Are we having fun yet !!!!

[Pitchy]

That time of year again, time to get up fire wood for a long cold Minnesota winter.
As we get older it seems to get more like work but it will feel good this winter.

[AJMD429]

Not as cold here, but we'll go through a half shed-full (shed is 24x12 and we stack about six feet up, so 12x12x6) of wood; mostly 'down' stuff (won't cut oak or hickory unless it is already dead), lots of sycamore and black locust and cottonwood. Stove real tight (will hold fire 3 days with damper down) so pretty efficient. Has a catalytic combuster actually, but 10 years old so likely not good anymore, though I do clean out the tubes every year. Programmable thermostat and two-phase homemade damper helps too.

[Pitchy]

Sounds like ya have a good stove, we have a outdoor forced air stove that has a thermostat in the house. It amazes me how sensitive it is it never moves off the temp in the house ya set it at. Just gobbles up about ten cord a winter, but this old shack is far from efficient.

[Washita]

I'd say that's a lifetime supply of firewood here in Arkansas, but you'd have to live a very long time to use it all!

[bdhold]

in store for a blustery weekend - high on Friday is only going to be 62 - brrr.

[Pitchy]

in store for a blustery weekend - high on Friday is only going to be 62 - brrr.

It`s 52 here today and i`m sweating my tail off cuttin this wood.
Last time we were in TX we were parked with the camper at Tejas state park and woke up to a inch of snow and four days of 15 degree temps. Had to drain the water out of the motorhome.

[Pitchy]

Oh i should add that i`m still waitin on Joe Miller to come and at least drive the tractor.

[Noah Zark]

Takes me back.

When I used to burn wood in a Vermont Castings stove 20+ years ago, I'd buy logs cut in Nov or Dec after the leaves dropped and the sap was at its lowest point. I'd cut and stack that wood and let it season the rest of the winter, then split it in the spring and let it dry the rest of the year to November before burning it. It was the driest I could make it, and I never had a problem with creosote, ever.

I no longer have the house or yard for wood burning.

Noah

[WinM71]

I heated with wood for 17 or 18 years here in southern NH. First with a Vermont Castings Defiant - went through about 5 to 6 cords per year heating a good-sized 4 bedroom house. Toward the end I replaced it with a Dutchwest stove with the catalytic combustor, cut the wood consumption back to 4 cords or a bit less. There's no heat like wood heat, makes a sofa across the room from the stove so toasty with the radiant heat that it just sucks all the energy out of you if you sit down on it. A hell of a lot of work, but I never minded when I was younger. Using the woodstove all winter, I got by on about 100 gallons of oil all year, almost all in the fall before the woodstove got lit off and in the spring when it was too warm to use the stove.

[Pitchy]

Here`s what we heat with 100 percent, the thing is amazing for what it is.

[LeverBob]

We heat & cook thruout the winter with wood only. Have 4 cords laid in....need 2 more for winter & spring here in northern Nevada. Going to cut at least 2 to 4 more to start 2012 fall. If'n I have the drive I will lay in 10 more if the winter is mild. Cold weather has begun...much to my delight.

To me there's nothing like smelling a big 'ol pot of beans & ham chunks cookin' all day over a wood stove. Mine's 2.5' x 4.5' & 3 ft. tall. Heats the hut & has the makins' of a perfect winter day. Add some cornbread & hot coffee & a good book & I'm set like a bear all over an deer carcass. Time to rest from my labors...just like all my pards.

Best to y'all...

LB

[1894c]

WOW--i think i go through about 4-cords of natural gas per winter--where i live we have mild winters--i can see winter way up in the mountains (sometimes i drive up and visit it), but i live by the ocean so the temp is pretty stable--more like an extended back-east november.

To answer your original question--NO :)

[J Miller]

Pitchy,

I haven't forgotten .........

I drove to Indy and back last Monday. I'm still recovering. I've gotten old a mite early. Things I used to do without a second thought now take everything I've got and then some.

As for cutting up wood it would probably kill me to do it.

Joe

[Pitchy]

Was just kidding ya buddy, it would be great to have ya over for a visit.

[6pt-sika]

It was 70 degree's here today

Not exactly good for the rut that outta be kicking in , in the next week or so .

We'll make the annual trip to the Montpelier Hunt Races November the 5th which is also the first saturday of November and the opener for the VA ML season !

I'll go out early that morning and be back in the house by 9:30 to shower and dress to be at the horse races by 10:30 .

In past years I've knocked over a buck an been ready in plenty time . Also in past years I've worn shorts and sandles to the races in early november . So we shall see what the upcoming week or two have in store for us here in central Virginia !

[6pt-sika]

I never cut wood to heat with although we have 4 fire places in our home . I have however cut plenty dead locust for the steam engines when I still had them !

Of course I was 25 years younger and I thought it fun back then to cut it , bring it out the woods and then bust it all up with a maul !

But then carting 10 pound rifles around is a heck of a lot easier then trying to move 8 ton steam engines !

[Pitchy]

Yep ya get heat from wood at least four times before it gets to the stove.
Lots of dead wood around this year and it`s been going pretty good. We`re splitting now so we`ll see if we have enough when that`s done.

[Beaker]

The Indians are predicting a very cold winter this year. Say, "White man stackem heapbig pile of wood."

[kimwcook]

It was 23F here this morning. Don't have a wood stove anymore, but I've cut, split, stacked and used a plenty.

[Pitchy]

It isn`t to bad of a job if things don`t break, but when everything goes wrong then ya start cussin the brush pretty bad.

[pokey]

cussin the brush.

sounds like someone i know.

[olyinaz]

As for cutting up wood it would probably kill me to do it.

Ditto.

Oly

[hightime]

In the seventies I was a firewood dealer and had skidders and flatbed trucks. I sold 1.500 cords per year 'til I went broke.
I always heated with wood., but when I sold the skidder, I seemed like it took forever to get a cord out. With three guys working it took 15 mins. to fall, top, skid and buck up a cord of white birch. Two five cord loads to the customers and a couple cords into the 100'' pile made a days work. I burned lp gas at home afterwards. I'm ready to go back to wood. It's the best exercise.

Here' a pic. from last weekend at the cabin. I do burn wood there.

Owen

[Griff]

Back when I had a real job... I heated all winter with wood. Now that I'm gone most of the time, the wife doesn't feel the need... 'lectricity suits her just fine. Ya know, tho', you just can't win for loosin', I told her I was fine with a little "baby fat". That couch was fine... only lasted two nights... then I left to go back truckin'!

Actually, there's two cut, stacked and dried cords on the back porch... all she has to do it carry it inside to the wood stove (fireplace insert). But, now she's all scared of a chimney fire.

[Pitchy]

Some of that heavy stuff in that load, looks like some of the stuff we`ve been splitting. Neat Cushman truck too, we block it in the woods and load it in the snow bucket and dump it at the house, saves loading in a wagon and unloading.
Work no matter how ya do it, we are almost done splitting that big pile and have 11 rows up so far.
Picture comming.

[KCSO]

Just curious where in Minnesota, I used to live in Park Rapids and know most of the north.

[KCSO]

Just curious where in Minnesota, I used to live in Park Rapids and know most of the north.

[Pitchy]

Just curious where in Minnesota, I used to live in Park Rapids and know most of the north.

Not far from there, Hackensack

Well we`re pretty much done, may get a little more oak up yet.
Snoopy dog says it`s about time.

[Idiot]

Nice pile of wood. There are few things as enjoyable as cutting wood, and then setting next to the stove that burns it. I grew up in Nevada and kept two wood stove going in the house going all winter for nearly 30 years. I now live in Arizona and don't need much wood anymore, but still cut plenty of it to sell to the winter tourists.

[iceman]

I have almost all my wood cut for next winter. I get it from the neighbour'd bush lot, he says just help yourself. I have a small trailer I pull behind my quad. I stack it between 2 maple trees in my back yard. I have standard pallets on the ground between the trees (they are 30' apart) I stack it about 5'tall x 3 rows of 30 '. I probably have another 4' x2 rows and I'll be done. Sure do appreciate the wood splitter I got last year, beats a splitting maul all to heck. If it stays nice out this afternoon I may cut some more.

[Pitchy]

Arizona, nice, wood splitter, thank God for that.

[dkmlever]

Our house has NO furnace, just a wood stove and at 7400 feet in the Rockies it can get cold, but with the solar, we warm up quickly. I cut and burn 5-6 cords a year, all pine or doug fir cut off the property here. I also give or sell another 5-6 cords a year in log form not bucked or split. I like to have three years supply on hand, this years (now three years old ) and ready to go, next years and then the third year out. By doing this it seems to lessen any creasote and gives me maximum BTU fromthe wood, 3 years old for pine is dry enough to burn well and not so green to waste BTU's drying it out as it burns. I am in my late 50's and don't mind doing the cutting so far....but I have a Farmi winch on my tractor, and a good splitter and keep the chain saws sharp to make it easier.

[iceman]

I cut mostly maple for firewood. The average size is 16" on the stump and approx 60' long. Not too many branches, just on the top. We had a nasty ice storm about 10 years ago (6" of ice in places) that cleared alot of branches off of the trees. Usually a year drying in the sun in a breezy places dries it out very well and you get lots of heat that lasts a long time in a good tight stove.

[Pitchy]

Had this big burly oak down by the barn in such thick brush a deer fly couldn`t get through, been bugging me for about ten years now. Well no more fell that sucker, cut him in three pieces and hooked onto them with the 60 and pulled them up to the house. That`ll test the ole Stihl.

[iceman]

It will also test your back, your splitter, and your patience. I used to have a sthil 260 great little saw. Some scum bag liked it more and stole out of my shed. I use Huskys now because the dealer is closer. I have a Rancher and a smaller one for limbs etc.

[Sixgun]

Pitchy,
THATS a nice pile of wood and an even NICER John Deere Lets hear about it a little.

From 1981 to last year, I heated 100% with wood. 4 cords a year which I split by hand--a wedge and a sledge---about the only exercise you can get in the winter.

But dang, my b-i-l installed one of those new technology heat pumps that works down to 10 below 0 and when its running 24 hours, I can heat or cool the house (small rancher) for $3 a day, much less in the off months. Gives me more time to play ---------Sixgun

[Pitchy]

Heat pump what`s the world coming too
Naw i bet that`s nice, i`d like to go somewhere or get some back up heat or something to take a little of this fun in my life.

The tractor is a JD 60, factory wide front, dern good tractor if ya got three hands.

[horsesoldier03]

Looks like your starting to get a pretty nice pile of wood there Pitchy!

You know what they say, wood you cut yourself warms you TWICE!

[Pitchy]

More than twice.