Einy meany miny moe

[infinitymike]

Heres what I have.
8+ cord of oak split Dec '11/Jan'12 ready to burn Dec'14/Jan'15
8+ cord of mostly oak split Jan'13 ready to burn Dec'16/Jan'17

This year I burned about 6+ cord of maple, ash and cherry that was c/s/s in the spring of this year.
So it only had between 6- 10 months to dry. It averaged around 25% mc
Figure by end of season I will have burned about 8.

I need wood for the next season (Dec'13/Jan'14)
I can buy 8 cord of locust, ash and maple cut and split to 22"-24" for a $1000 bucks ($125/cord)
Then I can sit back until this winter, when I will start preparing for '17/'18

Or I can get free rounds cut to 22"-24" and I will have to spend a bunch of weekends splitting.

Hmmm... $1000 spent on split wood...and lots of time spent with family or doing something else
or $0 spent on rounds and $? spent splitting, away from family and not doing anything else.

 

[Jon1270]

Sounds like you need to get the family to help with the splitting.

 

[infinitymike]

Sounds like you need to get the family to help with the splitting.

Ya I hear that. They are a great family but sometimes.....
My 17 yr son would rather lift weight then logs. He does help begrudgingly.
My 16 yr daughter helps a little bit.
My wife just feeds us. Oh and feeds the fire when I'm at work.

That's why I walk around te housing saying "I'm a machine"

 

[Beer Belly]

IMO....if $1,000 isn't gonna break the bank, or cause financial hardship....spend the money, there is no price you can put on time spent with family, especially if you have youngin's....they grow up fast, and you wonder how it happened

 

[jrcurto]

Heres what I have.
8+ cord of oak split Dec '11/Jan'12 ready to burn Dec'14/Jan'15
8+ cord of mostly oak split Jan'13 ready to burn Dec'16/Jan'17

This year I burned about 6+ cord of maple, ash and cherry that was c/s/s in the spring of this year.
So it only had between 6- 10 months to dry. It averaged around 25% mc
Figure by end of season I will have burned about 8.

I need wood for the next season (Dec'13/Jan'14)
I can buy 8 cord of locust, ash and maple cut and split to 22"-24" for a $1000 bucks ($125/cord)
Then I can sit back until this winter, when I will start preparing for '17/'18

Or I can get free rounds cut to 22"-24" and I will have to spend a bunch of weekends splitting.

Hmmm... $1000 spent on split wood...and lots of time spent with family or doing something else
or $0 spent on rounds and $? spent splitting, away from family and not doing anything else.

If I was still on Long Island I would run my RapidFire splitter over and we could knock out those rounds in 1/4 the time. Once I have two stoves running in the future though, I probably will start buying more split wood and just handle the stacking.

 

[infinitymike]

IMO....if $1,000 isn't gonna break the bank, or cause financial hardship....spend the money, there is no price you can put on time spent with family, especially if you have youngin's....they grow up fast, and you wonder how it happened

Things are a little tight, but should get better soon.
I'm leaning towards buying it just to take a break and get some other stuff done. But it's so hard to fork that kind of money. Feels like I'm filling the oil tank again.

 

[Redlegs]

Do it all yourself. MAKE the teenagers help you and when its all done, explain to the kids how much money you saved, and give each of them $100 bill for their part. Then take your wife out for dinner and put the difference in the bank. JMHO.

 

[infinitymike]

If I was still on Long Island I would run my RapidFire splitter over and we could knock out those rounds in 1/4 the time. Once I have two stoves running in the future though, I probably will start buying more split wood and just handle the stacking.

I have a Timberwolf TW-5. It'll knock out those rounds in an 1/8 of the time.
It's more like I don't even have an 1/8 of the time.
Time, our most expensive commodity.

 

[gzecc]

Heres what I have.
8+ cord of oak split Dec '11/Jan'12 ready to burn Dec'14/Jan'15
8+ cord of mostly oak split Jan'13 ready to burn Dec'16/Jan'17

This year I burned about 6+ cord of maple, ash and cherry that was c/s/s in the spring of this year.
So it only had between 6- 10 months to dry. It averaged around 25% mc
Figure by end of season I will have burned about 8.

I need wood for the next season (Dec'13/Jan'14)
I can buy 8 cord of locust, ash and maple cut and split to 22"-24" for a $1000 bucks ($125/cord)
Then I can sit back until this winter, when I will start preparing for '17/'18

Or I can get free rounds cut to 22"-24" and I will have to spend a bunch of weekends splitting.

Hmmm... $1000 spent on split wood...and lots of time spent with family or doing something else
or $0 spent on rounds and $? spent splitting, away from family and not doing anything else.

Buy $500 of the locust already split. Then get the free wood. The locust should take the heat off for next season.

 

[infinitymike]

Buy $500 of the locust already split. Then get the free wood. The locust should take the heat off for next season.

I guess that's the "moe" part of the choices. Since I only offered 2.
Thanks now I can truely say einy meany miny moe!

 

[infinitymike]

I guess that's the "moe" part of the choices. Since I only offered 2.
Thanks now I can truely say einy meany miny moe!

Edit. Wait I need 4 choices. Duh!

 

[bogydave]

How much do you save burning wood.
At $125/cord of locust, cord lasts how long?

8 cords. More than I burn here.
May need to upgrade the house insulation & it pays you back every day from the day you upgrade until you sell

5 choices

 

[Jack Straw]

8 cord? How many square feet are you heating? $125 a cord is really cheap for NY. I'd go 50/50.

 

[muncybob]

I know I would have a hard time trying to "sit back until this winter"...I just like the wood gathering activities too much! Everytime I see a CL post for free wood to cut or a pile in somebody' s yard for the taking I know I would be gettng my gear into the truck.

 

[FrankMA]

$125.00/cord is a really great price! I think a 50/50 deal would be the way to go if money is tight.

 

[TimJ]

Burning 8 cords a year is getting past the wood gathering activities into the category of work

 

[bogydave]

Have you looked into energy tax credits & rebates for the state of NY?
They even have a sales tax exemption.
Link to some of it here:

http://www.empire.state.ny.us/BusinessPrograms/Taxes_Incentives.html

 

[infinitymike]

How much do you save burning wood.
At $125/cord of locust, cord lasts how long?

8 cords. More than I burn here.
May need to upgrade the house insulation & it pays you back every day from the day you upgrade until you sell

5 choices

I was spending about $5000 a year in oil

Between last year and this year I spent about $150 in scroung wood. Remember I pulled a logging truck over and gave a $150 for about 10 cord of log length oak!

I definitely need some better insulation.

 

[infinitymike]

8 cord? How many square feet are you heating? $125 a cord is really cheap for NY. I'd go 50/50.

I am heating 2900 sq ft plus heating dhw .

I believe I could burn less if my wood was drier and if I fixed a few plumbing issues which I believe will decrease the burn times.

 

[bogydave]

I was spending about $5000 a year in oil

Between last year and this year I spent about $150 in scroung wood. Remember I pulled a logging truck over and gave a $150 for about 10 cord of log length oak!

I definitely need some better insulation.

$5000 / year for oil. Yea, you are making big $$ burning 8 cords of wood. Even if yo have to buy it for $150/cord of locust.

I remember the post about pulling over a log truck. LOL. Took balls. Ended up a great score .


I did the energy audit thing thru the state of AK. State refunded the cost of the audit. Took about a month to get the check from the state.
I had 18 months to get the recommendations done & the followup audit completed

Did the things recommended, & got the follow up audit.
Got a rebates from the state for everything that I did that was on the audit & the cost of the follow up audit. About 6 weeks had the check.

Noticed savings immediately & has saved me $$ every winter day since

Now Alaska has energy rebates up to $10k per household I think.

 

[fabsroman]

IMO....if $1,000 isn't gonna break the bank, or cause financial hardship....spend the money, there is no price you can put on time spent with family, especially if you have youngin's....they grow up fast, and you wonder how it happened

Yeah, but for $1k you might as well run natural gas instead of firewood. A lot less work and how much more could it really be to run natural gas to heat the house instead of wood? Me, I am going to make my kids help me. My brothers, sisters, and I were the same way when we were teenagers. I would rather be working out or riding my bike than helping my dad. Now, 20+ years later, we all agree it was one heck of a learning experience that we benefit from today. Teenagers have no idea what is good for them. When I was 17, I didn't want to go to college, but wanted to race bikes for a living. Probably would not have doped a la Lance Armstrong, so my career would have sucked. My parents had the right idea of "forcing" me to go to college. I picked law school on my own though.

With three people helping to do the splitting, it should go by pretty quick. Dad and son can split while daughter stacks. Firewood should be done in a couple of days worth of work. Otherwise, shut off the heat vents to their bedrooms during the winter unless they want to help pay for the utility bill.

Just today, I told my wife that parenting is way harder than lawyering. I've taken homes and paychecks away from people without much regret. Today, I caught my 4 year old son hitting my 6 year old daughter and he already knew the punishment would be not attending a friend's birthday party because we had that discussion yesterday morning when my wife caught the two of them fighting. Tonight, I was watching the two of them unbeknownst to them, and while my daughter was not sharing, which led to the hitting, I watched my son hit her not once, which I might have let slide, but 4 times. He was shocked when I walked up on him and cried forever when I told him he would not go to the birthday party tomorrow. It hurt like hell to enforce that punishment because I knew he was looking forward to it very much. He cried snot and tears tonight when he was told again he would not be going to the party. Hell, it is still bugging me at 3:00 in the morning.

Did I mention that parenting is DAMN hard?

 

[gzecc]

Yeah, but for $1k you might as well run natural gas instead of firewood. A lot less work and how much more could it really be to run natural gas to heat the house instead of wood? Me, I am going to make my kids help me. My brothers, sisters, and I were the same way when we were teenagers. I would rather be working out or riding my bike than helping my dad. Now, 20+ years later, we all agree it was one heck of a learning experience that we benefit from today. Teenagers have no idea what is good for them. When I was 17, I didn't want to go to college, but wanted to race bikes for a living. Probably would not have doped a la Lance Armstrong, so my career would have sucked. My parents had the right idea of "forcing" me to go to college. I picked law school on my own though.

With three people helping to do the splitting, it should go by pretty quick. Dad and son can split while daughter stacks. Firewood should be done in a couple of days worth of work. Otherwise, shut off the heat vents to their bedrooms during the winter unless they want to help pay for the utility bill.

Just today, I told my wife that parenting is way harder than lawyering. I've taken homes and paychecks away from people without much regret. Today, I caught my 4 year old son hitting my 6 year old daughter and he already knew the punishment would be not attending a friend's birthday party because we had that discussion yesterday morning when my wife caught the two of them fighting. Tonight, I was watching the two of them unbeknownst to them, and while my daughter was not sharing, which led to the hitting, I watched my son hit her not once, which I might have let slide, but 4 times. He was shocked when I walked up on him and cried forever when I told him he would not go to the birthday party tomorrow. It hurt like hell to enforce that punishment because I knew he was looking forward to it very much. He cried snot and tears tonight when he was told again he would not be going to the party. Hell, it is still bugging me at 3:00 in the morning.

Did I mention that parenting is DAMN hard?

Yeah, but it should feel good that your doing the right thing. I remember to this day (probably 40 yrs ago) when my mother stood her ground on an issue with me. No matter how much I cried I couldn't manipulate her.
At the very least, give your kids is integrity.

 

[WarmGuy]

My 17 yr son would rather lift weights than logs. He does help begrudgingly.

Seriously, "functional fitness" is the rage these days. Great way to tone up.

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[fabsroman]

Yeah, but it should feel good that your doing the right thing. I remember to this day (probably 40 yrs ago) when my mother stood her ground on an issue with me. No matter how much I cried I couldn't manipulate her.
At the very least, give your kids is integrity.

The only reason I am not caving in on these punishments is the fact that I know they need discipline and structure if they are going to get anywhere in life. They get rewards too when they are good. They were good for all of our shopping trip last Saturday so they got ice cream from a frozen yogurt place afterward. First time we went to this place and it was self serve with a bunch of toppings. They loved it. Went on another shopping excursion today for a ball hitch for my mower so I can move the splitter around, washers to make the ball hitch work, and lacrosse gear for both kids. They weren't good enough to deserve ice cream, so dealt with the crocodile tears when we got home and I broke the news to them. Gave them a makeup chance though. If they help really good around the house after lunch and eat their dinner, we will go to the ice cream place after dinner. Heck, punishing them in this case is punishing me. I like that frozen yogurt place myself and can already taste the cappucino frozen yogurt with chocolate chip sprinkles and strawberry poppers. Lunch time. lol

We joke my dad about using us as free labor when we were young, but we also tell my parents that they raised us the right way.

 

[fespo]

Turn that 17 year boy into a man and make him work, if he likes it or not. Sorry if I offend you or anyone else. But this is what is wrong with kids today day, they don't want to so parents just deal with. OK I vented to much.