# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > General Homesteading >  Lets talk fire wood

## hunter63

Spent last week at "The Place" salvaging wind falls and standing dead wood.
As my primary heat source at "The Place" is a high efficiency wood stove, w/back up elec base boards, (expensive to run).

I have a lot of dead elm, seems that if the bark falls off standing trees, the wood is good, solid and pretty easy to split, burns well.
If the bark is still on, seems all wood is punky, very light weight, so don't mess with them other than to get the downed trees out of the way.
Lots or morals around the bases in the spring.

I do have several large oaks, is various stages of decay, parts blown down, etc.
Trunks are 3+ ft in diameter, but a lot of the larger branches have fallen.
These are what I have been working on salvaging.
Lots of work, but worth it.
Oddly it seems that on some the outer wood under the bark in starting to turn punky, while the centers are still very dense and heavy.
Splits and burns well, need 6 months or so for seasoning.

Other large branches seen to be solid on the outside, with the centers being punky. I'm thinking that happened before they broke or caused the breakage.
Still the outer wood is good and solid.

Other trees on "The Place" are locust, black walnut (some called them black locust around here), a few maples, and a lot of box elder, really kinda crappy trees.
I do salvage the wood from some of them when I can, box elder need to be split, aged a year, burned the second year and rots away on the third. 

After starting stove, and warming up the interior mass, log walls, furniture, and other objects inside, only a maintenance fire is need during outside temps of 30+.
Lower temps require a larger fire for comfortable temps.
This is when I burn up the crappy wood, saving the larger elm rounds (8" or so) or large hunks of oak, for over nite damper-ed, fire.

I sure a lot of y'all burn wood as well, and was just wondering what type of fuel you have available in your area, if you cut/split/store your own wood.

Some how I just like a wood fire, and the process of putting up my own fuel, knowing that I don't "need" to use purchased fuel, long term.

BTW, stove pipe checking and cleaning completed as part of fall prep.

I didn't take any pic's last week, but will be heading back out for another week or two for deer hunting, and continuing the "process".

I'll take some then, and y'all will laugh when you see what my little elect splitter can do........................

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## your_comforting_company

The only thing I recommend not burning is pine and red-tips. Red tips are just too darn hard (dense) to burn effectively, and pine soots up your chimney.
I've been using tulip wood from a tree I removed for a neighbor. It burns hot and fast, much like chinaberry. I also use a lot of limbs that my pecan trees drop. beyond that, it's pretty much the standard oak / hickory / etc.
I mostly cut the wood for my grandma to heat her house. We don't have a fireplace in our house, only out in the shed, so I can use whatever out there and just clean the pipes once in a while. No heat in our house.. you better dress warm! (or go to the shed!)

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## Camp10

I only burn oak, maple or ash.  I'm a chicken when it comes to chimney fires.  I clean the stove pipes every fall and keep an eye on the color of the snow around the chimney...to much yellow (creosote) and I will fire it up hot or clean it again.

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## RCKCRWLER

wood, wood, wood....Enjoy being able to walk out into the woods and cut what you want.  I am left with whatever I come across on craigs list when a tree dies in someones yard.  Heating with wood this winter I will be using ash, pine, and fruit trees.  Not too much variety here in the desert.  I am trying to get most of my wood for free because I have issues paying anywhere from $300-$600 a cord.  I grew up in Western NY where it is still $65 a cord.  Oh well price for living in the high desert.

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## hunter63

Here in the city, I use a wood stove in the garage/shop, and burn mostly "free for the taking" wood.

Lots is given away, but you have to be picky, as some people want you to cut down a large tree in their yard, for the wood.
Well, I won't even get into that trap......too many things to go wrong.

Plenty around already cut up, at the curb, just have to be careful of what kind is, I won't pick up pine, box elder, and willow.

Quality control on free wood is lacking, seems they just want it in pieces small enough to haul off, so cutting to splitter/stove length is kinda of a hassle.

State of Wisconsin is getting real bad about anyone "moving wood" around because of the green ash borer, so what I cut here stays here, and what I cut at "The Place" stays at the place.
I try to keep a face cord here, last me pretty good all winter for working in the garage heat.

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## LowKey

Usually Oak and Maple. Birch occasionally but it gets punky fast. The Ash trees here all died in the last couple of years. Some kind of disease. Ash would get punky fast too.

There are usually quite a few clean oak or hardwood palettes at work. The boss lets us cut them in the yard to haul away-if we sweep up after. I use that mostly for kindling. It's kiln dried wood so it burns kinda hot. The carps divvy up the hardwood cutoffs and scraps from the inside work for the same.

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## Mertell

Here in Western Wisconsin, I harvest dead and down wood in the County Forest for small fee.
The picking is pretty good:  White and Red Oak mostly, but an odd stick of maple or birch. 
I stay away from the big stuff: its too dangerous.  Limbs and saplings after logging works fine for me.  I get a lot of saplings up to 8 inches that are left behind. 

The wood sits on racks up off the ground for 2 winters before it is burned the 3rd year.  It is well seasoned.  Top is covered with tin or roofing rubber.

I do not have a woodshed.  That would mean handling the wood another time.
I already handle it enough times.....

We have an EPA-approved stove that burns hot.  One quick swab with the brush is all the chimney needs each summer.  But we also need to vacuum off the top of the baffle, which accumulates a handful of "crumbs".

This will be our 6th season burning wood.  I estimate I have now cut approx 30 full cords, counting the 12 I have on hand.  The stove will have paid for itself very soon.

Be safe:  be warm.  

-Mert

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## Pepper

I put adds on craigs list to cut wood FREE people call and say we have x amount of acres we want cleared of these trees Mostly oak or mesquite just pile the small limbs for them I put the add in farm and ranch section I cut the trees into long pcs then cut them into burn size later .

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## mountain1

we just use beetle kill lodgepole pine around here. there is plenty of it, and we have sum big ole' sob's to cut around these parts.
i love cutting down big trees... :Smile:  :Smile: 
though i have made a dent in the density of certain areas...he!he!he! we are always warm.

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## jake abraham

I have been cutting alot of downed red oaks I still have alot to cut up

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## mouse111111

Alot of you burn pine which may be a problem if you don't clean your flu often enough. I wish we had more white oaks and red oaks where I cut, I have to settle for blackjack. (Bastard oak for some of you old timers) It doesn't split or produce much heat. I hate elms, They don't split so I have to resort to cutting them lengthwise with the chainsaw, wasting gas and chain oil.

Oh and the conservation department scored alot of trees there, you can't cut them down but if they fall while your 'leaning' on one it's okay to take the wood.

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## Rick

There is nothing wrong with burning Pine. Creosote comes from the moisture in unseasoned wood. The terpines in the pine are flammable and burn along with the wood.

Pines sp. will give you 20-27 million BTUs per cord compared to 27-28 for oak sp. Maple sp will only give you about 22.

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## hunter63

Looks like it's that time of year again, started thuis thread on 11-17-10 so seems i a little early this year.
Cut a lot of dead falls and cleard a couple of thickets eariler this spring, now chunking, spliting, hauling and stacking.

Some of the standing dead elm I cut 2-3 years ago is starting to punk out, so have been using it just to keep the chill out of the cabin.

Still kinda waithing for that little ecectric splitter to die, so I can buy a new one......still going.

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## crashdive123

I see that the Radio Flyer is still going strong.

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## Wise Old Owl

Well you all have something on me when it comes to burning wood and Rick your post stood out... I just want to add if you are using a campfire - USE pine.. the turpentine makes a brighter more lit fire! and seasoned wood creates more heat. Unseasoned wood sucks. 

And its always easier to split wood by hand in 32 degree winter temps - the water in the wood creates ice.... and blocks of ice are more solid to split.

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## mouse111111

Is it ok to burn red cedar then?

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## Wise Old Owl

I cant imagine why not...

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## Rick

From my perspective there are only two things to consider. 1. Seasoned 2. BTU. Assuming you are burning for heat. Cottonwood can be pretty stinky to burn though.

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## mouse111111

When I was a kid, my father wouldn't ever let us burn pine or cedar. I've never burned cottonwood.

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## woodsman86

Though I don't heat with wood, I did augment Christmas by cutting and splitting spruce and selling it when I lived in WA. $10permit from the base would yield myself and a friend some great holiday cash. We delivered it for $100 half cord and $175 a cord, which was quite a bit less than most people selling spruce. I would just hit up all the old logging sites where the loggers always leave behind piles of delimbed logs already seasoned.

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## crashdive123

> Though I don't heat with wood, I did augment Christmas by cutting and splitting spruce and selling it when I lived in WA. $10permit from the base would yield myself and a friend some great holiday cash. We delivered it for $100 half cord and $175 a cord, which was quite a bit less than most people selling spruce. I would just hit up all the old logging sites where the loggers always leave behind piles of delimbed logs already seasoned.


When I was stationed there (Bangor NSB, not Fort Lewis) a full cord of wood cut, split, delivered and stacked was $45.  We sold quite a bit.  I think I may have been stationed there a year or two before you based on the price increases.

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## hunter63

> When I was a kid, my father wouldn't ever let us burn pine or cedar. I've never burned cottonwood.


Cottonwood, willow and a few others don't really burn, if green they just spit the water out IF you get it hot enough....but mostly it just "shrinks", when dry burns like paper, no BTU's left.

Box elder isn't quite as bad, but close.
We don't burn much pine, not a lot around that need cutting.

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## mouse111111

We only have yellow pine in some places, mostly planted by the Conservation department.

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## randyt

When I was a kid all we burned was pine slab wood. Every once in awhile we would saw some hardwood and end up with some hardwood slabs. That was nice for keeping a fire through the night.

cedar was reserved for kindling and morning wood when we wanted to get the house warmed up fast.

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## Winter

> Is it ok to burn red cedar then?


Half of the trees around here are red or yellow ceder. Both burn fast and hot and are a bit sooty, like most coniferous trees.

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## edr730

This is the time for firewood for us when things slow down. Usually we have standing dead trees or laying off the ground on their limbs that are already seasoned. Our elm is the hardest splitting wood there is except for the bottom of a trunk on a big popple which can sometimes split in a saw tooth shape. Everyone here likes ash because it burns hotter than anything else. You can burn it green or seasoned and it splits by maul much faster than a splitter can do it. Oak is second choice, then hard maple, beech or elm. There are others like ironwood and fruit trees, but they are in less abundance. I don't even know anyone who would choose a spruce or pine for firewood. They might burn it if it was given to them. Pines don't split good because of all the limbs and they throw sparks all over the floor or the top of the tent, tarp or whatever you don't want to get burned. But, it all burns if you're careful and low BTU or greener wood can be used in the fall or spring or in the shop. You take what you can get. Cedar can be used to warm the room and start the fire in the morning because like Winter said, it's fast and hot and it splits easy too. It's better than paper. We use the log trailer to pile big sticks or small trees from the side of the trail for kindling. We use a couple of chain binders to pull them down tight to the trailer and cut through all of them at once. That way you don't get slapped with a stick. Often while walking where we will gather kindling, I'll pick up the small trees off the ground and lean them again the big trees to season some. I learned that from the old man in the shack when I was a boy. With the maul, green wood splits better as does cold wood. If one end has been sitting on wet ground split it from the dry side. If the wood has some punky parts in the center then hit the dry edges. If a limb is coming out of the log, split on both sides of it then across it a little father away. If you have a big piece, don't try to split it down the center. Split it off in close to the edge and walk around the log continuing to split smaller pieces off the edges. With the splitter I don't like to return the splitter any farther than necessary to split the log. It wastes a lot of time. A table made from the big pieces from the base of the tree is put on each side of the splitter to catch the pieces that need to be split again. It's nice to have big steel wheels on the splitter to keep moving it over the split wood now and then so you don't bury yourself in wood. When stacking put the fatter part of the log on the outside so it makes the pile lean toward the wall or other piles you have. Cover the top if you like dry wood. If not stacking and just using a tarp over a loose pile, then make sure the center is the highest so the water runs off. Big chunks of ice all over the tarp aren't any fun in the middle of winter. I'm not against burning any kind of wood, but I prefer to earn the most BTUs for the least amount of effort. I know many who cut their wood knows these things. Or you tweak your method to your own system. But these are some of the most basic procedures for firewood

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## BH51

Here in West Tennessee,...primarily seasoned red & white oak, wild pecan and hickory. Some will burn
black and honey locust...and some will burn anything..........................................  .................BH51

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## gryffynklm

I've been burning Locust and red, white oak. I like the locust. Nice heat even with the damper shut way down i can get a long 8 hour burn at 3/4 full. I'm using a Hearth Stone wood stove. Pricy but I really like it.

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## mouse111111

I like locust too, it burned great even when it was green. I had to clear some off of a lot 2 years ago, there must be some kind of oil in the wood that makes it burn hot. I think it was honey locust, silver bark with red thorns.

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## ClayPick

Maple and Birch is abundant in my neck of the woods. I leave my wood outside and notice how birch doesn’t absorb moisture like other wood. No small wonder it’s the best to go for when it’s wet out.

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## edr730

We don't have a lot of that wood that you boys from the south have got. A friend found a tree in the woods and brought back a huge leaf and asked me what it was. I told him that I had never seen such a leaf. We finally asked a old farmer from Ohio and he told us it was a Sycamore tree. I don't know how it got to be here in these north michign woods. I've heard of them. He said it was good to make pig pens because the pigs would not chew it up. 
We do use the birch also, but it is always very wet or rotten while in the woods. It splits really great like white ash and if seasoned it drys and burns well. I did get a big pile of birch bark for fire starter since I debarked it to help it dry faster. I did a cord or two of it this weekend and about the same of sugar maple. About 6 hours for cutting hauling and stacking. Hardwood is about $50 a cord around here. There has been one or two hundred swans on the lake while they've been stopping on their way through. I don't recall that ever happening before. They call all night like loons do, but their call has it's own sound

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## hunter63

I always felt like I was "doin' for myself" when ever I working in the woods.....and seeing a flock of swans is like fringe benefits...that had to be cool.

It amazes me the things you see when you are out there.

Thanks for passing it along.

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## Rick

You give one loon a cell phone and the next thing you know everyone is calling everyone else. Brother.

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## randyt

birch is nice firewood. I don't debark mine but I at least split it half in two. I use to love cutting fire wood. The best I ever done was ten face cord cut and delivered. I did have a brand spankin new husquvarna chainsaw on the start of that day and it was tops. It was a long day.

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## edr730

You did good Randy. I'm over 60 and my friend is too fat, but we enjoyed the day cutting wood. There's been days when I was younger that we dragged a lot of logs to the landing and my dad would use his big Johnsered and we would really cut and split a lot of wood. My friend used his Husky 455 which is great on gas and does scream as the good saws do today, but it's not made for all day use. My friends dad, who was also my good friend would stop me from working while we were dragging trees for lumber or minnow trapping and say that you had to stop and look around and appreciate things around you. What Hunter said reminded me about this rule. I'll never trap minnows on the river again  like I did with him. He'd tell me to jump in the river in early spring with the chain saw and cut though the trees so we could pass. I'd jump in and say the water was cold and he'd call me a big sissy and laugh in his rough way. We'd come back so heavy and full of minnows that the boat couldn't steer and I thought we'd sink the boat. That was his knowledge and what he had always done in his life and I just got to share it for a while. So, I try to stop for the swans or anything else I may or may not see again

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## Skinner

All this Talk About Wood . Man All the Wood You All List I Would Use in Knife Making. Use the Hearts Of Some And Cut to See the Grain and Start Drying for Stablizing Following Year . There's a Guy Down the Road I Pass Him Every day On my way to Work and I Take a Glims at the ores On Some Of the Woods He Cuts .He Can Run Full Tree Trunks Threw His Splitter Quick and a Wip the Guy Loading it Is the One Slowing Him Down

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## shiftyer1

I don't use it to heat the house but here I use post oak for everything from campfires to bbq and if I had a fireplace or potbelly stove i'd use it there also.  I was raised in MN until age 22,  some of my fondest memories are cutting and splitting wood with my dad and making fires in the fireplace.

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## randyt

edr730, at the time I was 20 years old and had spent the previous 10 years working at the family sawmill as a tail sawyer and logger. I was in very good physical condition. now days I can do good as long as I don't have to bend over, bending over just pains the heck out of me.

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## ClayPick

I'm still allowed to split with an axe and lug it with my wheelbarrow but the wife finally made me get a oil furnace this year. She must want me around for a little longer. It just wouldn't seem like winter without a wood stove to sit around, sure is nice being warm in the morning though.

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## Rick

Edr - That's probably the most important rule I have for the woods. My boys will go head down like a jack rabbit when we hike and I just amble along. They will be out of site in about a minute and come back in about 10 to see if I'm dead. More often than not I'm checking out some plant or watching some bird or just sitting and enjoying the view. I keep telling them they are in the woods to enjoy the Lord's work not to have a race. They don't get it.....yet. But they will come around.

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## hunter63

Slowing down does increase your range of things you will see and experience....sometimes "less is more".

I don't "race" to cut my wood up any more, but have managed to stay a year ahead...for my use.

Bought a chain saw,..... guy at the hardware store says I could cut 10 cords a day with it.

Started in cutting with it, and worked my butte off only go 3 cord.

So took it back to the store and explained the problem....guy pulled some rope or whatever....the thing stated making a bunch of noise....So I said, "Whats that noise, what's that noise!!!"

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## crashdive123

He does shows nightly along with Rick at 7 and 10 folks.

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## hunter63

Thank you,....... Thank you very much.........

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## randyt

sometimes "racing" is good LOL. 15 cents a stick for pulp wood is one of those times. My best day on the wood cutting meant 150 dollars for the day or 15 dollars per rick.

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## tipacanoe

I was up to my buddy's camp a few weeks ago, after Irene I think, and there was a downed 40' white oak on his shore line. It drifted down the river that is normally not much more than waist deep sitting up it side just a pretty as it could be.   This past weekend I cut two  of 25 foot limbs (12 inches diameter) up in chunks, carried it up the banking and spit it.  I think my buddy will get to cut up the trunk.

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## mouse111111

My buddy always asks me to help him cut up trunks, I tell him to sell his dinky little 14" Stihl and buy a real mans toy.

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## Rick

> 15 dollars per rick


Dang man! I'm worth more than that. Just ask my mom.

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## crashdive123

> sometimes "racing" is good LOL. 15 cents a stick for pulp wood is one of those times. My best day on the wood cutting meant 150 dollars for the day or 15 dollars per rick.





> Dang man! I'm worth more than that. Just ask my mom.


I'm waiting for the Christmas sales.  I hear you'll be able to get three ricks for that price.

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## randyt

That's 15 dollars for a little rick, A big Rick is priceless LOL. And a tricky Rick ??? well that's all I'm going say about that LOL.

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## Rick

What if I throw in a hong?

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## randyt

nooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!nnnnoooooooooooo!!!!!  !!!! I'll be good I promise.

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## Rick

I don't get no respect. A girl phoned me the other day and said... 'Come on over, there's nobody home.' I went over. Nobody was home.

I looked up my family tree and found three dogs using it.

I looked up my family tree and found out I was the sap.

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## edr730

I still can run and hustle. We do what we must do or can do. But,looking up now and then and appreciating it all is good rule to follow. I feel the woods differently when I slow down. During quiet morning coffees, she feels plugged in.

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## hunter63

> I don't get no respect. A girl phoned me the other day and said... 'Come on over, there's nobody home.' I went over. Nobody was home.
> 
> I looked up my family tree and found three dogs using it.
> 
> I looked up my family tree and found out I was the sap.


Pa-dump-fromp...rim shot.

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## randyt

in all seriousness, Rick should forgo the hong and go with a Hugh Hefner type robe from now on, the pipe is optional. Maybe a poll is called for.

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## Rick

Wait a minute. I could do both. Whadaya think? I've got the hong on here. Sorry, but I was adjusting the hong when the picture was taken. 

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## bobzilla

It seems like I have a lot of blown downed honey locust and it makes great firewood,the place was cut for timber,that's why it was so cheap,so I have a lot of red and white oak tops.The place is a mess and I won't live long enough to clean it up.

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## Rick

Did you guys get the high wind storms a couple of years back? Everything in the Bloomington area (Yellowwood, Morgan and Deem) has tons of wood down. I haven't been over to Turkey Run the last two years so I don't know if they got hit or not. If so, I'll bet you have a LOT of wood on the ground.

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## randyt

That's what I'm talking about Rick, although to be honest I thought you were a tad bit older than your photo.

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## Rick

It's the pipe.

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## crashdive123

> That's what I'm talking about Rick, although to be honest I thought you were a tad bit older than your photo.


He has the hong cinched up a little too tight.  Takes out the wrinkles around the eyes when he does.

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## randyt

> He has the hong cinched up a little too tight.  Takes out the wrinkles around the eyes when he does.


ahaa I see as long as he keeps the hong to himself all is right with the world.

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## backtobasics

Where I live there is no hard wood. It's all different types of pine. We only have wood heat. It gets into the teens here but every now and then we get below 0. It takes about 4 cords a winter to heat our 1500 sq foot home.

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