Must have stuff

1. Moisture meter - totally unnecessary for telling when your wood is ready, but an absolute essential on Hearth.com for settling arguments as to whether or not your wood is dry enough.

2. IR thermometer - totally unnecessary for telling if your stove is at the right temp, but fun for making your cat jump up the wall to get at the red dot.

3. Chainsaw in the 70cc class - totally unnecessary for felling the smaller trees you will likely encounter when a 50cc saw will do the trick, but you cannot hold your head up here without a saw of at least 60cc. Unless it is a "pro" saw, which will allow you to get by with 10 less cc... just because.

4. 27 ton splitter that can split vertically - totally unnecessary because only old coots and cranks split vertically, but you have to have one with the capability to split vertically so you can show that you do have a choice but refuse to swing that way.

5. Magi Heat heat reclaimer - totally unnecessary but... hell, it's just totally unnecessary. Strike that one.

5. HD video camera - totally unnecssary for wood burning, but you will need to be able to put up clips of your amazing secondaries on YouTube... which, like kids, are only more beautiful than everybody else's just because they're yours.

I'd love to find a self propelled, track driven wheelbarrow. No more shoveling a trench to the stacks. That and Katherine Heigl to operate it. As long as I'm dreaming.....

Here ya go....

http://www.drpower.com/twostepmodels.aspx?name=powerwagon2step&page=prwmodels - 148k

Thanks, but I didn't see the optional Heigl operator. That's a must-have.

If I could pull that one off I would'nt be here - I'd be with her!

:cheese: ;-)

Poker and shovel.
Covered metal ash can.
Thermometers for the flue and stove.
Gloves for the stove.
Chainsaw.
Hydraulic wood splitter.
ATV.
Trailer for the ATV.

Battenkiller has been my role model since I joined the forum. In keeping with his advice and example:

1. A Canon 7D HD camera, plus a timer for taking time lapse photos to let you know what was going on after you went to bed and a tripod for same. It also does HD movies for when you want a big fire on the wide screen TV.

2. A Kintrex IR thermometer, so you don't have to get up and walk over there to see what the temperature of the stove is.

3. A CO monitor.

4. A fire extinguisher.

5. A metal ash bucket with an air tight top. (A plain old galvanized metal can with a lid looks like hell, but it works very well for this).

6. A square nosed metal shovel.

7. A Ridgid shop vac with a dry wall filter.

8. A Milwaukee 2311-20 inspection camera so that you can see places without actually going there. (do you know how much ash is laying there on top of your baffle and piling up in that connector pipe? I do).

9. Barbecue Mitts, warmer that welder's gloves, and useable as mittens when you are out getting the wood.

10. A couple of 35 gallon polyethylene bins for bringing in wood.

11. +2 on a propane torch.

12. A soft bristled brush for dislodging soot from the secondary burn tubes and other places.

13. Big tarps for covering wood.

14. Dust cover and storage shed for my Chain Saw, which is never used.

15. Chimney cleaning rods and brushes with an 18 volt drill motor to spin them. 12 foot ladder to get to the top of the chimney.

16. Chair to sit in so I do not get neck strain watching my much younger wife operating the chimney cleaning equipment.

I want an ATV and a wood splitter too, but my wife says that as long as I am paying the local garden supply for seasoned cord wood, stacked in place, that I can't have either one.

if your stove is on a different floor from where you spend most of your time get a smoker thermometer with a remote sensor so you don't have to get up from the game to check temp, it's a great stair avoidance measure.

1.) Chainsaw and related accessories
2.) Big Bad Splitter (Triceps count for all you purists....)
3.) Pickup to get it all home. (It's all for nothing otherwise!)
4.) A wife that loves being able to hang out in her nighties in January.... (yessir!)
5.) A golf course that still has a ton of trees that need to come down.

Too bad nobody can hear me whistling with the saw at full throttle.....

One thing I have not seen listed but I consider a must is a canvas wood carrier. It keeps the loose bark in it and makes it easy to carry. I am planning on buying a second one this year to carry two loads at a time.

I got one of these last year - it works great and keeps the mess down to a minimum. They're made out of the same material as seatbelts and hold a bunch of wood.

http://www.northlineexpress.com/item/5CN-8-16/Full-Size-TuffDuck-Carry-All-Black-w-Khaki-Trim

A Russian bride to cut, split, stack the wood and feed the fire.
A good neverending supply of Heineken.
Maybe a doobie once in a while, and a nice soft comforter to reward said Russian bride on after she is finished taking care of the fire.
Hey a guy can dream can't he?

A MUST ADDITION to the list.:
A computer,
preferably a high speed connection (so you can watch Quads cut wood) & so you can keep learning how/why etc on Hearth.com.

Just printed out Dennis' list

Sounds reasonable to me!

Ray

I think Hogz just roughed out the script for the hearth.com movie Must Love Wood!

Removed post . . . commenting on a new member's blatant advertising.

Personally, I would'nt go for gadget. I'd love it if someone could dump 2 free cord of well seasoned split hardwood in my driveway and stack it properly on the side of the house. Now that is a gift!

Otherwise, these other items might also be worth looking at:

Pure Genius

460 and good chain grinder........Thats it! :cheese:

And I thought I was the only one with a golf course of wood to harvest

Welders gloves

Metal garbage can for ashes and a small one to carry ashes from stove to it. works very well for me...

Heidi says "hell yeah!" She loves her HF push-button ignitor propane torch. Living in the mountains, we like Ponderosa pine cones for starters. No more newspaper and kindling, no store-bought starter blocks, 2 or 3 cones, some small cedar splits, apply torch and we have fire. For our outdoor chiminea, she likes the big, pitchy sugar pine cones.

p.s. Forgot to mention the large plastic sled for hauling wood when the snow gets deep. I hate shoveling snow. Leave it were it is, pack it down, it will melt eventually.

I will also vouch for the propane torch. I picked up the standard cheapo torch to do some plumbing this summer, and after that was done it worked great for starting stacks of somewhat green hemlock strips in the chiminea. I bet it also works great for getting a draft going, or reversing a downdraft in a cold stove.