When the barn was empty it was hard to imagine ever having a reserve of firewood. But truck load after truck load its building up. We have a few weeks supply at the moment, and hoping to increase that before the winter is over. Though soon it will be and I will take a break from wood collection and focus more on the gardens, crops and other farm tasks. The end goal is to have enough firewood to last the entire winter. But sometimes we go through it faster than we collect it, on rainy cold days we usually just use the reserves. But when the weather is good we tend to cut up and use what we collected that day. Put some away in the barn and burn the rest if its not green or wet.
Honestly its been nice collecting firewood in the winter, things are pretty slow during that time so its good to have a primary task to focus on. When spring comes around I will be quite busy with other projects, then can return to wood collection in the autumn when things start slowing down again.
Some of the logs need to be split, others need to be chainsawed. But we have been stacking them in the back of the barn, hoping eventually I can build up more stacks all the way to the front of the barn.
Wet firewood does not burn well, so getting it under the barn and start drying is important. Otherwise with every rain the wood needs to sit again to dry out more.
Sometimes we have evergreens like pines that we cut down, the pine needles make a great fire starter. They are better when dried but even the green ones burn well once they get going.
We also keep a supply of smaller sticks, we build a what looks like a birds nest in the furnace and then once lit throw the bigger logs on them.
I keep my cutters near by so if they do not fit well I can trim them down.
Keeping a few big rounds near the furnace they are good for night time when I will not be returning to check on the furnace until after I sleep. They weigh a good 70 pounds but I am getting better and lifting them into the furnace carefully.
Pretty old tree judging by the rings.
My view in the mirror while driving back, just a bunch of logs.. lol
After every storm we find new downed trees to collect, its constantly happening. So I am really not worried about finding enough downed firewood.
Getting the fire going I wear a face mask and some gloves.
We can see the fire starting paper at the base that helps to start that nest of small sticks.
There is a button on the side of the wood furnace called ignition air, it allows the fans in the machine to blow more air inside stoking the fire while I supply it with more wood.
Finally the pile of sticks is catching, sometimes the fire goes out and I need to start again building with fresh sticks and lighting the fire again. But this time it got going with one try and I am thankful for that.
As the flames start licking the top of the furnace, I throw on those big round logs and then close up the furnace. It will heat hundreds of gallons of water that circulates between my homes and workshop to keep everything warm. Its a good feeling going back inside from the cold weather after working outside and feeling warm from all my hard work. Then taking a shower using hot water that has been heated by the wood furnace feels good and is a nice way to wrap up the day.
We do this every December when we go back to the country house. It’s really I nice experience.
Ah nice, I plan on collecting more wood around that time of year too. It is fun collecting firewood.
I like to wait until it cools down and most of the bugs are gone.
The taste of cooking with wooden chopsticks is incomparable. Especially in our country, if we cook with Kharkuta, the taste of that cooking seems incomparable. But during winter it is better to keep the body warm by lighting a fire. Which is a great strategy to stay healthy. Thank you so much for presenting these wonderful Kharkuta scenes, such nature always enlivens me.
Cooking with wood is great, I have made many campfires using firewood and the flavor added to the food is great.
You are welcome, glad you enjoyed the post.
Awesome pictures! Firewood is a must and very smart setup. You need the big and the small to get that furnace going. I have always used pine needles for fire starter when I camp, very cool. Were you able to grow cannabis throughout the winter?
Thanks, glad I could capture the moment. Yeah I like the outdoor wood furnace, it has none of the risk of fire in the house and still provides all the warmth. Nice, yeah we keep pine needles when we find them.. they take a long time to dry and I usually burn them before they turn brown.
Yep, My Zebra Stripe was just harvested. Going to do a guess the weight post once they dry. Started new seeds, a strain called "zsweet inzanity" that I plan on starting indoors and then moving outside once the weather warms up.
Have you ever tried zsweet inzanity before? I've not heard of that one!
Without a doubt, collecting firewood in winter is an activity that serves to stay active, and have a pleasant temperature in the environments.
You are doing a great job of collecting, you have suitable tools for cutting, and thus accumulate firewood for the rainy days when it is impossible to go out in search of firewood.
Thank you very much dear friend @solominer for sharing this update
Enjoy your weekend
It sure is, I do not plan on doing this in the summer when its hot. But once cooler weather returns I will get back to it.
Thanks, hope you have a good one too.
That is a lot of work every year. Good for you for foraging for firewood and I am sure it keeps you very busy.
It sure is but glad to have a winter activity to do outside. Staying on the move I keep warm and its not so hard when I am not sweating all the time unlike summer.
Wow it is awesome that you can bring the wood in with a truck. For now we are just collecting wood by wheel barrow but, our house is small so we don't need quite so much. Best of luck in this great task.
Having the truck and UTV is a life saver on our property. I feel ya, where I used to live I could not even fit my truck in my back yard so I did the same with carts and wheel barrows.
These are great when a wheel barrow is not working well.
Thanks, hope your projects go well too.
Looking good! You are going to be all set for at least the beginning of next winter!
Thanks man, yeah that is how I see it. Having a head start will help, I also think I am getting faster and stronger moving the firewood so maybe I will be able to collect more next year more efficiently.
Nothing wrong with that!
Fantastic images! Fuel is essential. To start that furnace, you'll need both the huge as well as the small wood, don't you?
You have adequate equipment for cutting, so you are gathering firewood for those rainy days when it is impractical to go out and get it. You are doing a terrific job of collecting.
Did you manage to grow cannabis all winter long?
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Thanks, I do my best to capture the moment while out there.
Yep sure do.. We separate small and bigger sticks for starting the fire, and also keep packaging paper on hand when we receive stuff in the mail to use as tinder.
Those chainsaws are great, though one is broken down right now and the other needs its blade sharpened. I am gonna give sharpening a try my self.
Just harvested four plants I started in December, so I got three harvests in the last year growing indoors.
Appreciate the tokens
It's incredibly awesome. People who accustomed to live on farms or mountain will not suffered if they need those kind of woods.
Yeah I bet, glad I only do this because I want to as an option and not because I need to.
But for some they need it as their only source of heat.
Indeed, and I also agree to that.
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I think it's a lot of work to get this done every winter.. isn't?
Yeah it takes a few hours of work just about every day when its cold to collect enough wood. When it warms up luckily we can take breaks.
Back when i was a kid "Farm hand". We would go collect branches on the ground and create a big pile of sticks as fuel for the cooking pot near the pig pens. Its basically a big cauldron where we would pour 1/2 pig feed + 1/4 food scraps + 1/4 Kangkong (Water Spinach).
This would fill up the pigs quite nicely, elimate pest or contaminants and reduce feed cost.
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STOPLots of firewood. In the past, I often saw people looking for firewood in the forest in my area.If they look for firewood in the forest, of course they will take it to the kitchen to cook.But now many people use LPG gas. But if there is an event where people cook with a large cauldron, of course they still use firewood to start the fire.