THE firewood thread

[lazy gardener]

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...

Absolutely love it. Nice way to end my day. Redeemed and love to proclaim it.

 

[Beekissed]

Spent this beautiful, balmy day splitting a big pile of oak and cherry...got it all done. Hauled two stacked and heaped truckloads of that home and will do a truck and trailer load tomorrow in hopes of getting the rest of it home. Free firewood given to us by an elderly uncle who had a few trees cut down due to their being dead and insect damaged. HUGE trees.

Slowly but surely that wood shed and porch are being filled. We are WAY late this year on getting that done...the latest I can remember since our first winter of homesteading, when the time usually spent getting in firewood was spent in throwing up a two room log cabin to live in. That year we got in wood in the middle of some deep snows.

 

[microchick]

That is one thing my husband and I always worry about, @Beekissed, getting the wood in early. We aren't kids anymore. We are both in our mid 60s now with our share of aches and pains so we usually try to get trees dropped for firewood during the winter months while the sap is down and then start to chain and split it starting in March so we are finished with it by June so it can finish curing over the hot summer months.

We were a little late this year not finishing until July but the wood still seems to be cured and good to go.

We are lucky in that we have plenty of oak and hickory in our timber that need thinned out, especially hickory. The previous owner grazed cattle and sheep in the timber and they did quite a bit of damage to the new growth hardwoods leaving us with an excess of hickory trees. We are trying to coax the oak back by thinning out the hickory We also have a pond with a lot of overgrowth threes that we have been taking out for the last two years.

Sometimes we wish we had stronger backs or had some stronger backs around us in the form of children to help but it is just him and I and so far we have been able to get the job done.

I don't think we would ever be happy with gas or electric heat again.

 

[Beekissed]

I bet you hear this a lot "Well...heating with wood is fine NOW, but as you get older you may need to find alternatives". There are ways and then there are ways, even when the strength fails and you can't lift or do what you used to do....wood heat is still the best and most comforting~and economical~way to heat a home. That's one reason I came home to live with Mom...she's 82 and still very active and able to tote that wood in, but it helps to have someone else to share the workload.

 

[microchick]

82! Bless her!

I just hated writing those 1000 dollar checks to Amerigas every other month during the heating months.

And yes, we are always hearing from friends how silly we are to harvest our own wood at our age when we have Amish saw mills all around us that sell wood cheap by the pick up truck load.

The truth is, yes they do sell it cheap but a lot of it is slash that is mostly bark with a thin layer of wood on it and doesn't have the proper heating BTUs that we need to keep the house warm. The friends all heat with electric and just don't understand the art of heating with wood. Nor do they understand the physical work keeps us in shape and gives us needed exercise. We tell them this and they just give us funny looks like 'are you nuts?' Actually no, we aren't. Our nearby friends are all morbidly obese and have all the illnesses that go with it. They could use the physical exercise but when we mention that and ask them why don't they heat with wood since they have 200 acres of timber and the list of complaints comes out. Bad shoulder, bad knees, bad back, you name it. True in that DH and I both have bad backs, but we don't let that stop us. We just smile sweetly and ask them what their heating source is when their power goes off. I just love it when they mumble about propane space heaters but they need to pick one up because they are really worried about that.

Truth is that there are lots of strong young Amish men around us who are always looking for work, and who work relatively cheap. Many are even willing to work for firewood in payment.

There is always a way.

 

[Beekissed]

Amen to all of that!!! I've got some nigh on crippling pain in my spine but if I don't keep moving, I'll stop moving altogether and getting in firewood is an important part of our exercise plans here every year, among the thousands of other things we do.

Mom, blessedly, doesn't have any pains at all in her body~a sheer miracle for a woman who has had 9 kids, has homesteaded for half her life, and whose sisters and brothers are all either dead and gone or crippled up so bad that they can barely walk, with steel rods up their spines and fake knees and hips. Between us both, we can get a powerful lot of work done here...it may not get done as fast as when we were younger but it does get done.

And that's how one stays active into old age...can't seem to convince folks of that, but it's the simple truth. A body in motion, stays in motion.

Besides...wood heat is the perfect tonic for old, achy bones and joints!

 

[microchick]

Powerfully good genes is the answer!

Between harvesting the wood, working around the farm, and yes, chasing chickens, I get a LOT of exercise. LOL!

 

[lazy gardener]

Loving this conversation, and how true, all of it! Aches and pains aplenty. And, I have to ration my work week. But, I wouldn't trade the pure pleasure of being outside mucking around in the yard for a few hours for city living with all of the amenities for a country minute! Even find pleasure in traipsing around under the trees, gathering an armload of fallen branches for a quick little smudge, in spite of 3 cords of bone dry wood stacked in the basement. We do purchase our wood cut and split. But, still have to split it again b/c we have a tiny little fire box. And live in a raised ranch, so have to tote it up those stairs. But... I'd rather do that than pay for a season of oil!

Have been doing some planting this week: Chive and basil seeds, brought in some mint stolons, and planted some sprouted ginger. Along with 2 geraniums that are growing nicely, my livingroom windows are going to be my winter garden! Also trying to sprout some sage cuttings, simply for the novelty of it. Need to add some citronella. Love having fragrant leaves in the winter to run my hands through. Sorry, off topic!!!!

 

[jerryse]

Amen to all of that!!! I've got some nigh on crippling pain in my spine but if I don't keep moving, I'll stop moving altogether and getting in firewood is an important part of our exercise plans here every year, among the thousands of other things we do.

Mom, blessedly, doesn't have any pains at all in her body~a sheer miracle for a woman who has had 9 kids, has homesteaded for half her life, and whose sisters and brothers are all either dead and gone or crippled up so bad that they can barely walk, with steel rods up their spines and fake knees and hips. Between us both, we can get a powerful lot of work done here...it may not get done as fast as when we were younger but it does get done.

And that's how one stays active into old age...can't seem to convince folks of that, but it's the simple truth. A body in motion, stays in motion.

Besides...wood heat is the perfect tonic for old, achy bones and joints!

Loving these posts . My doctor asked me about exercise . I said I work my butt off . Then listed the roofing job on my house I just finished Then the wood cutting and splitting and such . Seemed satisfied . Like most of you I have no need for the gym .

 

[lazy gardener]

One of my previous docs used to hound me about exercise. Um... When I am actually bringing home a pay check, it's doing physical therapy. Plenty of exercise in that occupation! And when I'm not bringing home a pay check, I'm cutting and stacking trees, building stone fences, digging, doing building projects... and on and on it goes! She just couldn't get her head wrapped around that. New doc takes it in, and does a check mark, and says, "good!"