automated firewood processing

This is not something I think of when thinking of "woodland care", but I do find this fascinating. 

wonder what they do with all the twisty knotted logs?

brice Moss wrote:
wonder what they do with all the twisty knotted logs?

I think that's like looking at the 800lb gorilla and wondering where he'll sit.  That doesn't look like something that will take "knot" for an answer.

don't overestimate the machinery, I reckon there be a reason the logs he's picking up are all straight methinks a significant twist to the side or a large branch would jam that things feed mechanism, which would make it useless for the types of firewood I used to burn back in Michigan basically the cheapest wood was always the stuff the lumber mills did not want to run into their machinery 

Looks like the wood forest products producers a mile down the road from me..but we don't get wood from them, too blanged expensive !! They are horrible, they literally clear cut everything they can get a permit to work on..so yeah, I don't recommend it.

The supplier we get wood from cuts only dead wood or goes in and gets tops from areas where people have gone in and gotten logs out of..most of what we have now is ash killed by the emerald ash borer or elm killed by the new elm disease that has been wiping out the elm again..right now nearly 100 % dead standing elm being cut. We still have a few elms on our property that are alive thank God

Brenda Groth wrote:
Looks like the wood forest products producers a mile down the road from me..but we don't get wood from them, too blanged expensive !! They are horrible, they literally clear cut everything they can get a permit to work on..so yeah, I don't recommend it.

The supplier we get wood from cuts only dead wood or goes in and gets tops from areas where people have gone in and gotten logs out of..most of what we have now is ash killed by the emerald ash borer or elm killed by the new elm disease that has been wiping out the elm again..right now nearly 100 % dead standing elm being cut. We still have a few elms on our property that are alive thank God

Does the fungus or bacterium (not sure which it is) that causes the new elm disease survive the fireplace, or can it "spore" and make it out alive on the smoke to infect again?

I know in our area they don't want people to burn the ash that's got the emerald ash borer, but I think that's because they don't want people storing the ash, providing a home for the insect.

they have a regulation about how far it can be shipped..but the fire does destroy it yes..esp our low emmision wood boiler that reburns the gasses 3 times before they are released into the air..most wood boilers are very smelly and stinky which I totally hate..but we made sure we got the best one on the market (but they have since gone bankrupts so they are no longer available and our 20 year warranty is void..darn)..

you can barely even smell wood smoke outside if standing right by the chimney..but down the road the old fashioned wood boilers smell up the entire neighborhood.

our woodcutter cuts locally and doesn't go across county lines..with his wood..however..there are emerald ash borers and elm disease all over this area..so better to burn the wood than have it standing dead feeding the bugs and spreading them..

Muzhik wrote:
I think that's like looking at the 800lb gorilla and wondering where he'll sit.  That doesn't look like something that will take "knot" for an answer.

Unfortunately I'm not getting any image when I load this page. My guess is this looks like we have around here for processing firewood. Takes a lot to pay for the machine. I sell logs to them.

The twisty, knotty stuff they are not interested in. That goes into the chipper and is blown into big tractor trailors at our landings for hauling to the pellet making plant or biomass burner for making electricity. The chipper doesn't care what comes into it. Heck, chippers would probably chip chippers. Real monsters. And loud.

The reality is to make veneer and furniture grade hard wood we end up thinning out about five loads of pulp (biomass or firewood) for every load of good wood. Pulling those firewood loads pays for the process of thinning. It takes decades of that to produce top grade wood. It is a crop, a long term crop and like any it takes some weeding. Fortunately the 'weeds' are useable for home heating (firewood, pellets, biomass) so there is a market. Years ago we used to sell the pulp to paper mills but that market has dried up as they gradually went under.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

BIL had his log splitter stolen from his place this week (along with his trailer which the theives loaded it up on ..) ins co will replace the splitter but not the trailer..

we live in a highly wood product harvested area...seems like every 1/2 mile is a forest products company around here..