Something else on KT's to do list!

[KingTotsalot]

A bit over 2 weeks ago the Royal Kingdom had a major windstorm pass through, and there was one large oak tree that was leaned over as a result, and hung up in another large tree. So the Queen went on a hunt to find a crew to come and take it down. As you might imagine, there were many trees down across the Royal Kingdom due to this storm, and everyone in the business were super busy. But she found a fellow and his crew of 5 who a week ago committed to come and take it down, and cut it up into 18" rounds and pieces for KT's firewood efforts. The price was not cheap, but the men earned their pay and presently there are 31 large rounds and a goodly stack of smaller wood to be split, along with a large pile of brush. KT has promised the Queen, that with her assistance, this will all be handled over the next two months, in the early morning hours when the temps are cooler and more comfortable! Fortunately for all involved, the tree was just far enough away from the Royal Castle that if it had not hung up, it still would have missed doing any damage to the Royal Abode!

Below are some pictures of the tree, and then the resultant rounds! Enjoy! KT understands that there is no scale but the larger of these rounds are around 20" in diameter....thus gonna make a PILE of firewood once split! Enjoy the pictures!

 

[KingTotsalot]

Well, today was a busy day at the Royal Castle! Aside from putting louvers in the windows of the Royal Coach, KT got involved with working on the large brush pile of limbs and stems left over from the workmen taking down that leaning oak tree. The Queen was busy on her Royal Tractor taking bucket loads of brush from the workmen’s pile to where we burn branches and some paper trash. I counted 6 trips and then came inside for awhile, then went back out and tended the burning brush pile and saw the delivery of another 4 loads. KT then went to dinner and brought the Queen back her dinner. That was when she finally got off the tractor and put it to bed for the evening. KT was cutting the brush to fit in the tractor bucket and sorting out more limbs to be cut up for firewood when working on the brush pile. Anyway, His Majesty thinks this process will continue after church tomorrow unless it is raining. Once cleaned up, the area will be where we will then pull the trailer back to its normal parking spot.

Then will be time to start the process of moving those rounds to the splitter, to break down into firewood. Likely a couple of weeks from now.

 

[LovestheShiny!]

Excellent work, Your Majesty, with able help from the Royal Queen! At my humble estate here in Idaho, we have cleared some smaller trees 30' or less, from near the peasant cabin, to improve protection from forest fires. Also lets in more sunshine and gives a better view of the surrounding countryside. Have done much as you have, cutting rounds, tending burn piles, splitting wood, and putting away firewood for the upcoming winter. Congratulations on taking care of important work in the Royal Kingdom!

 

[KingTotsalot]

Excellent work, Your Majesty, with able help from the Royal Queen! At my humble estate here in Idaho, we have cleared some smaller trees 30' or less, from near the peasant cabin, to improve protection from forest fires. Also lets in more sunshine and gives a better view of the surrounding countryside. Have done much as you have, cutting rounds, tending burn piles, splitting wood, and putting away firewood for the upcoming winter. Congratulations on taking care of important work in the Royal Kingdom!

Royal Thanks, LovestheShiny! KT had once dreamed of having such a place as yours, somewhere to get away from the daily Royal Concerns. Since the Royal Castle is surrounded by fairly dense forestland, there are no sweeping vistas to sooth the soul and distract the mind. KT did go out and look at the remaining pile of branches this morning, and me thinks We have made our way through about 1/3rd of it. And KT did pull out a few more small rounds and set them aside to cut to firewood length. The burn pile from yesterday is essentially now a pile of ashes, surrounded by a few leafy twigs that thus far have escaped the conflagration.

Unfortunately, rain is supposedly in our future later this morning, so this afternoons Royal Activities will be restricted to efforts inside the Castle….hopefully with a little TV sports for a distraction!

 

[LovestheShiny!]

Your Majesty, we do have a mix of Pine Forest and Pasture, so our humble abode here has a good mix! I've attached a few pics of our firewood stack (so far with more to go!) and a few of the views from the property... we are blessed with an old fruit orchard, with pears, dark cherries, and many varieties of apples, some original structures such as workingman's home and old brick ice house.

Take a Sunday break and enjoy some Royal Television Sports today!

 

[KingTotsalot]

Lovely views, LovestheShiny! Thanks for the pictures! The Royal Castle Grounds was one part of one large farm, and crossing the Royal Grounds is a Civil War escape road that was taken to move the people and southern Army south to Old Washington where the State Capitol was established. This was when the Union Troops came in from the east and took Little Rock, a few miles to the NE of the Castle. The old wagon road is incised into the ground about 2.5 feet. When detecting, KT had hopes of finding some Civil War relics along that path, but the only thing he did find was a large carriage bolt with the nut still attached. It was bent so likely replaced and the bent one tossed.

We managed to get a bit more of the brush pile burned this afternoon, but not many loads. KT did work on the pile briefly, long enough to pull out some additional small logs to be cut up for firewood, and to leave a pile of smaller brush for the Queen to burn up tomorrow......we look to be about 1/3rd through the stack presently. The property is mostly covered now with mixed hardwoods and pine that took over the farms cleared fields many years ago, tho we had much of the pine cut 15 to 20 years ago.

You are lucky to have those mature fruit trees! We have had various types of fruit trees down through the years, but what the squirrels and crows did not eat, the soil fungus that causes brown rot in maturing fruit got. We had peaches, apples and plum trees and never got a thing off of any of them, so KT grew tired of tending them and cut them all down. Since we had native muscadine grapes on the property, the Queen started a vineyard and has 8 mature trellis trained vines that yield enough crop for us, the birds, the raccoons, and the wasps! HA HA We have several blueberry bushes and always get a nice yield from them, along with two fig trees, that we battle with the squirrels to get fruit from also.

We also have a few native juniper trees, locally called cedar trees scattered about the property, along with 100s of native dogwood trees.

 

[LovestheShiny!]

Thank you, Your Majesty! Some very impressive history to your property! Best wishes for continued tidying up the Royal Estate Castle Grounds!

 

[KingTotsalot]

Well. today the Royal Family has continued the work on the large brush pile and it is now down to about half of its former volume, with KT loading the tractor bucket and the Queen driving it around and dumping it onto the burning pile. Some significant progress was made, especially after KT suggested taking the tractor bucket and "fluffing up" the pile, loosening all the interlocking branches etc. and making it easier to pull them out and clip them off. Also KT is getting a decent stack of 2" to 3" trimmed limbs to cut into firewood length at a later time. Until the brush pile is gone, it will continue to be the focus of our clean up efforts!

 

[John Madill]

Well. today the Royal Family has continued the work on the large brush pile and it is now down to about half of its former volume, with KT loading the tractor bucket and the Queen driving it around and dumping it onto the burning pile. Some significant progress was made, especially after KT suggested taking the tractor bucket and "fluffing up" the pile, loosening all the interlocking branches etc. and making it easier to pull them out and clip them off. Also KT is getting a decent stack of 2" to 3" trimmed limbs to cut into firewood length at a later time. Until the brush pile is gone, it will continue to be the focus of our clean up efforts!

If I were royalty with such lumber to deal with I would instruct the royal carpenters to start building battering rams. I would export them at great profit, wise enough to ship them so far they would never be used against my castle doors.

 

[KingTotsalot]

If I were royalty with such lumber to deal with I would instruct the royal carpenters to start building battering rams. I would export them at great profit, wise enough to ship them so far they would never be used against my castle doors.

Royal Thanks for your suggestion, John Madill! However in KT's Royal Kingdom, the Royal Carpenter's are staying busy building housing for all these Silver Walkers, Silver Bens, and Silver Kens that keep arriving!

The brush pile is down presently to about 1/4 of its original size and KT just heard Her Majesty go by on the Royal Tractor, meaning another load of brush is headed to the burn pile. So far, KT has salvaged two bucket loads of larger tree branches to later be cut into firewood. They are being stacked on the back porch of the Castle, because rain is scheduled for tomorrow and Thursday, and this will give KT something to do, having them in the dry to cut, and stack during the rain. KT's favorite winter activity is to do just this whilst it is snowing, just staying warm splitting wood and stacking it!

 

[KingTotsalot]

Well, it was a lot of back and forth with the tractor today, but the brush pile is all cleaned up and burned! Got a decent stack of small logs on the back porch to start cutting in to firewood lengths, 18" pieces, when the rain hits tomorrow! I got one pic of the small wood stack on the back porch...this was all salvaged out of the brush pile! Enjoy the pic!

 

[KingTotsalot]

On Wednesday, after bible study, KT arrived back at the Castle after eating lunch at a local BBQ and Catfish House. Very good food. KT got all his tools set up and began work on cutting the above pile of limbs into 18" firewood pieces, managing to get about half of the pile processed. Some few, perhaps a couple of dozen sticks will have to be split before they are stacked. KT managed to get that done before supper served by the Queen. KT will rest the remaining evening and make a fresh start tomorrow morning when the weather is a bit cooler and the humidity somewhat lower. Then at 9:30 tomorrow, KT will be back at the Royal Church to participate in Mexican Train Dominos with his friends. After lunch, KT will wrap up the sawing portion of this chore, and begin sorting and stacking everything that does not require splitting. Spitting will be left for Thursday evening or Friday morning. Those are the Royal Plans anyway at this time!

 

[KingTotsalot]

Well now, it is Thursday and KT just got finished with cutting all the limbs on the Royal Back Porch and splitting those large enough to be split! Now comes the fun of stacking them. But due to a Lodge Meeting tonight that starts at 5 pm with KT arriving back home at around 9 pm, that will wait until tomorrow! Then the real fun will start when KT begins to split those large rounds. Maximum with the summer heat is 2 rounds a day, have to be slow and steady when "eating an elephant"! HA HA There is some stacked firewood the workmen left but KT still has to go through that stack to ascertain that it is all around 18" and not much longer. Me Lady doest not like handling longer wood as it is more difficult to place properly in the Royal Wood Heater! But that will not be a difficult job, some of it might need to be split tho to start drying properly.

 

[KingTotsalot]

Update for Friday morning.....when KT got up this morning, the weather forecasters were calling for rain before noon here in the Kingdom, so KT got busy tossing all the wood in a 4 wheel cart and stacking it in a metal rack, two trips of that and then that chore was finished. Then, He took the Royal Leaf Blower and cleaned all the sawdust and wood chips off the Castle's back porch, so none of it will be tracked into the Dungeon of the RC, to please the Queen. Just as KT sat down to have a cup of coffee, thunder started rolling and now sprinkles are starting, so it appears, for a change, that the weatherman was correct! HA HA In the original pictures posted above, the rounds that are stacked....some of them are over length, so next week, after the rains are over, KT will start going through them, cutting them to length and splitting all that wood, before starting on the large rounds. Anyway, those are His Majesty's plans, we shall see if they work out! The Queen has agreed to bring the wood onto the Castles back porch with her tractor to allow KT to stay dry when processing it. Once that small stack is processed, KT will build a new rack at that stacks location to let that wood dry for a couple of years before moving it in onto the back porch to burn.

 

[KingTotsalot]

Over this past weekend, Prince John finished moving all the remaining limbs...those next to the big rounds....onto the back porch with the Royal Tractor, and KT finished cutting them to 18" lengths, split them all, and got them stacked on a 10' rack next to the Castle. A picture of the last of them ready to be cut and split is the first picture. The second picture is of the stack, nearly ready to be covered. All that now remains is to work through the remaining larger diameter 31 oak rounds, and build a rack or two to store that wood in for 3 years from now! LOL

 

[KingTotsalot]

KT today got a start on those large rounds of red oak…the first 3 were quartered and split down, and finished filling the last rack at the Castle. KT had a disappointment however, the old hand pump style hydraulic splitter gave up its ghost with blown seals. So KT decided to noodle the next set of 3, and that worked out well. Noodling consists of cutting 4” deep slots at right angles on one end, then driving wedges into the slot, splitting the round in half. Then splitting each half into half again. Then each quarter is easy for KT to lift onto the electric splitter. KT also ordered two new 12’ wood racks from Amazon which will arrive on Friday. Plans are to request Prince John to assist in assembling them this coming weekend, and begin the process of filling them. This wood should be cured out by the winter of 2027-28. KT now has enough wood stored up and aging out for the winters of 2025-2026 and 2026-27. As time permits this summer KT will be working through the 30 or so rounds left! So progress is being made.

 

[KingTotsalot]

Picture showing noodling processing of rounds. One round split on right, center is one round X-noodled with wedges set, ready to split and one round...ready to be noodled. Also includes one of KT's Royal electric saws, and the assorted tools for splitting.

Enjoy the pic! The noodled round is now split! HA HA

 

[KingTotsalot]

As of this morning, Friday the 13th, all the wood on the Royal back porch is now converted to firewood and ready to dry. KT is taking a two and a half day break, due to a couple of out of town trips, one to Memphis today to talk to their Rock Collecting Club concerning Fluorescent Lights and Minerals, and Saturday going on a ride with Royal Friends to Piggott Arkansas to the local Museum for a field trip. After Church on Sunday, Prince John will assist KT in assembling one of the two Royal Firewood racks that were purchased and placing it so that as the remaining large rounds are converted to firewood, they have a place to be stacked and dry for a couple of years. Once that process is started, there will be some photos to show the Royal Progress! KT hopes everyone has a great weekend, even tho here in the Kingdom is is supposed to rain most of the days.

I did hear from the repairman concerning the starter on the Royal Draggin Wagon and it is now being rebuilt. He apologized for a family situation that arose, and I thanked him and told him that family always comes before other obligations, so no problem and KT was glad to hear that things are now moving forward on the repair!

 

[GroundSweeper]

There's nothing quite like firewood to warm a kingdom. Plus it warms you more than at the wood stove too - like when you're cutting it, loading it, splitting it, stacking it it's hard work!

But there is something about looking upon nicely stacked provisions of future heat that comforts and greatly satisfies.

I gave up on wedges and mauls, but that's an interesting method there KT. I generally use a Fiskars Super Splitter Axe and if that can't do it, noodle with the chainsaw. But my 'noodling' is different than your, as I turn the round 90 degrees from your pic and cut it clean through. Since its with the grain that way, the saw produces long 'noodles' instead of chips. It's all a good workout for the saw though, that is why I reserve it for the most stubborn of crotch or knotted pieces that I just can't split after multiple attempts.

I've got a pile of old oak rounds in my front yard I need to process, and add to the stacks out back. My firewood is mostly black oak, some doug-fir and incense-cedar mixed in, and maybe a little madrone and choke cherry, but not much of those latter two.

Sounds like you have a nice weekend ahead! Enjoy and thanks for sharing your kingdom's happenings.

 

[KingTotsalot]

There's nothing quite like firewood to warm a kingdom. Plus it warms you more than at the wood stove too - like when you're cutting it, loading it, splitting it, stacking it it's hard work!

But there is something about looking upon nicely stacked provisions of future heat that comforts and greatly satisfies.

I gave up on wedges and mauls, but that's an interesting method there KT. I generally use a Fiskars Super Splitter Axe and if that can't do it, noodle with the chainsaw. But my 'noodling' is different than your, as I turn the round 90 degrees from your pic and cut it clean through. Since its with the grain that way, the saw produces long 'noodles' instead of chips. It's all a good workout for the saw though, that is why I reserve it for the most stubborn of crotch or knotted pieces that I just can't split after multiple attempts.

I've got a pile of old oak rounds in my front yard I need to process, and add to the stacks out back. My firewood is mostly black oak, some doug-fir and incense-cedar mixed in, and maybe a little madrone and choke cherry, but not much of those latter two.

Sounds like you have a nice weekend ahead! Enjoy and thanks for sharing your kingdom's happenings.

In the Royal Kingdom, if wood is left laying on the ground for over a year, the southern termite infests it and soon it begins to deteriorate and lose its value as firewood. If it is touching the ground, it soon is rotten wood, rather than potential firewood. KT would love to give up on the sledge and wedge routine also, but continues with it, just for the health benefits! Ha ha. The principal problem is not the actual labor, but the summer humidity just saps the energy out of most anyone working outdoors. KT has the same Fiskars super splitter axe, but it is ineffective with green stringy red oak. By using KT’s method, rarely does His Majesty need to swing the Royal 8-pound hammer. Alternating whacks on those wedges with a 4-pound hammer gets the job done pretty quickly.

To keep from buying a mechanical or electrical lift apparatus, KT quarters these large rounds and then picks the quarters up to split on The Royal Electric Wood Splitter.

On Father’s Day, Prince John assisted KT in building and placing a 12’ 7” metal wood rack, purchased from Amazon, and then the Queen assisted by driving her tractor, allowing KT and Prince John to move all the recently split oak and stack it on the rack…it only took a couple of trips, and then at KT’s urging, she delivered 4 more oak rounds to the back porch splitting station! That assistance made for a great and enjoyable Royal Father’s Day for His Majesty!