Some smaller trucking companies, are parking their trucks because they cannot make a profit with current diesel prices. Another larger company I get reports from say they will stop running if it goes much over six bucks. We are still shipping diesel to Europe.
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Hi All,
It has been a historic cold wet April and now early May here PNW wetside.
7 days now 95% burning exclusively this English walnut wood in our wood stove.
After ~700 pound and 100 hours using this walnut wood Iāve finally got a handle on it. To now know what Iāll best use it for. And that determined where I am now unloading and stacking in our big wood shed.
It is the superior carry over to morning night heating wood. The cells structure are such that it makes virtually no tars and no soots. A āslowā energy releasing wood. This release done over a long time. Itās thick intact ash blanket layer even more stretching out this energy releasing.
Ashy, oh yeah. Only cotton wood has as much ash. These make as much ash in one day as my Doulas Fir will make in a week.
Used as a raw wood gasifierer wood fuel you have to velosity blow it hard to keep it surface ash cleared off, and active.
As a make-in-a-woodstove; charcoal fuel making wood: Iāve seen none better.
The wood pieces once burn to charcoal; then with just touch poke fall into a uniform pile of char chunks. No fines. No char dust.
Get the chance, do try this wood.
Regards
Steve Unruh
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So essentially it is a very Imbert velocity nozzle friendly wood? Hopefully American Black Walnut has similar qualities, I have no shortage of these pest trees.
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An Imbert wood, surely.
But the best slow velocity WKās guys have proven able to effectively use almost anything with enough off-the-edge-of-grate spilling.
WayneK. himself.
Jacob North.
Marcus.
The char salvaged out later.
S.U.
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It is a problem globally, but hopefully this is the last time this happens. I canāt imagine what would have happened if we didnāt have any EVs or done other things to reduce fuel use over the last 10+ years.
It looks to me like imports dropped about 1m/barrels a day over the last 6 months. According to the short term energy outlook, forecasted domestic production will increase .7M/barrels a day this year and eventually grow to the most production ever. Refinery capacity will be maxed this month, but that will not be the highest ever totals because of reduced refinery capacity (covid took some refineries offline, and there was a fire at the philadelphia refinery.) They are forecasting some price reductions, but that was before Europe banned Russian importsā¦ NG prices are also up about 50%.
Unfortunately, manufacturing of EV production is sold out for the rest of this year except maybe the Chevy Bolt and low trim models of the HummerEV. Between microchips and batteries, and manufacturers not wanting to push out too many first year models in case unforeseen issues in the wild, and they have to recall, I donāt see these numbers increasing muchless price decreases for products that are available.
So Drive on Wood with a smile on your face. 
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There is a hardwood shortage all the really big trees are gone and black walnut lumber is sought after. If you have a forest of them, it might be your retirement money, I would suggest thinning appropriately, and figuring out the easiest way to husk and shell them. 
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I wouldnāt say I have a forest of them, they creep and make the wood line close in on the house every year. I was planning to find each scrawny one and coppice them.
Also how ironic thereās a hardwood shortage when nobody wanted to buy my 3 foot diameter oak tree. Had a good 30 feet of straight trunk.
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That I understand. Be thankful it isnāt invasive honeysuckleā¦ which seems to crowd out the trees.
Around here that would fetch a premium price if they could get it out. There arenāt many 3ft oak trees left around here and almost none of them have 16ft of straight trunk. We used to have a guy, that ran around with 10k cash in his pocket to buy trees back in the 80s for his sawmill.
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Yeah, we had to cut it down because it had finally died. A huge branch broke off and was a foot away from hitting the roof. Landed on a wrought iron guardrail of the back porch and twisted that all up.
My uncle has been hacking it up with a chainsaw when he feels like it, basically no lengths left worth selling now that heās tried to chainsaw mill planks out. Iām waiting on him to get bored with it so I can snag it and turn to char. I still need to get a chainsaw with a super long bar so I can process it more efficiently.
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That may be why no one was interested in it. They donāt like dead trees. It probably got the oak wilt virus, and probably too close to a house that combination can get pretty dicey when felling, and they want green wood.
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We had called all the sawmills when we had it felled, and everyone said āwe got plenty of oak donāt botherā.
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It will make nice gasifer fuel. If you can cut it up to the right size and split it.
Bob
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God said when I banished Adam and Eve from paradise, āthorns and thistles will be born to you, ā¦ in the sweat of your brow, ā¦ā well, I felt this āpunishmentā today, but hereās a machine to help with driven by one donkey force, ā¦ 
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Scored 4 VERY sturdy drums with lids. They look brand new on the inside, but they have residual of some nasty Dow Chemical liquid polymer and some have antifoam agent liquid.
Very nasty description for Hazmat on the side, isnāt flammable. Iāll have to wait for a hot day and drain them into sealable containers and take to a chemical disposal.
This weekend Iām going to get 4 10 Gallon drums with lids from a friend, those held aluminum powder.
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Hereās what the 10 gallon drums look like according to Facebook marketplace. The seller is a friend of mine from high school.
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Got the bilge blower in the mail today. Holy cow this thing is compact! Has a pretty good positive force. Itās small enough I could put one in the engine compartment to draw gas up to the engine for a faster startup.
The motor is pretty large and takes up a fair amount of space inside, so it might be best served in a diverted area and not constantly in the gas flow.
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No offense, I would say one donkey is a vast underestimate, maybe one draft horse, or team of oxenā¦ I used to push one of those and if the clay hardened at all, I was done. 
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Apparently you havenāt seen Tone abuse his friends by arm wrestling Sean. Clay doesnāt stand a chance.
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No. I have. One donkey wouldnāt be able to do that. a team of oxen, maybe, but I think we are more in the league of a full team of draft horses. I mean Tone could replace the Budweiser Clydesdale team if they were actually work animals instead of parade animals.
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