Why you chop/scrounge/source firewood?

So I was just curious as to why everyone here does what they do. Figured I'd do a poll. You can select 2 answers and you have to vote in order to see the results.

I started off splitting my own wood after I heard a chainsaw 2 houses away and just figured I'd ask if I could have some wood. That then snowballed into the present where I really, really, really enjoy the entirety of burning firewood. From sourcing, scrounging, answering FB ads, helping neighbors, to splitting by hand, with the splitter, cleaning up, stacking, holz hausens, making kindling out of shorties, making compost, using in the the garden, recycling stuff that otherwise would just sit in a dump and rot, cleaning the ash and using that in the garden. I love the excercise, the smells, the tools (come on let's be real - anything that involves getting more tools is super cool), the friends I've made, the maintenance of said tools, the sharpening of the chainsaw, heck even owning a chainsaw was an idea so foreign to me I would have bet my house I'd never own one.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay at the bottom of the list is saving money on heating during the winter. That's just the icing on the cake....that I get to eat too.......Sure it feels great to save a few bucks but I just really enjoy it and don't look at it as a chore at all. It's more about the exercise, being outdoors, and enjoying the beauty of an open fireplace. The entire family basically huddles at the dining table and chips in to keep the fire going as well.

Why do you do what you do?

 

I sell wood so I do most of it to make money. I also heat 100% with wood in my owb which runs completely on junk/ugly wood I can’t sell. Plus I’ve always loved doing most things firewood (stacking the lone exception)

 

1.. Save money
2.. Save money (it wouldn't let me pick it twice)
2a.. When I installed our first stove it was because they wanted crazy money to fix our Fuel Oil furnace.

We went for 2 full winters with only wood and electric radiators.

Finally decided to fix the furnace myself, was leary of doing so, but it didn't work so what harm could I do.


Practically rebuilt the burner unit, replaced the combustion chamber, all gaskets, cleaned heat exchanger chamber, all for around $250 vs the $700 I was quoted.

I did have a qualified furnace guy check my work, and adjust it properly.
$50 service call

Choice was aided by the fact that FO at the time was running just under $4 per gallon.


I enjoy dropping, cutting, and splitting, but really dislike the stacking/moving/stacking aspect.

 

Save money and enjoyment. Exercise is a byproduct.

 

I enjoy the whole process. For me it’s a way of connecting to the past, to simpler times. Doing manual work outside, and feeling a million miles away mentally from all the B.S. of the modern world. In a word, Zen. I chose saving money/pure enjoyment but the environmental aspect shouldn’t be overlooked either. Wood heat is a renewable resource, so that coupled with good burning practices can be a great thing. When you add up your time, energy, labor, fuel, maintenance etc. it’s definitely not “free” heat, but it’s still a lot better than being completely at the mercy of the fuel oil companies. So I’m going to continue doing it for as long as I can.

 

I didn't think of that! I split enough to fill the garden cart and then take a break from splitting and drag the cart over to the stack and stack it. Doing a little bit at a time instead of having a monster pile to stack (i.e. touching the same split twice) makes it easier to digest I find.

Nice. I always try to minimize the number of touches of a split. While stacking isn't the favorite part of it I still try to look at it as a game or challenge - how do I stack this as fast as possible but as sturdy as possible at the same time.

Your story about fixing the furnace reminds me of when I bought an Electrolux washer and dryer set for $3500........and 1 year and 3 months later the dryer started burning our clothes and the washer rubber gasket leaked. Of course it had a 1 year warranty on labor and a 2 year on parts......so they shipped a new thermocouple, a new control board, and a new gasket....and I replaced everything myself. Good job fixing the furnace!

I feel like I've gotten stronger in my back since I started splitting. Sometimes I definitely over do it and then I gotta take it easy (3 herniated discs) but all in all it's been a very positive thing in the health dept for me.

Yes, I totally agree about connecting to the past, to simpler times. Sometimes doing something basic like this is really beneficial for your mental health I agree. I feel a sense of accomplishment every time I have a roaring fire going and think (pleasantly) about all the hard work that went into producing that fire. Very satisfying.

I sometimes get excited when a neighbor says they want to get into it or they get in touch with me for the first time to talk firewood. But a lot of the time they flake out...I had one guy who said he didn't want to wait for the wood to dry so he'd rather buy it. I told him that even if you buy it you have to wait for it to dry because 99% of the time it ain't dry from people sell it (at least around these parts). Never heard back from the guy lmfao.

A lot of people ask if my wife approves of all the firewood we have stacked......and I tell them I hear zero complaints about anything related to the fire or firewood when winter comes. She really enjoys sitting in front of the fire at the dining table as she's always cold.

 

Best answers right there ^^^^ Couldn’t agree more.

 

1.) Self-sufficiency for the family should we have an ice storm, electrical/mechanical failure or some other issue.

2.) Using a reasonable low cost and available resource to provide heat.

3.) Being outside and having the satisfaction that the hard work will repay us in the cold months.

 

Started out as necessity and turned into my favorite activity. There is something special about cutting up logs with a sharp powerful chainsaw. Getting a custom built wood splitter was a game changer for increased production. Chainsaws
Warm house happy family
Extra income
Chainsaws

 

I enjoy it and it is my primary source of heat.

This subject has come up before so I will repeat that I grew up feeding the old pot-bellied wood stove so it's in the blood. For the last 12+ years, I have lived in the middle of the woods and sometimes run the wood stove in every month but July. I primarily heat with firewood but have a propane boiler for backup. And I would much rather walk out into the woods and get firewood than see the propane truck bouncing down our dirt road. Going up into the mountains early in the morning and cutting firewood is mental therapy. Heat from the wood stove is much better than that provided by my floor radiators (IMO) and then there is just something about the ambiance of the wood stove. Just the smell of a wood stove or fireplace burning brings back good memories.

And not to wax poetic, but Thoreau put it well:

Every man looks at his wood-pile with a kind of affection. I love to have mine before my window, and the more chips the better to remind me of my pleasing work. I had an old axe which nobody claimed, with which by spells in winter days, on the sunny side of the house, I played-about with stumps which I had got out of my bean-field. As my driver prophesied when I was ploughing, they warmed me twice, once while I was splitting them, and again when they were on the fire, so that no fuel could give more heat.

…Hard green wood just cut, though I used but little of that, answered my purpose better than any other. I sometimes left a good fire when I went to take a walk in a winter afternoon; and when I returned three or four hours afterward, it would be still alive and glowing. My house was not empty though I was gone. It was as if I had a cheerful housekeeper behind. It was I and Fire that lived there; and commonly my housekeeper proved trustworthy.

 

I've always had a fireplace or wood stove since I was a kid. I like selectively harvesting the weaker trees and giving the healthy ones a better chance.
I like clearing land for fields, or gardens, or just to get more sunlight around the house. (I technically live in a rain forest, so getting things to dry out is necessary. )
I love chainsaws, wood splitters, and a well made axe. I love the 'art' of splitting wood, reading the woods grain, and a well placed axe blow or maul, and the sound of a log exploding apart. I enjoy the exercise and being outdoors, and watching the woodpile grow and age.
I love watching the wood burn in the woodstove, or even outside in a campfire. I like being self sufficient and not dependent on a fuel truck.
And of course, with wood selling for over $500 a cord around here, I like the savings. That's $3000+ a year I don't have to spend, or that I can use for other things.

 

I agree with what everybody else said! And I don’t like the stacking either. Lots of people ask me about it, I just say it’s my hobby. Some guys golf, hunt, fish etc, my hobbies firewood.

 

Because i have a hoarding problem (BTW: that wasnt one on of the choices ) and i enjoy doing it. Getting all my wood for "free" and making a few bucks selling it.

 

Loving all the personal responses. It's pretty cool that each one of us does it in a slightly different way, in a way that works for each of us, and at the end of the day we all still enjoy the fire. I wish more people could enjoy it as much as we do. It would make people more happy.

 

We css wood for several years before we even had our own wood stove. Helping others save money was prime motivation. My paycheck was and is good health and a sense of accomplishment.

I love every aspect: where two or more are gathered, there is fellowship. They go away with full bellies and sense of accomplishment. We're all richer for the time together. Even stacking alone is relaxing.

The security of our own heat source, the smell and sight of a good fire, looking out at the pile, topping off kindling and wood ahead of a major storm....knowing that when the power goes out we'll be fine. (Its a sense of control in a world in which we hand control over to others far too frequently).

Knowing the effort behind every log, that each is dollars not spent for heating, cooking, warming water for drinking or bathing, running a pot-o-soup all day long.......

The endless hours here at FHC, have been awesome. Meeting (in person or online), sharing laughter and tears, learning and refining, and also sharing with others: priceless.

That is the answer to why I burn. Why I scrounge: too cheep to buy when there's an abundance of very low cost renwable energy just rotting away or getting chipped...

Sca

 

I love the tools that we use to harvest and process. I love being in the woods and fields and enjoying God's creation surrounding me.
Saving money on heating is always a plus.
Basically, I can go right down the line and like every single post here!!

 

I chose save money and enjoyment.

But I guess I really HEAT with firewood to save money, because I have bought firewood before, and I don't scrounge it to save. Scrounging is just fun and in a weird way exciting, and is a result of trying to save on the heat bill. Though at times the entire process does feel like a chore, (like freaking stacking), when you stand back and look at a stack you have finished, that all goes away. I know I'm not the only one who has walked around their stacks or woodsheds and admired the fruit of their labor. Or counted the cords, even though you just counted them the day before.

I've never once met a fellow woodburner who processes most of their own firewood and said, " processing and burning firewood is all hard work and a pain in the a** isn't it?" I've heard that many times from non burners and I actually feel bad for them, because they just can't understand what they're missing, even if you try to explain it to them.

Let's be honest, when we find a great scrounge, one of our first thoughts is, wait till I show the crew on FHC.

 

I love the woods after a long day or week at work. Phone stays in the truck & I can think.
I like the technical aspect & logistical planning of dropping & removing trees.
I grew up with wood heat, so it comes natural.
I love equipment, so it gives me a good reason to have & sometimes build some cool stuff.
I like the thought of having heat no matter if the power's out etc.
I really enjoy the good friendships I've made that started over firewood work.

 

Save money, exercise, I enjoy it, primary but not only heat source, a good hobby, and even the stacking does not bother me. And last but not least independence.

 

For most of my life money was very tight so I did it out of necessity. I grew to enjoy it and now that money isn't so tight and I'm retired I can't give it up.