We're Rich & Kathie, a retired couple living off-grid and building our dream of a super energy efficient underground dome home and sustainable homestead in the Adirondacks! Why did we choose an underground house? Why is it not really underground? Will we be able to heat the 1500 square foot house with a tiny little wood stove? How much wood will we use in the winters? What is it like to live off-grid? Is our solar system enough? How can we afford to do all this? It's a work in progress toward creating a simpler, healthier, and happier life, but simple doesn't mean easy! We hope you join us as we experience the adventures of living off-grid in the mountains & problem solve the challenges of building our super energy efficient underground concrete dome and homestead from raw forested land here in the beautiful Adirondack Park :-)
Good Morning To both of you good folks 👌😇👍Maintenance is the VITAL FACTOR 👍😇👌Full Synthetic Oil is very good 😇👍 OUTSTANDING INFORMATIVE VIDEO Cheers 👍👍😇👌🍻
Critters find a way to co-exist when you build in the woods. We have a grey fox that likes to dine on some old shredded wheat mini's that we put out for the demanding crow family who lives in our woods. Then we have garter snakes who made a home in the rocks we placed around our fire pit. Plus the usual rabbits, deer, etc. who like to munch on our flower garden landscape. But we built here because we love nature more than living in a more populated (people) area. You seem to be of like mind.
We're still considering buying a chipper, but for now, I just drag the debris back into the woods. How was the fishing on Schroon? I have some hints about trolling rigs...
Logs dont dry they rot and Oak needs a whole summer to dry. Now that you have this years wood done get the following years done too. This way your always a season ahead and have plenty of dry wood.
Hey neighbors, we use our pallet forks to also slice the logs, you need to bring it up higher so your not bending so much. Also bring you splitter closer to the cuts you just made & just roll them to the splitter.. this way you can hit them with the hook and put it onto the splitter. once out of the splitter, load the back of the UTV and bring it to the final storage place... I set up a one of those 10 x 10 tents to keep out of the sun make it a little cooler. you can also set up a nice fan under the tent & run it off the battery packs.. My neighbor thought I was selling raffles when he saw my operation. Lol You don't want to handle the wood more than you have to and the operation will go smother.... God Bless and stay safe...Chief..{ADK/NYS}
Just a reminder that the Woodsman Field Day is coming up on the third week of August in Boonville NY... Hope to see you guys there you will get a lot of great ideas.... Chief
Yes, but it’s still much cheaper than buying! We paid $400 two years ago for a cord of hardwood that wasn’t even fully seasoned. Times are definitely tough!
Nice work. We don't use that much wood over the winter so we just bought a face cord. Also, I can't split wood anymore due to the busted shoulder (good excuse??)
Great video ! Always good to have a little dried ahead :) I have a video up showing the WHY ! You have a very nice cabin in the hill very smart mother earth helps keep you warm :) you could buck the blocks at the pile then most are off the ground & the mess is at the pile :) Yes painful cutting with dull saw always try to stay up on something,
Good Evening to Both Of You 👌😇👍 Yes It Will Dry In Time As long that you are splitting it a little smaller that usual and also Pilling Up Under a Full Sunny Place 👍😇👌Any Free Wood Is Very Good 👌😇👍 Practice Make Perfect To hand fill a chainsaw ( many videos on you tube to look how ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-n3aiXFlOYwA.html ), ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2kyKK_VT2jM.html ),(ru-vid.com/group/PLXG51U0Imi5Vo37r3JimLLmR9isVUHMEM) and do not Forgot to use your PPE ( Accident does happen very quick !!! ) Cheers 🍻🍻
As a rule, we cut the trees down the year before after the leaves have dropped, then cut them into lengths, then split them in the spring, stack them off in our wood shed and by the late fall, they're good to go.
Gathering, splitting, and stacking wood is one of the most labor-intensive things you can do. Girdling some choice trees on your property now is fast and easy and will leave you with plenty of dry standing trees to cut and process next spring or fall. Hardwoods can be left standing a full year if you prefer processing them in a lighter, drier state. But they will be harder to process. I have seen a different star shaped wedge for log splitters that will split a log into many small pieces in one pass. Im not sure if the star shaped wedge is a part offered by the log splitter manufacturer or if it's just a redneck engineering thing. Lol. I saw a video last year on RU-vid where the homesteader had all his trees piled up. Then he rented this machine that he put 8'-10' logs onto the conveyor belt. The machine would then automatically self feed and buck the logs into stove sized lengths as well as automatically split them and spit them out into a pile on a pallet. If i remember correctly, he was able to process like 10 cords in one day. Definitely a big time and back saver. I don't know if this is true, but a friend who heats with wood says smaller logs put out higher btu's. Processing wood helps me sleep like a baby after the aleve kicks in. Lol 🥂✌️
This may be a dumb question. But on Sunny days isn't there excess electricity that can be utilized with electric space heaters? Ive also heard with rechargeable batteries to NOT keep them fully charged. Otherwise thet tend to build up a memory. My Uncle was told to run his down to 5% every other week. Then let them fully recharge. Glad to see the cast iron pot wall....I already have a 12 - 50# sacks of Beans on order ( I fix them for local event dinnersin a 5 gallon Roaster ). Pork is in the freezer, and Spices in the Pantry. A new Crock pot is on order too. I have my Grandparent's Cast Iron collection for my wood stove cooking too. Well over 100 years old.. But I find soups are best with the low constant heat of a crock pot. Especially Clam Chowder and Split Pea If my late father was here he would cut ALL the available wood when green.working 24/7. It is easily to cut wet and dosen't dull up the blade as fast. Plus cut wood dries faster.😊
My guess is, not enough excess electricity to rely on. They've mentioned in other videos that bad weather stretches mean running the generator to keep the batteries charged. If it was me, I would wait for a mini-split manufacturer to send me a free system to review because it would use less power than electric space heaters.
Yes, we do have a small portable electric heater that we can use if necessary, but we really prefer not to. How nice that you have all that heirloom cast iron! And we do hope to be more on top of wood in the funny we do really need to finish the house.
Your wood might be around 20% by November. I had a lot of oak that was delivered in the spring of last year that I burned in November. It started out around 28% like yours but was 18%-20% when I needed to use it. I just mixed in dryer maple or cherry with it. I also used those compressed sawdust blocks that hardware stores sell to help burn some of the bigger oak pieces. Happy burnin'.
Good to know and I hope so! We will continue to check it as we process more and more. We figure worst case is we buy some wood if we absolutely have to and then we are ahead of the game for next year. One thing we know is it will never go to waste!!
Imagine the heart attacks one would have back in the day splitting that wood with an axe. The wood splitter is such a dream. It looks like fun as well.🙂👍🇨🇦
Wow, watching Rich process that wood brought back memories. I live in Asheville NC and had 2 Swedish wood stoves similar to yours. I had to wait for a snow strom to acquire wood. When trees came down in ppls yard, they were happy for someone to clean it up. The second my axe hit a piece of wood, i could tell if it was oak, cherry, poplar or pine. I would burn it green but had to burn the creosote out the chimney once a year and that was dangerous.
