Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How many times do you pick up a piece of firewood...

Yep,

not enough poles to put politicians heads one even.

We could come up with something.

Steve;
Good evening to you sir, I hope the middle of the Labor Day Long Weekend treated you acceptably and this finds you well.

If I may, I'll agree with roundoak in my approach and outlook on cutting firewood in that I prefer to approach it as a combination of exercise and mental relaxation.

Sometimes if I can't get close enough to roll or carry the chunks to the trailer/truck then it's cut first



Then it's into the dead sled to the trailer/truck



That's two already and then the 3rd is into the trailer and down the mountain.

Once at the yard it needs to get split and stacked down at the initial drying area - not the house as in.



It'll usually sit there for at least 6 months, sometimes a year if I'm caught up and then it's in a wheel barrow up to the house.

Then it's stacked at the house, then brought into the house and burned.

Honestly though, if they ever make it unlawful to do here - and they're trying.... - well I'm not sure what I'll do, but the warmth and comfort of a wood fire has been a mainstay of our winters for most of our lives. Fire it seems to me, goes pretty deep in most of us humans.

Thanks for letting me join in and all the best to you all this fall, whether your hunts are for firewood or game - or like me - both.

Dwayne

Hope all is well up there in Canada Dwayne. Fall will be here soon, although with temp at 94F here today it sure doesn't feel like it. All the green tomatoes on my vines most certainly appreciate the next week or so of summer weather we're getting here though.

Are they honestly trying to stop woodburning on your side of the mountains Dwayne? Are there that many folks burning that it's become an issue for air quality? Forest health? Some other reason?

Valsdad;
Good evening to you sir, we're well but warm too.

It was 88°F here today, so cooler than yesterday for sure and certain, but still a tad warm for me to get too excited about chasing innocent ungulates about the mountains although season opens on Thursday.

We're getting more and more muttering about air quality here in the valley, our part of it is the narrowest physical chunk of the Okanagan so when the weather is wrong for sure smoke can sit in the valley.

For the most part they're still logging the local mountains as much as they always have, though they're more careful with drainage areas as well as getting to replanting quicker so it's better that way.

I'd opine as well that considering our annual wild fire issues they'd best continue to log for the foreseeable future, you know?

The house insurance folks get more stringent with wood burning anything in a structure as well, but one supposes that's all part of the constant change we're all experiencing anymore, no?

For now however, I'll be keeping an eye open for easy to grab Doug Fir this fall and we'll heat the place to a comfy level one more winter!

All the best to you folks this fall sir.

Dwayne

Thanks for the reply Dwayne

The Okanagan is going big time I guess.

We have some air quality days, but for those who's primary heat source is wood, it's not an issue, we're still allowed to burn. But, no burning piles or trash barrels on those days.

Over to the west, in the populated areas, I hear it's different. As in there are some total no burn days.

One of my firewood guys is supposed to start resupplying me this week. I've still got a couple of months worth stacked in the woodshed, and some logs that need the small ends cut off for fenceposts and the large ends cut into rounds, so I think we'll be OK.

Enjoy your evening.

Won’t be long, Geno will break out the plum colored cardigan with charlie brown aztec zig zags on the front

Valsdad;
Thanks for your reply sir!

We're doing not too too bad as far as industry goes here in the Okanagan, though the tourism has been hit hard by the beer flu they've allowed logging and sawmills to keep running.

The logging comment was more towards your question on the health of the forest and really the firewood guys don't take enough wood to make much difference at all since we're restricted to dead wood for the most part.

We too have no more burn piles or trash barrels - well I need to say I can get a burn permit on our acreage, but one needs to check with the air quality rating first, then advise the local fire dept, etc before lighting it. While some still do, I'm within a few km of the land fill where they grind up all the prunings, slash and pine needles up and compost it.

So far we're not having "no burn" days here, but in some towns north of us there's days where they'll have a burning advisory and ask folks to curtail burning unless necessary. Again it's mostly because most of us BC folks live at the bottoms of river valleys where inversions and such are a fact of life in winter.

Thanks again and you have a good evening and hopefully a good Monday as well sir.

Dwayne

Dang right, cardigans rule...................no jumpers (sweaters for some) for me.

I burn around 5 chords of oak each winter. Up until 5 years ago I and my farm hand fell the trees and did everything else to get the wood in my home. I'm older now so I call my wood guy, who does it all and delivers and stacks it.

seven for me, if everything goes right.

sometimes move some an extra time or two, especially if I don't split everything right away, or if I need to get it under a tarp before the next step.

At $30 a ton you would be a lunatic not to buy it.

A Nissan truck load is 4 feet by 6 feet by 2 feet, more or less.

Yes we, as modern humans, go way back, when it comes to sitting around a fire. Look at the name of this forum. Who hasn't been on a campout on a hunting trip, and sat around the camp fire talking to his buddies. No tv or radio to distract, there is something magical about gazing at a wood fire, and talking with your friends.

We know that modern humans were in Europe at least 35,000 years ago. That gives us 23,000 years of living in the Ice Age. The man who could light a fire and keep it burning had a good chance of survival. The man who could not keep a fire burning, he died. And so did his wife and his baby. They all froze to death.

It is in our DNA to enjoy a wood fire.

And it is even more in the DNA of the female. When I was a swinging bachelor, college boy in Atlanta at age 20, I found an old house out in the country on the north side of Atlanta, that had a wood burning fireplace. In those days, almost nobody had a wood burning fireplace in Atlanta, and nobody had ever heard of a wood stove. I just loved to light that fireplace and gaze into it.
And I found out that, if I got a coed out there and she watched me light that fire, pretty soon it was going to be 10 up and 10 down. Let her see you light the fire, 100 percent effective.

Twice. The tractor does the rest.

The little I split, I have a tire screwed on a log block, that saves a lot of picking up.

This is an average year for us. about 16 face cord. With all the dead ash and the super dry conditions in the swampy ground I own, I currently have about 3 years worth cut into rounds and hauled up to the house. I still enjoy processing wood, but as I get older I can see it becoming more of a burden than anything.

Wabi, I use the same concept, but the tire is portable for splitting when and where needed.

What’s is yurns friggin obsession with firewood is.
Y’all know there are things such as electricity, then central heating and air things, gas and so on and so forth?
I grew up with a wood stove and still have a wood stove on one end of the house and gas on the other end. I like wood heating and for some reason kinda enjoy cutting it. But lets face it it is a pain in the ass. Fell the tree if it’s not down already, Cut it , pile it, load it, unload it, split it, stack it,make kinlin, load it in wheel barrow or 4 wheeler trailer, bring it in the house, put in stove, start fire, keep fire stoked up however many times a day while at then same time adding more wood during the day and night. Keep mess cleaned up and swept up around stove, load ashes in bucket every so often carry outside somewhere, and dump, get gas and oil for chainsaw, mix chainsaw gas and oil, maintain saw/keep maintenance up on chainsaw, keep fuggin chain sharp,
Whole fuggin house smells like wood, clothes smell like wood, go out in a date, guess what your clothes smell like wood, everything smells like wood. Leave house for a few hours or have too be gone for the day for work or whatever reason then you come house colder than heck, hope like heck you at least have enough coals left so you don’t have too start a whole new blankety blank fire again. Oh yes wood heat is so great 🙄🙄
All that being said I still enjoy wood heat with a good roaring fire or a nice fireplace. Yes it’s good as backup or too burn sometimes. But let’s be truthful it’s a fuggin pain in the ass.

Sometimes it takes a little more coaxing. Grenade wedge to the rescue.

Mr. Killjoy