How’s your wood supply?

Around here, the winter solstice roughly marks the onset of the coldest part of winter and the one-third point through the heating season. Checking in with my wood supplies, a significant dent hasn't been made in either yet. For the Quad upstairs, as you can see, less than 1/4 of it has been used; and the one for the Nestor Martin in the basement, even less. This is due to a warmer-than-usual late fall, some insulation and berming added this summer, and the contribution of my new passive solar heater. My goal of not even lighting the pilot of the central boiler this year is looking pretty good.

How's yours doing?

Here in southeast Mass. I have used a little over 1/2 cord of oak so far.. I still have over 2 cords of oak to go plus another cord of misc. hardwoods..

Ray

Ah yes, the Winter Soustace... the wife will never let me forget it. She is rejoicing today as the days will start to get longer now. Me, I'm just thinking of the cold weather ahead.

The wife will never forgive me for dragging her to this Eastern edge of a more Westerly timezone. We moved here from the Western edge of a more Easterly timezone and she curses me every day when the sun sets an hour earlier. Me, I enjoy the extra hour of daylight in the morning.

My 12 cord woodshed is more than half full and I still have a few cord split and loose piled sitting out under the snow. I took the snow thrower out today and cleared the spot the big truck will drive and unload the next 12 cord I hope to take delivery of soon. This will be for the Winter after next as I have next Winter's wood already. I clear the snow now so the frost drives deep to take the weight of the loaded truck.

My wood supply is great, although there is now a two or three foot barrier between my house and my woodshed. Fortunately I was able to stock up on wood yesterday, so I wont' need to push/pull/drag my wheelbarrow out to get more wood for a few days.

In Illinois, we're having a record cold December. Bitter, continuous cold. Last night it hit -8F and today's high was 2F. Yowza! I started the year with 2 cords for my new insert (1 cord purchased, and 1 cord scrounged) and I'm trying to conserve my best, dryest wood, putting a couple pieces in with each less-than-optimal split to keep the overall temp up.

Overall, I've used 1 1/2 cords and am looking to be out of wood in mid-january. *sigh* Its clear I'll need tons more wood next spring/summer/fall, let alone preparing for years to come.

Ive gone through maybe two cord, thats between 2 stoves that go 24/7, and a third burning a few days a week. I brouht home 8 cord from my farm so I should be good, but I planned on having alot more left over than i have. Way cold so far this year. ILL bet IM 1/2 to 3/4 cord ahead of last year

I appear to have fallen victim to first-year-doesn't-know-what-she's-doing syndrome, as I've gone through well over a cord so far. I only bought 2 cord of kiln-dried plus a pallet of prest-logs (which I HATE HATE HATE), so I'm going to be stuck going back on oil in the not-too-distant future. Our stove is undersized (1.7cf) for the space we're heating (1700sf) so we're running it hot all the time and going through wood like crazy.

About a cord, maybe a little less, so far. I expect to burn between two and three cords.

my wood supply is not what I was hoping it would be. I've used maybe 1.5 cord. I am guestimating I will be out of fuel mid Feb or so. Then it'll be back on the oil furnace for the remainder of this season. It's ok, a friend of mine and I have dropped 8-10 trees in preparation for the next few years. This first year is a trial run. Next year, we will be better prepared.

This is my first season and Im going through wood faster then I thought. I have to get it up to 77 in the living room to get the bedrooms to about 68. I Burned 1 cord so far and Have 2 cords of seasoned and 1 cord of not quite season left. I now realize I wasted alot of wood early on during the learning process but Im doing much better now.

Have used less than expected because of warm weather but I know from other years that that means nothing as our winter can hang around longer than expected which means burning longer than expected. Have used about a cord - have at least 3 left and started burning in October. Curious to see where I end up as this is my first winter burning this insert which is a lot bigger than our old one that used about 21/2 cords a season..

I hate seeing my supply get lower. Want to fill it right back up again. I envy those of you with lots of space to stack wood in. I have to wait until March...

around 1.5 cords so far here in nW pa. i have used wood exclusivley with no other heat source 24/7 though
this week is going ot be super cold around here im told so im sure it will push me into the 2 cord zone by new years

I'm where I "should" be.....but if this weather keeps up....sheesh. 4F (and getting colder) and a 30+mph wind>:-( Let's just say i'm going through lots of wood.

We cut and split about 6 cords this summer. Have used about a cord so far.
We have just started burning hot 24/7 this past month. Our furnace has come on twice
that i know of. I think we will be ok. I do plan on cutting a bit more next summer.

Brad

I've used about 1 cord. I hope 1/3 of the season statement is true. If it is, I have used about 2X the amount I thought I would need to this point. I bought 2X what I thought I would need so I think I am ok. I am keeping the house much warmer that I thought I would because the stove puts out a lot of heat, even on low. When I fire up the stove the living room goes from 70 to 85. When it's windy and in the 30's outside I can go 12 hours without refueling before it drops back own to 70.

Thank God for the wood and the technology to burn it with!

I've only used about a half cord so far. I have about 2 more cords plus a cord of reserve up on the hill, behind the house.
I only burn when the nights are about 28* or below. It's getting down to 6* tonight, so I'm burning for a few days. I'll be really happy if still have my reserve wood and a quarter tank of oil when the winter is over.

About a cord and a half or so to this point. It's pretty cold up here now though. I think I'll make it to March before I have to resort to oil again.

I was getting a little worried earlier this month. It was so unseasonably cold in Nov and early Dec that we were going thru a lot more wood than expected. But, it's lessened greatly the last 2 weeks and my stacks still look good. Should be warm temps thru the end of the year. Well, with the exception of tonite, tomorrow and Tuesday which will be bitterly cold and windy. I took a walk around the woods this weekend and I still have a ton of wood in downed trees and a few stacks in the back pastures I forgot about. I should be good thru the winter.

So far, so good...burned a bunch of junk wood, small sticks, and shavings from around the splitter for the last bit of October and first few weeks of November. Then it turned off dang cold and I've been diving into the oak pretty heavily and a little hedge for the over night stuff. I'm sure it's nothing for the northerners on the forum, but when the average high should be 41F and the actual is around 8F, thats COLD!! It could warm up any time and not make me mad at all, but looks like we should have enough wood to get through the season.

Hey Corie,
Just noticed in your signature that you converted your stove for secondary burn and have a homemade splitter.. Please elaborate what you did to create these 2 items.. I find things like that interesting and would like pics showing what you did.. How well does your stove after you retrofitted it? How much wood do you consume before and after?

Ray

Not too bad this year as we are 15% colder than last year and 3% colder than normal. Have gone throught adout 3/4 of a cord of wood. My wood is a mix of hardwoods, Oak, Cherry, Maple, Poplar, so it burns but some of it goes faster than others. I am on par with expectations to burn 2.5 this year.

Much colder than last year for sure. Looks like we've burned about a cord so far. I think we'll be okay on what is left because I've cut more than I've burned. So, looks like we're set for about 7 years. Sweet!

5 cords + here (wow!) its cold!

Not terribly good. Its been cold and I've burned about 2 1/2 cords of the 4 I had ready to go. The problem is the tractor has been in the shop since late october so I missed my wood cutting season. I have about 1 1/2 cords stacked up that I to move in the shed. But I also have 2+ ft of snow on the ground, so I might have to grit my teeth and buy some wood this spring. A buddy of mine has a bunch of apple that he sells for 50 bucks a pickup load so I'll probably do that.