Lets talk wood heat

Spotted Owl · 08-31-2008, 07:38 PM

Who else gets that warm fuzzy feeling when you look in the barn or what ever and see all that would stacked and ready for winter. With out measuring it out I'm guessing tha we have abt 15 cords ready for winter.
Next year we are hoping to scrounge out and lay in close to 30 cords total, that should last a couple years.

This year we lucked out and got into a bunch of madrone, mostly fir, alder and ash though. I figure if winter goes same as the last couple we will go thru about 9 cords for the winter. Wood being the only heat source for our old farm house I suppose that isn't to bad.

What do you all use for your inside wood box? We went and got a bigger one the other day. We use a galvanized stock tank 6' X 2' X 2'. Holds about 3 to 4 days worth of wood in the coldest part of winter for us.

Who else uses wood for there heat. How do you use it, sole source like us, prefered source, supplement to convention methods, or just an in case back up.

Any thoughts tips or tricks.

The biggest I will add is check your pipe and make sure that it is clean and ready before full on burn season is at hand.

Burn dry, burn hot now and then, burn with safety in mind.

Enjoy your wood this winter. No other heat quite matches up to the warmth of wood, warms ya down deep to the bone. Kinda nice after walking in from a day elk/deer hunting, working out in or what ever you may do out in the PNW nasties.

Owl

johndeeregreen · 08-31-2008, 07:40 PM

Ya can't beat wood heat.

motcha · 08-31-2008, 07:47 PM

I love cutting wood, always have since I was a kid and watching my pops and uncles fell trees and buzz them up! Nothing feels more accomplishing than coming home with a load of wood in the truck! I have many of tamarack and red fir spotted....... I love the venture in finding a nice tree, watching it fall and hearing the boom when she is down! There is no other place I would rather bee than in the mountains......

I have around 3 cords at home, 3 cords for my mom and many more to get.... I like having my mom around 5-6 cords for the cold and my house around 4.

Corkie Monster · 08-31-2008, 07:56 PM

We have a fire burnig as I write this. The old house we are in now has a wood stove and oil heat. The oil tank is empty and we don't plan to fill it.

I have about 2 cords now and will have at least another 2 by end of next week. I've got about 6 cord of 8' logs that I decked up over the summer, just gotta go hual them home.

It may seem weird, but wood cutting is a form of relaxation for me.

CM

Green Machine · 08-31-2008, 08:05 PM

I am also lucky to have free firewood. I usually start bringing home a truck load after work every night starting in March. I have about 15 cords ready, but sell about half of that come mid-winter. Our house had a propane fireplace when we moved in. Had to go!! Nothing like wood heat. Either a long hard wet day working in the woods or coming off the river, you can't beat a hot fire and a cup of coffee sitting in the recliner!!

Green machine

Dave G · 08-31-2008, 08:14 PM

I love wood heat

RidgeRunner · 08-31-2008, 08:26 PM

I love wood heat, but I am sick and tired of all the splitting. I love using the chainsaw, but hate the splitting maul. My elbow can't take much more damage from all the splitting.

baltz526 · 08-31-2008, 09:08 PM

me, my husky and the 22 ton splitter. put 5 cords in the shed this spring. it was almost cold enough tonight to fire up the stove. 43 deg right now and breezy

Two Fister · 08-31-2008, 09:17 PM

I was out scouting deer last week and couldn't stop looking for trees instead of deer. The Deschutes Forest hasn't substantially changed the cutting areas in about 15 years so I'll have to drive through miles of dead and down trees to get to the cutting areas, but it's worth it. I've got about 2 cords of split juniper, one cord of lodgepole (need to double that), about a half a cord of tamarack, and a few sticks of hard maple left that I got from GBS about 4 years ago that I only use when the temps drop below zero.

I like to start the fire with tamarack, get it going good and hot with the lodgepole, and then rely on the juniper for the long burn. I only use the maple for overnight burns. Our primary heat source is a heat pump but we have the air returns up near the ceiling in two vaulted rooms. The returns pick up the heated air from the ceiling and spread it throughout the house with the two stage high efficiency fan. A consistent fire will reduce our heating bill by $150-$200 per month as the heat pump isn't efficient when it's cold and will switch over to an electric furnace when it's gets below 20 degrees. That sucker can burn some electricity, but we don't have access to gas.

I keep enough split tamarack in a wood box in the house to start 4 or 5 fires. I have a small stand (1/4 cord) on the deck outside near the wood stove that I fill every few days from the main storage area. We also have a wood box that we can load from outside that opens in the family room near a wood eating double sided fireplace. You could roast a calf in the thing. With both grates going that thing can eat a 1/4 cord in an evening. Makes for a pretty display, but it definitely doesn't throw heat like the wood stove.

My great uncle, who is the most inventive handy man I've ever met, built himself a wood splitter with an old briggs/stratton motor, a hydraulic cylinder salvaged off a junkyard backhoe and a couple of parts that he fabbed in his shop from scrap metal. I think the whole thing cost him a couple of hundred dollars and it works like a charm.

Can't wait to get out after some dry lodgepole after deer season!
TF

DF · 08-31-2008, 09:51 PM

Built a fire when I got home, just cleaned the chimney and got everything ready.

My downstairs "man room" or the "cave" as my girlfriend calls it is more like a daylight basement. Most of it is underground so it gets COLD down here. I have a GIANT fireplace insert down here, and a nice glass front wood stove insert upstairs on the formal living room.

Nothing like sitting by the fire

Norski · 09-01-2008, 10:01 AM

Years ago, about 10, we liven next to Sun-river, and when we first moved there ever one said get your fire wood in, as the winter are cold as heck down here. (right Baltz)
I started to cut, split, stack, early, as soon as the ground dry-ed out, by this time of the year, we had, (or I did), 13 cords, and after a day of fishing, would stop and cut a truck load, every now and than.
We had electric heat, but dang, the bill was so high, you had to burn wood or go broke.
I wish I could go out and do it again, but with age, and being bang up, it's just a found memory, spending a weekend out in the woods, cutting, camping, good times, with good friends.
I miss the wood stove.