How far to travel for wood until it's no longer worth it?

The second part of your quote makes sense, setting personal satisfaction aside. My point in all of this must be missed....you must have more than one option to hoard away from to make sense. At times I have five irons in the fire and run simple math in my head to make the best choice. I have turned down a huge job for two smaller as the incremental ($/btu) makes more sense. Pain in the azz land owners double and triple recovery time, so it does not make sense. Your personal time has a value, unless sitting on the couch is the alternative.

 

I'm not sure what I'm missing, spell it out? You're mixing work time with personal time are you not? How much money do you lose per hour taking your wife shopping? Mowing the lawn? Having a nap? Working on your vehicle? Helping the kids with homework?

I believe I said your time is worth nothing unless the task is so futile, that it wouldn't make sense to do it. I'm worth the same cutting wood for myself as I am watching television. Putting a monetary value on your personal time is silly. Sure, there's effort vs reward, and if not enough reward, you don't do it.

 

My girlfriend doesn't mind me hoarding firewood and chainsaws and woodworking tools - as she says "there's worse hobbies to have." I think she likes a nice toasty house on days like this too.

In the end, its a very subjective question. We all want to feel like we're saving money but its not all that easy to quantify. At least I haven't had to buy fuel oil in 2 years, and that feels pretty good.

 

With the exception of my trips to the high country for sub alpine fir (20 minutes) and the odd trip afar for birch (50 minutes) I've been lucky the last 4 years in that I drive about 5 minutes (ok maybe its 7) to get the rest of my firewood being lodgepole, larch and doug fir. Im pretty spoiled that way. Its so close my wife can walk 10 minutes to meet me if she ever cared to. I still manage to get high centered on stumps or back into trees from time to time lol. Sorry I know this isn't relevant to the title of the thread but it does make the longer ones a bit more worth it considering all the close areas I have.

 

Very true

 

I actually did not say anything about my time being nag worth nothing. Sure there is a mix of work time and personal time. I keep a list of things to do and meme the best use of my time to accomplish said tasks. If I am shopping or hanging with the wife, that is entirely different.

If you take a few minutes and look at the most successful business leaders in the world, you will see how they assign a value to the time they are working outside of work. This for me is a solid habit and works. If it isn't your thing, fine. Someone asked how far until it's worth it, I offered an educated answer. I have $75,000 invested in my hoarding tools, so I put them to the best use and use of my time. I have this as a second business as I sell wood to select clients at a premium, so this methodology is not so silly to me.

I enjoy this site because I have found many ideas that help make me more efficient to which I say. If you don't like it, I say

 

Tree services have been supplying me for years. Farthest I would consider going is into my neighbor's yard on the uphill side, and the last time he had tree work done they rolled the rounds into my yard so I didn't even need to go that far. (And I still get wood from that company.) Sorry but the fact is no matter how much I like heating with wood, I wouldn't be doing it if I had to go get it. NG is so damm inexpensive right now it wouldn't be worth it.