To Those Who Prepare Wood

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Sasha

Sasha

Mmm Helicobacter pylori..
Joined
Jan 29, 2009
Messages
2,047
Location
Edmonton, AB, Canada
KUDOS TO YOU!

Today my dad chopped up some poplar trees out back for me which have never been sprayed. I cut them up into 4" sticks, some ranging from very thin to about an inch wide.

Let me just say.. MY FEET ARE KILLING ME. I've only scrubbed 1/3 of the wood that I cut, but my gosh standing by the sink, scrubbing and scrubbing... for hours! Right now they are boiling, so I have yet to bake them. But sheesh, it is A LOT of work! I'll try to get the rest done this weekend.. Definately takes some work and patience!
 
Yes it does!! LOL!! I've only prepared wood once in my life - I bought 10 pounds of green wood that was already cut into coins, but hadn't been washed/baked, anything. That was the longest period of my life, while I stood there scrubbing it all, and then baking it all and so on... Kudos to those people who do this all the time!!!!!! I never could...
 
I have 1 pan of small sticks in one oven, and another pan of larger sticks in our smaller oven. I hope they turn out okay!
 
Wow! That's a lot of work! My uncle has a lot of trees as well that haven't been sprayed and he chops his own wood and offered to prepare some for me and I said I'd think about it. I know now not to frown in the face of free the next time he asks.
 
LOL, this is why preparing wood is not one of my favorite things to do! It's alot of work and people who haven't done it, have no idea how tiresome and boring it is to do.

When I have people get impatient about the time it takes to prepare the wood, I tell them well I have no choice, it's not an overnight process, especially if it is like lbs and lbs of wood. ;) Have fun with it, Sasha! :thumbsup:
 
Yes, I hate to prepeare wood. I try to stock up and do mine when I have time to do a bunch. Then sometimes I just buy it, it's so much easier.
 
I have prepared my own wood from my own apple trees but mine are just babies so the process was a lot shorter. It is a lot of work, though, but just think how happy your chins will be and the fact that you won't have to do this again for a long time! Good luck with the rest of your wood!
 
>.< I am in the process of preparing wood too! Ive had the pile in the garage for almost a week and I am almost done chopping them up.... heehee
 
All that work and between my 12 chins and my brothers rabbit I bet it'll last me less than a few days, lmao.

They took awhile longer to dry than I expected, so I kept them in the oven for 2 hours and they are air-drying right now as well. Still a bit green.
 
Ahhh the joy. Cut, scrub, boil, bake. RCR was talking about it the other day and I do not envy the task one bit. Instead of doing it in a home situation, it'd be much easier to find a place that has more burners (or larger pot sizes), and much bigger ovens. It'd go so much faster if you could do it in quantities instead of filling a small home oven. I can't imagine those who do it as a business. You guys rock though because you keep my chinnies teeth happy. - Jessica
 
I just spent 2 hours on cutting wood alone today. Tomorrow, I will have to boil, scrub and bake them. I am so not looking forward to it. Good thing my chins are not like beavers but I'd like to do a big batch at a time so I don't have to be bothered with preparing them any time soon...
 
I did my first batch a couple of weeks ago, and it too forever! Mine were fairly small in diameter, and it still took 4 hours in the oven until I was happy with the way they came out. Between that, the trimming of the tree, the scrubbing, and the boiling, I bet one batch (which filled about 3/4 of a gallon sized zip lock) took about 8 hours total. It was SO much work. However, my chins went to town on them! I've never seen them eat apple wood so quickly. I have a bunch more in the garage to do, but I need bugger clippers for the larger branches.
 
Sticks are easy, coins and whirlies need drilled too.

I bake a lot longer than two hours. I would be concerned about them not being dry. When you do enough wood you learn to tell when it's dry, and when it's not, by feel and looking at it.

Unfortunately many people have no idea how much work it is, those are the people who often complain about the price. I am totally set up to do it, with a table saw, drill press, sheets just for wood ( because they will ruin your baking sheets over time ) and it is still a long process. My husband helped me for the first time really last month and he was like this SUCKS... LOL.
 
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