Do people here buy or process their own wood?

I do 100% processing, I used to scrounge/pull some dead and down off of my 4 acres, but just recently purchased an adjoining 20 acre lot so now I just head into the back twenty to get what I need. I really enjoy being in the woods, it's a great work out, and being inherently stingy, I would hesitate to turn the oil burner on to take the chill out of the house. Since I have my own fuel supply, I just fire up the stove - or in the dead of winter keep her chugging along 24/7. Right now I have somewhere around 18 to 20 cords cut, split and stacked

I would agree with the purchasing peoples opinions though, it's super time consuming. But, if I am not working, watching my daughter or walking the dog, I'm cutting. I would rather work on the house or cut wood than watch TV or whatever, but I say that now, I am in good health and relatively young, if/when that changes, so will my opinion of buying versus processing.

Scrounging was OK before I had the little one, now it would be too hard to coordinate looking at a scrounge/hauling it out in a timely enough manner that I wouldn't either lose all the good scrounges or get stuck with the dregs of a scrounge.

Just my two cents.

raybonz said:

Not sure I understand that Redd. It's much less mess and effort getting wood C\S\D.. I move 3 cords into the shelter and stack 3-4 cords in a 1 week span then I am done for a long while.. Over $1000 to fill oil tank once here and propane is worse.

Ray

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Burning wood is messy, and tending a fire is a hassle compared to adjusting a thermostat. If I had to pay for wood I'd just save myself the mess and the hassle.

Bmdoss said:

I buy railroad tie ends by the dump truck load.. Only 75 per load

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Interesting. I read once somewhere eucalyptus was imported to the U.S with the idea of using the hard wood , and fast growth for railroad ties and mine shoring. The twisted grain didn't work so well for that idea. Raol road ties aree hard wood, but aren't they soaked in chemicals?

About 1/4 of the current supply was purchased. The rest is scounges, begging, word-of-mouth, our own, friends, neighbors and the like. I respectfully decline free poplar or willow.

These are the ends when they are cut to size before they are treated..

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I cut and split all of my wood. I would say 80% comes from the land I live on and the rest comes from neighbors that don't burn the dead trees on thier property. I will also pick up stuff from craigslist if it is close by.

100% scrounge....I think it makes it fun for me, but of course my volume needs are pretty low compared to some people here.

Cut & split (manually) about 90% of my wood from parents acreage,keeping it neat & tidy in spare time.Remaining 10% is a mix of the occasional CL scrounge,doing favors for others & once in a while a paid job also.Roughly 3-4 cords/yr in a 'normal' winter season.Last winter being so mild,I barely burned 2 cords from November to early April.

Oh shoot...someone seems to have taken my adjoining 30-acre private woodlot. Now, who could it have been, and where might they have put it?

Not a lot of dollars spent here for the firewood. Yes, I have an atv and trailer for hauling but those are used more for other things than they are for wood hauling so can't figure much cost there. Live in the woods so don't have to go far to cut wood. Saw is about 10 years old or thereabouts. Splitter is over 20 years old. Man is much older. Did our own installs on every stove we've had. We'll continue to burn wood hopefully for the rest of our lives. If I get to the point where I can not physically handle the cutting, I know plenty who would come in to do it free. Of course that would be tough and I'd rather have someone cut on shares. Hopefully we won't need to do that.

Most times we have 5-7 years worth of wood on hand but it varies as we sell some and give some away. If all winters were like last year's, we'd probably have 10-15 years worth of wood on hand most of the time.

I try to keep from buying firewood unless it is in rounds maybe.

Been out today processing some poplar for 2013-2014 winter.

raybonz said:

A new forum member made a remark on one of my recent posts that one should not BUY their wood but do it all themselves. Personally I have no issue with anyone who does it themselves or buys their wood. To me what matters is that we all burn wood here or want to and some also burn pellets. Those of you who do all of your own firewood know that this doesn't come cheaply either considering time, equipment cost, maintenance of that equipment and fuel to operate it. Factor in a vehicle if you need to transport the wood and the cost goes even higher. I do like to do some of my own wood but prefer to pay for what I know I will be burning and the rest is just gravy.

Ray

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Not sure about that line of thinking. Certainly if you buy wood you want to plan ahead since it's hard to buy it properly seasoned. Now I cut all of my own wood, either on my own 7 acres or in the National Forest, which for me is 10 minutes away. I do it mostly by myself, and split it all by hand. It is time-consuming certainly, but it also saves money and is good exercise, and I enjoy getting out in the woods. I also enjoy the feeling in December that it's my hard work keeping the house warm and keeping our heating bill at 0. Having said that, not everyone has the time to do all the work themselves, not everyone wants to, and not everyone is physically able to. Comes down to time vs. money - do you want to save the time and pay more, or save the money and spend a lot more time working up the pile? I opt to save the money, work on the wood supply when I can throughout the year, and then use the money I saved to pay for summer vacations so I don't feel guilty about spending so much on them!

HollowHill said:

I've worked out a share system with a wood processor. He cuts and splits 1 cord for me and 2 cords for himself. I stack what he delivers to me. So, it's free for me, but I don't do the cutting or splitting. Since I have a lot of woods, but not the equipment or aptitude to process it myself, it works for me.

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That's a great arrangement.

I buy all my wood cut, split and dumped in my yard. I don't have the time, energy, patience, confidence, or ability to cut my own. However, I have a bad feeling that with all the various bugs that are killing certain species of trees, not too mention that wood burning is not so politically correct with the upper echelons of society, that buying/transporting wood may be harder to obtain in the not too distant future.
Then again, I can't see how the cash crazed nutters at parliament hill will allow the buying/selling of fuel without getting revenue from it. I am quite sure someone is working on the issue at this very moment.

100% scrounged

I scrounge all of my own wood. Some of it I cut down if a friend wants a tree removed (it has to be an easy drop) some I am given after it is cut down, and the largest share I simply pick up from the curb. I keep my eyes open and it seems to work well enough that I manage to stay three years ahead.

I guess you could say I scrounge all my wood. I'm a surveyor for an excavating company so whenever a job-site needs to be cleared I get first dibs for firewood. Even if some goes for timber the clearing crew will stack some to the side for me. I usually get around 9-10 cords a year this way. I burn 3-4, my mom burns 2 and the rest goes in the firewood bank for the future.

I used to scrounge, but my schedule now does not allow enough time. This year I ordered a grapple load and processed two years of wood. In two years I will get another grapple load.

Never wanted to buy wood, but had to accept the reality of life.

Yes.

If I had forested land perhaps I'd cut the wood, though it's still a bunch of work, makes a mess and to work effectively would need a dozer, skidder or decent sized tractor to skid the wood out.

Tree length dropped off 10 cords at a time runs me $120/cord.

This year I bought 20 cords. Sold 16 cords (10 green and 6 seasoned from last year) to a few people for a total of $3500. It paid for all my wood, a splitter and made a dent on a Stihl 460.

Bigg_Redd said:

If I had to buy wood I wouldn't bother - it's not worth the mess and extra effort.

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Depends on the year and how much I have processed/scrounged. I have a guy who will sell me a heavy cord of Red oak C/S/S for 150 delivered.
Its around 22-23" long so it comes out to about 180cf. I often buy from him just because its cheaper and he is a good guy.... For the most part its
around 50/50 with me depending on how I feel and if I have any downed/damaged trees. This year I will be burning 100% of scrounged/processed
wood.

I have a treed acre and a 20 acre parcel next door.
Mostly pine unfortunately . It's a little more work but it's fairly easy more work.
Enough oak so far though.
I wouldn't have a problem with someone dumping a purchased load of splits in the driveway as I've done that when I was younger and lived elsewhere. It's certainly easier.
I've also burned busted up pallets in a fireplace when NG was horribly expensive and that's a lot of work, too.

We cut it all on our place.

i scrounge 100%. I have since i was about 13. where i live is not rural. I have only fallen about a dozen trees in my whole life. there is sooooo much wood lying around you just have to go and get it. sometimes the good members of this forum share their good fortunes with others... this place is great.