At 12+ cord a year with 3 kids in home under age of 7; I too thought it was a dream. Changed wood stove went to less than 5 cord.. if your used to using 12 cord and get a year with only using 4. Presto your 2 years ahead
You can't make more time but you can do it faster. I can cut and load a truck load in about 1.5 hrs if I can park close to the wood. If I had 3 helpers I could probably get that down. Since this is FHC, maybe it's time for a new 500i or 572xp and a eastonmade ultra to speed things up.
For sure a new Stihl and Eastonmade would speed things up. Solid advice! Thanks for bringing this thread back to reality. Better Toys fixes everything in life.
Plenty of after supper hours working under floodlight in the short days of Winter. Yeah, those baseball days were a time suck. Plus we had a Cape Cod Baseball League field about a half mile walk for even more of a time suck. A couple of Winters bought firewood, but never knew if it would be enough so would still find some firewood making time . Even with just one saw, it needs to be used.
I used to live just a few blocks away from Wareham High School where the Gatemen played. Now I'm about 30 miles west, since about 1999.
How many cords do you need per year? I do mine in stages so Im just doing one task at a time. Stage 1 just cut a ton of rounds and stage them by the splitter. Stage 2 split all the rounds, Stage 3 stack it all. To really speed things up Ill have the wife run the splitter while I stack. Doing it that way we can put up about a cord an hour or more iirc been a while since we tag teamed it. I also do alot of it in winter and spring when theres not much going on.
I know what ya mean. I cut throughout the year and stack it at the house, split it when I get around to it.
It certainly is one of the things to consider in this game. Is the money savings large enough to prioritize doing your firewood versus delivery, or not at all. We all have different options and availability. If I didn’t have a bunch of available wood out the back door, I would likely have done solar. My total electric is brutal without alternatives. the answer is: you may not have the time at this point of your life.
It's funny my brother always claims he has no time and then ends up burning wood that he split and stacked in September for that winter. I'm the opposite and have a 2-3 year plan and it's growing. The beauty with processing firewood though is that you can do it in stages and at your own pace. You don't need to drop your trees, buck them and then split and stack all in the same day or even the same month. I rarely spend more than 1-2 continuous hours working on my firewood. I just chip away at it when I have a bit of time. Usually drop a big tree or two at a time, and then go back to them over a span of weeks or a month, buck them up and take a trailer load or two to the splitter when I have time and then stack as I go. Edit: Also meant to add that having a hydraulic splitter is a must or else you're just going to be wasting valuable time.
I’m finding the splitter isn’t as critical as all the pre and post splitting tasks. as someone pointed out, get a bigger saw. You can save a LOT air time in cutting. 6-8 seconds for every cut when you might have 100 cuts to a face cord, call it 600 seconds. There’s a half hour in just a cord. That’s 4 hours on a years supply. Half a days time. there’s advantages to cutting and splitting bigger rounds vs smaller, easier to pickup wood, but that small wood is also time killers. same with post splitting. Can you just toss it into bins? Totes? Each time you handle wood, you give up a lot of time, the more I do this, my industrial engineering background kicks in and I’m always looking for ways to get rid of movements and distances.
I write the following not to find fault but to try putting things in perspective and hopefully help someone. There is no magic fix. Plus there are many men who are fathers, husbands and have many responsibilities both at work and at home. But if you look at the words I have highlighted in bold above, you will find the biggest reason for your problems. For as long as you continue to look at it and make statements like, "...never have time," "...never ending cycle..." and, "...not having time..." that is the way you can bet the rest of your life will be. Never forget, "What you say is what you get!" I recall when our boys were growing up. Yes, there are responsibilities you must take care of but at the same time, I see so many people thinking their children have to be involved in this or that and when the truth is known, you get so involved they and the rest of the family really have no quality time as a family. Some folks find a home is not a home but only a house where they go to sleep. They are too busy running here and there thinking they have no choice. But we all make our own choices. Make sure you are making the right choices and for sure, never try to keep up with the Jones family.
I appreciate all the input... truth be told, a good week would make a huge difference. Dedicated time to making a dent in my hoard and all of the sudden my outlook is not so bad. Just have to make some things a priority and prob miss a few things that the wife maybe doesn't want me to miss, but if I want to get anything done I'm going to have to. In time I'll get ahead and everything will be just so, but until then I can only do what I can do. Yes, sometimes the right attitude is prob all I need but other things do trump the wood stacks in my opinion. And who knows, hopefully I can incorporate the things that trump wood into getting the wood done, like having everyone (wife and kids) help get the wood done. I'll keep everyone posted...
I find time here and there, about 1-2 hours every other week or so year 'round to focus on firewood. Wife, 3 kids 10 and under, full time job (basically doing my job plus another until we hire someone), finishing up building our house, and trying to find time to hang out with family. It's not easy in life to get everything done, put a few priorities I have made are; making sure we stay warm in winter, we have a well stocked food pantry, and we can have water in a power outage.
This right here! Looking back I can't believe how fast the sports years went. It won't hurt to buy some wood to complement what you can CSS. You will never look back and say "I sure wish I missed more practices and games to I could do more wood processing!"
Boy do I know a few like that! Drives me crazy when trying to schedule a time to get together with them...almost impossible! Geez ow people...just sit down and relax for once!
One thing I have placed first with my family is spending time with the Lord, even if it is only an hour on a Sunday morning. Church and Bible study on Sundays and mens Bible study on Thursdays help keep me focused on what is really important in life. Everything else takes care of itself.
When your children turn into teens you might look back and miss the busy days you are currently in. I have a 14 year old son and a 17 year old daughter who will graduate this year. My daughter is always gone with friends, boyfriend, cross country running, a part time job, and shopping. She's never home and misses too many family dinners in my opinion; but she is happy experiencing life so I try and let go a little....as hard as this is. My son use to play baseball and I helped coach but he got tired of it. I really miss the baseball and time together on the field. Now he's running like his sister and starting to go off with friends. My wife and I find ourselves home alone on some weekends which gives me lots of time to do as I please but I'm already missing when the kids were younger. Enjoy the chaos and make a family wood gathering day! Time flies by and they'll be grown before you know it.
I’m enjoying seeing my kids’ lives now. having an empty nest isn’t that bad…. my kids know I miss the morning of them coming in for breakfast and their voices. Kisses on the forehead and all that. seeing their names come up on caller ID are just as awesome especially when a 29 yo says “hi daddy…” I’ve gone from having two daughters to two daughters and two sons. Both have lost their own dads and come to me as well for fatherly advice. the memories are just as impactful and wonderful. their childhoods are awesome memories… their futures are even more so than you can ever dream.
