Scanning the intro thread again, lots of folks mentioned wood heat.

We have heated only with wood since fall 2005 when we moved up here. We moved into this cabin in spring 2006, got a truckload of log-length wood in fall 2006, and dh spent countless hours bucking and splitting it. It was $600 and it lasted us two winters! I'm happy with that.

We still have a cord or so left of it. Dh just ordered another truckload from our neighbor/logger. He will get a kid from his school to come help him buck it (said kid has the right kind of saw for cutting big piles of logs like that) and we will borrow said neighbor's splitter for splitting it. I plan to learn how to run the splitter this time so I can help more.

Then, we've scouted out our land and we have a bunch of fallen wood and standing dead wood - at least 3 or 4 big logs of maple plus some birch - so the goal is to get those dragged out of the woods with the tractor (don'tcha love the tractor!) and cut and split them. The truckload isn't seasoned so it will be nice to have some dry/seasoned wood to start the winter with, while the other stuff dries.

Not sure if we're going to clone ourselves to do this, or what, as we're feeling insanely busy with everything else including Matt taking 2 Master's classes, preparing to teach a community college class at night, me holding down 2 jobs, etc.

Anyway, what's your wood situation? Do you have seasoned wood lined up? Are you cutting your own? What tools do you have for helping prepare firewood?

My wood situation is I want a woodstove but we have no safe place for one in this house. My FIL does have a splitter though in case we ever get lucky enough to have a stove.

My wood situation is I want a woodstove but we have no safe place for one in this house. My FIL does have a splitter though in case we ever get lucky enough to have a stove.

I'm seeing those outdoor heaters popping up around here. I always thought they were smoke houses. Recently, I learned those little green metal sheds are in fact a furnace.

Interesting but I don't know that they're appealing...darn cold to be standing outside starting a fire in february.

I don't have wood heat....yet.

I'm seeing those outdoor heaters popping up around here. I always thought they were smoke houses. Recently, I learned those little green metal sheds are in fact a furnace.

Interesting but I don't know that they're appealing...darn cold to be standing outside starting a fire in february.

I don't have wood heat....yet.

My good friend and neighbor has one. You don't have to start the fire often at all - he just loads up a couple of big logs in the morning (you don't have to have everything split and small like for an indoor stove). It's basically once it's fired up, it's fired up for the winter. They do have backup propane for heating hot water when it's too warm to have the outdoor furnace fired up. Make sense? You just make the fire once and keep it going all winter...one load per day does it. Less fussy than a woodstove.

no, I didn't realize they were kinder than an indoor stove. I spent waaay too much time starting fires when I was a kid. Banging snow off the wood, logs frozen together, stomping around a cold house after school, who used the last of the kindling?!! bitter much? lmbo. at least I was warm.

We've struggled with wood stove placement but I know *exactly* where I'd put an outside stove.

I'm in the beginning stages of wood heat. :)

We have a fireplace with insert, but we've never used it in the 5+ years we've lived here.

I need to have the chimney cleaned and inspected first before I commit to using it.

I finally feel like it is safe enough to use around the kids. I know people do it all the time and kids learn, but I've always been just a little irrational about fireplaces and kids. :o

Last year propane costs were insane. They'll be worse this year. We'll be swapping out two more windows for energy efficiency, but we'll still have 5 left to do.

I've taken this topic off on a tangent. :D Sorry!

Not a tangent, Stacy! How exciting to get started w/wood this year. It will be fine but I hear ya - I was leery to have one when Katie was a toddler. Many folks around here have gates around their woodstove to prevent toddler burns. Katie has gotten burned on the stove several times anyway because she insists on standing so close to it when it's fired up in the winter, especially in the morning to warm up, and she leans too close, loses her balance and gets a burn (usually minor, quarter-sized). We keep Nelson's homeopathic burn cream around and if you get that on it immediately it really works and just goes away!

I am slightly scared with the girls around a stove but I lived through it so I imagine they will as well :lol:

We got some shavings from a local one man mill and he has an outdoor furnace, actually quite far from his house. We have a chimney for stove but the placement is odd. Our house had an addition so the stove spot would be directly behind our couch, within inches and the other side would be right by the bathroom door.

Next year we will be looking for a wood stove or something. We also plan an addition to the house and will definitely add something then.

This makes me sad. :-( We have a beautiful, gorgeous wood stove, but when Christian was diagnosed with asthma last year, they said it is horrible for him and we should only use it if absolutely neccesary. We have regular baseboard heat, anyway, but I'd been thinking of trying to use our wood stove more plus that's what we use the rare times that we lose heat in the Winter.

I love wood stoves. We always had one growing up.

We have a fireplace with the 80's style fans on the sides to blow heat out on the main floor. In the basement we have a cast iron stove. We also have central heat and air but don't use it much in the winter... only on below freezing nights so that we are comfy (I don't mind using it since we have it and I don't want the littles to complain). The main operating unit for the central is in the same room in the basement with the wood stove. Alot of ductwork is inthat room soo dh cut a square in the main artery of the ducts and put a air-filter type screen over that and then an actual air vent cover (with the ability to close it up). This has worked GREAT and we just keep the fan on on the central unit... make sense? he covers up the entire thing with a huge magnet in the summer so that there are no leaks!

For 3 years we have gotten all our firewood for FREE!! Dh has called around to the companies that take trees down in neighborhoods and asked if/when they are nearby to drop us the tops (what can't go to the mill). So far we have 1 very large oak waiting to be cut and split. Dh hasn't had time to do it or he would have started already. We need a few more to get through the winter.
I will get him a splitter when we find our land... it is a big job and with so many other tasks, that would be an awesome time and back saver.


ETA: even our neighbors that know we do this with the tree folks will request that their wood be given to us, in the event a tree falls, etc.

Tracey, you are so lucky to get free wood! Everyone around here uses wood so nothing goes to waste and there are no extras around. Some folks have worked out with neighbors to do some clearing/maintaining of forested acreage and get their wood that way, but that is about it.

We are installing the woodstove in sept.
next week actually spinner and sawyer are going over to fil's house for a couple of days to split 8 cords of wood. I'm working those days and I'm so sad I don't get to help. ;)

We are doing wood heat predominately and radiant heat with a propane furnace that also heats the hot water. Sawyer wants to switch over to an outdoor wood furnace in a couple years.

The place we lived in the last two winters was much bigger and we had a woodstove with oil furnace as our back up. It worked well for us.

our plan for next winter is to start clearing out some of the dying/dead trees and take out a few trees that are choking back some maples we want to thrive. We are figuring there's a few years of firewood there once we start getting it out. :)

Tracey, you are so lucky to get free wood! Everyone around here uses wood so nothing goes to waste and there are no extras around. Some folks have worked out with neighbors to do some clearing/maintaining of forested acreage and get their wood that way, but that is about it.

Remember, though, that we are in the city limits. There are many neighborhoods with old oaks and pine.. they want to be able to mow their lawns so down come the trees :eyes: . My neighbor has taken out somewhere near 20 trees and many of them in the 4 years we have lived here!! He wants to mow his yard!!!
Fortunately, we are able to do something with the wood but I would rather see the beautiful trees stand. I understand that trees get sick and/or fall and those need to be taken care of but shoot... these people don't get it!!

We used only wood heat for the first time last year. We have over a cord of scrap woood ready for fall. We also have two huge piles of logs that have been sitting since last September. Dh needs to cut and the boys need to split them. He is planning on doing that when off after the baby arrives. Oh we have a chainsaw and the boys will spilt them w/ a plain old splitter and sledge or heavy hammer. I forgot too, we have a bunch of trees to cut that were dying on our property.

Jay has about 7 face cord that's seasoning right now and will be ready for next season. That should do us for the year, we just need to bring it closer to the house when the time comes. It was free when he was working with the loggers next door.

We're very fortunate to get free wood too. We live in the country, with lots of old large trees, yet no one seems to bother with wood. They all have gas. They take down trees cut it and call us to come get it. Isn't that awesome!? We're so lucky.

We're still trying to make it through this row, and we've probably got the same amount in various places on our land. We even built a shelter out of a bunch of it, for the animals, so it can be used as it seasons.

Lauren probably remembers this. My son, he's, um. . . Not sure what word best describes him. But, I told him we needed to round up some firewood because funds were low and we were going to have to heat with it from now on and this is what happened shortly after:

http://i35.tinypic.com/2lxjhpf.jpg

We hand split w/an ax, about a weeks worth at a time. though I find myself splitting a days worth more often than I care to admit. Chase, Morgan and I all can split w/the ax, so it's not too tough when you're sharing the job.

WOW!!!!!

We hand split w/an ax, about a weeks worth at a time. though I find myself splitting a days worth more often than I care to admit. Chase, Morgan and I all can split w/the ax, so it's not too tough when you're sharing the job.

And we live in NC, so it's not like we're in sub 0 temps like Lauren or anything! If we have a day where we're too lazy to keep the fire going through the day, the house will maintain 50 degrees in cloudy weather and slightly warmer if there is sun.

Lauren probably remembers this. My son, he's, um. . . Not sure what word best describes him. But, I told him we needed to round up some firewood because funds were low and we were going to have to heat with it from now on and this is what happened shortly after:

http://i35.tinypic.com/2lxjhpf.jpg



overachiever!! lol.

That's awesome.

And we live in NC, so it's not like we're in sub 0 temps like Lauren or anything! If we have a day where we're too lazy to keep the fire going through the day, the house will maintain 50 degrees in cloudy weather and slightly warmer if there is sun.

Yeah, here in TN we only go through a couple of weeks of really harsh cold. It is rare that we have months of real winter as most know it. Last winter was very mild! Sometimes we have to just not build one upstairs and only have the basement one going because it gets too hot!

The only thing I miss about our old house is the amazing woodburning stove in the downstairs family room. We used it as our primary heat through the Colorado winter. Our current house has two fireplaces but they are in inefficient places, and until we can get good inserts, we probably won't use them at all.

When we did use wood, we got off really cheap after finding a company that made wood pallets. It is crappy to stack because the pieces are all different, but it was seasoned and untreated leftover pieces from when they made pallets. Both hard and soft wood. We spent $80 and it lasted us two winters as our primary heat, with the thermostat set at 60 and only kicking on when it got below zero...miss it!

He is amazing, Marina. Truly an amazing and inspiring person!

That is a whole lotta wood. And even though it's NC, hand splitting is still quite a chore. In fact, Marina, you and your children *all* inspire me.

We are lucky to have the splitter to borrow...we did hand split about 5 cords from the truckload. But then the splitter freed up and we took the opportunity to use it.