Randy Butler

How I get most of my firewood...

The birch would have remained standing if not for the need of a new septic. I'm curious, Nancy - do you split spruce by hand or a powered unit?

My conifers are nearly all Red Spruce with a few Black and Englemann (sp?) mixed in.  NOT fond of hand splitting any of those!

Thanks all for the feedback

It just struck me as odd that I did that without even thinking about it.
But I know that birch will rot in a heartbeat if left fully wrapped in bark.
So it piqued my curiosity if, perhaps, bark down would retain moisture and cause problems?

Just one of those things you've probably seen a dozen times and then suddenly the lightbulb goes on - "why didn't I notice the before?"

Maybe as we age, we observe our surroundings better?  One of the VERY few perks of getting old(er)

I had to take some trees down in preparation for new leach field (erosion removed 80% of the old one build 70 years ago).
Unfortunately, with the new town requirements, I have to install a new 1000 gallon concrete tank, plus an effluent  pumping system.
The new leach field will be 100 feet away from the main tank and about 35 feet higher.
Still haven't had what I'd consider a reasonable estimate for the job.
And while I try to do most jobs myself, moving 10,000 pounds of concrete tank down the hill and around a corner - well, I think that one is just a little out of my league!

But the real point of this thread is - I cut, split and stacked the birch trees and then looked at the wood shed.
Inadvertently, I had stacked almost all the logs with the bark side up.
Since the shed is not entirely weathertight, should I have changed the log orientation or gone all bark side down, does it matter?

When you stack your firewood, do you pay any attention to the orientation of the bark ?

Thanks!

No, I'm not going to restack anything, but I always have more trees that fall over, so this surely won't be my last fell, cut, split and stack day

Peter - Congratulations - the brain still says 50 years old (I suspect the body says 50 with some extra experience).

I suspected I didn't need any further anchors than gravity and friction.
But nowadays, you never know what Mother Nature will throw at us next!
And Maine does have earthquakes - four in both 2024 and 2025, all less than 2.8.
I guess if we get enough shaking to disturb the heater base, I've got bigger things to worry about!

And yes Glenn, the floor is smooth, but it's concrete and far from polished (although there are likely to be splotches of oil or grease here and there)

Thanks for all the feedback, now to the mud mixing!

As I get older, I look for ways to make life (and chores) easier. So the bottom of the firebox in the new RMH will be up at 20 inches off the floor.
I had considered waist level - but that differs so much even for members of immediate family.
And at some time, the kids may be tasked with manning the heater.

I'm pretty sure - with the supplies I already have - the easiest/simplest method is a double stack of concrete blocks.
I am, by no means, a finish mason. But I can mix and slop mortar as well as keep the wythes (layers) fairly level and square.
My skills should certainly be good enough for a 40x48 base (I did build the 30 foot double flue brick chimney).

So now my question ... if all the blocks are mortared together, is there any reason to anchor this block to the cellar floor?
If I don't need to, I'd rather not drill holes and pin into the existing concrete.
Thoughts?

Thanks!

If the wall is the original dirt/hill/yard retainer and it was designed as such with a stone face for nicer looks, then the strength of that "mortar" may be one of several different versions.

From mr. Google -

There are several types of mortar, including Type M, S, N, and O, each with different strengths and applications.

When I rebuilt my 2-flue chimney, I opted for Type M, knowing I was going up 30 plus feet and thought I wanted it as strong as possible.

That choice has yet to be tested - maybe one of my grandkids will be cursing my name on the next rebuild!

I have also seen where folks build a stone wall with wooden casing surround, carefully placing stones in the form and them pouring regular concrete around the rocks, moving them just enough to embed them fully.

A hard bristle scrub brush is then used on day 2 to make the face of it pretty.

My point is - your old wall could be constructed in so many ways - you'll either need to do some real digging to ascertain it's original style, or just make it solid to repel any further intruders!

Good Luck, and if possible, give us a follow up on the completed project!

There was a comment about needing to keep your knives sharp.  
I build a DIY sharpener similar to:Sharpener

I changed a couple things - first I made the long square block from hardwood, then notched out a place to embed a piece of old plate glass on each face.
A couple simple flat metal tabs hold the sandpaper in place instead of gluing on.
It's easy to change grits - depends on how rough the edge is to start.
Right now I run 200, 400, 800, 1200.
It also works on chisel and plane blades if you set up the clamp properly.

One critical piece I learned long ago was that a glass surface is so flat that any (decent) steel can be honed to a really fine edge.

IF your surface is flat and your angle is consistant. The modified jig does both.

Sorry, no pic of mine - it's been loaned out and haven't seen it for months

A couple thoughts -
Matt designed an excellent product, and if it can fit into the house properly, I will use his design as planned.
But his efforts led to a wonderful, compact design with limited height requirements.
As I said, this is junk wood and the less cutting I have to do, the better.
Many of the floaters originated as pulpwood somewhere up in a river area far away.
So a lot of what I deal with is already 4 foot long.
If I could adapt the riserless design to a large firebox and use a horizontal port interface to reduce the vertical element, that would seem to work well.

On the salt issue, we have rosa Rugosa all along the shoreline and they thrive being saturated during the winter with sea spray.
Also, every few years, we collect seaweed and mulch the rhubarb several inches in the fall. They grow like crazy. So some stuff loves it!

This feedback is wonderful - thank you all so much.

Hi Thomas.

All good replies. But you missed one point - I have no intention of putting a chainsaw to this stuff.
I just want to push one end in and then nudge it further as it burns down.
Functionally, I kinda want to build an J-tube with a 4 foot square feed tube