Fire Wood (the way to go)

[enjoy the ride]

I love my wood stove- lots of good heat and entertained by watching fire.
Wood here is really pricey- you would not think so in the middle of the redwoods but a cord of madrone is $350 delivered and fir $250.
I also got three cords of junky wood - whatever deadfalls the county has- from the county sherrif's work alternative program. People convicted of smaller crimes can work off their time on weekends cutting and stacking wood. The senior citizens can pick it up for a low rate based on income. I got mine stored for next year for $80 per cord.
I also have a pellet stove which I use when temps are not too high and when I'm lazy. Since it runs off a thermostat, it's really easy.
But definitely not as nice as the wood stove.

 

[enjoy the ride]

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.

Forgive my being nosey but isn't the sierras snow country?

 

[dacjohns]

Hey John, good to see you again.


For you new folks, John is probably our master wood burner. I think there is a picture of his wood pile somewhere on the forum.


I was going to try to link to another wood burning thread because this subject is/was one of our main early topics but I was too lazy to look hard so I'll just go ahead and make a contribution.


Our main source of heat is wood. We have electric baseboard and a wall mounted fan unit for backup. My small wood burning stove will drive you out of the house if you let it.

For me these are some of the pros and cons.
Cons
I have about 6 feet of triple wall stainless steel chimney. When I burn "cool" I get a lot of creosote in my spark arrestor. This is even with cured wood. I think maybe the smoke is cooling off too fast in the length of chimney.
Burning with wood is dirty. Debris in the house from the wood and ash when you open the stove door even when you're being careful.
Cost of equipment. Fuel and oil. Chain saw and other equipment and maintenance.
Initial stove cost.
Stove and pipe cleaning.

Pros
Exercise
Wood is cheap. I have 100 acres, about half wooded. My wood is free except for my time and equipment.
Saves money on my electric bill.
Cutting wood gets me outside more.
Satisfaction of doing something physical, self reliance, and it's hard to beat looking a stack of firewood.
A hickory, oak, or fruit-wood fire sure smells good.
Wood is a renewable resource.

For me the pros outweigh the cons. I like burning wood.

 

[Grandma Goldie]

We have a Lil House outdoor wood stove that we put up 2 years ago. Two words to describe it "Love It" . All of the wood mess is kept outside the house . Hubby went to the local sawmill and bought bundles of slab wood for $15.00 per bundle. We cut them to length and figure each bundle gave us about a cord of wood. Granted some are thin and some are thick and there is usually bark on all of them but hey, wood is wood. The first year we burnt mainly oak and I don't think the slab wood causes any more ashes and it heats just as well. The stove paid for itself in the first winter over propane and that was buying the oak wood at $125 a cord.

 

[sylvie]

We have a Lil House outdoor wood stove that we put up 2 years ago. Two words to describe it "Love It" . All of the wood mess is kept outside the house . Hubby went to the local sawmill and bought bundles of slab wood for $15.00 per bundle. We cut them to length and figure each bundle gave us about a cord of wood. Granted some are thin and some are thick and there is usually bark on all of them but hey, wood is wood. The first year we burnt mainly oak and I don't think the slab wood causes any more ashes and it heats just as well. The stove paid for itself in the first winter over propane and that was buying the oak wood at $125 a cord.

Slab is a great deal!
The cost is usually in the hauling for me. I have no trailer so I have to pay double for each delivered bundle. Also, I can't hand select the bundles so I end up with junk Tulip as an entire bundle when buying three at a time.
I called the sawmills this summer but the waiting list for bundles is a year long now.

Just a note on slab bundles: it is sold as soon as they cut it from the logs, so it is usually green and should be seasoned at least 6 months before burning in a woodstove/fireplace. Some will mix in an occasional green piece in a hot seasoned wood fire and be ok.
We've got a buddy who burned all green slabwood and had a chimney fire from the rapid buildup.

 

[hinkjc]

We burn wood too. Our primary heat is oil, but when the kids are at grandparents, dh and I enjoy the wood stove which provides plenty of heat for the 2 of us. We have a lot of forest here too, so as a routine part of our maintenance we drop dead/dying trees yearly. They are cut to about 4 foot lengths if we don't have time to chop them down to burnable size and stacked for when we need them. Piles are tracked by age and oldest gets burned first.

We use some of the smaller limbs for kindlings, but mostly they are piled up for rabbit sanctuaries from the red tailed hawks. This is the first year we really noticed the payoff to the cottontail rebound and saw lots of baby bunnies this year.

We also started something new this year by offering a sort of barter contract with folks for free wood. They come and cut down trees and can take the wood for free. Their work equals free firewood to heat their home. It saves us time and worry about trees falling and they appreciate the opportunity to get the wood.

 

[k0xxx]

We have been heating exclusively with wood for about 8 years now, and we love it. It is a bit messy with the debris, as was noted earlier in this thread, but it is a heck of a lot cheaper than our propane central unit.

Since last February's ice storm we have plenty more firewood than we will burn this winter, and a whole lot more damaged trees to cut down, and broken limbs to cut up.

We go through about 5 "ricks" of wood a winter. I'm not too sure how that compares to a cord, as I'm basically a city boy and all anyone sells around here is "ricks". Even when we have bought all of our wood, a rick sells for about $40, so our entire winter bill is only about $200.

 

[dacjohns]

A cord is 4' X 4' X 8' of well stacked wood or the cubic feet equivalent.

A rick is 4" high X 8' long and cut to fireplace length. A rick is also known as a face cord.

 

[dacjohns]

Kilo,

Is this your call sign?

CQDEK0XXX

 

[k0xxx]

Kilo,

Is this your call sign?

CQDEK0XXX

Yes sir, KXXX is my FCC issued call sign. Kilo Zero Xray Xray Xray