The Latest Gadget

admin October 19, 2018 firewood, packaging, seasoned firewood

We had salvaged the timber from the cleanup process on the top of the hill, hauled the logs down the hill to the landing, cut the logs into 16 inch pieces, split each piece into 4 inch and smaller blocks and stacked them to cure inside the barn. About 4 cord of the processed wood is dry and cured. The process has been taking a long time, but we are finally to the point of firewood production that gets the wood ready for sale.

Log deck in woods. — Decks at the top of the hill.

Dozer dragging small logs down skid road. — Removing logs from the top of the hill.

A gas powered splitter in the landing. — 16 inch wood split.

Log pile on the left, split firewood on the right and felled tree in background. — Split firewood in lower landing.

Wood stacked in crib — Split wood stacked into crib.

Now for the packaging.

We borrowed this handy dandy machine from a local firewood bundle producer. This is the big trial for us. We are hoping to purchase our own machine if we find that bundled firewood is going to be a multi-year/on-going project for us.
Simply called “Twister,” this machine is able to sleeve the wood for a consistent end-product. The stacked wood is held in a cradle in the center of the machine and the plastic wrap is spun around the bundle as it wraps the wood in a tight bundle.

The finished bundles are then stacked onto pallets for storage until they can be delivered.
This venture has been quite the saga. Those pretty bundles of firewood in the grocery stores hold stories of production. The process from trees on the hill to a product ready for consumers takes more than 6 months. It will be good to see some of the completed product finally leave the farm.
PS, for those who are wondering… The Twister is pretty fun to run even though the swinging arm of plastic wrap is dangerous. Odds are that if you hear laughter coming from the barn, I am running the Twister.