Anyone Else Been in this Situation?

So a year ago in February my misses and I rented this place close to home, out in the woods on main road. (route 22) The previous owners left the place a mess with little to no maintenance done to the land, and to include the insult to injury there was a load of garbage around the house. Needless to say these folk didn't leave any seasoned wood around, I found a few unsplit logs buried in the snow/ice, and the wood shed was stripped of siding(they used it as firewood). Ever since then I devoted most of my free time to getting ahead in the firewood department, during my first season I burnt pine hemlock and whatever wood I could find lying above the snow drifts. Now I plan every day to get ahead by 3-5 years.
Anyone else been in this situation, where you drop into the middle of a worse situation that continues to get worse during your first winter?

 

Hmmmm... You in Columbia County?

 

Oh yeah, my first several years burning sucked. Then I discovered forums with knowledgable folk. Confession time: I cheated and bought firewood (3 cord loads) twice to get the inventory to 3 years. That was easy. In your case gathering all your own, it's ALOT of work for awhile. Well worth the effort.

 

Ive been there and sometimes I feel like Im still there. I dont know how many times Ive considered selling the wood stove and getting a pellet stove, but I keep pushing on theres going to be plenty of down times until you finally get ahead and even then once youve accumulated enough wood to be 3-5 years ahead you still have to wait for it to season. Im envisioning another 1-2 years before I will have properly seasoned wood to make it through an entire burn season without worry. Im trying to get ahead this winter Ive got a lot of pine setting up for next year and Im working on getting some hard woods for further down the road. Oh and Im cheating by buying a lot of my wood as I dont have time to gather due to work schedules. Im sure youll get there in time heck these guys on here didnt get 15-20 cords in a weekend.

 

Yes. I bought my house in August of 2012 and the owners left almost a cord of wood. I spent the rest of August and Sept cutting standing dead and some green trees. Split it all by hand and struggled through that first year. Course these guys are a bad influence too. Now I have a woodshed, a splitter, a tractor, and a bunch of other toys for firewood. I am 1 year ahead on splits have about another years worth in rounds that I've been pecking away at, burning all standing dead this year and plan to next year as well. Still cutting other wood as well.

 

I wouldn't call that cheating, I'd call it being smart, makes the scrounging a lot less stressful or frantic.

 

Good luck on getting your supply going and getting ahead Upstatewoodcutter! It will come along after a few years and a lot of work. But you will be able to look at your work as you go along and have that satisfaction of accomplishing all that hard work. Then knowing you have plenty of wood to keep your place warm for a long time.

I still have not been able to get ahead. I cut all my wood in the winter, split and stack it in long rows outside on pallets in the spring, and then move it in under a covered porch in October/November. Luckily for me I cut mostly all White Ash and some White Pine/White Spruce. These wood types burn well after being dried in my location for this amount of time, at least six months. They get some direct sun, some wind, and I don't cover the wood at all anymore. I use to top cover with plastic and that works well.

For this year maybe you can ask around at the lumber supply places and see if you can gather some pallets, scrap lumber, etc. to help with your supply for this year. If you can find access to some Ash and get it cut and split for next year it will be good to go. Then hopefully you can get to work on your supply for the following years. Good luck with your work, and remember to take your time and work safe our friend.

 

During the first winter here, I had to buy enough wood to get us through. Previous owners left about a cord on the front porch c/s/s. The following year, I had enough c/s/d for that winter, and also ordered a log load.
It was one of the the quickest ways to get ahead, because the guy I was getting the c/s/d stuff from didn't think it was necessary to bring that years wood until late August, even though I asked for it in April. Still took over 4 years to get any of it to the point where it was somewhat nice to burn.
If I had just told him to bring another 2 years worth, it would have been much easier, since I would have just needed to stack it.
I'm now to the point of having a shed that gets filled every late summer/fall with already dry wood, and the wood is actually staged for the time of year it'll be burned.
Don't need the heat and longevity of Oak in Sept/August, so that's when I use Pine/Poplar.
Same thing in the Spring.

 

Hi there. When we moved into our house it seemed that there was plenty of firewood. Short rounds – just waiting for splitting. But as I took away the front row, the stuff behind was really bad. Each almost rotten, beginning in the center. I learned on this experience, why you should split the rounds as soon as possible. You hear this always as a precept, but from that moment on, I understood the meaning on the hard way. So I did two things, I bought some seasoned, ready to use firewood, and I asked a relative to help me out. So I pulled loads, trailer by trailer, week after week to get through the first winter. We had just a small car trailer and the route was about 25 km. In the following wood making season I stepped on it and filled up my own storage plus the compensation for the borrowed wood. I refunded all wood loads back to my relative. One might just owe nothing.

 

no, my first winter wasn't rough or unpleasant... broke from buying my first house, oil heat with an empty tank and a small inefficient fireplace with no wood on hand..

nope, never been in that situation.

 

I have been there twice before it sucked both times
I have come to believe it is a right of passage

 

Right now I'm pretty well off for 3-5 years in the future as I've cut down several red oaks and a few sugar maples. As for the next to years we're surviving off of standing dead and fallen dead trees. And I learned a wealth of information here that I wouldn't have known otherwise.

 

Nope, in Washington county.

 

Ahhh...Roger that. I have family in Columbia County (Chatham Center and we have a camp in Warren county (13th Lake, just out of North Creek)

 

I actually just cut down a tree that the folks here identified as red maple, it's not as soft as silver but I hope it dries quick. I started splitting it today and it splits like a charm once the large rounds are split into halves. Splitting into quarters and then eighths is a breeze! Smells good too.

 

I've actually only been in Columbia county a few times. But warren county is just a stones throw from where I am.

 

Upstate I am on the edge of Saratoga County closer to Schenectady County. Not sure of your amount of wood but if you ever run short of wood message me. I have about 25 cord on the ground half Bucked and willing to trade cutting and splitting time for wood.