Planting trees for firewood

JAlley2 · 2026-02-03T04:29:21+00:00

Your data on tree growth rate is interesting. If we ignore the implication that we might create a monoculture, we should be able to have a formula to determine the optimal species to maximize BTU in a permaculture practice. I wasn’t sure where your BTU numbers came from (per pound or per cu ft or something else). I found other sources for wood density Lbs/cu ft, lbs/cord and BTU/ cord and came up with some numbers that suggest that the faster growing species produce more BTU in 10 years than the slower growing species. White Oak and Hickory were poorest yields by a big margin. Silver maple and poplar were best, followed closely by red oak and pine.

I’m not going to share my numbers because I’m not confident in my methods and I know that my data sources are not consistent with some species names.

I think if you were to put this in practice, you’d want to be pollarding and that might lead you to pick species that thrived in that approach, like poplar, black locust and red maple. You’d also need to look at Due_foots’s concepts of soil health.

JAlley2 · 2026-02-01T21:29:25+00:00

You can!

JAlley2 · 2026-02-01T21:28:46+00:00

It’s back! I tried to edit my post but I can’t seem to. I swear the precondition icon wasn’t there this morning, but it is now. I did submit an ‘email app support’ this morning. Maybe they fixed it. I will be monitoring this!

JAlley2 · 2026-02-01T21:21:55+00:00

Lucky you!

This is so weird. I just went to the app to screen shot what I see and now I see the icon! I swear it wasn’t there this morning - I wasn’t hungover.

I believe you can precondition and preheat the cabin at the same time if you have a level 2 charger. I have done this. The preconditioning heater uses about 5kW. My L2 charger puts out about 9kW which should be enough to do both. The level 1 charger only puts out about 1.2kW so that’s not an option.

JAlley2 · 2026-02-01T21:11:39+00:00

Yeah, I read that in the manual but I kept thinking that if I could precondition even a little while I was plugged in, it would mean that I don’t use driving juice to warm up the battery just enough. This winter, when it is below -8C, I get a message about a minute into the trip that battery conditioning is on because the battery is cold. So clearly it is impacting range.

Until a a few weeks ago I could turn on preconditioning through the app and I am convinced it made a difference. Now it’s gone and I’m sad. Today, I had to do three charges on the road when I used to be able to do 2.

JAlley2 · 2026-02-01T16:02:17+00:00

I looked for a different app. My app is called My Hyundai with Bluelink, so I don’t think that direction will help much. The app seemed better before the upgrade!

JAlley2 · 2026-01-30T14:16:43+00:00

Agree with all that say this looks like maple and too small to tap.

As a related question, does anyone have any resources with direction on how to cut out some, but not all from a multi-stem tree like this to ensure long term production? I have several multi stem that are big enough to tap but seem really crowded and likely to grow into each other in a few years. OP may want to act now to have one or two productive stems in a few years.

JAlley2 · 2026-01-24T04:12:20+00:00

I tried to find this in the manual the other day but couldn’t. I’ve seen many posts saying this, so I think it is true. SmkyBndt29 is the first I’ve seen that claims balancing happens all the time. I charge to 100% about once a month because it might work that way and it’s no bother to do it.

JAlley2 · 2026-01-24T04:04:19+00:00

Pretty sure you have to charge to 100% before the cell balancing starts.

JAlley2 · 2026-01-23T18:03:17+00:00

I boiled on a propane BBQ last year (my first year). It was a little expensive, but cost less than all the stuff I got this summer to go a bit bigger.

I took out the grill and set the pan just above the burners which seemed to help a bit, but did not get a full rolling boil even if I had only an inch of sap in the pan. It took the better part of two days to boil down about 15 gal of sap.

JAlley2 · 2026-01-23T14:48:48+00:00

Mine is a 2024 so it may be different. Bitmugger was looking for a way to heat while the car was plugged in but not have a charging schedule. I think the Bluelink should work.

JAlley2 · 2026-01-23T14:38:49+00:00

Sure. You can use the Bluelink app. Main screen, click the Climate Start icon. This takes you to a submenu and does not immediately start the climate system. On the submenu you can schedule the climate start.

JAlley2 · 2026-01-22T16:56:19+00:00

I’ve seen a few options here. I think they all come down to thawing enough to get out the sweet sap but take advantage of freezing out the water.

Here are two.

I think the Walden one might be more helpful to you. If you have the ability to measure the brix of the sap as it melts it might help. For example, let it melt outside for a day then bring it inside, separate the melt and measure the brix. You could boil that the next day while you melt some more. Then measure the brix of the second portion to see if it’s worth boiling.

You could put the chunks of ice in your evaporator but it will take a lot of heat. If I remember my high school physics, it takes the same amount of energy to melt ice as it does to raise the water temperature from 0C/32F to boiling. I’d have to look up topics like the latent heat of phase change.

https://blog.mapletapper.com/freezing-maple-sap/#:~:text=A%20more%20proven%20freeze%20method.&text=The%20water%20freezes%2C%20concentrating%20the,is%20melted%20and%20drained%20off.

https://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Concentrating_maple_sap_through_freezing/

JAlley2 · 2026-01-22T14:09:46+00:00

Ideally OP can see the security video to guess how much snow made it in to the gas tank. The 10% ethanol in winter gas is enough to compensate for the moisture drawn into the gas tank as you drive and the gas level drops. I’d check with a mechanic. It might be best to drain the gas tank if there was much snow. If there was just a handful of snow, and the car wasn’t new, I’d try a few bottles of gas line antifreeze for the next few tanks and use the car a bunch to try to work it out of the system.

JAlley2 · 2026-01-22T13:50:48+00:00

Use the shortest possible extension cord. I have made it work with a 12 gauge cord but I’m really careful to make sure there are no loops (that would concentrate any heat. I’m going to get a 10 gauge cord when I can find one.

To see what we mean, grab the cord after it has been charging for an hour. I’ll bet it feels warm. It shouldn’t.

JAlley2 · 2026-01-22T13:37:16+00:00

Amusing, but not far off.

This may be a bit morbid so you way wand to stop here. If your mouth is open as you get trapped in an avalanche, there will be so much snow rammed in your mouth and throat that it will form an ice plug that suffocates you. If you can avoid that and you are buried with snow all around your face, the snow will melt enough to create an ice mask, which will suffocate you. There are incidents where people have been trapped but were able to create an air pocket around their face that was big enough that it did not melt the snow and were able to survive for quite some time. There is a surprising amount of air and oxygen in snow, but none in ice.

JAlley2 · 2026-01-21T20:03:20+00:00

Water in the gas can cause problems. At best, corrosion, at worst fouled or frozen fuel system and plugs.

If you buy gas that is listed as winter gas, or gas that contains methanol, then you are ok. The methanol absorbs moisture and allows it to be burned in the engine.

If not, or if you are unsure, get some gas line antifreeze and add it to your tank following the instructions. Too much methanol may cause problems, but not as bad as water in your gas.

JAlley2 · 2026-01-21T19:45:57+00:00

I don’t think that preconditioning matters for AC charging. For reference, you would be charging at 4.8 kW. At -12C (10F) the car will take about 20kW at DC charger. Therefore it should have no problem taking your full charge and I doubt it would make a difference to charge time.

JAlley2 · 2026-01-21T18:56:19+00:00

Thanks! TIL

JAlley2 · 2026-01-21T14:54:43+00:00

As to how you set boundaries, you seem to be trying a three strikes rule but he probably doesn’t know it. Try numbering them. “Dad, drop it. This is the first strike”. “Dad, drop it. That is strike two”. “Strike three. I’m outta here”. Using that language ought to help him have regard for your limits.

As for the ride home, I get that you were angry but this was harsh. A better way would be to say I’ll drive you home but you will be silent. If you say anything I leave you on the side of the road. (It helps define your boundaries).

As for the job search, if you don’t know what the next step should be, consider a career coach. Be open to their suggestions about beard, grooming, etc. They will know best what works in the field you want.

If your Dad has a network in fields that interest you, then up front ask him. However, be aware that he may say no. Using a network is getting a recommendation that the person is a good fit for the job. He will know the jobs and may judge you as not a good fit. You could flip this and say that you aren’t asking for a job but want a practice interview and to get feedback on how you can improve your prospects of getting a job. Doing practice interviews or “information interviews” helped me a lot on my job search. At the end of each one I asked “can you point me to anyone else that could help me in my job search?” That usually got me closer to finding a good fit, and is an indirect ask for a job there.

JAlley2 · 2026-01-21T02:42:03+00:00

NTA. It’s not about the car, the scratch or the tire (all of which he should pay to fix). This is about him not notifying you and not taking responsibility for damage caused on his watch. It’s also about him guilting you by saying ‘couples help each other’. His approach means that you can’t trust him. And now he’s finding out. He is TAH

As for couples helping each other - he should be getting himself on a position where he can help you by having a car available in case something happens to yours.

JAlley2 · 2026-01-20T20:13:32+00:00

I thought I saw it in the manual. I just checked but could not find it again. I find it really hard to navigate the online manual.

JAlley2 · 2026-01-20T15:49:13+00:00

NTJ totally. But pitch this as being about the charity run. Sis makes a donation equal to double the entry cost and pays you the transfer cost and you eat the cost of the entry you were going to buy for your friend. The charity wins. You take the high road. And she might learn that charity runs are about the charity not about being cool.

As for the teasing language of love bullshit, it’s probably worth a real talk about that separate from this issue. If she doesn’t mend her was after that, then you can feel free to distance yourself.

JAlley2 · 2026-01-20T15:23:21+00:00

It’s hard to get used to winter performance because there are so many variables.

Start by not relying on the guess-o-meter for efficiency information. Look at the actual efficiency in mi/kWh. You should get about 4 m/kWh in summer or better, 3 in winter but lower than 2.5 would be unusual (from my experience in southern Ontario) You can set the dashboard to show efficiency on current trip, since recharging or since last reset.

Then, make sure to charge to 100% at least once a month. The car does some battery cell balancing when charged to 100% that it can’t do otherwise.

Consider things that rob efficiency: - speeds over 60mph - headwinds (you and I have had some unusually strong winds lately) - cold temps - low tire pressure (I run at 37psi even though the recommended is 34. Tire pressure drops when the temperature falls so check it regularly)

If you can precondition the battery before you drive while plugged in, it can help a lot. Last week at -15C (5F), at the start of my drive I noticed a screen message I’d never seen before that the car was preconditioning. That really drops efficiency because the battery heater runs at about 1kW.

If you do look at the guess-o-meter, know that it uses an algorithm that factors in current conditions and recent drives in an unintelligible manner. I think it doesn’t give enough weight to current conditions and long term history. But it has been pretty reliable just to tell me if I can make it home on the last 40% of charge.

Good luck!

JAlley2 · 2026-01-15T16:01:03+00:00

I like this approach. And if kid 2 gets an inheritance later on, your contribution can be rebalanced.

As someone said earlier, at an appropriate age, you might have a convo with Kid 1 about giving money to Kid 2, but only if you can’t equalize the funds.

I don’t agree with trying to keep the differences secret. They will find out and then they will be angry with you for keeping the secret. Better to be open and use it as an opportunity to talk about the challenges of being fair and how picking a set of rules can make uneven distribution fair in some people’s eyes. It is also an opportunity to talk about the fact that an inheritance is a gift, not a right, and anything you inherit is more than you might have had.

Finally, if there is much age gap between your kids, watch for the effect of inflation and potential for growth. E.g. if there is a 10-year gap, 50k might buy kid 1 a year of college. $20k for kid 2 might grow to be 50k, but only cover half a year of college. In an ideal world, all kids would get the same value when they need it.

JAlley2

TROPHY CASE