Wood chopping......

Who knew wood collecting would create so many questions...........I did this post as the girls on zoom wanted me to show them my crazy load of wood on the bike......... when its too wet to take the ute out into the paddocks we take the bikes.......

then some of you were asking what type of wood etc............

This is the trunk of a big old box tree.............ignore the leaves as that is from a wilga tree that is growing under the box tree..........common occurence also........

This is the same tree from a distance............this box tree is a broad leaf box as opposed to the narrow leaf one and the shape of the leaves help sort those out.......that's what we call them anyway......

these trees are very old............I would love to know how old..............

We never cut trees down as the wood is not so good to burn at that time.......

We have timber that had been down on the ground for way to many years............

the older the better..........

Its from branches broken off in storms etc..........

Where my family live they mostly use ironbark......we don't have any of those trees........

Occasionally we cut some buddah which is nice and hot but not good over all as it's too sooty.........Pine tree are good too but I only use that to start the fire..........cut up fine pieces to get the fire going..........once again burns pretty hot.........

few chops with the chainsaw and its all cut up............

we had a helper learner this day.......

Chainsaws are never used alone...........just to dangerous.........

I have no desire to use one at this time.........I am a safety observer.........I pick up most of the wood

This timber is hollow as it gets eaten out with termites.......while standing.....so you get some bits thicker and some thinner...........sometimes I can tell by the colour of the wood if it's going to burn better or not......its also funny that some is more ashy then others too.........

We cut most of the way thru until you get near the dirt and you roll the pieces over and drop the dirt and cut the rest of the way thru................sometimes these pieces will naturally split in some of those cracks..........we don't take an axe with us I can pick some pieces up and drop on another piece and split them.........for the odd big ones that won't split Mr Chooky gets to pick them up..........

This time we found a surprise........lucky the chainsaw only just touched it..............Mr Chooky had no idea but it fitted perfectly in the width of the wood cut.........

Its an old rabbit trap.............no sign of anything in it.........goodness knows if its from when boy wonder used to rabbit trap 15 years ago or from many years prior............

you push down and the jaws open and stay set open until a rabbit or fox puts there foot onto the plate and it snapped shut...........the long peg gets pushed into the ground so they don't drag the trap away but obviously this one went for a trip back up a log so maybe it caught a fox.........they love to live in logs..........anyway back to the story........

We keep some of the thicker good pieces for night time so the fire burns all night.......

It doesn't cost to much for us to cut enough food for a week or 10 days.......

1/2 this log went to another home also.........

Anyway hope that answers some questions........ask away if I missed something.......

Catch you later............

Chookyblue.......