Fire fuel for heating - what do you use?

[sumi]

We're heading into the colder months now, so my mind is on fuel for the fire for winter. I'm looking around for a good source of timber (logs) for my little wood burner, as I'm planning to use only that for heating over winter and I am not able to go out and collect wood in time. It's not big, but it gives off so much heat, once it's been going a few hours it's almost too hot in the room and the heat travels around the house and upstairs well.

Besides buying in wood, what I like to to do, to save money, is collect as much free wood as I can. Pallets, windfalls in the forests, etc. When we lived on the coast we used to walk on the beach every day, picking up driftwood, which made fantastic fires, once it dried out (and did not stink when burning). That saved us a lot of money!

And since I'm in Ireland now, I also learned to burn "turf", which are cut from the peat bogs here. A local company, Bord Na Mona, compresses the turf into neat briquettes for burning, as can be seen here, with a natural piece of turf:

When I first came here the thought of (and smell of) turf fires didn't appeal to me, but I caught on to the idea quickly and love it now. I plan to go into the bog and cut my own tuft sometime before winter sets in

What do you all use for fuel for your fires? Do you collect, grow, or buy timber? If you buy, where? Do you make your own fire starters, fire logs etc?

 

[Beekissed]

Oh my goodness @Beekissed , I cannot tell you how awesome the two sided is lol

(This is when I start to feel more rural/farmer when I get really excited over things like log splitters )

Yep, you got the bug! Mom and I are always droolin' someone's wood pile as we drive across the state.

Speaking of wood piles, we split, hauled and put away 8 loads today, finishing up that humongous pile of oak logs over at my uncle's place. My mama, at 83, was hard to keep up with all day long...that woman is a machine! We left at 8:30am this morning and didn't get finished until 7 pm.

All three of us~we had help this time from my middle son~are crippling around here and I'm betting tomorrow we won't be able to move at all. That was one hurried up splittin' and gettin' session, with a hurried up pallet makeover under the hoop shed at midday.

Even my hair hurts...is that possible?

 

[treerooted]

Oh my goodness @Beekissed , I cannot tell you how awesome the two sided is lol

(This is when I start to feel more rural/farmer when I get really excited over things like log splitters )

 

[Hinotori]

We burn douglas fir and cedar since that's what's available here. Almost everyone here has some sort of wood burner. Even the mid-range apartment we lived in had a fireplace.

We found the cheapest to buy wood is from a local landscape company. They mulch the crap like cottonwood and only sell the good logs as firewood.

I do collect deadfall from our trees and from along the railroad tracks after storms. The railroad cuts fallen trees off the tracks and toss them to the side. They are happy for people to remove it.

I know a few people who go out with a pickup and chainsaw after storms and remove trees from roads and offer to people in town to remove their fallen ones for free.

We're probably going to get a permit from the army base to collect wood from their slash piles. They use the actual trunks if they take down a tree, but with all the trimming of giant firs they do, there is plenty of big limbs. One permit is good for one trip up to a max of a cord. It's free but they want the wood shared and no one collecting to sell.

 

[sumi]

I looked around at what's on offer and asked my landlord this morning if he can recommend someone to sell me me load of timber. He spoke to a man that came late afternoon and after some negotiating I ordered a small truck (lorry, not pick-up) load for e200.00. That is not bad and he said he'll bring me a "good load" of logs. I'll add to that with whatever I can find for free, but for knowing I have a stash I'm happy to pay for a load (Plus it beats the hell out of the e500 and heaven only knows how much on electricity I spent last winter!) And I still have my eye on the bog as well…

 

[sumi]

I'm still buying wood for the fire Wish I could make my own. I did get a great deal on wood though, so I'm happy with that. I tried coal for the first time yesterday. It burns HOT! Goodness, I couldn't open the stove yesterday evening with that load in there and the house was a lovely and warm overnight as well, still going this morning. My only complaint on that would be that it stinks a bit, but not too bad in the house, so long as I keep the stove closed. I'm feeling confident that we'll be fine with heating the house with 90% wood stove heat this winter

 

[Beekissed]

Still getting firewood here, which is pretty late for us. Another three loads of oak and probably 6-8 more loads to go on that. Splitter lost a part and we had to get creative with zip ties and 550 cord to get through the splitting session but I have replacement parts for that particular problem, so we'll be back on top tomorrow when we go again.

I'm just glad that the weather is still pretty mild for this time of year, so it's allowing us to play catch up on our wood getting.

 

[sumi]

I watched the time and the coal burned well and HOT for more than 4 hours. We load the stove before we start heading for bed and get up to a bit of fire still smouldering in the mornings, some 9 hours later. I love that! I really wish I could get out and collect wood, but I can't at the moment. There is so much around, especially after the storm, which took a lot of trees down. I need a truck.

My arm is much better, thanks. Still can't use it for anything heavy, which is frustrating and I have to rest it in a certain position, or it starts hurting, but it's healing.. Slowly, but it's healing. I was supposed to go back to the hospital today to get the report from my last X-rays, but got a bit of a cold, so I decided I'd rather stay in today and go there later when I'm better. I don't fancy sitting in A&E for 2 hours sneezing my head off and making everyone around me even more sick lol

 

[Britesea]

@Beekissed, if you paid that son-of-a-seacook with a check so you have proof, you ought to take him to small claims court. Even if you don't feel it's a lot of money, he needs to learn that such behavior is not acceptable.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

It's a good feeling to know you've got it coming...and if you get more for free - BONUS!