THE firewood thread

[Beekissed]

I think this is the latest I ever remember us still getting firewood in. Don't know why it worked out like that but it just has...been so very busy. Still have a huge pile of oak and cherry to split that was given to us by an uncle...it's over at his place, so makes it a tad more difficult to just work on it as one pleases. Still have a load of oak coming that we bought too..that's the easy stuff, just needing moved up on the porch and into the shed.

The fix I jimmied on the splitter performed well thus far and I'm quite pleased with it....saved us $80 with that little $1 part. The splitter cranked right up this year and I thank God for it! Nothing worse than needing a machine and it won't start, standing their pulling and pulling and nothing happening.

That stove sure feels good on a frosty morning, don't it? I can't imagine going back to forced air or electric heat after all these years with wood heat...they just don't heat the same, not near the same level of warmth that works its way right down to the core.

 

[GardenNut]

Just read through the thread and love it! My new property has multiple heating systems, including a large outdoor wood furnace. I figured I'd use it as a supplement, but once I fired it up about 3 weeks ago, I was in heaven! I grew up with an indoor wood stove and had forgotten how good real heat felt, after living with heat pumps for the lady 20+ years. This outdoor furnace also heats my hot water. I have to buy wood, since there's few trees on the property, and I'm alone and don't want to wield a chainsaw alone. I'm still learning how to bank it to burn efficiently, but I'm enjoying the process!

Maybe next year I'll check around to see if anyone wants to help cut wood in exchange for free firewood. Need to find a place to get the wood and a truck to haul it too. But all in good time.....

 

[Beekissed]

Check into some local logging companies...around here they will deliver you a load of logs at a good price so you can cut them up there on your own land. That would be a great thing to go into with someone else in exchange for them cutting it up and splitting it for you.

 

[GardenNut]

Thanks Bee! There's a sawmill not far away!

 

[SleepyHollowFnF]

I live in few dozen acres of forest and I am easily able to fuel my fires just by gathering wood from the forest floor without ever having to cut down trees. I also have been dumpster diving my entire life both with my father an independently. Construction dumpsters are a GREAT place to find very easily ignited easily splittable wood often in small sizes. Raid a few dumpsters and you'll have enough wood for months. It's worthwhile to get permission, though I rarely do. A lot of the time, they're happy to not have to pay to dispose of the wood. I have a friend in construction that drops off wood by the dump truck load in my driveway for free because he'd rather do that than pay the dump.

Enjoy!

 

[microchick]

Same here with us. We have plenty of downed trees and trees that need to be thinned that supply us with our firewood. Mostly Hickory and Oak with a little Elm and Poplar. The hickory goes through the splitter without difficulty and saves our back a lot of abuse. Many times we have a storm roll through in spring that drops an old growth Oak in the timber. We are still harvesting the last one that went down two years ago.It was a twin trunk oak, each trunk over 30 inches diameter. DH had to buy a bigger chain saw just to harvest it.

We have friends who are constantly asking us why we don't just buy our wood from one of the local Amish saw mills. Granted, the cost is good at 15$ a truckload (the last we heard) for wood that is mostly ready to go right into the fireplace is a good price but we get a lot of exercise harvesting our own wood, hauling it to the barn, splitting it and watching the pile grow in the barn.

At the moment we have about 9+ cords ready to go and have burned maybe a half cord so far this fall.

It's just really sweet to look at the stove merrily burning away and know we provided our own fuel to heat our home.

 

[SleepyHollowFnF]

Same here with us. We have plenty of downed trees and trees that need to be thinned that supply us with our firewood. Mostly Hickory and Oak with a little Elm and Poplar. The hickory goes through the splitter without difficulty and saves our back a lot of abuse. Many times we have a storm roll through in spring that drops an old growth Oak in the timber. We are still harvesting the last one that went down two years ago.It was a twin trunk oak, each trunk over 30 inches diameter. DH had to buy a bigger chain saw just to harvest it.

We have friends who are constantly asking us why we don't just buy our wood from one of the local Amish saw mills. Granted, the cost is good at 15$ a truckload (the last we heard) for wood that is mostly ready to go right into the fireplace is a good price but we get a lot of exercise harvesting our own wood, hauling it to the barn, splitting it and watching the pile grow in the barn.

At the moment we have about 9+ cords ready to go and have burned maybe a half cord so far this fall.

It's just really sweet to look at the stove merrily burning away and know we provided our own fuel to heat our home.

Nice, on the topic of providing your own fuel, we actually had a great time making our own stove too! Of course thats tough to do legally, but as an outdoor / treehouse appliance, its a really fun project

 

[microchick]

Oh, that is TOO cool!

We have a Century EPA stove. Nothing nearly as cool as your outdoor stove is, though. It's not top of the line but it has served us faithfully for 3 years now. We just had to start replacing fire bricks this year. Many times we are having to open windows to help control the heat it puts out, especially in chilly weather when it is hard to regulate heat.

 

[TerryH]

I typically buy wood but did have to have a couple of trees removed last winter. Splitting those now. Either way it's SO much cheaper than heating our house with our gas furnace and nothing like wood heat. We have a Country Flame fireplace/furnace that's ducted to the entire house. We love it!! I will admit that by February I am over dealing with the wood though. lol...

 

[Beekissed]

LOVE this pic and LOVE your fireplace!!!!! Especially love your sign on the mantle....means all the world to know that, doesn't it? That pic belongs in a magazine somewhere, to comfort and warm~and taunt~ all those who cannot heat with wood and would love to.