Morning everyone, Long time (well, a couple months) lurker, first time poster. Stumbled on this site after lurking on a few others and I think this one's more up my alley. A great "theme" and good people. A bit about myself...I live in Toronto and don't heat my home with wood. So why am I here? I love cutting wood and burning it, and will find every excuse I can to do so. At home, in the city, I have a firepit (permitted if it's used to cook, otherwise it's a no-no). And I also own a piece of land about 2 hours from here, with 33 acres wooded (lots of cherry, black locust and red and white pine). I had some timber taken out a few years ago and was left with a lot of tops. Got a chainsaw, some splitting axes and started having fun. This year I added a used 31' camp trailer to the land and camped there a few times with my kids aged 8 and 5 (my wife hates camping). I also scrounge in the city for my firepit and for neighbours who have fireplaces in their homes (and one guy with a pizza oven gets special attention, for some reason). Speaking of which, just located an ad on CL from a tree service that puts odd bits of firewood outside their yard for free pickup. I'll check it out this weekend for fun, but a few pictures had that Tree of Heaven stuff that is garbage for anything I do. My plan is to eventually move out to the country, build a home and heat primarily with wood. In the meantime, I'll live vicariously through you guys and learn along the way. The 3-year plan seems like the mantra here, and it makes a lot of sense. Also learning about the different species. I probably won't post much, but will definitely be following other posts. Here are a few pictures of wood cutting adventures (+ some cooking) on my land.
I should also mention, the first picture is my old 445. My garage was broken into a year ago and it was stolen. I replaced it with the 550xp.
Welcome grandgourmand, you chose wisely as you will like it here, I guarantee it. You will not find a bunch of more supportive and knowledgeable people. It appears you already have the addiction (we counsel through the tough times) and have specific goals in mind...keep cutting and enjoy the ride. Nice to meet ya
Welcome to the FWC grandgourmand ! Glad that you joined. There are great folks here indeed! The 3 year plan is for sure the mantra! It takes a bit of work to get to that milestone, but well worth the reward. Sounds like you have plenty of area to start getting the plan in place for that new house in the country! Nice meetin you!!
welcome to the club. Nice pictures. I am certain you will enjoy and learn something from this site eh
Welcome fellow Canuck!! You'll love it here, in obsessed with css wood and slowly turning my wife in the right direction, I'm only about 1.5 hours south of you just north of Woodstock! Welcome to the group!
welcome grandgourmand welcome and great first post! If I am reading this right that 33 acres is where you want to be in the future when ya build your forever home! that's fantastic as between now and then you can easily get on 3 year plan and have fun with the kids! once you have as house there your wife will love it too! I bet she just likes her home comforts... my wife and daughter do not camp either.. but it's nice to have camp fire roast marshmellow and then go inside at home
A nice, "warm" welcome to you grandgourmand, from New Mexico, USA! Glad to hear that you enjoy a good fire when you can. Definitely a lot to learn from these folks. I can attest to that. Stay warm up there and enjoy the group.
Thanks for the "warm" welcome everyone. Just on the long-term plan to move to the country...realistically I won't be able to do that for another 10 years or so. My wife wants to stay in the city and my job requires the same. I figure in ten years I'll start the process in stages. Start construction on home, buy some more toys etc. But in the meantime I can manage the woodlot and just enjoy the space. My friend has a local lumber mill and suggested clear cutting the red pine, which was planted years ago to prevent soil erosion. Says the new growth will pop right up. He might be right...where we took out a bunch of pine in the first cut and I've noticed a boatload of cherry saplings popping up. Pretty neat seeing the forest rejuvenate itself (and "better" wood showing up). Wish I could have more need of firewood. There's a fenceline where I could easily thin out some black locust. Probably ten or more trees in one spot alone (not huge, like 12'' diameter)...oh well, they aren't going anywhere. BTW farmboy707, my land is near Simcoe, ON.
Welcome aboard grandgourmand . Sounds like you have a plan. A slightly older couple we know are moving from a 10 acre place to one that has 37 acres. I personally would like a couple hundred so I could put the house right in the middle of it all. Hey, we can dream, eh?
Welcome to the forum grandgourmand It sounds like you have a good plan in mind. I hope when it is time that your wife will be willing to move from the city. In our case, I turned down many job offers during my working years because they required I work in a city and move at least close but that is now what we wanted. We could have earned a lot more dollars but it was not the trade-off neither of us wanted. We love living in the country. We don't have a lot of land but 40+ acres and live on a graveled dead end road (only 2 of us on this road). We absolutely love it. We don't have a lot but love what we have. You definitely could begin stacking wood on that land if you plan on building there. You could also advertise and sell some wood now and then to pay for the saw and other tools. Sad that you can't burn where you are other than for cooking but, one can cook a lot outdoors if you wish and it appears you are doing just that. Good for you.
Welcome friend! It appears you are in the early stages of the hording viruse for which, I'm happy to say, there is no known cure! But dont let it concern you, we here are all in various stages of the same affection. We will be here to help you through the hard times and congratulate you on your victories! That 550XP, nice choice in saws!
Welcome to the site! Humm, I wonder, since I sent you an US welcome, does that equal 1.3 Canadian welcomes, based on the current exchange rate??
Welcome home, grandgourmand. I'm sure you already know how great a place this is here ...... Glad to have you!
Welcome to the site and if you haven't seen the smokehouse section, I'd highly recommend it. Quite a few good cooks here and some amazing dishes.
My I have alot of family in simcoe area cool stuff!! I keep trying to convince my wife to let me buy some hardwood bush in the muskoka or Ottawa area.
I don't know much about Muskoka...but I grew up in the Ottawa area. Lots of swampy/boggy areas around there (like where my home was actually), but when you get further out, you get a lot of nice hardwood bush. I drive there a few times a year. This year was the first time I really noticed the EAB devastation. Wow, pretty sad. But then I also think it means a lot of fuel for some people.
