that is my basement , where the stove is. Each application need a system that works.Good system....it you have an attached garage.
My firewood stuff
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There is a coal mine just up the road from me, right between me and AlaskaJohn. I took my trailer over and had it loaded up. I talked the folks out of their coal bucket, which I keep next to the wood stove, and a few five gallon buckets are in the attached garage for the ease of access.
I started a fire with wood, tossed most of a pail of coal in the early afternoon. At 0730 the next morning my heat powered fan was still spinning.
I started a fire with wood, tossed most of a pail of coal in the early afternoon. At 0730 the next morning my heat powered fan was still spinning.
Yeah, I have all the tractors, logging winch, log wagon, splitter, etc. BUT I am getting old and the wood is getting heavier. Has anyone used a pellet stove?
My neighbor has one, they really like it
Pellet stoves are great. They have two worries. You need a source of pellets and electricity. If you have those things they are fantastic.
I have coal available so my answer is to place a grate in my wood stove, to raise the fire off the floor of the Earth Stove. Coal prefers bottom air. Coal also burns a long time.
I have coal available so my answer is to place a grate in my wood stove, to raise the fire off the floor of the Earth Stove. Coal prefers bottom air. Coal also burns a long time.
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The getting older is why my system keeps getting easier, As long as I can climb on the tractor I should be good, my eldest brother started a colt this year, and he has 14 years on me, Dad was still going pretty hard at 75I'm right there with you until pellet stove. I can't choke down the expense when I have everything I need for wood harvesting and many acres to get it from.
Oh, and I have a 22 year old son that can do the physical stuff.
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I have a generator, but I keep a few car batteries around with an inverter.
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Ditto. I keep a couple deep cycle marine batteries with inverters attached near each wood stove so I have relatively immediate power to the woodstove blowers. Don't want the stove to get really hot from not running the blower.
I have a couple extras for other things like lights or whatever else may be needed.
Have you looked at my set up , I have managed to take a whole bunch of the heavy lifting out of the process, I don't have to lift any piece of wood that would weigh as much as a bag of pellets. Still a few details to work out but so far a lot less sore joints as compared to the way most people do it. A pellet stove might be alright, look at all the angles
True, the bag of pellets weigh almost as much as the firewood. I am thinking a pellet stove probably is not the way (weigh?) to go. Still, I have to drop the tree, get it out of the woods, cut, and split. Or buy the firewood.
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That's the way my father did it, all child hood, the old house is still standing on the farm.
A lot of innovation and ideas, I bought a house already built and they did not build an ash door on the back of the fireplace for some reason.
I put a slow burner insert in it and had to clean the coals every day through the front doors and just push the ones that started the fire back to the side and take the rest out in a bucket.
It was good heat but somewhat aggravating The wood was under a tarp on the back patio too so the leaves from the tree by the patio, and the bark and all came in with me and then got cleaned up.
After about three years I sold the insert, and put the dreaded gas logs in the fireplace hardly ever used it after, it is just not the same as the wood was, the wood burning smell is a memory maker
The heat was much better the gas was too just warm with the gas wide open and the insert would heat the house to 80 easily if the draft was half open.
I put a slow burner insert in it and had to clean the coals every day through the front doors and just push the ones that started the fire back to the side and take the rest out in a bucket.
It was good heat but somewhat aggravating The wood was under a tarp on the back patio too so the leaves from the tree by the patio, and the bark and all came in with me and then got cleaned up.
After about three years I sold the insert, and put the dreaded gas logs in the fireplace hardly ever used it after, it is just not the same as the wood was, the wood burning smell is a memory maker
The heat was much better the gas was too just warm with the gas wide open and the insert would heat the house to 80 easily if the draft was half open.
Seen this and thought of you
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Here's some of my firewood processing equipment.
The tractor/loader/logging winch.
The Kubota RTV for hauling tools or firewood.
The ATV and one of 5 trailers for hauling wood.
The chainsaws and misc gear.
The tractor/loader/logging winch.
The Kubota RTV for hauling tools or firewood.
The ATV and one of 5 trailers for hauling wood.
The chainsaws and misc gear.
If I ever get the rest where I want it, a skidding winch is on the list, right now it is cables and snatch blocks.
I like your taste in saws also, well all that stuff actually
I like your taste in saws also, well all that stuff actually
I don't think I've ever seen anything pertaining to firewood so clean
I'm 2 ways on firewood. The first is that it can be a very cheap way to supply heat for your home. The second is that as a business it's usually not that great unless your in the right area. My BIL & SIL used to be in the firewood business. Sadly they lived where a lot of people did either their own firewood or did some for themselves & sold some on the side. They were selling it for $35 a cord & having to stack it for the purchaser. They had all this expensive machinery & at the end of the day I think that they could have made more money selling the machinery & investing the money. Now my thought is that an option for them would have been to ship it to someplace like where I live where firewood is expensive (we have no trees) & selling it for $140 a cord (rich people love fireplaces). I never checked on shipping so that would make a difference but they way they were doing it seemed like a lot of work for a very small return.
The margins on firewood are tight, because you can start with nothing but a saw axe and a pickup truck, or even a small trailer. I do my own because I enjoy doing it, I enjoy always trying to improve my system, dead trees and fences don't play well together, and for the independence from grid based heat. As a business, it would have to be a side fill in thing, or bundle (camp wood)
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The pictures are on a good day.I don't think I've ever seen anything pertaining to firewood so clean
That said, I do pull out the pressure washer and wash whatever is dirty every couple weeks.
Last year, I decided to sell some stuff. I sold over $10,000 worth of my stuff in less than a month because of how I care of my equipment and everyone around here knows it.
You take care of you're equipment, it'll take care of you.
I take care of things too but Hubby not so much- not that he doesn’t take care of things but doesn’t keep them pretty.The pictures are on a good day.
That said, I do pull out the pressure washer and wash whatever is dirty every couple weeks.
Last year, I decided to sell some stuff. I sold over $10,000 worth of my stuff in less than a month because of how I care of my equipment and everyone around here knows it.
You take care of you're equipment, it'll take care of you.
I try to tell the guys at work, “If you keep your $41t nice, you’ll have nice $41t.” Sorry, I know that doesn’t sound lady like but I work with all guys and have learned so many floral phrases since doing so.
We learned quickly after moving up to Alaska is never to store spruce firewood in the house unless you want a couple dozen flies to hatch from them.
Outside our door we have space to store about a days worth. But once a day we will track about 50 yards round trip to our primary wood shed. Not a big deal as it’s important to venture outdoors at least daily even on the darkest and coldest of days. We do have a stash adjacent to the deck that stores about a weeks worth of wood, but we like to save that in case of an emergency.
I showed that to my wife who said that was cute and asked if I could make one of those for her. I told her that was nuts since we have a half dozen perfectly good chainsaws. She replies that the chainsaws didn’t have the same charm.
I made some more easier on the body improvements to the system, so far they seem good,
Added a better chain hook system to the back of the trailing arch. along with a manual boat winch, the winch is much nicer to lift the log up to chain it to the arch, and i can loosen the winch, and move the tongue over to place the centering vee (also new) on one of its tips dug into the log if I need to effect rear steering.
Added a better chain hook system to the back of the trailing arch. along with a manual boat winch, the winch is much nicer to lift the log up to chain it to the arch, and i can loosen the winch, and move the tongue over to place the centering vee (also new) on one of its tips dug into the log if I need to effect rear steering.
The roll way is about the same,
I use the swing crane to move the logs onto the trolley
I use the swing crane to move the logs onto the trolley
log loaded on the trolley
