The OFFICIAL Firewood Hoarder's Club thread!!!

Fell a nice red oak yesterday, or so I thought.
Standing dead it's hard to say w just the bark to go on. About 80 foot 23"er. Actually I was really happy to find i fell a older bitternut hickory. They don't get too big around here so this is kinda rare. About 1.5 cords added to the heap..makes me a cord-hoarder... yeah. ..whatever.

Gotta love that hickory tho; smells great burnin. Letting her sit till next year or year after..

 

Greetings all from sunny Virginia , always a pleasure to be amongst good companions. Long time listener first time caller.

I bought a house in 2009 that has a wood stove in the basement. I'm cheap so naturally I don't want to spend a few hundred dollars a month for fuel oil. At first I would try to find wood that was already cut and split, but then thought, there has to be a better way ;-).

6 years and a bunch of saws later I began to feel as "hoarder" was a valid description of my squirrel like tendencies with firewood.

But then a few weeks back I met a most astute gentleman in one of the fine vacation corners of upstate New York, who happened to be a member of the Firewood Hoarders Club. At that point it occurred to me that I am but a lowly small time stove stuffer, as he called it.. Just kidding, he didn't say that, but I suspect he was thinking it .

We talked about the FHC for a while, but after seeing the crazy setup at this gentleman's house, but more especially the cool t-shirt, I said I have to get in on this. So here I am. My name is Richard, and I am a firewood hoarder. I hope to get to know you all well. I will warn you, I am not near as savvy as most of you so input might be minimal, but I am certainly good with asking questions.

Thank you to the members and administrators for this fine forum and for letting me aboard!

Lastly, here are a few pics of my tiny tiny saw collection, some of my hoard, and my 2 boys sitting in my recliner that they are not supposed to be in (that ones just for fun).


Saws are as follows:

Lombard Comango

2 Homelite XL12 - one older one newer

McCulloh Eager Beaver

Stihl MS390

Stihl MS211

Stihl 028WB - Got this for $18 at auction, great shape, all original everything from 1980. That was a *good* day.

Poulan 66 bow - Haven't fired this up yet, still trying to figure out if the oiler is working properly or not.

 

Welcome.

 

Welcome to the club Rich! I believe I am the 'astute gentleman' FHC'er that he's referring to. But, we didn't just meet - we've been friends since elementary school.

We spent many summers working for my dad, making a little extra money stacking hay and firewood. He was really the only friend I could count on to help out with that sort of Hard Work, and it sure made a big difference having a friend there with you. He's more than a friend to me - he's more like a brother.

After college, his career path led him away from our little town. He came to visit after I bought my house, and I think we were both surprised to find we had a common interest in firewood and chainsaws. I guess I should have expected it though: it was all that firewood we did when we were kids - it gets in your blood!

So glad you decided to join! Maybe someone in the Chainsaw forum can help you troubleshoot your oiler.

 

Welcome to the club BCPLLC, good to see you joined up, nice pics of your saws, wood, and your little buddies, s yeah we like pics, and like to answer questions and help out if we can

 

Yes, this would be the gentlemen! I meant to say "met with" not met (for the first time). I looked for the "what you actually meant to say" widget but couldn't find it. Perhaps Mr. Curry can code something up real quick, google has it .

I can remember many loads of firewood when we were kids! Not to mention hay haulin and barn painting. Boy I'll tell you what, thats about the most fun a kid can have all while earning 2 shekels an hour . Fires and their fuel certainly does get in your blood. Hay and painting, not so much. I don't own a horse and I live in a brick house, deduce from that what you will .

 

Thats one thing I wanted when buying a house. A brick home that was not painted, and aluminum or vynal trim! I have both those things. Oh and vynal windows

 

I am completely with you there! Once I replace my windows I am going to get vinyl trim, that will get rid of painting windows. The previous owner replaced most of the soffit caps with sheet metal because I suspect he was sick of replacing them. Once the windows and soffit caps are replaced there will be no more exposed wood at all!

More importantly, once I get the windows replaced it will kick my btu preservation into high gear, most of my windows are single pane and probably from the 70'sish. The downside is, since I burn firewood at an amazing economical realization, the cost of not replacing them is very small monetarily. 7 new windows that you don't necessarily need, or 7 new chainsaws that you must have in your basement now? eh, its a toughy!

 

Welcome BCPLLC. Replacement windows are worth it. You'll save on electric if you run the AC in the summer. The low-E tinted things are amazing for how much sun they block.

 

Yea our windows help a lot. My walls have no insulation. If I had old windows I really would be in bad shape!

 

I think you might be a stihl fan

 

I'm glad I was always the handsome one or pics like that might begin to make me jealous !

 

Thats what everyone keeps telling me, I want to pull the throttle on this soon. My neighbor just had all of his windows replaced and it was about $4000. I think that was more than reasonable in our area. He said it made a huge difference with heat/cool and more especially sound, we live right next to I95 but it doesn't bother me. I had a scam window company here a few years back, they quoted me like $9500 for 2 windows, it was a long sad story but it discouraged me from window salesmen. My biggest hangup is that I still pay PMI on my mortgage and figure its probably a little better spent right now to pay the principal down to remove that fee than to improve the house. That hurdle is coming to an end soon, I am excited to get new windows and save a little work on the firewood. I enjoy the work, but I kid you not, 87.3% of the time, downed trees are available for cutting here in July, when it is 98 degrees outside. That statistic is completely made up but literally nobody cuts a tree here in November, might be a state law.

I have no insulation either except for a few spots that have been updated over the years. Luckily where I am at we only have a super cold (high 30'sish?) season a few weeks a year. I say luckily, it was more by design for me. I visited VA in 04~05 and was here for new years. New years day it was 87 degrees or so, and here I am, but I digress.

I have a lot of economical improvements to make to the place still. I think a good start for now is learning a bit more of the science here behind firewood. I currently operate with a"Does it burn? Good!" sort of mentality, some call it backwoods redneck, blah blah blah, who am I to argue with the truth. I know not to burn pine, plastic and what-not, but for the most part I burn about anything. Sounds like there is a lot to learn!