For those of you that have been following my journey into buying CSD cords of wood ...this is my 3rd installment. I did tell you how I did get cheated on my 2nd cord as the seller was having math problems. He was using a 16” piece of wood and calling it 1.4 ft, which it is obviously not. He did come that day and made up the shortage and i tried to give him a lesson in simple fractions and how they can be turned into decimals. Still nobody home. His load today was about 1.25 cords…thats my guess just by looking at it. I’m not a hard customer, but rather a fastidious customer. The cash is in my pocket and i want full worth for my $. I told the guy he had delivered too much and he said we could settle up on my 4th and last cord. So this is a happy ending or quite close. He told me after he delivers my 4th and last cord he is not going to sell any more firewood this summer , but rather save it for inflationary times. He claims he can get $350/cord if he holds out until winter. Maybe he is right. Thats why I bought the extra cord I dont think I’ll need.
I guess if wood does go through the roof I’ll have to resort to cutting and splitting my own again.
I am glad that you told him he was over on this delivery. He may have been testing you since you told him that he shorted you.
What did you pay per chord for your 4 chords?
Prices going up on everything, except salaries.
I must say JPapiPE it was very decent of you to tell the young man he was over generous.
Here in CNY the firewood guys load wood with a pay loader so they may be under or over at any one time but they never intentionally will short you. Wood sellers will never, never stack a cord or 2 then load it into a vehicle cause it’s too labor intensive. They do that one or two times only to gage what their pay loader will grab though. Will that amt of wood do you for the winter?
As I told my wood seller…When I sell my integrity it will be for more than a paltry pittance of wood. And of coarse he said what do mean? So I patiently explained to him…but if you want to know what i really thought, P.M me?
JPapiPE, our colleague here at Hearth.com Lees Wood Co has also withheld his wood selling till fall when he’ll get a premium for ‘seasoned wood’. So your seller could be joining the trend.
Just be careful about how you talk to those wood dealers…it’s hard work, their thicker than thieves, and you don’t want to find yourself in a position where no one will sell to you…cause that’s the way it is around here. For some reason and I don’t know why but if you buy 10 cords at a time, ya get a little more than 10. But if you buy just a couple a cords…there’s usually some contention. If you can swing it I’d look around for a 10 cord deal…wood isn’t gonna get any less expensive that’s for sure.
And I’m thinking it gets a lot colder up there in Maine than it does down here and we’re good for 40 face cord a year…so my executive officer tells me. Just say’en I have never measured my wood in over 30 years of wood burning but certain people who have never worked a day in there life and have never even read a newspaper can calculate exactly how much wood we burn. Well that’s that and I accept it.
If you have the truck and the stamina you can usually scrounge all you need. I have been burning wood in my current house since 1999, and have yet to buy wood. I burn on average 6 cords a year. Yep, it hard work, yep you get sore! For me it is good exercise! At least thats what I tell myself Between neighbors, the city recycle center, triming, friends, and craigs list I keep stock. Heck, start gathering for next year, if you can cut your wood to 1/2 look at what you save! BTW I burn 24/7 in cold weather in Wisconsin and here 4-6 cords is pretty normal, you may be able to get by with 3 to help scare away the pro-pain guy.
Burntime, you sure burn a lot of wood…6 cord, wow. That’s a lot of scavenging. You must have fire wood on your mind every day. Not much chance of that for me here in this 2 horse town. They don’t even have a dump in the general area. But I used to do the same thing when i lived in the city. Seemed i couldn’t leave the dump without a 1/4 cord of wood in my truck. I knew all the guys there and they loved for me to take all their stumpage as it was less work for them to grind down. Now i’m in the country near a national forest and i do pass by lots of down and dead trees. These are not in the National forest , but i know they will rot. So i think I will do some riding around with my chainsaw in the back of my pickup. Dead and down is a phrase that cops might understand if i do get grabbed. Waste not, want not is my motto. And God helps those who help themselves.
Keep on truckin
I just picked up load 8 of the red oak. So that is just shy of 3 cords from that big oak tree. Obviously that is next years bounty but I like to have it here and split it at my leisure. Besides, oak is almost 300 a cord now before winter, it should be 350 plus by the time snow falls. I just keep my eye on CL and neighbors etc. If there is a storm keep you eyes open. I drive a ranger so I may be on the way home from work and see a pile by the road… It all adds up!
I think 4-6 cords is the ‘normal’ range for those heating 24/7 with one stove. I do about 5 and with adding another full-time stove to the house I bet i do 7 this year.
Between neighbors, the city recycle center, triming, friends, and craigs list I keep stock. Heck, start gathering for next year, if you can cut your wood to 1/2 look at what you save! BTW I burn 24/7 in cold weather in Wisconsin and here 4-6 cords is pretty normal, you may be able to get by with 3 to help scare away the pro-pain guy. 
