, he felt so bad that I had to pretend it didn't hurt in front of him and laughed a bit- until he left to get more wood. The photos don't really do justice to the white hot bolt of pain that made me seriously think I might vomit. A large part of that was that my feet were freezing cold when it happened. It wasn't until about 30 minutes later that I noticed my sock was bloody.
At any rate- it hurt, but after an hour or two, I could walk after a fashion and flex it, so I am fairly sure it is just a bad bruise and a rip. Now the second day, I can walk with just a slight limp, although it apparently breaks the wound open if I overdo it- the bandages are still a bit red...

Second Day after the bath- still bleeding!

Accidents can happen anytime, anywhere, and usually when you are not wearing safety equipment.

Stacked

Today I finished stacking some firewood that a friend gave me. It was even cut to 60cm and split!
So while I didn't have time to cut it to my usual 30cm length for our stove, I needed to get it stacked to start drying. I experimented with a new technique for keeping the ends squared. Here in Japan, loggers make stacks of 12 foot logs in a similar manner.

Firewood stack end

60x90x360cm... about 2 cubic meters of wood
And for the Americans:
2'x3'x12' = 72 cu. ft, or .56 cord

It's not as time consuming as making chimney stacked ends, and it is much sturdier. The angle keeps the wood from spilling out the ends, and the wood on top anchors them down snugly. 

Now I just need another 2 cords and I am all set....

Fixing The Maul

The head came off the maul the other day. Thought I should fix it.

I cut down the top of the handle about 3cm. Then I used a plane to shave off some wood so the head would fit. 

After getting it on, I used the small wedge and drove it in with my hammer. 

It still sticks up a bit, but not too much.

It worked fine when I tested it.

Estimating Wood Needs

Since we started heating with wood, I have never known how much wood we burn in a year. I am always splitting more, and never have time to count cords. So I came up with a way to estimate how much wood I need in a year. And then, lo and behold, my favorite blog "Walden Effect" had a post on their wood supply.

So I thought I would share my method. This works with any kind of wood, I burn mostly cedar and cypress (gasp!). Because all wood has the same energy per kilogram. It just takes more pieces and chimney cleaning to burn softwoods.

Step 1. About how many days will you use your woodstove? It doesn't have to be exact, but it is better to over than under estimate. Here we usually burn from mid-November to mid-April. So 5 months. 5x30 is 150 days.
Like I said, this is not rocket science.
Step 2. How much wood do you use every day  on average? An easy way to figure that out is to fill your woodbox/rack in the morning, and count how many pieces of wood are in it. The next morning at about the same time, count again and subtract. We burn an average of 30 pieces of wood per day. The more days that you count it, the more accurate your estimate will become. Multiply your number by the heating days. In my case: 150 days x 30 pieces = 4500 pieces of wood. But who wants to count to 4500 when you are splitting? Not me.
Step 3. Go to your woodpile and count how many splits are in a square foot of face on your woodpile. (Yes, that is right, Mr. Metric says count in feet. The numbers are easier to imagine in this case) We average about 15 splits  (I split quite small, since I procrastinate so badly- they need to dry faster than other people's wood). With 32 square feet of face on a cord, that comes to 480 per tier. If you cut to 16 inch lengths (three tiers/cord), that is 1440 pieces per cord. If you cut to 12 inches like me (four tiers/cord), that is 1920.
Step 4. Divide your needs by the pieces/cord. For my case 4500 pieces/1920 pieces = 2.34375 cords. Let's round up and say two and a half cords.

Or you can just use my handy dandy Wood Needs Calculator.

So, now I should get out there splitting, 'cause I only have 1.5 cords split and stacked!

Amazing Firewood Stack Stabilizer

Now, if you are like me, you spent all Spring just happy that you didn't have to worry if you had enough wood to last all winter. Then Summer was too hot, and now, far, far too late, you are chopping like a madman. At least the weather is cool.

So we procrastinators out there have to stack our firewood to allow maximum air circulation if we want to get any kind of value out of the wood. But we all know that a long, single depth stack of wood falls over if you sneeze at it. Which is why I developed the Amazing Firewood Stack Stabilizer!

Go ahead and start stacking an eight foot long wall of wood out in the open. When it gets to about a foot high, start another a foot away. Then add the amazing stabilizer and see how sturdy your stack it! You can start a third stack to build an exploded cord (Three 8x4 foot walls of 16 inch wood, with a foot between each wall) and let the wind blow through and around the wood. The best part is, it is free! You guessed it, it is a six foot long, small diameter, relatively straight branch! Just bridge the walls with it and keep stacking above it. I found that two about two feet from each end, one at one foot, the other at three feet high makes a rock steady cord out of what was a mighty shaky exploded cord.

Bridge two stacks and make it much stronger

Vastly improved airflow through the stack

Next year I'll start stacking from early spring, I promise.

Good Morning's Work

I got some stacking done today. That stack you see in the picture is 4' x 9' x 1' and the tied in stack behind it is 4'x5'x1'. About 56cu. feet, or let's see... 128 cu. feet in a cord, so 56/128=.4375 cord of firewood. Not bad for an hour in the morning.

The sawbuck I made myself out of five 1x4x8' boards, three 1/4 inch bolts, some rope, and 24 woodscrews.
Here's how:
1. Cut the 1x4s in half. Lay three of them on edge on a flat surface and fasten them at both ends and the middle with two more boards.
2. Flip over the assembly, and lay three more boards next to ribs already fastened. Then use two more boards and fasten them to the ribs. Be careful not to fasten them to the wrong ribs, or it won't open!
3. Next drill the holes for the bolts. I made mine at exactly 30 cm (1ft) from the top of the ribs. Thread the bolts (add an extra washer between the boards) and tighten.
4. At the bottom, tie a rope to the opposite bottom boards to keep the sawbuck from opening too much when you drop a heavy log on it. I keep about two feet of slack.

There you go, a really easy sawbuck.

Rin-do

Logging roads. After the typhoon last week, the logging road up the mountain across the river from the house was a bit damaged. Which was not so good for me, since I had to use it to bring some more wood down. I wish I had thought to take pictures of the bad spots before I spent an hour shoveling fill into a one meter deep rut. But here is one of the not so bad spots.

Firewood Stacking Season

Despite the 30 degree C temps, Ewan and I hauled in the first very small load of chestnut windfall firewood into the house, imagining that it would dry better inside than in a big heap under a tree. Go figure.

The rack is one that my Dad and I build a few years ago at Christmas time. We had a lot of fun planning, cutting, drilling, and pegging the rack together, and it has held up wonderfully over the years. It may not be very fancy, but neither are our woodworking skills. One thing I really like about it is that we didn't use any screws or nails in it. Just half-lap joints and dowel pegs.

 I think of Dad every time I put another knot on the fire. That keeps the inside of me as warm as the fire keeps the outside.