Mountain Man Mondays; How Much Work To Generate One Cord of Wood?
- May 10, 2009
- Category: Daily Diary
- (11) Comments
Firewood, most of us use it. We run to the store and buy it in neat bundles or someone comes and dumps a bunch of wood on our lawn. But do you know how to measure a cord of wood? Do you know the difference in burn rates between green wood and seasoned wood? Do you know which woods are more suitable for firewood?
If you’re like me, you probably gave it no thought nor the effort behind assembling all those logs. Sure, there is heavy duty equipment (firewood processors, etc.) to make life easier but equipment costs a fortune and is designed to strip forests of trees to produce a maximum profit. Well, on Red Pine Mountain, trees are highly valued. There’s no clear cutting here.
To give you an idea of the hard work behind firewood, I filmed Mountain Man assembling a cord for one of our friends. First, he went into the woods and found some dying beech trees that had to come out and logged those. (So far, he hasn’t let me follow him into the woods to watch him logging. It requires concentration on his part and the camera is a distraction.)
Next, he hauls down the trees and begins to cut. I should also add Mountain Man is not feeling well. He’s got some kind of nasty virus complete with a fever and chills. I tried arguing with him to slow down but not Mountain Man. He always says he does not feel right unless he puts in a full day’s work. And, keep in mind he then comes in and cooks dinner too!
I know there’s a lot of videos but thanks to my digital camera, they are 60 seconds or less.
Here you see the finished result. Through higher math which eludes me, Mountain Man knows our truck holds exactly one and one half cords of wood. Here is the finished result.
If you stayed through this entire post, you deserve a medal.
Thanks for being part of Mountain Man Mondays!
4x4x8 = full cord, … Best wood: hottest is dry oak,.. cleanest (my opinion) is dry beech,.. what stinks the most is wet elm. Peee-uuuu! Never burn wet wood,.. makes creosote. ahhh, I remember that well from early married days back in the 1960s. nice post,.. kudos to Mountain Man!
Date: May 11, 2009
we just bought 10 cords of log length firewood, mixed hardwoods…and yes, there is quite a difference in burn efficiency & the ability to bank a good fire overnight depending on just how seasoned yr seasoned wood is…the well-seasoned cherry we burned at the beginning of last winter burned a little too fast & we had a harder time keeping a fire overnight than the 6 month old ash, maple & birch we cut last summer & burned later on. we are having a great time managing our firewood stash…
Date: May 11, 2009
This was a great post! I enjoyed watching Mountain Man and learning about your woods and firewood in your area.
We burn Yellow pine, willow and aspen, depending. I do not like, nor will I use willingly cotton wood or other soft types of wood. They burn too fast and leave huge chunks and stink!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/
Date: May 11, 2009
That was very interesting. I have an MM too…. he’s my Maintenance Man. Last year when he let his facial hair grow a few people did call him Mountain Man, but I get a lot more work out of Maintenance Man lol. We only have about an acre, we dropped a dead oak last weekend and have about 3 we want to drop in the front yard (choke Cherry) – MM’s allergic to the blooms and it’s just not worth it. Thanks for stopping by my site.
Date: May 11, 2009
I’ve seen many a cord of wood, but never learned what the measurement is…just visually “sort of know”.
I can’t believe my grandparents used to heat their house with just wood.
I did learn one thing out of necessity though….burn green leaves and everything else green outdoors….makes lots of smoke to keep bugs away. Well it’s better than those 100% useless citronella candles etc.
Date: May 11, 2009
Thank you for stopping by – I appreciated your comment!
Date: May 12, 2009
That's a lot of work!
)
We used to have a wood stove in our summer house back in Czech so I know how much pain getting the wood & coal is
Date: May 12, 2009
We had wood burning stoves when I was growing up, so I remember very vividly having to help haul in the wood and coal. Mountain Man is great!
Date: May 12, 2009
An interesting process, and it looks like a lot of work, esp if poor Mountain Man isn’t feeling 100%! Poor guy, I hope he’s feeling better soon.
(He sounds like my dad, who never, ever let a sickness sideline him either.)
Date: May 14, 2009
I’m sweating just thinking about all the hard work he did!
Date: May 16, 2009
Sounds like you have a work a holic on your hands. I know those types. Work no mater what… We’ve a wood splitter for Suzi’s house since she has no central heat. I am so grateful for my heater. Wood cutting and splitting and stacking is lots of work and I DONT like all the black widows and other spiders in the wood pile.
Date: May 16, 2009