Firewood Availability

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Oldtoad of Green Acres

New Member
May 26, 2022
55
Kennebec County, Maine
Just picked up some cedar for the greenhouse which might be converted into a firewood dryer.
The guy sells firewood too. Asked about a delivery. He said, maybe in a few weeks, demand is very high, many new customers and he has had difficulty in securing wood lots to cut. Also said he has never been this low on inventory (firewood) at this time of year.
Just an observation.
 
Wood and wood stove sales are set to go through the roof this year. This echoes the 1970s.
 
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I wonder what the supply of compressed saw dust bricks and logs will be? Tight I’m sure but how tight and what will prices be?

I might be looking for adds for someone who has portable mill and asking if they would sell scrap slabs.
It’s not going to get better and there will be a lot of new burners trying to heat their homes with wet wood come this winter. Time to start being creative. Solar kiln is a great idea.
 
We have an export terminal in our port. Relatively new, 5 or less years old. I imagine with the sanctions on Russian energy industrial pellets (I think 1/2” or even bigger) will be in high demand for awhile. But the NC Swamp loggers just decided to get out of the business and sell all the equipment off. So fuel cost has to be driven up costs at all levels.

I really like being able to tune on the heatpump when it warms up enough to be efficient. I last couple winters I tried to heat 90-95% with wood. Basically I’d it was 55 or colder (I know it’s not Maine cold temps) I’d be burning. This year if it was 40-45 degrees or colder I’d burn. Saved a good bit of wood but it was a warmer winter.

My point is heatpumps and especially with the Maine incentivizes and wood heat make a good combo. Oil will be staying high through this winter I think.
 
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EbS-P said:
We have an export terminal in our port. Relatively ne.w, 5 or less years old. I imagine with the sanctions on Russian energy industrial pellets (I think 1/2” or even bigger) will be in high demand for awhile. But the NC Swamp loggers just decided to get out of the business and sell all the equipment off. So fuel cost has to be driven up costs at all levels.

I really like being able to tune on the heatpump when it warms up enough to be efficient. I last couple winters I tried to heat 90-95% with wood. Basically I’d it was 55 or colder (I know it’s not Maine cold temps) I’d be burning. This year if it was 40-45 degrees or colder I’d burn. Saved a good bit of wood but it was a warmer winter.

My point is heatpumps and especially with the Maine incentivizes and wood heat make a good combo. Oil will be staying high through this winter I think.
Click to expand...
The neighbor put on an addition and used the heat pump in addition to their wood stove. Granted there was construction going on, kids underfoot with lots of door openings.
$500 the first month.
powerthefuture.com

Two-Thirds of the Country Face the Prospect of Blackouts this Summer

The tough news keeps coming for Americans struggling with high energy prices. Not only have gas prices broken records for the past several weeks, now a good portion of the country is being told they should expect rolling blackouts, as we enter the hot summer months. The North American Electric...
powerthefuture.com powerthefuture.com
Not trying to be a doom and gloomier. Better to be prepared and not need it than to need it and not have it.
The electric grid is getting shakier, no way those Teslas are gonna be able to burn wood to keep warm operating like you. My woodstove is due Monday so I did not say us.
 
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Oldtoad of Green Acres said:
The neighbor put on an addition and used the heat pump in addition to their wood stove. Granted there was construction going on, kids underfoot with lots of door openings.
$500 the first month.
powerthefuture.com

Two-Thirds of the Country Face the Prospect of Blackouts this Summer

The tough news keeps coming for Americans struggling with high energy prices. Not only have gas prices broken records for the past several weeks, now a good portion of the country is being told they should expect rolling blackouts, as we enter the hot summer months. The North American Electric...
powerthefuture.com powerthefuture.com
Not trying to be a doom and gloomier. Better to be prepared and not need it than to need it and not have it.
The electric grid is getting shakier, no way those Teslas are gonna be able to burn wood to keep warm operating like you. My woodstove is due Monday so I did not say us.
Click to expand...
I am sorry but that article is extremely biased and misleading. The biggest risk to the energy supply is the drought putting the hydroelectric dams in the south west at risk of going off line. A shift to alternatives is absolutely not causing the issues.
 
bholler said:
I am sorry but that article is extremely biased and misleading. The biggest risk to the energy supply is the drought putting the hydroelectric dams in the south west at risk of going off line. A shift to alternatives is absolutely not causing the issues.
Click to expand...
Agreed, it was the first that I found and perhaps not the best choice.
Does not mention the northeast at all.
Lots of solar panels being installed in Maine. When the e- demand is highest the sun is the lowest.
 
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bholler said:
I am sorry but that article is extremely biased and misleading. The biggest risk to the energy supply is the drought putting the hydroelectric dams in the south west at risk of going off line. A shift to alternatives is absolutely not causing the issues.
Click to expand...
Yup Lake Mead is getting pretty parched.
 
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Oldtoad of Green Acres said:
Agreed, it was the first that I found and perhaps not the best choice.
Does not mention the northeast at all.
Lots of solar panels being installed in Maine. When the e- demand is highest the sun is the lowest.
Click to expand...
Not during the summer. During the summer ac demand is highest during the day and early evening when solar panels are producing. It tapers off at night
 
Oldtoad of Green Acres said:
Yes, on page 13 of that report New England looks to be slightly worse off than Texas.
For the summer Texas is a bit warmer though.
I'll shut up, future is looking bright, going to need shades...
Click to expand...
There are absolutely issues but blaming those issues on the wrong things doesn't help matters at all .
 
Thinking a little more about this....
Purchased a used Wallenstein FX90 skidding winch after doing a little maff. Half the PTO was missing, ordered it, supposedly in stock, the shaft is in the mail.
Changing the Kubota transmission fluid, over $400 for filters and fluid. Many empty shelves in the oil isles, went to 3 stores and the internet.
So, I went to the local firewood supplier, put my name in a month ago, breakdowns, availability of you name it, demand through the roof, still no firewood delivered.
Not sniveling, got enough kero for the winter and I got a line on a few hundred solar panels for a solar farm to keep us warm in the winter...
 
Interested in this "skidding winch" for the Kubota. I always just put a drawbar with chain grab hook on the 3-point, a choker chain around the end of the log, lift, drag out of woods. In my wood lot, now that I have a larger tractor, I welded a pair of chain grab hooks to the top of the bucket. A pair of 5/16" x 10-foot chains with a slip hook on one end and a grab hook on the other makes a fantastic pair of chokers for lifting full logs up to 2000 lb., and I still drag if they're much more than that.

I have a winch on my trailer, which I use to retrieve logs from roadside or field, rather than having to cart a tractor with me to pickup sites, but never really saw any need for an actual winch on a tractor. Interested in how you use it.
 
After the lot cutting a few years ago the remaining good sized trees left are damaged from the ice storm in '98 I think, some really twisted or relatively short and thick.
Not long enough for the firewood processor market, too big for the chipper they had on site at the time. A lot of beech, some big oak and maple.
Don't really want to get in close with the tractor and take out a bunch of the good sized saplings.
When the guy demonstrated the winch, that 165' cable sure did look long.
For what it cost, what they sell for and the condition it is in, worth the chance. The missing pto piece took the easy profit but the new one is shielded, feel better about that.
Edit, also have some big trees hanging in the air, dropped by excavator, suspended above the ground so it did not rot.
Over 40 years, injuries are permanent.
 
A choker chain on the tractor works well for pulling logs if you can get the tractor close enough to the log. Or you can put a cable between the choker and the tractor. You still need enough room to drive the tractor in the right direction far enough to pull the log to where you can handle it in a better way. My land is steep and the wooded part has a lot of trees so there's a lot of land that I can't operate the tractor on and where the cable trick also does not work. That's what I got the PTO winch for.
 
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I stick with a gas powered capstan winch for moving trees around. It slow and requires rigging but its fast enough for me.
 
I just park my trailer at the top of the hill, and drag cable and chain from the winch on the trailer. I keep a few snatch blocks and straps on board, so I can steer the cable from anchor trees, as needed. But most of my skidding is with the tractor. If there's another tree in the way, I just cut it down, and make more firewood.
 
Local Excavator guy is delivering 2 tree length cords, $125ea.
Firewood guy stopped by to look at the lot, he said I have plenty for a chipper. Not suitable for a guy with a skidder and cable winch. Beech is all diseased. Not cutting the oaks. He also said he might have some split firewood for me soon.
Guy that sold me the Wallenstein texted, said he would sell me the missing pto half for $200. Thanked him.
The ordered new one has shields, winch to me is worth the extra. Saw some vids of what happens to something caught up in pto, messy!
Summer is here. Got the little tractor stuck in the woods while the dog was tangling with a porcupine, ticks and blood sucking bugs everywhere. 40 quills, vet was happy to see us..
 
I took a drive the other day and noticed quite a few people have fresh loads of firewood dumped in their yards. Most people around here have some kind of wood burning appliance in their house. But I think most haven’t used them in recent years. From all the piles of firewood it seems like that will change this winter.

I don’t know how a lot of people will pay for fuel oil this winter. I got some diesel for my tractor today and it was 5.99$ a gallon. And K1 kero was over 6.50$ a gallon. I forget the exact price.


Logging winches are nice. I use a Farmi winch on my tractor. The cable is something like 200’ long. I can cut trees off the trail and pull them right up to the tractor. And my favorite thing about it is being able to pull down hung up trees.

I have a ton of dead or dying ash trees I’ve been cutting. I honestly don’t know that I’ll get to all of them before they start to rot. I have two winters worth of firewood stacked now, and working on the 3rd. Thinking about cutting some extra to sell if the prices will be high.
 
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Yup, people getting anxious about water and food, here I sit amidst a forest of trees and not a stick fit for the woodstove sitting in the middle of the living room on a pallet.
Picked up the correct PTO shaft with shear yesterday afternoon from the Kubota dealer.
Bottom of the car dragged on the drive, about time to grade out the ruts..
 
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