Do people here buy or process their own wood?

[raybonz]

A new forum member made a remark on one of my recent posts that one should not BUY their wood but do it all themselves. Personally I have no issue with anyone who does it themselves or buys their wood. To me what matters is that we all burn wood here or want to and some also burn pellets. Those of you who do all of your own firewood know that this doesn't come cheaply either considering time, equipment cost, maintenance of that equipment and fuel to operate it. Factor in a vehicle if you need to transport the wood and the cost goes even higher. I do like to do some of my own wood but prefer to pay for what I know I will be burning and the rest is just gravy.

Ray

 

[sebring]

I buy a grapple load, then cut it up. Not much for going to the woods since my friend cut a tree on himself. Still lots of work. Couldn't be 1 year ahead on the wood supply by scrounging anyways.

 

[rdust]

This has come up before, I process my own. I bought one cord my first season season from Dennis(BWS) since I ran short on seasoned. I would still save a bundle if I bought CSD wood since my heat source is propane. If I had NG it would be tough to even justify burning wood with as low as the NG prices are. I would only being doing it since I love the way wood warms the home vs forced air heat.

 

[HollowHill]

I've worked out a share system with a wood processor. He cuts and splits 1 cord for me and 2 cords for himself. I stack what he delivers to me. So, it's free for me, but I don't do the cutting or splitting. Since I have a lot of woods, but not the equipment or aptitude to process it myself, it works for me.

 

[raybonz]

This has come up before, I process my own. I bought one cord my first season season from Dennis(BWS) since I ran short on seasoned. I would still save a bundle if I bought CSD wood since my heat source is propane. If I had NG it would be tough to even justify burning wood with as low as the NG prices are. I would only being doing it since I love the way wood warms the home vs forced air heat.

Just thought a fresh poll would be fun rdust! Natural gas will never be available here and the other options are expensive..

Ray

 

[begreen]

Depends on the year. For the past few years we've had enough coming from the property and scrounging to supply our needs. But there have been past years where I have bought a few cords.

 

[raybonz]

I've worked out a share system with a wood processor. He cuts and splits 1 cord for me and 2 cords for himself. I stack what he delivers to me. So, it's free for me, but I don't do the cutting or splitting. Since I have a lot of woods, but not the equipment or aptitude to process it myself, it works for me.

Sounds like a good plan to me HH! There is also the possibility of injury or worse dropping trees even if a pro is doing the work. Some Hearth.com members can attest to this.

Ray

 

[blujacket]

I voted I process all my wood,although it is all scrounged.

 

[stejus]

The last two years I harvested 9 cords mainly for two reasons. The first year I needed to clear some of my land to dry wood. The second year we had significant storm damage and I had some extra time off to go get 5 cords with a borrowed pickup truck. Like Ray said, there is a fine balance between doing it yourself and having it delivered. Either way there's work involved and only you can manage your time. The end result is the lowest cost option at the time and the benefit of having warmth during the winter months. Either way, in most cased you will do much better than burning dino fuel and be more confortable.

 

[midwestcoast]

I scrounge everything now from friends and tree services. Don't have a splitter and only in the last year got occasional access to a pickup (company Ranger), but I've made it work. Also bought a used saw to save $.
The first year I bought all my wood and scrounged to get ahead.
Buying CSS would be as or more expensive than running the gas furnace, (still worth it for the fire) but with scrounging I'm well into the Black.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

A new forum member made a remark on one of my recent posts that one should not BUY their wood but do it all themselves. Personally I have no issue with anyone who does it themselves or buys their wood. To me what matters is that we all burn wood here or want to and some also burn pellets. Those of you who do all of your own firewood know that this doesn't come cheaply either considering time, equipment cost, maintenance of that equipment and fuel to operate it. Factor in a vehicle if you need to transport the wood and the cost goes even higher. I do like to do some of my own wood but prefer to pay for what I know I will be burning and the rest is just gravy.

Ray

If I had to buy wood I wouldn't bother - it's not worth the mess and extra effort.

 

[jeff_t]

I have been doing a little looking on craigslist for wood for my sister. I have enough ready to burn to get her through this winter, but I'm not sure I can keep up for both of us. I can put my nephews to work, but with me working weekends and doing my cutting during the week, I'm not how sure that will work out.

The going rate around here is $50-65/ face cord (I know, but it's Michigan). I talked to an old guy last week who is selling for $40 picked up, and it is quality hardwood split and stacked for over a year. I'm going to go get a load for her next week and see what it's like.

At those prices, I could afford to buy it, but I enjoy the cutting. Splitting and stacking is busy work, but 6.5 hp of death in my hands is pure grins.

 

[milleo]

If I had to buy wood I wouldn't bother - it's not worth the mess and extra effort.

Blasphemy

 

[milleo]

I scrounge what I can and buy to fill in the gaps.....enough ahead of time that I will have dry wood....

 

[raybonz]

If I had to buy wood I wouldn't bother - it's not worth the mess and extra effort.

Not sure I understand that Redd. It's much less mess and effort getting wood C\S\D.. I move 3 cords into the shelter and stack 3-4 cords in a 1 week span then I am done for a long while.. Over $1000 to fill oil tank once here and propane is worse.

Ray

 

[raybonz]

I scrounge everything now from friends and tree services. Don't have a splitter and only in the last year got occasional access to a pickup (company Ranger), but I've made it work. Also bought a used saw to save $.
The first year I bought all my wood and scrounged to get ahead.
Buying CSS would be as or more expensive than running the gas furnace, (still worth it for the fire) but with scrounging I'm well into the Black.

Sounds like you have a good thing going there and if I could do that I could.. I am still way ahead of the game paying $555.00 a year with my house at 75 degrees all winter.. I figure I save at least 1500 a yr. doing this and we are warm and happy plus the furnace is not set at 75 degrees, maybe 67- 68 degrees and that feels cool unless I wear a sweatshirt.. Another plus is the great fire secondary burns create..

Ray

 

[cygnus]

I scrounge and process it all by hand. About 1.5 cords per year. That offsets 60-70% of my NG fuel bill. I did the install myself but the full cost of stove, parts, new saw and extras will be paid for after 3 years. That does not include my time though. That's where i start to call the whole operation more of a hobby...a great one.

 

[laynes69]

I'm surrounded by acres of wood, and have all the equipment to gather it. But I'm a busy man with 3 children and not enough time. I go when I can and gather wood, but factoring gas, time and other things it's not free. I bought 3 cord this year and it was ash with a 16% moisture content for 125.00 a cord delivered. I can't beat it and it gets me ahead so it's well worth it. Ive cut many cords over the last 6 or 7 years, but I had the time. Even buying wood at 150.00 a cord we would be ahead of the game and saving money.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

I'm not what you would consider a wood fanatic, but we cut and process all of our own wood, only because we can.
Here are the reasons why we do it.

>I'm still physically capable of doing the work.
>I have two teenage sons who know how to work and help a LOT.
>I have a 3/4 4x4 work truck capable of hauling a cord at a time.
>I have the same trusty Husky chainsaw I have been using for over 30 years.
> I enjoy wood heat and the excursions into the bush falling and cutting trees.
>And probably most importantly, I have access to an unlimited supply of pre-seasoned dead trees.

If just one or two of these factors ceased to be true I would likely not be processing all my own wood. In fact, I might even stop heating with wood entirely.

 

[onetracker]

cut, haul, process all my own firewood. just the cost of gas, oil and gear. not free but sure worth it for me in the long run.
and nothing compares with the contentment of sitting in front of a fire with my wife on a wicked-cold winter night (like we used to have) and being warm as toast. i do it all mostly on my own in my spare time in spring and fall. i did a fair bit of hauling this summer but it was hard to get motivated in the heat.

 

[DexterDay]

I cut a lot of my own. But bought a 3 cord load of logs last year and a 7 cord load this year.

Just to get ahead the few years. Now that I am ahead, I will cut my own. Just got back from cutting this morning.

But its not always viable for someone to cut there own. Not everyone owns property or knows someone that has property to cut on. Scrounging is possible. But as noted above by Laynes69, its a time thing for some and/or equipment costs.

For what I have wrapped up in my Trailer, Saws, Splitter, Etc, I could have bought wood for Years!

 

[BoilerMan]

Fell, buck, S/S about 75% myself. If I need to supplement I buy tree length, or if time is tight and I want to maintain that 1 year ahead I buy C/S but pick it up myself to save some cash. All depends on how much I've been able to scrounge / fell myself. I've paid for stumpage while cutting on state land too $25 / cord for beech, it was not as good of a deal as it sounds..... WAY too much work and hauling on margional woods roads. Too much time and $$$ invested in that wood.

100% wood heat here at 3.5 cord.

TS

 

[Bmdoss]

I buy railroad tie ends by the dump truck load.. Only 75 per load

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[basod]

Before I bought the hydraulic splitter I wouldn't bat an eye at stopping down the road and buying a $60 shortbox load of split oak/hickory. This is before I installed the insert and probably burned a cord a winter more for ambience than heat obviously.
I've got a place I can go ~12mi from the house that is flat hard ground and a tree service dumps logs and chips for the property owner wanting the compost for his gardens.
It's all free for the taking and easy to get right up next to. I can spend less than 5hrs c/s transporting(2 heaping loads) and stacking and have over a cord of primo hardwood for less than $25 in fuel and another $10 in beer over an afternoon gazing at the pile of future heat I've stockpiled
Then I've got the 12acres here that require maintenance but I'd spend the better part of a day dropping/bucking transporting on the quad trailer and then s/s the trees here.

 

[mfglickman]

We do a combination of scrounging and buying processed but green in the off season. We don't have a truck or trailer so this works for us. Our scrounges tend to be logs 4' or shorter, left by a town or tree service.