So tell us the story of how you came to possess your firewood three year plan. New equipment. Where did you acquire the wood. How much help did you have. When you decided this was meant for you. You know... All the trials and tribulations of having all that is, the three year plan. I hope I do not come across sarcastic. I’m truly interested and thought it would be a good thread So let’s hear it. With pics of course
Some good questions there. New equipment had nothing to do with the plan. Wood is acquired on our own land. Only help was that my wife used to help but now it is just me. I might add though that for the past 4 years we've had a get-together at our place and the guys like to run saws and split wood, etc, etc. This means that my work load has decreased a lot! It's been so long ago that I really don't remember when except to say that it really started in my childhood. We had no 3 year plan then but we always had extra wood put up so as to make sure it was dry by the time it had to be burned. On a different forum, if I remember correctly both Scotty Overkill and myself began to promote the idea big time and it caught on. This is a good thing. Another thing that really adds to the need for the plan is that several times I've had some unfortunate things happen so that I could not put up any firewood. 35 years ago in September I had an accident that really put me down. Of course we were okay for a while but were finally forced to buy some wood. I went to a fellow I've known since childhood and thought he knew what he was doing. Sadly, he cut the wood, split it and brought it to me. Well, it was ash so you can burn that right away. Right? Well, you can actually burn most any wood right away if you really want to or need to but that does not mean it is easy or good. That winter we almost froze. The fire had to be tended to it seems all the time and nights were terrible. I knew something had to be done quickly. Then came a call. Another friend had some white ash that had to come down. Could I use it? Well, does a bear go in the woods? I had help. It was still a struggle for a few years but eventually I got so I could work maybe an hour at a time and eventually we got back to the 3 year plan. At one point I had 21 full cord of wood cut, split and stacked and we have not burned wood that was less than 3 years in the stack since. I might add that the accident was only one time that held me back. I've had some sickness and operations that put me down for a while. But I've not been in a position that I did not have wood on hand that was ready to burn. The last time was about 1 1/2 years ago when I had an emergency surgery. No wood cutting to be done that winter (it happened in November). Now here is where it really pays to have some great friends and fellow hoarders. Just a short time after I got home from the hospital several hoarders came and after a short visit they said they were ready to work. What needs done, they asked? Wow. Here is a sampling of some pictures from that day. That's one day I'll never forget and once again, thanks guys. Getting back to business, it does take a lot of work to get ahead 3 years; some more than others. Many find that if they put up just 1/3 more than they need it is not so difficult. After 3 years, you are all set. It is sort of like priming the old pitcher water pumps. Pump like crazy and prime it and soon you'll get water but once the water starts coming, just some steady easy pressure keeps the water coming. After 3 years you will feel as though you are coasting just putting up one year's worth at a time. You will never be sorry. In addition, no more worries about creosote or hard starting fires or running out of wood before the winter is over. Also, you will find that you have really saved a lot of work because you will find that with the good dry wood you get more heat which means you burn less wood which means less work for you and a happy and warm family. I hope this helps.
Great thread Scout80 No new equipment. Just my 2008 F150 and 3 saws: Stihl MS460, Stihl MS290, Husqvarna 334T arborist saw. Considering a Stihl MS261 to replace 290. I acquire most of my wood by "scrounging" mostly what i call "roadkill" stuff that the state, town, Asplundh or other tree services fell and leave roadside and i happen upon it mostly by accident. I started checking CL (Craigs list) for wood late last year and put an add in myself looking for wood. I have a wood lot on the property we rent, but its somewhat rugged and only accessible by wheelbarrow which ive done, but not in a couple years as a glut of wood around elsewhere. If i owned the land id get a quad and trailer and a make trail. I do miss getting wood the "old fashioned" way. Also get wood from an occasional chainsaw job. Id haunt the local dump more as it has decent wood from time to time. All of the wood i get alone. Load, cut, split, stacked all by me. Wood was meant for me almost since birth. My mom would change me by the window and comment on the trees outside. When i was barely able to walk and talk id waddle in my diaper from tree to tree and be able to identify them as ive been told. As a kid the sound of a chain saw or wood chipper would instill this "Christmas morning" excitement in me and id run to the window to see where it was coming from. Sort of still does i guess. My late father and uncle were burners and owned land that they cut from. Dad had the saw, uncle the lawn tractor. Dad would fell and buck, me and uncle the loaders. This was a Sunday tradition when i was a kid until my early teen years. I took over cutting then as they got too old. I had this little Homelite with a 14" bar...cheesy saw but i loved it. Couldnt wait til id be able to use one. Uncle gave me my first Stihl (O28) in 1985 when i was 17. Been a Stihl fan ever since. Nothing against other brands, just what works for me. Im self employed so i can cut whenever i want (for the most part) which is quite often now. I have more than enough wood now (30+ cord) and it will keep coming. I joined FHC in February and for some reason its opened the flood gates for wood scores for me. Its a GREAT forum and ive learned/laughed a lot...which are priceless! To say im passionate about firewood is an understatement. If there's no chain saws in Heaven, im not going! LOL!!!
Ditto, great thread! I am fairly new to all this, this is my 3rd year hoarding wood and just this past winter was my 1st true burning season. New equipment, Legendary Backwoods Savage Stihl MS290, Gorilla dump cart, some wedges, mauls, etc... I am a one man show and my journey to the 3yr plan continues and lately I've struggled with it. Work, house remodeling, house upkeep, 3 kids, aging parents, etc.... all take time and a toll on you. Alot my wood has come from off my property and a lot of it has come from scrounging on craigslist. I have to work up to scrounging as it is a lot of work for me loading up the truck and trailer, only to come back home to unload it all and move it around back via the dump cart and lawn tractor. If I can make it that I can get my truck around back to unload that would really save me a lot of work and time. I have a few trees that need to professionally be taken down around the house, hopefully this summer so that will be put me in good shape and close to the 3yr plan. Judging from this past winter I burned between 2-3cords. So I plan on budgeting 3cords a year. With that said as of now I am probably a good 4-5 cords shy of the 3yr plan. I had a halfway decent start, there were many dead trees and trees that needed to come down when we bought the property so I stacked a lot of that which we burned this past winter and will burn this upcoming winter. I also need to clear some land to make room for the 9 cords of wood. Always loved fire since I was a kid, but wasn't till a few years ago until we purchased this house with a traditional fireplace that my firewood burning and hoarding reached an all time high. We loved burning wood in the fireplace but doing more research I quickly realized how non efficient it was. So last year I put in the insert in and my wife and I quickly became absolutely hooked on wood heat and we knew it was for us. Getting your energy bill in the mail Jan, Feb and March and seeing the average energy use going up, up, up and seeing your use going down, down, down as it gets colder also makes one feel good. I think last month our gas company sent us an aware for the most efficient home in the area, , hardly! I enjoy splitting and cutting wood when I have the time to do it. I love laying out and stacking my racks of wood, it's more of a hobby than a chore for me.
I do not remember exactly what year I got on the 3 year plan nor do I remember when I got on the 5 year plan. I recall a few winters struggling burning less than optimal wood and even searching for dead or down stuff to burn right away. This was after being quite ahead by at least 2 years but life got in the way. I decided if I was going to continue to do something I loved and heat with wood I was not doing it if I had to struggle with fires. I have been blessed with a large farm operation that is just a short ways from home where I cut anything that is down or dead. I am an old body man so I used to work on all the farm trucks when they would tear them up which was quite often, plus one of the boys and I were good friends so that is how I acquired the access to cut anywhere on the farm. Now one of the young relatives has struck out on his own with help from his family bought a big farm and instantly needed someone to cut blow overs. That always keeps me in plenty of wood and l only now on occasion cut on the original farm. What really put me ahead though was one of the boys from the original farm started getting really heavy into grain farming vs milking and started buying up ground when he could and clear cut a lot.
I haven't taken too many shortcuts in my firewood career...learned almost everything the hard way! We didn't burn wood growing up so when I got a "free stove" back in 2008, I was super green...I had no wood stored up, and I don't remember where I got the wood that first winter...but it was wet! What a frustrating winter! I slowly started figuring out that I needed "seasoned" wood...but after poor results from 1 YO wood, I was still frustrated...kept trying different things until I stumbled across I think it was either Backwoods Savage or Scotty Overkill posts over on that other site and they were talking about the 3 year plan...it just clicked with me instantly. It was a lot of work, but I was fortunate in that my neighbor wanted a huge fencerow cut out on the north side of his farm...took me all summer, but it put me on the 3 year plan. My inner wood hoarder can't say no to an easy score so I seem to put up a little more wood than I use each year, so I am on the 4-5 year plan by now...burning truly dry wood is such a pleasure! I think I would not heat with wood If I had to go back to dealing with the problems I had those first few winters! I keep preaching "dry wood" to my family members that heat with wood, and they have improved, but still not 3 years ahead, and still some kinks in their system...every time they call with problems now I just say "wet wood"...and it usually is! Probably 95% (maybe more) of the work is done by myself...I enjoy it as long as I actually have the time for it and it is not just one more thing on my long list of things to do. Most of my wood has come from my employers woods...I'm the only one that burns wood there (they think I'm nuts ) and just cleaning up the dead stuff and storm damage pretty well keeps me supplied these days...plus a random score here and there from other sources too. The only thing new I have bought new was my splitter...bought it on a black Friday deal and was just gonna use it long enough to build my own, then sell it for break even...but it works well enough that I never built one then...and don't have the time for all that now anyways! Its been a long convoluted path getting to where to where I am now, with more than a few stove and furnace swap outs along the way, but I am finally satisfied with my setup/system and full time wood heat (100% wood heat the last 2-3 winters...and about 98% the last 10-11 winters!) I think the last time I bought fuel oil was 2006 or 7. I saw my old fuel oil delivery guy one day and told him I heat with wood now...he said "yeah...I saw your stacks"
As I was building my place we had an old clunker of a woodstove in the capped off walkout basement where we stayed while finishing the upper. Between the stove and whatever wood I could scrounge it was a real challenge to keep it warm. As the building was finished, our two kids were born, 13 months apart, and the struggle for time to gather more wood continued. We had the new stove in place but sub par firewood. Next couple of years I slowly made progress on my hoard. Then the county took over our road from the township. To bring it to county standards it needed to be widened a bit and ditched on each side. So to do that they had to drop a lot of trees on my, my neighbors and county land. They started cutting in the coldest part of January that year and I had the workers pile logs from my property near my driveway and the same for my neighbor. Then I used my atv and 4x8 trailer to buck and haul as much as I could get from the county land as they cut. It was cold but the opportunity was there. Trees were about half red oak and half red maple with a few white oak and pine. That spring I bucked and split what was piled on my property and helped my neighbor with his. I went from just about two years worth before to having over five years worth after that marathon. The following years were dedicated to scrounging only red oak as I only needed to replace that years wood, had plenty of seasoning time and could afford to be picky. I burned about 5 cord a year and with a county fuelwood permit I had thousands of acres to look for the best and easiest wood to scrounge. It certainly was a game changer, less pressure, less work, and burning well seasoned wood was more enjoyable. The three year plan is a goal worth working for.
I grew up in a house heated by a wood furnace in the basement, so firewood was always a necessity. When I got married we didn’t have a wood stove in our first home. My father-in-law gave me an old Homelite XL-12 which I used to clear a homesite on some property my parents owned. After a few years I was able to get us into some property of our own and the new home had a wood stove. Located adjacent to my parents property, we had access to 50+ acres of forest to supply us with wood. Iran the old Homelite until I was able to purchase a well used Shindaiwa 500. I cut and supplied wood to myself and my parents for several years as well as to some of the elderly townsfolk. I never really had to worry about a 3 year plan because there was always enough wood within easy reach. After my parents passed, we sold their property, but I was able to keep cutting there as well as in my own woodlot. I retired last year and was fortunate to be able to purchase 40 acres of the old property back. It was recently logged and I am currently cutting the residual wood left on the site. While it is getting somewhat punky, it is plenty good enough to heat our small home in the mild PNW. When that wood is gone, I will have enough on my other small woodlot to keep us supplied. In the meantime, I started collecting Shindaiwa equipment and currently have 50 or so saws in working condition. I purchased a portable winch last year and find it to be very helpful when moving logs around. Also purchased a used Kubota BX tractor to help keep the trails open. If all else fails, I am close enough to state forest land to supply us with wood on their permit plan.
Well I started cutting firewood with my dad when my parents bought the place that they are in now. That was in 2000, The year I graduated high school. They had an add on forced air furnace in the basement. I got married to my wonderful wife in 2004 and bought a house in town. That was the most horrible mistake I’ve ever made. But it had a free standing fireplace. It gave me another reason to not be in town and saved us about $150 every month for heating the house. I cut wood mostly at my Grandparents place. That was when me and my dad went on half’s on a log splitter. (Same as yours are loader) I think it’s a 27ton. Anyway. We cut mostly maple blow downs and standing dead. Lived in town there for 10 years Before we bought the 13 acres and house, barn, ahead that was my Grandparents. We moved in mid November no wood was cut before September if I remember right. We bought a semi load of hardwood, mostly red oak, they asked if I had a preference, I told em the reader the better. That winter wasn’t too bad but very winter after that I got more and more behind with everything. Not just firewood. Everything. Last year just plain sucked. Got to the point I was going into the wood with the snowmobile and a homemade sled in two foot of snow and -10 to bring home enough wood to burn for the next week. Now it was nice because this is the first winter with zero fuel oil used. That chit ain’t cheap. Money is a great motivator, I’d rather keep it in my pocket.
The old gray maire came before black betty. 1991 f150 4x4 short bed. I hauled so much with it that the frame broke in half. I pulled the rear end with the leaf springs attached to put in black betty and it folded up like a pretzel. I will see if I can find a picture.
Some great and inspiring stories I am not yet near a three year plan unfortunately But, I have fully realized the sensibility and value of the plan since becoming a member here. We kinda fell into a woodburning household by happenstance. Purchased house in 2010 and had property timbered in 2011 to help make ends meet. Spring 2012 forced air oil furnace went on the fritz. Would've cost $1300 for repairs and minimum FO delivery just to get ready for winter. Figured I could put in a woodstove for about the same price and already had wood sitting on the hill. Burnt tops for 2 winter's, liked saving money, liked consistent heat, figured this is a win-win. Only upgrades are.. 1.. went halves with best friend on hydraulic splitter 2.. new and better, more efficient stove Not sure when I'll officially hit the three year mark, but I'm sure I'll let ya's know
I've reached the 3-year plan mark, with 10+ cords crammed on to my third of an acre lot. The back yard is looking pretty dense. Lately I've been colonizing an unused strip of ground between the fence and the pool. Its just me, my two 16" saws, the RAV4, and my Helko splitting axe and collection of wedges. What drives it is my compulsive hoarding behavior. Positive reinforcement from FHC certainly contributes! Also, my desire to stay as physically active as possible, to keep old age at bay. I'm enjoying it as long as I'm able, and I will have to switch to a mechanical splitter someday I'm sure.
You know...you could build a bridge over one end of the pool...stack on that too...I'm sure your grandson would love having a "cave" to swim into! Looking good!
My first year was 5-6yrs ago when we first moved into this house. We moved in memorial day weekend, which is kinda cool since here we are at the same holiday... Anyways that summer one of our relatives neighbors had older oak rounds I could take. I had bought a hydro splitter... probably ended up with a cord or so.. figured I was all set... That winter came, and I obviously went thru that green oak pretty quickly, and ended up buying several loads of eco bricks. That late winter/early spring I went bonkers cutting and splitting. Then that summer I did a huge project that had a 1mile access road we cut in going up a mountain. Mind you this was 4hrs away, but it was cheaper paying my guys to bring several trailer loads of wood versus having them all chipped!! I have a backhoe with a hydro thumb so unloading as well as bucking was stupid simple... Ever since then I have 10-12cords split and stacked at all times. I have 2-3cords in rounds right now, on top of my current 11 cords rhat are css’d... and a neighboring farm was select cut this past winter and Ive claimed the tops come this late winter/early spring..
Growing up in a milling family slab wood was always abundant. Never really cut round wood much for firewood. Local mill owners passed on. Family retired/ sold the mill. I got married and moved to another county. Lots of dead and damaged trees was on property so round wood was the new go to wood. So then came bigger saws, hydraulic splitters,wood moving equipment etc. Came across a few pictures of me and some of my family shooting black powder rifles and pistols probably 30+ yrs. ago. You can see the slab pile in the background. It was probably 40' deep 12-14' tall and 100-150' long. Local mill down the road use to sell cut up slabs for about $5.00 a pick up load, all you could haul and sawdust was free.
