Got Wood?

So..out here on the homestead...cutting wood is almost a daily event...well it seems like it some days. From marking old decaying trees for cutting to pruning the trail system. One such tree was an old gnarly Maple that had seen better days. It was leaning at a crazy angle and had rot about half way up. It was pretty clear that this particular tree was going to fall down soon. So...it was harvested this week. The method I use for cutting and splitting wood involves only having to bend down to the ground once. I injured my back about 20 years ago at the machine shop I worked at simply by lifting a 4 by 4 foot piece of sheet metal off the floor to a bandsaw. That simple act of lift and twist changed my back and the way I lift things forever.

Once the tree is felled (hopefully in the spot I want it to fall) it's cut up into 16" long logs. In this case each log weighed on average 100 lbs. (About 45 kgs for our European  and "new school" readers)
It was a real struggle to lift these pieces up to the UTV, but by being careful and no twisting of my back, this was done with no issues. One of the pictures shows the UTV was loaded with 1000 lbs of wood! (3 logs were already off the UTV when I snapped the picture).

Down the trail we go, extra low "stump pulling" gear selected, carefully avoiding ruts and rocks on the trail system as to not upset the load. The splitting action takes place at the wood shed. A folding ladder is used to temporally store split wood at chest height, so from the UTV to splitter to bench ladder to woodshed involves no bending down and thus a healthy back!
This Maple tree was about 18" in diameter and according to my "estimating-firewood-from-standing-trees-calculator" it should cut and split out to about .65 face cord. In this case the face cord measurement that I use is 4 feet x 8 feet x 16 inches = 1/3 cord (42.66 cubic feet)
Other sizes are shown below. A full cord is 128 cubic feet of "well stacked" wood.

4 feet x 8 feet x 12 inches = 1/4 cord (32 cubic feet)
4 feet x 8 feet x 16 inches = 1/3 cord (42.66 cubic feet)
4 feet x 8 feet x 24 inches = 1/2 cord (64 cubic feet, 1.8 cubic meters)
4 feet x 8 feet x 32 inches = 2/3 cord (85 cubic feet)

The inside dimensions of the wood inside the shed are 13 x 12 x6  (The piles of wood averages 6 feet high)=936 cu/ft
7.3 Bush cords of wood/21.9 Face cords.