Rust never sleeps

Thanks for all your good wishes that I don’t burn out.  Hey, hey, my, my  it’s better to burn out than fade away- Neil Young.

My life just got a little easier. I went to visit the Amish this morning about my wood supply for next year’s firings. They are cutting it in 3 foot lengths, banding it and lifting it on to our trailer so all I have to do is cherry pick the thinner ones and stack them on pallets. Beats the hand bombing on and off the trailer, stacking it in a rick, cutting it to length,  splitting it, unloading it onto pallets and then moving it to the kiln. That took a better part of my week each week this summer in the blazing heat.

If you think I work hard ya oughta visit the Amish. I said to the father “So I can pick up the wood any day between 8 and 5?”. He said “No, you can pick up the wood  6 days a week any time between 6 am till 10pm. My boys work 16 hour days.

I got one big long row of dry ash 4 feet long that will serve me well for probably 5 or more firings next spring. That is a huge relief off my mind. Whenever I have had trouble with a wood kiln it has always been wood related. The wood at the Amish site is now at 20% water value. That means you are burning energy to boil the water out of the wood. Interestingly dry wood smokes more than green wood. When our kiln smokes too much I throw in a liter of water to clean the stack.  Seasoned firewood is usually between 17-20% moisture content. Kiln dried is about 10% so there is always some water.

Show me a man with his two feet firmly planted on the ground and I’ll show you a man who can’t get his pants on or off.