Small world after all . Where? Not so big after overhere
I think we need to set up a search party. Most men seem to have lost their balls.
sometimes the game looks like that. Or American football? Friends of mine play rugby. Me? I just tried it once. Not build for that game
Finally some solid ground.
The customer wanted cheapest quality firewood. Dead standing spruce is what he gets. 4 loads this weekend.
Dead standing? Working alone JO? Good idea?
Joep, the spruce bark beetle is most likely the main cause of our spruce death. It used to be a problem further south, but with warmer winters…
Alone for the most part - yes. Good idea - probably not, but sometimes my 77 yo father likes to join. He says he doesn’t get out much. I mostly see his boots sticking up from the brush though. When he’s finally up on his feet it’s time for a piss or a smoke. But a helping hand “in the other end” is often helpfull, even if it doesn’t involve heavy lifting.
Yes, warmer it is, every year. We almost have the same summer here then Croatia…
No one can take that moments away with your father, and in nature. It is more when you are all alone and get stuck. Nowadays we all have our phones, but what if you just cant reach them? Hauling ok, but cutting?
Interesting, dead standing spruce is pretty sought-after here. Very little bugs in it and usually tight grain from growing at higher elevation where wind swepth distorts into a circular grain structure. Leads to a good all night burning piece
That’s odd Marcus, considered scrap around here. Most woodlot owners hurry to clear cut, before the beetles spread and kill even more spruces.
BUT - things change. I guess it’s no sectret energy prices skyrocketed over here lately. Firewood is up about 3 times. Even people always advocating heat pumps are suddenly burning firewood.
I am the same age as your father? You must have a very young father. Right.
Bob
Of course, you’re both 77 years young - not 77 yo
And l belive JO is the same age as my father
Supply and demand. Different worlds. JO once sayd to me it wuld be cheaper to burn money rather thain oak firewood at his place. We regard is as second class, cheap firewood. Here, his practice of using spruce as firewood is unthinkable. Funny things…
If I remember correctly about your father Kristijan, I think I’m 2 years less young
You’re right about oak wood. I live just north of the oak border. Only a couple hours south, where @Woodrunner lives, oak is plenty. Still, very pricy. King Karl XII knew its value. Already 400+ years ago he planted oaks for us to build ships from nowdays. Talk about forward planning
Yes, you’re correct JO, there is still some oak around here, around here nobody wants it for firewood though, there are different believes that it destroys your boiler, or not containing any “heat”
Where i grew up we had 4 BIG oak’s on our “land”, biggest was some 1,5meters diameter, or maybe more, about 1km north of us on our neighbours farming land was a bigger one, with a plate from the Swedish environmental protection agency, it was rated as 900 years old, i miss them impressive tree’s.
Well, when I’m stumped on something or don’t have a lot of time I’ve started processing wood here and there to build up a reserve. I had tried using this table saw with it’s old blade and wondering why it was so sluggish.
Perhaps it was because I was using an old worn out 60 tooth fine cutting blade. Checked the carpentry shop and found our spare blades, 28 tooth ripping blade. Perfect. I’m not using the fence so the wood pieces don’t get caught by friction and fly into my face. I might make a cradle that takes advantage of the slots so my hands won’t be near the blade.
Its actually going by fairly quickly. Cutting up all the scrap 2x4s and slat wood from pallets that aren’t worth building with. My work still gets an influx of about 2-3 pallets a week with all the engine replacements we do.
I burn mostly white ash and make most of my char out of it as well. Since the ash borer came though starting about 11 or 12 years ago about half the trees on my land were ash and died. I’ve been burning maple the last two years since the land next to mine was logged for it. We have some Ironwood but at least here it doesn’t grow very large. I cut some for Jacob but I should have separated it because I was curious about what kind of gas it would make. Most of our red elm is long gone due to a different plague years ago but I still get some. Makes the best scaffold planks and even though it’s a ways down the list I think it burns very hot.
Geez Bob. Your old. When I get as old as you we will be having another one of those fake elections and I’ll probably wish I was dead rather than listen to the endless BS. Been dropping trees for a long time by myself. Just have to look out for those widow makers Felling them usually means you are careful but bucking them you may get a little careless and tired. I think that’s more dangerous. I wouldn’t turn down any help but most younger people, present company excluded, are too slow and worthless. I do believe my life would be much easier with Jan’s iller.
Funny Goran, overhere nobody wants to burn spruce or similar wood. The resin causes chimney fire! Haha, I think it is the most burned wood all over the world but in our little country it causes problems. Three possibilities:
a you dont know how to burn wood
b your boiler sucks
c combination of a and b
I tried for a long time to convince my father, but gave up. Some firefighter told him…he is an expert
Oak containes tannic acid, but enough to damage your boiler? Yes , please bring all the oak to me please
Thanks Tom, for the overview
Hi Joep, i agree totally, every woodspecies should be burned the right way, no boilers are foul-proof either, it seems many old sayings convince people whats “bad firewood”.
Altought birch are the most popular firewood around here, some says it’s terrible because of the sugar content, and the tar amount in the bark, wich should cause higher risks of chimney-fire.
Interesting old house-remedies:
Burn a teaspoon lime once a week to neutralize tannic acid from oak.
Burn some quicklime every other day against sticky birch soot.
Burn potato-shavings once a month, reduces risk of chimney-fire.
Burn pieces of zinc-plated sheet, or nails once a month, against tar in chimney, or “shiny soot”.
Observe i dont say any of this are bs, people in old times often know what they did. I do the zinc-burning once in a while myself, cant hurt.
I don’t guarantee it works either.