Wood supply

Some of it yes, this lumber was extremely old, some I salvaged from Aberdeen a few years back. True old growth Douglas fir, the finest of lumber from our state. I counted the rings on one of the 2x4 I chunked, I lost count at 90 something. On a stinking 2x4. To my knowledge there hadn’t been any production cutting of the giants since the 50’s in that area. The usual Doug fir I get from pallets at work might have 8-30 rings. It seems to fracture better then the tight ring monsters of the coast, which tended to shatter even when wet. It may just be that the lumber was so old I don’t really know

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You are a treat Marcus. How many other guys would think to assay the density of their fuel by counting rings in a two by four? I’m getting a man crush on you.

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I finally decided to find out the moisture content of the various wood.
The spruce was down for 3 years, and the oak was down for 10 years.
Now I am going to be one of those old guys running around pricking my wood.

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Does that mean we can call you an old prick now? ducks :laughing:

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If you weren’t before, now you have a valid reason! I am very excited about this new stage in my life…

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This guy went overboard, but. I don’t think he is using oil at all. I just skimmed through it to look at his basic mechanism, the feeder and the press tube, which are actually fairly simple.

Bout a week or 2 there, gonna need all of it and more! Gotta keep plucking at it till I’m on Wayne’s level of fuel storage

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How is the new size that you have been chucking up working in your WK Gasifier Marcus? Or is the wood still drying.
Nice pile of chunks there.
Bob

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Still running on the bigger chunks I had stored but it is doing much better, little better milage and less clogging. This run i chunked a bit smaller, but can’t go to small with large grain structure since the pieces will shatter instead of fracturing. Each piece depending on growth rings or dampness I take a chunk or 2 before I decide how big they will be but most are happy about 2" long and up to 2" diameter. If it’s much larger in diameter I actually have to lengthen the chunk out to 3 in or so otherwise it will split in 2 as it fractures. I think that is one reason Wayne’s chunker seems to work better than mine is his cutter is 3/16 thick and therefore puts less pressure on the wood as it’s being chunked whereas mine has a lot of force being quarter inch and a lot of my pieces are so fractured you can look through it like daylight all the way around almost like looking at a loose stack of firewood

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Too hot for a coat but warm enough for pants. We are towing in the good dry maple, for gas producer billets. We are working on an ice crust two feet thick.


The kid is enjoying running the snowmachine, and I am just grateful to be alive. If it makes a profit, that’s a bonus.

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I skimmed through. The first read was you were out tapping maples. I was about ready to head up. lol

Lol Sean, nope that’s Bill Schiller. We went out to look at the ice today.
Man, look at all that dead hard maple. That would be fantastic fuel!

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I know, that is why I went back to reread it because I couldn’t believe Bill posted. :stuck_out_tongue: You gotta let them grow a bit bigger before you tap them. Hard maple makes good syrup, and is has really high sugar content. However, since your forest is a bit sparse, I would start planting them in rows to make them easier to tap and run tubing, but that is where my mind is at this time of year, not everyones. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Not my land, and I am not interested in growing Maple. Only White Pine for us.

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I hate to admit that I am so covered up with wood I am having to just set it a fire. I already have next winter heating wood in the barn drying and have a couple or three years of motor fuel bagged up and stored away with much more coming in daily .

Free wood to any one that will haul it !!

Have Wood Will Travel

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You should make it into charcoal. Then you can use it as biochar or in the grill or even gasp a charcoal gasifier. The ash is a good fertilizer for your grass(sprinkled lightly) (bark produces more ash), and the char especially if it is inoculated will help a garden or your field. Might as well not waste it. You are spending the time to burn it anyway.

Cows will eat the char as well which grinds it and inoculates it for you. It did something else as well to like aid digestion and something else. I forgot there was a research paper I read on it a few years back on it.

Hey Wayne! Winston Churchill once said:
“Golf - a good walk wasted”
I would call that a good DOW wasted.
I read your gov decided to let go of the US fuel reserve. I didn’t know it included gasifier fuel :smile:

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I looked it up:
"When ingested orally, biochar has been shown to improve the nutrient intake efficacy, adsorb toxins and to generally improve animal health "
The article cites references dating back to the early 1900s

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Thanks for the article Sean.

When I dump the ash and char from my trucks I always leave it so the cows can eat and then spread anywhere over the farm .

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Wayne, your cows are Blessed and are healthy eating What comes up from the earth. What you give them from the earth. And they in return bless you with cow pie fertilisers back to the earth and meat on someone’s table.
Bob

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