Frozen wood

[PlicketyCat]

Thanks FuzzyBear - I figured you could get away with less   One of our neighbors has 12" peeled pole ridgebeam and two 6" purlins, 9" center post, and 6" rafters,  on his 48' x 24' cabin and that sucker has been up without a creak or a sag for 10 years and is often vacant in the winter so you know it had some snow load!

We'll stay away from the creeks and river groves. Our land is a "fire field" from '69, and there are still some big deadites standing around. We've been using the small ones for firewood, but I was hoping to use the big ones in the house... sounds like they are just the thing for the high stress members.  Any issues/pointers if you end up having to build with dry and green together?

[Sprucegum]

I shoulda mentioned -
ya might want to cut your firewood bolts a little shorter; 18" bolts are twice as hard to split as 16" bolts, and 14" ers are far easier yet. A bit more work with the saw can save a lot of work with the axe.

[PlicketyCat]

Good tip Sprucegum... we've just been bucking everything into 20" stovelengths since our firebox is 24". Maybe we need to adjust our thinking... better to have to get up and refill the box more often than to kill yourself trying to split big frozen wood

[stonebroke]

Or maybe cut it at 12 inches and double up

Stonebroke

[PlicketyCat]

aw man, you guys just want me to have to redesign and rebuild my firewood crib and bucking jigs.  I see how you are 

But seriously, shorter would be much easier to split.  Next year we won't run into this problem, as we will actually be here during the summer to get our firewood all ready to go for winter so we don't have to buck and split when frozen. We didn't get up here until August this year and didn't have enough time before the cold hit to get our wood situation settled.  Can you imagine what Canadian customs would have done if we'd tried to drive a semi full of "personal use" firewood through on our way here.... that would have been priceless! They almost blew a gasket with our ammo (just the ammo, we shipped the firearms) and firewood has almost as much transportation and quarantine restrictions.

[stonebroke]

Naw, We just don't want to see you freeze. It must be getting pretty cold up there and not much sunshine.

Stonebroke

[CX3]

Lay those big rounds on their side and split them halfway with a chainsaw.  A couple accurate whacks with a good maul will bring her down then.