The sheer aggravation of trying to burn wet wood got me started getting ahead. Plain and simple. I knew it before joining another site and this one. Folks on the forums just reinforced the knowledge and experience. I just put a split on some coals and it lit off within a few seconds, and is now burning down coals while also throwing heat. Try doing that with such gooder results with a stick of wet wood. Not happening. Also, fighting the tarps and snow and ice under the tarps all winter was like a brick to the head to get the wood dryer and keep it that way.
Super Storm Sandy. I had two years of wood in the yard, current burn year and the following year's, and would be splitting the third year's supply. Super Storm Sandy dropped many red and white oaks around me. Without going more than 100 yards from my property I could gather all the good quality wood I needed. Now I still split one season's worth at a time but I have about 5 season's worth, all I have room for, in the yard. Burning 3+ year seasoned wood is definitely better than 2+ year wood. KaptJaq
Making firewood is fun when you can do it on your own timeline. When you are up against it it turns into work. I'd rather have fun than work. Burning nice dry wood is easier. Trying to heat your house with wet wood is harder. Easier is better than harder. Having enough wood to get you through a couple seasons is peace of mind. Worrying about having enough is stressful. Peace of mind is better than stress. Having 20 cord out back keeps the propane man away. I'm sure he's a nice guy but I don't like it when he pays a visit.
I could probably afford to heat my house with gas, I don't want to, but I could. The woodstove has become a way of life for me. In the beginning I was frugal (still am) and didn't want to pay the gas man, today I do it because I enjoy it. Being ahead on your wood supply is peace of mind and the work you put into it says something about you as a person.
A lot of our senior members here got me spirited to get ahead.....and i did........I got WAAAAY ahead. I'm sitting on nearly 5 years of wood at the moment, almost three years of nothing but oak, and it's a great feeling. Plus the company I keep here at FHC, we'll that just ices the cake!!
The first half of our first winter in our house motivated me to switch from propane to firewood for primary heating. We have a very old, inefficient furnace that was sucking down more than $400/month of propane, just to keep the house at 66-68 degrees. For the rest of that winter, most of the wood burned was from an old barn on the property that we pulled down, and cut to length. Haven't managed to get "years ahead" yet, thanks to the impressive number of standing dead hackberry on my neighbors' combined 140 acres. My neighbors don't burn firewood, so they allow me to take whatever is dead, for free. Most of those standing dead hackberry didn't survive the exceptional drought of 2011. Maybe I'll start "getting ahead" around Christmas.
About eight years ago i ran out of wood and had to pay for it, first time ever . It was definitley do to laziness right then and there i new i let my self down. From that time on my theory was as long as i am healthy that would never happen again. Now i consider working wood just like drinking water, it,s part of life ,and i enjoy doing it. I stay plenty ahead of the game now, enough so that I can even help out a friend if need be. When i swing that axe and hear the crack of the wood i no i'm alive and feelin good.
I am not to the three years ahead point yet but pushing 2. Going to burn standing dead again next year. As soon as hunting seasons over back to cutting it. Supposed to help take down some oaks this weekend so that will go for year 3.
The price of fuel oil . And when I was younger I had to burn pallets and any other wood I could scrounge that was dry enough to burn well in a fireplace, back when natural gas was expensive. I never ever want to have to do that again.
Log loads are about two years worth of wood so it's either feast or famine. The motivation was if I felt like processing a load. I did let it run low once, shame on me.
I'm not even close to being ahead. Reading the primer on wood burning by Backwood Savage, following on this forum, pictures of all the wood stacks, and being the weird guy with all the wood in his yard.
Welcome to the weirdness Waddle. Lots of good n weird folks here at FHC. I'm proud to be one of em... ... ...
My reasoning was time and convenience. Keeping the door cracked on the stoves for a really long time gets old fast. There were many times where a reload took longer than an hour to get up to temp. In comparison, a few mornings ago, I got all three stoves up to temp and air controls in place in under 30 minutes. Life is easier when you get ahead on your wood supply. You can burn wet wood, and you can keep warm burning wet wood. But, it is a massive pain in the azz doing so. Yeah, the original point was what was your other reasons for getting ahead. I don't have any other reasons. It just sucked burning year to year.
Hum... I have to go back many, many moons. In my youth, I found this wonderful lady and both of us decided we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. Of course, there were some new things in my life and we found something we liked better than being out cutting firewood. However, when we started getting those bills for fuel oil, it certainly got us to thinking. In addition, the house was never warm in winter. Of course that meant spending our evenings doing something other than watching tv, but that's another story. We started burning wood again and still are. As for lately, what keeps us cutting and keeping ahead? Both of us are in our 70's and both have had some major health problems and injuries. This naturally gets one to thinking a lot. Especially last winter. I had committed to cutting a bunch of trees for a neighbor. Fortunately, we had some nice friends who came to help get them down and that was a job because they were pine and planted really close together. So those friends came to knock the trees down and one took a bunch of wood. But then I was left to clean up the mess and the type of winter we had was not favorable. In addition, just before this I had taken a terrible fall into our well pit and landed on my back right on the water pump. It was a tough winter in more than one way. The year before I had fell backwards out of a trailer. Not good. (And just a couple days ago fell flat on my back because of the ice.) So, with age, injuries and health issues, it does not take too many smarts to know one should have plenty of wood on hand just in case he can not do any cutting or putting up of wood some winter or even more than one winters. Of course, one can always find friends and relatives to help and we've turned down many offeres on that account just because we want to do it ourselves. But here I am, in my 70's and hurting like crazy. You can bet I'll be out there cutting wood every chance I get. I would be very happy if I could get 7-10 years ahead on the wood. With the Lord's help, we can do that once again. Fortunately we have our own wood so do not have to haul it home. We have plenty of places to stack the wood too and it never bothers the neighbors because they can't even see it. Even if they could, I could care less. lol So, hopefully I've answered the question on what motivates me on this. In addition, I sincerely hope many will read this post and get to thinking about it themselves. We never know from day to day what may happen to us. I recall over 30 years ago when an unfortunate accident happened to me. I was not 3 years or more ahead on the wood and before it was over, I had to buy wood. Ugh.... So I hope others read this and do find that this is a very good reason to get ahead in their wood supply.
Well put Backwoods Savage... always enjoy your thoughts. Now... about this one "In addition, the house was never warm in winter. Of course that meant spending our evenings doing something other than watching tv" ... hmmmmmmmm ... you dawg ...
