We burn about 7 full cord a year to heat our home (about half as much as when we were using the old smoke dragon). My wife loves the wood heat and keep the house 74* ish... (when possible, big house, one stove) I harvest all the wood from our own property. Standing dead Ash has been abundant for several years now, but is starting to go punky. Honey Locust, Cherry, Beech, Oaks, Maples, Hickory, and IronWood are some of our great options here. I work full time and do this on the side. 90% of the work is me, but the wife will help with moving wood. Sometimes some of the nephews come out from in town to assist. Any assistance is always welcome.
Burn probably four ricks/face cords. I measure it that way because that's what folks around here do and I have to cut to 14" for my stove. I guess I could be called retired. I tell the boss lady that I'm the ugliest housewife ever. I cut from my own land with a few scrounges if I see it when I'm in town, which is very rare.
Chaz does most of the work anymore. He also works full time and I am retired. I used to do a lot of stack and splitting. I do have a young gal that I hire to do the stacking. She will move the wood also using the 4 wheeler. Last year I did get about a day or two of split. We get the canopy up and I should be more productive. I do much better in the heat than he does. Chaz has been dropping a few trees off our property. But it is difficult to get to a lot of property as we are on the side of a hill that is very steep. Do to that, we have bought triaxel loads and we might get another this spring. But that might change as it looks like they are starting to work on clearing the trees on the pipeline. They will drop, delimb, and chip all the branches and will have 3 staging points for us for the trunks. Chaz thinks there will be about 10 yr supply of wood.
1. We burn about 3 cords a year, maybe slightly more 2. I scrounge wood from Craigslist most of the time. I've definitely gotten pickier over the years as to which ads I will pursue, but any good hardwood that still needs to be bucked is my favorite to get. I like cutting to my length, not awkwardly long or short lengths like it seems so many people do. 3. Work full time 4. No help with wood chores but that's fine with me
Yup. It’s the minivan for the wood burning family! My wife has her own Suburban too. We love them. But we buy older ones. I recently had another post referencing buying a newer vehicle; we are actually considering a full size passenger van. Room for all the friends! And it would make road trips with the camper way more comfortable. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I’m thinking of buying a van and making my own RV. RVs cost so much I think I can make my own much cheaper.
How many full cords do you burn a year? 2-3 Do you harvest your own wood, buy logs, or pre split wood? Scrounge but I have bought split wood in the past. It's been about 4 years since I've bought wood. Luckily most of the wood sitting on the racks at this house (moved in 3 years ago) has been scrounged from 2 of my next door neighbors who had trees taken down plus 3 trees we had taken down. Are you working or retired? Self employed, married w 2 young kids. Do you have help with wood chores, or do them yourself? Solo
When my mother was still active, we would kid her about vacuuming the forest floor at her place in Maine. Not literally, but she would be out all day pulling up thousands of fir seedlings.
Mostly they attack the bittersweet down here. An old farm converting itself back to forest it was inundated with bittersweet. Mom still has about 9 acres of lawn/flower gardens she deals with but she’s slowing down at 85. My sister is the mule LOL. Pulling vines out of the ground and trees. Piling all the sticks and branches. Just found a rake in the woods when I was building the bridge. One tool I’ve never considered bring into the woods LOL
About 4.5 cord I harvest my own 97% and scrounge or get a share when helping someone out on the rest. Working I have help to stack in the shed, bring loads into the garage and maintain the stove ( loading, burning and pulling out ash) Im In Leicester. Give me a yell if need or want some help!
- 4 cords a year - Scrounge - 90% from a local town dump area. Right now 14 cord CSS and 2 cord of rounds ready to process - Work full time - Just me
I work 12 hr shifts and rotate days/nights each week. Between travel to and from work, and sleeping, I don't have much time to tend a fire. Or anything else.
Thanks for invitation and all the friendly folks here. See you this spring! I'm between Lansing and Grand Rapids.
In the past, we would burn about 10 full cord a year heating 4500 square feet. That was with a Tarm boiler for radiant heat and a Waterford Trinity stove. I replace the Trinty with a Progress Hybrid and took the boiler out and put an IS in the basement. This is the first winter with this setup, but it looks like I will burn about 5-6 cord or half what we did in the past. I cut from my 60 acres and from my inlaws 150 acres, just cutting the blowdown each provides enough wood. I am a year away from retiring from teaching. I can usually get all my wood cut the week of spring break.
Hey, we have several good members on this forum who live between those 2 cities. You are in good company.
