Wood Heat Thread ~ post pics

Nothing better to cut than old dry cedar Not surprised it didn't eat up the battery ... probably smelled really nice too.

 

but that wood is so pretty! i could do all sorts of projects with that

i always feel guilty and wasteful burning old 2x8's and 2x4's.

 

Me too

Here's the back story though :

There is a company in BC called Panabode that makes cedar " log " homes except the logs are 4x6" material , this stuff was lifts of material rejected by them .

I bought 3 lifts of it for dirt cheap ( $250 / thousand ) and we got enough good pieces to frame an entire exposed rafter wrap around porch for a client . Milled a bunch of the rest into railing components and that left me with about a lift of rejects with loose knot , dry rot and shake .

The pieces were 8'-16' , and I had them stacked in my lumber storage shed for 5-6 years , I am going to rework the shed this year so they had to go , but because I am a wood hoarder , and I have a fence project coming up that will utilize some 3' / 3x5" purlins , I cut any sound sections out these pieces that were 3'6" - 4' and the rest became firewood .

 

If you're not allergic , lol

 

that is pretty wild. . it sounds like you've used all the resourcefullness that wood had to give haha.

 

Now it's gonna keep me warm too , haha

 

I want to put two wood burners in place of these expenxive ass propane money pits..

 

Bought a house a couple years ago with a small fireplace. The guy that owned it was a fireman that wrote several books on fire safety. I got the chimney cleaned and they ran a video camera up through it. The chimney guy said there was a ton of creosote plus there were cracks going all the way up the chimney! He would not recommend burning in the fireplace until I got the chimney relined. So last summer I had a SMALL insert put and the chimney relined.

Starting in September I learned about a new 'season' (small game season, ski season, etc), its called firewood season! I have gathered about a 2-2.5 cords of wood a couple weekends a month since the end of september. I have only cut standing bark-less dead and dead on the ground that you could peel the bark off. I think I will have to buy a cord the beginning of March to get through the end of this winter but I already have about 3/4 cord that needs split for next winter. I plan on gathering two winters of wood gathered by next winter. I live in the city but have 5 wooded acres I will store it on. Figure I will need 5-7 cords? Like I said, this is my first winter so I still have A LOT to learn.

Since my insert is small I can only burn smaller pieces (you can squeeze A 18" piece, so I cut all mine about 16") which means they burn relatively quick. That all being said, we love the heat it puts out. So far this winter I have only heard the furnace kick on twice! I have never heard of those BIOBricks, unfortunately their website says they are not available in Pennsylvania. They seem like a great supplement throughout the winter.

Great web site - http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/

How do you guys haul your firewood?

I was thinking of getting a trailer this spring. A 5x8 utility trailer with 3000 lb weight limit. Equipped w/3500 lb. axel and brakes. Figure a 1000 lb would be the most I can fit in back of truck (short bed) plus fill the trailer 2'x5'x8' with firewood would put me around 3000 lbs. I know there are some variables with firewood (species, how green it is, etc). I dont want to overload the truck.

here are the two web sites that I used to calculate weight.
http://metrology.burtini.ca/calc_fire.html
http://www.csgnetwork.com/logweight.html

 

I don't know why I hord so much wood. My fireplace sucks,its been one of the longest winters here in south Texas in ages.
I've only had a couple of fires in it so far.
I have to keep it closed until it heats up or I get smoke in house.

 

Fireplaces suck for efficiency , woodstoves are where it's at

 

Yea I know,its better than nothing. I've priced inserts,at the prices I've seen , been holding off.

 

I try not to run out of wood.

 

Nice. Send some of that to SoCal.

 

Madrone ?

 

Yep, all Madrone. Best firewood by far.

 

hmmmm. never heard of Madrone.

 

It only grows along the west coast and predominately in our area. People round here won't hardly take oak or anything else, even if you give it away.

 

I heat my off-grid cottage with a wood stove. I love that I can lay one big piece of cut log over hot coals before bed and wake up to enough coals to re-stoke. I still plan to put a wood stove in my home. Love em!