Introducing myself! And showing you my stash..

Hello from SW, Ontario, Canada!

New to the forum, I cannot explain how happy I am about finding other like minded people. My wife has told me that if I mention the word 'Firewood' one more time, she is going to bury me under my log pile. I have loved browing through the forum, so I wanted to tell my quick, firewood orientated story.

We bought an Amish farm a year ago, they had a giant wood boiler and they ran a pallet shop on the property, so they had tons of dry wood to dispose of. We actually got rid of the boiler because it had rotted out and looked to be very inefficient anyway. After wasting time looking into alternate heat sources we discovered in early December 2021 that we needed to go back to a wood boiler to heat the 10'000 sq ft shop, and the double garage on the house, all infloor heat that was already installed. It was a mad scramble to find enough wood to burn, I estimate that we burnt nearly 80 facecord, much of it wasn't even close to being dry but we did what we had to do at the time.

Fast forward to this past spring and it was game on! I bought two log trailers worth of wood that amounted to around 50 facecord, pulled alot of dead Ash from our own bush and scavenged local ads etc for free wood, I have now managed to 'hoard' around 125 face cord! Upstairs in an old barn I found 13 roof trusses and alot of old roof steel, so I used them to build a 44' x 17' shed, the plan was to close it in, but that might just wait til fall, I would like something that I can take off in the spring for easy loading and to maximize air flow. Pics below. We plan to make some insulation upgrades to the big shop, add some ceiling fans etc and I might just be able to bring that burn rate down to say 60-70 facecord per season.

Equipment wise I bought a Stihl MS500i which I think is the single best investment I have ever made, we use our 1969 British Leyland Tractor with a splitter on the 3ph for the gnarly stuff and we have a very kind Amish neighbor that can go for hours with an axe. May look into splitters/processors one day. I grew up heating our house in England with wood, so all this was like riding a bike

The new shed holds approx 104 facecord and those black bins you see (scored them at a farm sale) hold around 15 facecord, I didn't split what I stashed in there because I plan to use that for those long winter nights, hoping it will burn abit slower. We estimated that it would cost us around $14'000 CAD a season to heat the shop and house on propane, so I don't mind putting the work in currently. You know how it is, you learn something everytime, try new methods etc. so I know it will get easier. Finding wood last winter, and then accumulating and processing two seasons worth of wood almost killed me! Joking but not joking. Now that I am done, I honestly don't know what to do with myself, I guess start hoarding for the 2024 season?!

Glad to be here, I'd love to hear your pro thoughts on my setup. I will continue browsing the forum, thanks for the add! Cheers!

 

Wow! You are a sick man! You will get along well with the rest of us woodenheads! Your syacks are nothing short of great works of art. Welcome to the FHC club! We are so glad you could join us!

 

Wow. First, welcome! You’re not messing around! You’ve provided some amazing pictures and info…get ready for some questions and feedback!

Those black bins are especially cool! What was their original purpose?

 

First welcome to the FHC!!
Nice building and great job getting ahead!
So everyone is on same page what are your measurements for a face cord?

In time some one will bring up water storage so you can hopefully burn less

 

Welcome, friend! 125 cord!! Holy smokes!!!

You’ve got an awesome looking setup. Very tidy!

Hoard On!!

 

Thanks for the welcome, I just use this calculator: www.omnicalculator.com/everyday-life/cord-wood my calculation is incorrect for the shed, it is actually 99 face cord, not 104! 4ft x 12-14" x 8ft long I presume?

Great that you mentioned, water storage! I run a 1000 gallon steel tank that I wrapped in insulation last year, I will be having that spray foamed this fall. I am interested to hear thoughts on this? I was advised to get it as I sometimes need to put our 100kw generator under full load, so I have a electric water heater that I run on full blast every so often.. it's quite the damm system all this.

 

I wasn't able to get much info on them, but they do look built for the purpose, that is what the most recent owner used them for any, constructed of angle iron, waaaaayy before steel prices got crazy

 

Hello and welcome!

There's other helpful items under "Resources" at the top of the page. Primer on Woodburning by Backwoods Savage

You'll find lots of folks here, that are very helpful in spending your $'s!

 

Oh man, sweet shop, and wood shelter! You got the right brand of saw too.
Welcome to the forum! We like pics of wood, saws, splitters, shops and most anything except for feet.

 

Wow, nice setup there Son of a Woodcutter ! I have some wooden racks that I built, they are very similar to your steel ones...I use the forklift to move them into the attached garage as needed...works great.
So you have had a chance to use the HeatMaster already, right? Like it? What was there before? That looks to be a MF7000?
My folks just replaced their 20 year old Central Boiler with a HeatMaster G10000 last fall...wow, what a difference! No more blue smoke cloud blowing across the road all winter, and the wood usage dropped in half (from roughly 22 FULL cords per year) and that is without replacing the known faulty underground line set...that comes this fall...pretty sure wood usage will drop even further as they are noticeably losing some heat to the ground when the ground water level comes up (most of the winter around here)

 

Welcome to the FHC Son of a Woodcutter Great to have you here.

Very impressive set up you have for making firewood, storage and ideal drying conditions.

Own a 500i myself and love it.

Be sure that yooperdave goes over some of the rules and regulations about FHC. No worries, just an inside joke. We take our humor very serious here!

Oh, and my GF told me if i brought home another load of wood she was leaving me.

Boy am i gonna miss her!

 

Your setup there would lend itself to a rail system in the wood shed there...I can't recall who it was, but someone here(?) has a setup on rails and he uses the skid steer (or loader tractor?) to push the wood pile down to the boiler end of the shed as the wood is used...I'll see if I can find it...here it is Sun drying wood ?

 

Aykarumba. Someone’s been busy. Welcome to the forum.
Everything you done is great and beyond my abilities. I might make one suggestion tho. Just recently saw a video on here of a similar setup but all the wood in the shed was on train track type rails. A good tractor can just push it all in and towards the boiler. Replace as necessary and repeat.
With a setup like yours you may want to look into that. Maybe someone could repost that video.

 

yep. Great minds think alike
If someone didn’t have a tractor with enough traction or power a heavy winch mounted near the boiler end with cable running underneath all the stacks would work too.

 

Welcome! Dang, you go through a lot of wood! Now you’re wife will be wondering why you’re spending so much time on the internet,

 

Welcome aboard Son of a Woodcutter

Looks like you have all the good toys!

Now, about those rules and regulations......

Usually, I'll let this slide until a few more posts are made by a new member but since buZZsaw BRAD gave you a heads up, here goes.

First off, when you receive your FHC welcome packet, you'll find the parking sticker that should be attached to the front side of your rear view mirror or the lower left hand corner of the windshield you are currently driving. (Hopefully it's a truck!) the first parking sticker is complimentary; any additional ones needed can be purchased for a small nominal fee.

Secondly, in regards to the FHC jet and helicopter. They are both for transportation only and not to be used for hauling firewood. Currently, the wait list is quite long to reserve either of them as the FAA is still investigating a few of the past incidents where people using them did not have pilots licenses. In order to correct this, FHC now requires a member of the moderating team to be reserved for piloting wither the jet or the helicopter.

That moderating team member is wildwest and she is showing great potential in becoming a great pilot. She is currently recovering from some "incidents" of "unintentional landings". Don't worry, she and the members that chartered her as the pilot are all recovering fine and should be on their feet by this time next year and hopefully will make a full recovery by 2025.....which is another good reason why everyone should be on the three year plan for firewood!

Lastly and most importantly, membership dues. You can make the payment directly to me. Cash is best. Be sure to check the exchange rate being you are form Canada.

 

Welcome aboard. Great looking setup!

 

Hey welcome to the forum Son of a Woodcutter !
It will be interesting to hear stories and tales of work and wood burning from your piece of the planet.
Best,
Sirchopsalot