How Much Wood would a Woodchuck Chuck?

It’s that time of year again and I am chucking wood from my front yard this year. I own an additional 6 acres behind the house, all woods, but it is hard to get to. The terrain is such that I need to cut a road along the contours of the property to get to the back. I’m not so much “making” a road as I am reclaiming the original road that was put in to build the house then abandoned once the house was sited. It follows the ledge and stone walls that once fenced cows when this was a pasture, eons ago.

There are several by-products of this clearing project: firewood, smaller branches for my “pot wraps” and brush that I burn and turn back into my thin layer of topsoil. The firewood is the focus at the moment. The trees I am taking down are mostly Oak, one Maple and lots of white Birch. Because I am on ledge, trees need to be really tenacious and after 30 or 40 years their root system can not longer get enough nutrients to sustain large trees. Some are standing dead-wood which is good to burn as is, the rest will need to be split and dried.

I have a pile that has dried all summer and should get me started for the winter season, hopefully long enough to allow what I am spitting now to dry.

If I put in about an hour a day with my nifty little electric log splitter it really adds up fast.

If you have been following my blog since January, you have no doubt read of my wood exploits ad anuseum. If you haven’t and find it fascinating, here are the links to previous posts about heating with wood:

https://marthaschaefer.com/2013/01/25/ash-wet-or-ash-dry/

https://marthaschaefer.com/2013/02/21/where-theres-fire/

https://marthaschaefer.com/2013/04/08/spring-projects/

 https://marthaschaefer.com/2013/04/26/the-queen-of-wood-meets-the-pulp-hook/