With 3 acres, you should have plenty of storage space. What kind of wood hauler do you have? Truck? Trailer? Equipment? You will see pictures we post of loaded trucks and trailers. Some of the pictures are of modified or beefed up vehicles. Be careful when hauling wood, because it is a lot heavier than you think. Start with small loads and see what your equipment will safely do. This is a big deal. You can haul more dry wood than wet wood. Make sure your stacks are easily accessible year round. The last thing you want is muddy ground or huge drifts between your house and the stacks. Level or downhill to the house is also a great idea. Pulling a load of wood up a snowy/icy hill is asking for trouble.
Welcome to the forum Mark. You have been given some good advice so far. May I also add this link: (1) Primer on Woodburning by Backwoods Savage | Firewood Hoarders Club You may read it online or even copy it to your computer so it can be read anytime. I hope you find it as useful as many others have over the years. Learning the different trees does take some time but it can be done. I think the best way is to find someone well experienced in identifying trees and pick 3 or 4 or as many as 6 that are available in your area. Learn these and learn them well. Later you may add another tree or two and soon folks will think you are a pro. Good luck.
Welcome and you’ve gotten a Masters degree in firewood in the previous replies. These folks know what they are talking about from years of experience ..One word of caution…Be thinking up some really good plausible “reasons” for your wife why it’s essential to have multiple saws, splitting mauls, pickup trucks, trailers….Well you get the idea
Welcome to the club What kind and size of a chainsaw do you have I use picture this to help identify trees
Welcome aboard! Great write-up and backstory. Lopi is a very good make, I've seen a few in person and up close in action and liked what I saw. If you're real new to the game be sure to wear eye & ear pro at a minimum when you are splitting, I used a small electric splitter and always have both. If you're going to run a saw get some chaps and steel toe boots. In my humble opinion the exact type of wood doesn't exactly matter, but I do like to know: wet/dry ; soft/hard. I'll burn soft or hard wood, and as I continue to learn more having both on hand is beneficial. Being able to tell between wet and dry wood is very handy because wet oak "can't" burn but went pine *can* burn. Your moisture meter will be good for that. I'll tell you this- I've really gained a lot of knowledge on this site, its very welcoming and people who contribute go out of their way to be helpful. If I can give any advice, it's this; be a frequent contributor. Stay involved. You (and me) might not always have some groundbreaking comment to make, but... we might. In any event- this is a great community and happy to have you here.
Thanks for all the advise guys. Some comments below. Nord - You are right about the bug. I just started and it seems like an obsessive thing. I have been lurking on here for a little bit so, yes, I have already checked out your links. Very useful. Erik B - I'm in Faribault, about 45 min south of the cities. Lakeside on 3 acres. I'm new to the game so I'm just starting to put together my equipment. As I mentioned we don't have a fancy stove, just a simple Lopi insert in the old fireplace. The last owners had it installed. I don't know much about it or if Lopi's are even considered very good. It is at least the "Large" model. I already had a Husky 440 w/16" bar and a Makita 36 volt w/16" bar. Those were typical "suburban" pieces for when we lived in the cities. Now we are in the country and needing some new toys. I bought a Champion 40 ton splitter last fall and just bought a Husky 555 w/24" bar. I also have a Polaris Sportsman 550 I bought new in 2013. Works nice for pulling the trailer full of wood around the property. Next thing is to build wood storage this spring. Planning on 38" deep for (2) rows deep, going to go 5 1/2' high with steel roof sloping back, and thinking 40' long dived into 8' sections. That should give me plenty of room to have different stages of seasoned wood. Brenndatomu - Yep, split a bunch of it to check it in the middle. The ends are where most of the higher readings are. Everything has been 15 and below. Have already noticed the oak coaling problem you mention. I'm dealing with it...but yes a PITA. Ole - THANK YOU...that is super helpful. And I just googled, had no idea MN has more aspens than any other state. Never even heard of a quaking aspen. Eckie and Wolverine - two more helpful options...thanks! Isaaccarlson - Tree services is an idea I had been thinking of. I'll probably start making a couple of those calls. I guess the biggest thing I take away is take everything I can get and burn it as long as it is dry. Figure out down the road what species works best for my burning situation. I'll start the pics with one of the pup in the back yard. Porter, named after our favorite beer style! More pics to come as the weather warms up and this obsession starts to grab hold.
That’s a good lookin’ dog. I see free wood on facebook in your area all the time. Semi loads, dump truck loads, more wood than you can haul. All different kinds. Free for the taking.
Didn't even notice page two. Isaaccarlson - Good points!! I will basically be hauling with F150 and a 12' aluminum trailer w/2300lb capacity. Not sure how much I want to be throwing logs in the trailer. Good chance of denting the floor.
Another question. Do you guys stick to a certain distance you bring wood from? Considering the infestation issues.
The Lopi dealer I had in my area , retired. I found another one in Rochester, MN and they seem to be good people. I bought some firebrick from them and that so far is the extent of my dealing with them. I have one of my sons living in New Ulm. I am familiar with Hwy 14 from Rochester, west.
Welcome aboard MHL68 Nice lookin dog. You've found the right place for all things firewood related.. and sometimes just random stuff.
Ah, a wood shed build you say? Oh we've got a few of those builds here. I built a 30 foot long 3 bay, one for each year that hills 5 cords each bay. F-150, that'll do. That's what I and many use. A single small trailer, sure, mine is steel with a wood floor, but I used a steel grates floor one previously. I use a quadrafire EPA insert to heat my house mostly with wood, I'm in southeastern WI. Lopi are great stoves, had one at the cabin up north and it was great. With 3 acres, you'll have no problem keeping enough wood to heat with. I do that with only 1 acre. You have an ATV, that with a little trailer to haul behind it will do what you need. I use an agrifab 10 cubic foot dump trailer if I'm not using the 4x8 trailer. Here's my shed I built 5 years ago.
Welcome to the FHC MHL68 Hints; 1) ask lot of questions and post pics. 2)Throw a @ in front on names they Weill turn yellow and send an alert. 3) make sure have and use safety equipment 4) have fun
That shed is similar to what I was thinking. Except I'm looking to go 5 bays long along a fence line that backs up to DNR land. Got a couple of messages out on FB for a possible wood score this weekend, he says it's ash and looks to be a lot, at least to my rookie eyes. About 35 miles away. Going to be in the 20s Saturday so good day to do it before it plunges to the negatives for the next week.
Ash is good stuff. Getting scarcer by the day with the EAB infestation around here. Looking forward to the pics!
My limit to travel for wood is roughly 45 minutes or so. If there's a really epic premium log somewhere I might go a little further, if I need the wood and can't find much closer. Thing is I'm spoiled @ this location. There is large amounts of the good stuff everywhere, which allows me to cherry pick what I want, when I want it.
