Firewood versus useable wood, for a newbie...

[Guacamole]

First time poster, short time lurker. I've become addicted to this site, as I sit in my tiny apartment in Toronto, Ontario, Bob and Doug McKenzieland, just dreaming of the time when I will own my own home and install my own wood stove. I have really enjoyed reading everybody's advice about things that I will one day put into use. Love the pics and the banter. Would love even more to be able to fall asleep on the couch in front of my own hearth! Maybe I should have posted this in "The Hearth Room", but I'm addicted to the wood shed and the picture forum. I go to sleep dreaming of chopping, stacking, seasoning, and stocking the fire.

Anyways, I have a couple of questions for all you woodies out there.

1) Obviously, you use wood to heat your home, as it is my dream to do. But when you fell a tree, how do you make a distinction between "fireplace" grade wood, and "other use" grade wood? For instance, furniture, flooring, etc.? I understand that heating the home is essential, but couldn't you get some good money from selling the wood to a lumber mill?

2) Do you know of a forum like this based in Canuckland? You guys are all great, and I think I will continue reading this forum till the day I die. Got nothing against my neighbors to the south, but I don't understand Fahrenheit . Also, it would be great to hear about local hauls of wood closer to my doorstep.

3) Anybody out there want to have somebody cut their wood for them, while teaching? I'll cut, stack, scrounge, whatever, even cook dinners for you if you are willing to teach me the finer points of chainsaw maintenance, felling techniques, stacking techniques, wood stove maintenance, etc. I grew up in Toronto, never having a fireplace, and to tell you the truth, the fireplace is really something of a mystery to me, after reading this forum. But an even bigger truth is that spending time with a seasoned veteran of the wood stove is an even bigger dream. I think I need to save my pennies right now to buy my own place. Once I do so, I'll post again.

Anyways, thanks for listening to my drivel. If this is in the wrong place, I give permission for the moderators to move it somewhere else.

Keep the home fires burning...

Guacamole

 

[SolarAndWood]

Welcome to the wood shed Guac. We enjoy the company of many fine Canadians as well as folks from other continents. Any time you want to cruise across the lake, you can split some wood at my place. As far as getting stuff to the mill, that is generally a game well beyond most of us. There are a few here making some lumber with small mills but most of us are just trying to keep our families warm and maybe make a few bucks on the side selling firewood.

 

[ecocavalier02]

Welcome to the wood shed Guac. We enjoy the company of many fine Canadians as well as folks from other continents. Any time you want to cruise across the lake, you can split some wood at my place. As far as getting stuff to the mill, that is generally a game well beyond most of us. There are a few here making some lumber with small mills but most of us are just trying to keep our families warm and maybe make a few bucks on the side selling firewood.

welcome. i remember the feeling to as well when i wanted to get my own home and start heating with wood. Same here starting to get ahead enough selling some wood.

 

[Gary_602z]

My 2 cents is firewood is something that is dead or dying or is blown over. If you have enough mature woods you can get a forrester/buyer come in to give you a quote but until then NO cutting of live mature trees!

Gary

 

[Wood Duck]

Most of the trees I use, and most of those I see others using, are not suitable for lumber.. One big problem with a lot of the trees we use is that they are growing somewhere besides a forest or woodlot, in backyards, roads sides, beside farm fields, etc., and so have the potential to contain nails, old wire from fences, and similar bits of metal that would mess up the saws in a mill. The cost of a sawblade is high, so most lumber mills won't mess with trees that might cause damage. This means most of our trees aren't acceptable to most mills.

Second, many of the trees are too small or the wrong species for lumber, or they are the tops of larger trees. Around here small, bent, partially hollow ,or similarly imperfect trees often are sold in log form to woodburners. Tops are left in the woods, and many times cut for firewood. So, even when timber is being harvested, lots of smaller trees and branches are either wasted or end up as firewood.

Finally, it takes a lot of time and some equipment to process trees into lumber. Most of the guys who do it, do it for a hobby, not because it is the best way to get lumber. I burn wood but sometimes buy lumber because it is convenient to buy lumber.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Hey Guac
nice to see another Canuck here. First let me say (with no offence intended) that you are a bit of an oddity,,,, I mean you might be the only hearth.com member who lives in an apartment. Lots of guys come here by necessity, trying to heat their homes cheaply with wood heat and come here looking to find out the best way to do it. Living in apartment you would think that would be the last thing on your mind. I hope your dream of owning your own home and falling asleep by the fire comes true very soon, then your dreams of chopping and stacking and stocking the fire can become a reality.

I'll try and answer a few of your questions,,, First here in BC most people who get their own firewood obtain a firewood permit, they are freely downloadable off the internet, but you are obligated to read it and follow the rules, a few of the rules are you can cut wood for personal use only, and dead trees only, and you must buck them into short lengths so they can't sold and used for lumber later.
http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/dos/dist_docs/firewood.htm

There is a wood heat forum for canadians, but it's a yahoo forum and I don't like yahoo forums for a number of reasons. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/woodheat/
Between you and me these guys to the South aren't that bad to hang out with, just don't mention the war.

I'd love to have you come out and do some cutting and falling with me and my boys, but you better get here soon, cause every day I see the snow line is starting to creep down the mountains.

BTW, you're not presently a barber are you?

 

[Gary_602z]

That video answers a lot of questions about you guys up north!

Gary

 

[Bigg_Redd]

First time poster, short time lurker. I've become addicted to this site, as I sit in my tiny apartment in Toronto, Ontario, Bob and Doug McKenzieland, just dreaming of the time when I will own my own home and install my own wood stove. I have really enjoyed reading everybody's advice about things that I will one day put into use. Love the pics and the banter. Would love even more to be able to fall asleep on the couch in front of my own hearth! Maybe I should have posted this in "The Hearth Room", but I'm addicted to the wood shed and the picture forum. I go to sleep dreaming of chopping, stacking, seasoning, and stocking the fire.

Anyways, I have a couple of questions for all you woodies out there.

1) Obviously, you use wood to heat your home, as it is my dream to do. But when you fell a tree, how do you make a distinction between "fireplace" grade wood, and "other use" grade wood? For instance, furniture, flooring, etc.? I understand that heating the home is essential, but couldn't you get some good money from selling the wood to a lumber mill? If I knock a tree down it's going in my stove. Period. I don't own any property with standing timber so it's not a choice I have to make.

2) Do you know of a forum like this based in Canuckland? You guys are all great, and I think I will continue reading this forum till the day I die. Got nothing against my neighbors to the south, but I don't understand Fahrenheit . Also, it would be great to hear about local hauls of wood closer to my doorstep. Not a clue

3) Anybody out there want to have somebody cut their wood for them, while teaching? I'll cut, stack, scrounge, whatever, even cook dinners for you if you are willing to teach me the finer points of chainsaw maintenance, felling techniques, stacking techniques, wood stove maintenance, etc. I grew up in Toronto, never having a fireplace, and to tell you the truth, the fireplace is really something of a mystery to me, after reading this forum. But an even bigger truth is that spending time with a seasoned veteran of the wood stove is an even bigger dream. I think I need to save my pennies right now to buy my own place. Once I do so, I'll post again. Love to, but you're a couple thousand miles (can't translate into kilometers) away

Anyways, thanks for listening to my drivel. If this is in the wrong place, I give permission for the moderators to move it somewhere else.

Keep the home fires burning...

Guacamole

 

[soupy1957]

1) when you fell a tree, how do you make a distinction between “fireplace” grade wood, and “other use” grade wood? if by "distinction" you mean, are there woods I would NOT burn in my wood stove, the answer is yes. the question would be, "why" I wouldn't burn it in my stove (since I don't build my own furniture). If it's too wet or a soft wood, I personally would not burn it in MY stove. couldn’t you get some good money from selling the wood to a lumber mill? Selling wood is not something I want to get in to (personally) but I supposed that there is a buyer out there for just about anything. Might take you a while to find a buyer, but Advertising is essential.

2) Do you know of a forum like this based in Canuckland? No, but there are plenty of us "Canucks" here. Transplants and locals.

3) Anybody out there want to have somebody cut their wood for them, while teaching? I don't think you'd like to come all the way to Connecticut, to cut MY wood.

-Soupy1957

 

[Nixon]

2) Do you know of a forum like this based in Canuckland?

Try this site for a start ,and go from there .
http://www.woodheat.org/

 

[chumby]

Currently everything I drop goes in the stove.

Not sure how other states or provinces handle this but Maine has a tax incentive to put one's property into "tree growth." You have to create or pay someone to create a management plan, get it approved by Department of Conservation, and follow it. My understanding is that it allows for harvesting. This will be a winter project for us since it should save about $500 per year in property taxes if we do it.

 

[Wood Duck]

I can say that all of my firewood, had I not collected it, would either be rotting on the ground or in the dump. I think a lot of guys could say the same thing.

 

[midwestcoast]

I can say that all of my firewood, had I not collected it, would either be rotting on the ground or in the dump. I think a lot of guys could say the same thing.

I know I could. In fact I'm sure all of it would have gone to the dump as it's all been from residential lots.

Hello from a transplant Ontarian! Grew-up in the country, north of the Oshawa area. Give me a couple years & I hope to be back there on some land where the trees are tall, straight and abundant. 'till then I scrounge yard trees around here.

There was one big downed Red Oak ~36" DBH (95 cm )with around 15' (4.5m) of straight trunk that could have gone to a mill, no-one's interested in picking-up or delivering a single tree to a mill. Just not cost effective for what it's worth. Also that was a yard tree. I don't feel a bit of guilt about burning it.
Most with woodlots burn dead standing or fallen trees. Other than that it's the leaners & damaged trees that'll never grow too well, and thinning-out areas that are too crowded for trees to grow well. Very few have enough land to consider selective logging for sale.

Edit: Your post & CL's reply lead to an interesting topic for a thread. I'm gonna start one in the Hearth Room to see if anyone here is burning in an apartment. I bet there are a few.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum Guacamole. Keep on lurking and learning. It will all come together for you sooner than you might think. Good luck.

 

[SnapCracklePop]

Hey, Guacamole,

Welcome aboard, Mate! I had an oak that developed a strange malady; a very smelly liquid oozed out from under its bark. Bees and other insects were attracted to the liquid. When the wind blew a certain way, I could smell it in my house about 40 feet away. It was pretty rank.

I had the tree cut down. A neighbor's son has something called a Saw Mizer. It's a portable sawmill that he tows behind his truck. He sliced the trunk into 8-foot boards for me. I stacked it to air dry. Later on, I needed to remove two other oaks near my house; they also became boards. I had the limbs cut to length for "firewood," although at the time all I had was a campfire ring.

My boards are dry, stacked in my garage. Sometime in the not so distant future, I plan to have them planed (or buy a planer) so I can reface my kitchen cupboards or panel my sunroom. I say sunroom, but at the moment it's my back porch. Gonna close it in... Maybe I'll make some small Mission style tables. Maybe is the operative word...

I had hundreds of board-feet of the stuff, more than I'd ever use, and last summer I remodeled a backyard cabin into a boarding kennel for dogs. I used a lot of my oak boards to build outdoor runs with sundecks for the dogs.

I have a website with some photos, but I don't know if it's okay to post it here since it's not related to hearths, etc. Send me a PM if you're curious, eh?

I love Canadians. I wish my country were more like yours. I'm a peace-loving Quaker, so...

Nancy

 

[wood-fan-atic]

PopcracklesnapNancy- youre a hoot,ole gal! I read your posts to my wife, she always gets a kick out of 'em. :cheese:

 

[firefighterjake]

First time poster, short time lurker. I've become addicted to this site, as I sit in my tiny apartment in Toronto, Ontario, Bob and Doug McKenzieland, just dreaming of the time when I will own my own home and install my own wood stove. I have really enjoyed reading everybody's advice about things that I will one day put into use. Love the pics and the banter. Would love even more to be able to fall asleep on the couch in front of my own hearth! Maybe I should have posted this in "The Hearth Room", but I'm addicted to the wood shed and the picture forum. I go to sleep dreaming of chopping, stacking, seasoning, and stocking the fire.

Anyways, I have a couple of questions for all you woodies out there.

1) Obviously, you use wood to heat your home, as it is my dream to do. But when you fell a tree, how do you make a distinction between "fireplace" grade wood, and "other use" grade wood? For instance, furniture, flooring, etc.? I understand that heating the home is essential, but couldn't you get some good money from selling the wood to a lumber mill? I can't speak to everyone else, but here in Maine the more desirable commercial wood is sold for lumber and pulp for paper which means that this wood is generally softwood which is less desirable for use as firewood. There are some small scale operations that may buy up oak and maple for flooring or lumber and at least one place that buys apple for use in smoking, but these are pretty small operations. As a result, most of the hardwood I cut is wood that would only be used as firewood.

2) Do you know of a forum like this based in Canuckland? You guys are all great, and I think I will continue reading this forum till the day I die. Got nothing against my neighbors to the south, but I don't understand Fahrenheit . Also, it would be great to hear about local hauls of wood closer to my doorstep. Don't know . . . but if it's any consolation I still have problems with celsius and the whole metric system.

3) Anybody out there want to have somebody cut their wood for them, while teaching? I'll cut, stack, scrounge, whatever, even cook dinners for you if you are willing to teach me the finer points of chainsaw maintenance, felling techniques, stacking techniques, wood stove maintenance, etc. I grew up in Toronto, never having a fireplace, and to tell you the truth, the fireplace is really something of a mystery to me, after reading this forum. But an even bigger truth is that spending time with a seasoned veteran of the wood stove is an even bigger dream. I think I need to save my pennies right now to buy my own place. Once I do so, I'll post again. Most of what I learned from working beside my father . . . other tips I've picked up here or from my brother.Anyways, thanks for listening to my drivel. If this is in the wrong place, I give permission for the moderators to move it somewhere else.

Keep the home fires burning...

Guacamole