Best Way to Get Firewood Out of The Woods

Those who make their own firewood “from scratch” will appreciate this blog post; the question of “what is the way to get the wood out of the woods into your property” is a common one, and i am willing to answer it, in my opinion here, as best as i can…

Cut, split and load

I think the best way, or should i say, form in which you should move firewood out of the woods is first by bucking the logs on the spot, then splitting and loading them.

The reason why is simple – you won’t need heavy machinery to do so.

If you want to skid logs into your yard instead, be prepared to have a quality tractor/winch to do the job.

How big of an engine you’ll need entirely depends on the size of the logs to begin with, but again, if you want to tow something of proper size, you won’t do much without a suitable tractor.

Why my method works

It works because you’ll be able to do the job with pretty much anything you have. Truck, ATV with trailer, even a car of some sorts – as long as there is a way to put the split wood in, you’ll be good to go.

In general, an ATV beats everything else, as there’s a very good reason for it – it can move through even the densest of woods.

You can maneuver one through tight spots, pull into even the most complicated places. Sure, you won’t be able to load it with as much firewood, but it definitely beats not getting any of it to begin with, right?

Another thing is the sound. Running a saw in the woods will lead to less problems than in a packed neighborhood, keep that in mind.

I should also mention that loading already cut and split wood won’t need any use of a winch. And let me tell you, that could become quite a headache.

This won’t work for everybody, though…

In my world, there’s no better approach to getting wood out of the woods into your home than what i described above; that being said, everybody’s situation is different, therefore the method might not work for each and one of you.

To start with, it’s not a good approach for those who need to move the wood in the shortest amount of time possible.

For example, maybe you can only get into and around the woods during a certain period of the year, like the colder months. It makes a ton more sense to skid the logs out instead then, because if you keep bucking the stuff and splitting it right there, you may run out of time.

More reasons why my approach is better

Clean property

Because you won’t need to skid logs into your yard, the ground and soil will stay undamaged. On top of that, processing the logs, that is, bucking and splitting them generates a ton of debris: fallen off bark, splits.

Certainly, there are ways to use up the bark and things of that kind in your household, but the point i’m trying to get across here is that this kind of stuff is trash at the end of the day.

Not having any of that splitting mess is only going to keep your place nice and tidy.

Steady sawing

Skidding logs through dirty, muddy and wet ground makes the outside even more abrasive to cutting.

In other words, your chainsaw’s chain will need to be maintained far more frequently because of this reason.

Cutting the logs where dropped, i.e. right in the woods, prevents this issue from occurring.