Fire Wood (the way to go)

[Omran]

I know most of you guys on this fourm probably know this, but I thought it might helps for the other members they don't.
Every year for several years now, I take extra care of fire wood, and I am really very happy with the saving I get from using wood as a very good source for heat.
The key to do it (for me) is to collect all kind of dade trees all year around, and I try to work on this endless project only few hours here and tere not to get tired, after a while I collected enough wood to last me the whole winter, and it did cost me only my time and the gas for the chainsaw, I am infact thinking of start to sell wood for ppl who don't do it themselves, that way I will have an extra encome in winter.

How many of you guys burn wood? and how much do you like it.

Omran

 

[hwillm1977]

We burn wood... and love it.

It's expensive to buy hardwood to burn around here (at least to me)... it's about $260/cord of dried, cut and split hardwood, mostly maple... delivered. We own 5 acres of maple forest and try to get some of our own there.

However, we live on the edge of government owned land and can get a residence permit to collect the wood from there for $20/cord harvested (you are supposed to take only the dead trees). Next year we are going to do that.

I'm also attempting to make 'ecologs' from newspaper, and will write a post here once I find out how well (or how badly) they do. I work for a newspaper so have access to a ton of old newsprint.

 

[FarmerChick]

No here....burning wood gives me a headache eventually. Small does fine, total smell thru the house I can't handle. I am getting older and don't want to haul wood..

Propane became my extra heat source vs. electric.


We have tons of trees on the farm and thought of cutting and selling wood, then the amt. of work involved, we said nope. We had too much to handle.

 

[Wildsky]

We installed our wood stove in October I just love it!

We have some catching up to do as far as getting wood, we jumped in at the last minute and had nothing to start with. SOme friends gave us big stumps of wood and we've been using that.

We can pay $30 fee and collect dead tree's etc. in the forest down the road from us, thats what most folks around here do or their property is big enough to grow their own!

 

[johnElarue]

Hi all, long time no post,

We've been heating 100% with wood for 4? years now. We have no central heating system. Overall I love it. We can get green wood free or almost free, picked up myself of course.

I do the main part of collecting in a big push in spring or early summer. This will take about 10-15 hours total to get a years worth for that winter or the next depending on the wood. I can usually get softwood no prob and it will dry out and be ready for winter if I get it into the big shed by May.

Last year though I didn't get anything into the shed till August, so by Christmas I was using half dried wood. And did a few chimney cleanings to keep things safe.

It is partly my excercise and hobby, and mainly about saving money and arguably, resources.

The downside is sometimes when we are out of the house all day, and come home late to a 50-55 degree house. I can crank up the fire, but it will die down by 3-4am. Then spend the rest of the next morning getting things up to temp.

The main part warms up quick, within a 1/2 hour or so, but the rear takes hours, even with a combination of ceiling fans, low watt ventilation fans.

 

[FarmerChick]

Long time no see
glad you are back!

 

[Henrietta23]

We do. DH gathers and splits all year round. We are blessed to have a friend who stores his splitter at our house!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

I'm trying to remember when we switched from propane to wood!

 

[sylvie]

Been heating with wood since 1990. There is no heat like it!
I've read that wood heat balances the positive and negative ions in a room, with wood heat producing beneficial negative ions.

I do the cutting, hauling, splitting and stacking. There is a sense of accomplishment every year, no heat bills(our previous house had $400-$600 gas bills each cold month) and I am in very good shape from the strength workouts that stocking firewood encompasses.

The ash goes into the garden, the dustbath for the chickens and makes an icy entry walkable.

There will be a time when I can't perform all this, but I'm keeping my attention on the present and learning to work smarter.

A big for heating with wood!

 

[andehens]

When we lived in snow country, wood was our only source of heat and I liked it mostly. We moved here to CA, and wood as a heating source is pretty tightly regulated, otherwise we could use our downed oak trees for heat.