Where to do you source your firewood from?

Just keep searching. A few good scores can yield a good amount of wood. I have found a few scores on CL and my girl friend is on those Facebook garage sale sites where people now and then have trees they want out of their yard and I jump on it as soon as she tells me. Just have to beat everyone to the punch. Stay vigilant!

I get most of my wood from within a few miles of my home and many times it's close enough to make a few trip to get it on my ATV and Polar trailer Living in a hardwood forest with neighbors who have large wood lots has it's advantages sometimes... I just keep my eyes and ears open for fallen or cleared trees and I always have more than I can use even up here in a McMansion as some call them.. And no, I'll never build a big place again.. too much work and heights to stain it every 8 years or so! It does take awhile to get into the groove of finding your free wood but after years you'll prolly know where to get the big prizes and get ahead on the splitting and stacking like I did. Hell, at first I was mostly burning Poplar as its easy to find fallen around here and it seems to dry fairly fast. It heated the house just fine for those first few winters and I kept my head high while long timers from here laughed uncontrolled seeing me cutting the stuff on their daily drive home from the bar... Lol

I cut all mine off my own property. I cant imagine having to buy wood, but understand how some people have to. If I were in that situation I would try to buy a wood lot...expensive at first but it pays for itself and in the end it's a money maker if you ever sell it. Second option would be to lease some land to select harvest it for firewood. One home could operate on an acre for quite a few years.

Word of mouth. A friend hooked me up with one of her friends that had a few acres and wanted the dead and down trees cleaned up. That led to 3 of that persons neighbors stopping and offering me wood as they saw me working. They think im doing them a favor by cleaning up their properties and i think they are doing me a favor by letting me. That little score got me 3 or 4 yrs ahead and im still cutting. I got another property thru her i havent even had time to start cutting yet. Just put the word out you're looking for wood.

I live in a pretty wooded area. On my side of the hill, they have a long street with lots for sale. They sell a lot or 2 a year, and that means they clear the woods. Sometimes they leave rounds, sometimes they leave logs. I grabbed a couple of cords of silver maple and ash rounds back in July. And they also cleared another lot and left hickory, ash and maple logs there. I've been working on that one since August. I got about 2 more cords off of that. I have a pretty reliable source for seasoned wood that I supplement with, but I'd like to become totally self-sufficient after this winter. I'm almost there.

I found mine by word of mouth. It's their secondary job. I usually stock up in March at the end of season when they need to make room for their summer work. I usually pay $110 a cord with two cord minimum delivery C/S/D. I scrounge about a cord a year from either work, craigslist or friends. Seeing stuff about firewood shortage, I might have to get earlier or scrounge more. I try to stay a year ahead so don't worry about seasoned, not like I every believe it is when bought.

My primary source is a tree removal guy who became a friend over the summer. Before that craigslist scrounges

For me I live only a few minutes from the back country which is extensive crown land. Of course the wood harvesting options are limited to areas accessed by truck and since I live in the Rockies there is very little flat land. Im lucky I guess compared to people who live in cities as I can go out in the bush and take what I need for free. The only stipulation is that a tree has to be dead for it to be legal to harvest and it cant be taken within 150 feet of a water way. Today was a truck load of Birch.

I've never "sourced" firewood from anywhere. . .

Bigg_Redd said:

I've never "sourced" firewood from anywhere. . .

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But you do have a source where you can gather round...or are you some sort of sourcerer, conjuring conifers out of thin air fir yew to burn?

We bought 23 acres of forestland to build our new house on not thinking of heating with wood even though my parents did for years. Dad passed the year before we did all this and Mom did not want the wood stove so we took it. After a year at the new place we put the stove in the walkout basement and the rest is history. We have all the firewood we will ever need in the back yard. We are down to 18 acres now as we had two nice couples each by a 2 1/2 acer lot off us out front and that paid off all the land for us.

Call the local tree guy and talk with him. In my area, they have to pay to get rid of most of their stuff. Many are willing to delivery to house.

Securing a dependable source of wood is critical to making this whole wood heating thing work.
I'm in the same province as Seanm and get wood essentially the same way, by heading out into the crown forest and cutting down standing dead trees. I find it an enjoyable and satisfying process, and got a system down that my family and I can fall the trees, buck them up, and have a full cord loaded in the truck in less then 3 hours. Adding the travel times and time for refreshments and break and unloading the truck it usually takes about 6-8 hours. A cord of wood will last us about a month in peak burning season, so I Iook at it as a day for a month. One day of work keeps us warm for a month. It seems reasonable, but my boys are old enough now that they are getting their own jobs, and my wife also has a job, and of course I work too. If we were to all work at our day jobs for a day we could earn far more then enough to run the heat pump in the house for for a month, but then we would miss out on our firewood outings and not be able to enjoy the wood stove as much.
I read about people scrounging for firewood in this forum and to me it seems like too much work, and I feel pretty glad I have access to my crown lands firewood, but then sometimes I read about people getting loads of bucked up free hard wood dropped off in their front yard by their local tree guy and I start thinking maybe my system is pretty lame. I guess you just gota find what works for you, and if you find that nothing works and getting the wood is more trouble then it's worth, then maybe it might be time to give up on the whole idea. You won't be alone, 99% of the civilized world heats with something other then wood.

I've used Craigslist, but you pretty much need a job where you can call/email as soon as it shows up, and pick it up on the way home. It was a lot of work for not a whole lot of wood. Most of the wood I have is from word of mouth. One of my buddies has a house in a new neighborhood. When bulldozer's show up and start knocking trees over to build a new house, he'll go ask if we can pull some out before they chip it. Just got a tall 20" oak last week from him. My part of Ohio is losing ash trees too. Both of my neighbors paid a tree company to remove ash trees, and offered me the wood.

I also stop in and ask if I see a tree fall down. I got 2 huge silver maple trees earlier this spring just asking. My daughters school also just had a tree cut down and I asked the principle if anyone is taking the wood. She's waiting to hear back from the tree service company that took the wood, but it's been sitting there for 2 weeks so I don't think they want it. Good luck! In my area it's easy to find free firewood, but it sure helps to get your name out there that you're always looking!

Seanm said:

For me I live only a few minutes from the back country which is extensive crown land. Of course the wood harvesting options are limited to areas accessed by truck and since I live in the Rockies there is very little flat land. Im lucky I guess compared to people who live in cities as I can go out in the bush and take what I need for free. The only stipulation is that a tree has to be dead for it to be legal to harvest and it cant be taken within 150 feet of a water way. Today was a truck load of Birch.

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Ah. Don't tell anyone about your Birch patch.

Iam the same, everywhere I look, Firewood!!

All scrounged with a couple of major hits, well over three years worth now......

I scrounge my wood from craigslist or whoever will give it to me, but CL is becoming very competitive. If I see an ad and don't jump on it immediately, it's gone. I have about a half acre of woods, but I try not to take any of those trees, they're like my btu savings account. The Ash trees are really starting to die off around here and I'm hoping there will be a lot of it available in the spring.

I sold my old wood stove yesterday and decided to turn some of that money into firewood. Found a local guy on CL selling cords for $150. He dumped a 2X7X10 ft bed of tightly stacked hardwood on my driveway and I was very happy with my first wood purchase. For that price, I'm tempted to get another cord. Wife even asked me why I didn't get 2.

I scrounge mine from neighbors, friends, roadsides, asking tree guys, etc. Many of the local townships will chop and haul away brush and limbs, and you can often see a few pieces of larger firewood piles on the curb with the brush. I have collected a surprising amount of wood by picking up a piece here and a piece there.

All my wood comes off my 200 hector bush lot
I also share cut the farm next to mine as the lad that owns it
can't do it any more at 96 years old but still heats his house with wood
His sons won't cut the trees or skid them to the yard but will buck ,split and stack

If you live near government land you can often get a permit to cut dead or down trees. This is my primary source. Other than that, I cut off my own land and some friends and relatives that are close. The National Forest permit around here is $20 for 18 truck loads.

red oak said:

If you live near government land you can often get a permit to cut dead or down trees. This is my primary source. Other than that, I cut off my own land and some friends and relatives that are close. The National Forest permit around here is $20 for 18 truck loads.

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Lucky you.....did I mention that I love my red oak... Maybe lucky me too.

red oak said:

If you live near government land you can often get a permit to cut dead or down trees. This is my primary source. Other than that, I cut off my own land and some friends and relatives that are close. The National Forest permit around here is $20 for 18 truck loads.

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The regulations are much tighter here on firewood cutting in the national forests. Pretty much not worth the effort to do legally.

Rossco said:

Ah. Don't tell anyone about your Birch patch.

Iam the same, everywhere I look, Firewood!!

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Thats ok I took it all

I source it from the 100 acres we own mainly and friends and family land that's roughly another 200 acres. Really nice not to have to worry about fuel. I've never bought one stick of wood and don't plan to.