Would you rather

I would say is based on 2 things. How much money you want to spend on underground lines or how much would you want to haul across the yard. I would rather save the money with less underground line and hoof more wood across the yard.

i have my boiler and wood all under the same roof....lines are only 15 ft to shop and 60ft to home....i like being out of the elements when im loading and i like dry wood

I would do all I could to try to be able to store wood with the boiler in the garage.

Even if that means building a lean-too onto the garage for the wood, or a new shed to store what's being stored in the garage now - or something.

I think you'll appreciate having spent the $ to have the wood stored at the boiler. I did this 150' away from the house and I cut, split and stack once. Don't underestimate the time required in handling the wood twice. If you can add a shed roof on to the garage for storage it will be worthwhile.

What do you value more, time or money? Over the lifetime of burning do you spend more time handling wood multiple times or playing with your kids? Now if you have a method to move the wood mechanically, that would be different. Stack the wood into crates and move the crates with a tractor. That wouldn't be so bad, but it's still time spent moving wood.

Buzz Saw said:

What do you value more, time or money? Over the lifetime of burning do you spend more time handling wood multiple times or playing with your kids? Now if you have a method to move the wood mechanically, that would be different. Stack the wood into crates and move the crates with a tractor. That wouldn't be so bad, but it's still time spent moving wood.

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Some spend quality time handling wood with their kids.

Based on my experience I'd make "many" modifications to my system location plan to maximize wood handling and processing efficiency. Double handling of wood, for me, became a real problem when time was tight with other priorities. Dropping, bucking and splitting is pure fun. Moving from stack to stack is not (at least in my case)...

maple1 said:

Some spend quality time handling wood with their kids.

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Absolutely, myself included. I've been cutting wood with my Dad for about 20 years .....But from my dad's stand point I was only useful once I hit 6 or 7 years old and that was limited abilities. Then came high school I could do it all l, cutting, felling, pulling, splitting, throwing, stacking. Well after graduation Dad was on his own for about 10 years till I moved back into the area. That was a long tough 10 years on him while I was gone. As far as me my boys are going to be 2 & 4 years old this spring, so I still have another 2-4 years on my own till the oldest can "help".

Moral of the story, spend time with the kids but be efficient. Don't miss other quality things/times in life because all your quality time is spent stacking wood......

I once counted 6-8 "touches" between the woods to putting it in the boiler. Our wood is split, stacked, dried, and stored as close as possible to the boiler. We use a heavy duty wagon to bring wood to the floor directly in front of the boiler. And during the burning season, our splitter is right there also to resplit to smaller for restarting. Walking doesn't get near as old as moving wood.

Tennman said:

I once counted 6-8 "touches" between the woods to putting it in the boiler. Our wood is split, stacked, dried, and stored as close as possible to the boiler. We use a heavy duty wagon to bring wood to the floor directly in front of the boiler. And during the burning season, our splitter is right there also to resplit to smaller for restarting. Walking doesn't get near as old as moving wood.

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Front end loader, and pallets. Having a garage/shed or walk out basement you can use a pallet jack in is huge.

I go after windfalls. My third touch is usually the last one, from pallet into the fire. Except for what I pile up on top of other pallets once rolled into the basement - that stuff gets 4 touches. But it only amounts to about 1/3 of my wood.

You only pay the money ONCE.

You'll handle that wood for YEARS! You need an efficient flow from logs to ashes.

JP

It's the living with it after the shine is off that really counts.

Not much different than a marriage - some might say.