Getting talked down to because of wood heat?

[woodchip]

I'm even impressed with that one,,,,,I wish I could heat our water with wood.

Fairground showmans traction engines always used to have little generators on the front for the lights and thngs. I've often wondered about firing one on wood instead of coal.

Or just get one of these.....

http://www.claverton-energy.com/min...-steam-engine-to-run-on-renewable-energy.html

 

[woodchip]

Why harvest wood when you can spend 14 hours a day playing Xbox. LOL> Thats the overall consensus of guys in my generation, not all but a great percentage. Heck, I'd rather spend 5 hours messing with wood than 20 minutes sitting inside playing games, i spend enough time in front of a computer for work. Any chance I get, i am outback messing with wood.

And when you're not chopping wood, you are sitting at a computer screen, discussing chopping wood.........

 

[Thistle]

And when you're not chopping wood, you are sitting at a computer screen, discussing chopping wood.........

haha that's me & several hundred others on here it seems....

 

[begreen]

This has always been a point for me.
I've worked with my brother (HVAC, plumbing) for over 17 years, and people pay 2-3-4-5,000 for a furnace install, but think paying for a stove is too expensive.
Just has me baffled.

That's cuz stoves mean Work !.

 

[seige101]

ive had folks refer to me as "contributing to global warming" because i build these products. according to some im an "eco-terrorist"

I would just casually mention the gulf oil spill disaster...

 

[corey21]

I often get comments about splitting and stacking so much wood especially this fall.

 

[Badfish740]

I often get comments about splitting and stacking so much wood especially this fall.

The first time someone sees my backyard (and my 5+ cord woodshed) I usually get comments like "what are you going to do with all that?" I live in an area with a lot of folks who have a stove in the living room or the den where the stove is more for ambiance or an occasional warm up. They might buy a cord or two (or a rick, a face cord, or some other bastardized "measurement") a year if that from a landscaper or tree guy who cut it and split three months ago. Contrast that to me-I've been burning on and off since early October and non-stop since mid-November and won't stop until probably the beginning of April. When they get their minds around that they figure out "what I'm going to do with all that wood."

 

[brian89gp]

Just tell them that you have an excuse to own and use chainsaws.

They probably won't understand that either. Poor ole saps.

 

[brian89gp]

Im totally with you on that, Im 27 and love wood cutting, gardening, and canning. I get a lot of looks like "people still do that stuff?" But as onetracker said ther just isnt anything as satisfying to me as feeling the warmth from that stove, and eating the food I grow all year round. I LOVE it. Too bad its becoming so rare, people these days have so much instant gratification they have lost appreciation for hard work. But if anything ever happens where we have a nationwide crisis guess who all those people will turn to?

Same here. I swear just about everybody I know thinks I am a loon. If only they knew....its not me who has the blinders on.

 

[corey21]

The first time someone sees my backyard (and my 5+ cord woodshed) I usually get comments like "what are you going to do with all that?" I live in an area with a lot of folks who have a stove in the living room or the den where the stove is more for ambiance or an occasional warm up. They might buy a cord or two (or a rick, a face cord, or some other bastardized "measurement") a year if that from a landscaper or tree guy who cut it and split three months ago. Contrast that to me-I've been burning on and off since early October and non-stop since mid-November and won't stop until probably the beginning of April. When they get their minds around that they figure out "what I'm going to do with all that wood."

Around here people cut there wood then burn it green.

Not seen but a few folks like me in the area.

 

[Gasifier]

The first time someone sees my backyard (and my 5+ cord woodshed) I usually get comments like "what are you going to do with all that?" I live in an area with a lot of folks who have a stove in the living room or the den where the stove is more for ambiance or an occasional warm up. They might buy a cord or two (or a rick, a face cord, or some other bastardized "measurement") a year if that from a landscaper or tree guy who cut it and split three months ago. Contrast that to me-I've been burning on and off since early October and non-stop since mid-November and won't stop until probably the beginning of April. When they get their minds around that they figure out "what I'm going to do with all that wood."

Good discription Badfish. Are you ever wearing a hat like the one in your avatar when you usually get comments like........ I love that hat. That was a character in a movie right? Was it Jeremiah Johnson?

 

[aussiedog3]

Keep buying those x-boxes. My son likes his job (Kinect for Windows).

He also likes my stove. And hiking, snorkeling, snowboarding, rockclimbing, home maintenance, cooking, music, trail crew at Philmont. Also co-built the award winning Groovex cube, on display at the Pacific Science Center and about to start a world tour..

Let's not make the mistake of stereotyping. That's what the original post was basically discussing.

He must be a tough kid doing the trail crew at Philmont. I did 3 hours of trail maintenance for our crew conservations project, wheel barrowing gravel uphill on a trail at elevation and it kicked my butt. Moving wheelbarrows loaded with heavy firewood I'm sure was good training.

 

[Badfish740]

Good discription Badfish. Are you ever wearing a hat like the one in your avatar when you usually get comments like........ I love that hat. That was a character in a movie right? Was it Jeremiah Johnson?

LOL...yeah for some reason the bearskin freaks folks out-not sure why? Just kidding...I wish I had one though. I have been known to break out the mad bomber hat once in a while though:

(broken image removed)

Also, it's kind of funny, everyone thinks this is the guy from Jeremiah Johnson, actually it's the character "Bear Man" from the new version of True Grit. He doesn't have a large part in the movie but it's certainly a memorable one.

 

[Gasifier]

LOL...yeah for some reason the bearskin freaks folks out-not sure why? Just kidding...I wish I had one though. I have been known to break out the mad bomber hat once in a while though:

(broken image removed)

Also, it's kind of funny, everyone thinks this is the guy from Jeremiah Johnson, actually it's the character "Bear Man" from the new version of True Grit. He doesn't have a large part in the movie but it's certainly a memorable one.

I have a hat that covers the back of the head similar and the flaps come down over the ears and velcros under your chin. The dam thing is nice but it is too hot to wear most of the time. I am out working today, taking a break right now, and it is 30 degrees here. I only put a hat on for a few minutes and then have to take it off for a while. Only when it gets down below 10 can I leave one on for any length of time.

 

[Hearth Mistress]

We installed a stove after the bad ice storm that hit the northeast last Halloween. It was then we realized that spending over $2k for furnace repairs and oil, it was useless without electric to run it! 5 days without power, using a kerosene heater was a mess, wood stove was the BEST decision we ever made.
Yes, some people around here think we are nuts, always looking for wood and staging it for the future. However, they understood it all a few weeks ago! Hurricane Sandy ripped through here leaving us without power and all of the utilities for almost 2 weeks! I gave the kerosene heater to our neighbor to use but was so happy to be able to cook, heat water and be WARM for all of those days when others where driving hours trying to find hotels with available rooms.

There are so many down trees, there are still waiting lists to rent big splitters! We had an 85ft ash tree come down (on the house unfortunately) that took a crane to move but we will have wood for a LONG time! I don't miss $700 oil tank fill bills, i'd rather buy bar oil anyway!

 

[woodchip]

There are so many down trees, there are still waiting lists to rent big splitters! We had an 85ft ash tree come down (on the house unfortunately) that took a crane to move but we will have wood for a LONG time! I don't miss $700 oil tank fill bills, i'd rather buy bar oil anyway!

Don't worry about splitting, just get as much wood in while you can. You can always rent a splitter in a while and hold all the big stuff back for a splitting weekend. Meanwhile, I'd be tempted to use my axe or sledge and wedge for the smaller stuff, just to keep the yard a bit tidy.

Hope the damage to your house wasn't too bad, sod's law says a falling tree would rip out an exterior flue rendering the stove unusable......

 

[Hearth Mistress]

Don't worry about splitting, just get as much wood in while you can. You can always rent a splitter in a while and hold all the big stuff back for a splitting weekend. Meanwhile, I'd be tempted to use my axe or sledge and wedge for the smaller stuff, just to keep the yard a bit tidy.

Hope the damage to your house wasn't too bad, sod's law says a falling tree would rip out an exterior flue rendering the stove unusable......

Lucky for us, while the damage is substantial, its all fixable " just lumber and drywall" as my contractor told our adjuster. Our house is an old bank barn on a stone foundation so when the tree hit, at the window of the 2nd floor, it pushed the window out of the frame but the house, for the most part, held its own. It shifted everything about 6" to the left so all of the drywall seams are cracked but now that the tree is off the house, it settled back, or so we were told. The engineer that came out to render our house "safe" told us if it was new construction, it would have cut the house in half! They just don't make 'em like they use to! We will get a new roof, siding and bathroom not to mention all the wood we could ever want!

The crew that came out used a 32" bar and STILL had to make 2 cuts to cut up the tree, it is massive. They cut it into manageable chunks but the chunks still weight about 300 lbs each! The rest of the smaller stuff they were nice enough to cut into stove lengths and even stack for us. My neighbor has a much bigger house and much bigger stove and swears he cuts and burns ash the same day. I tried one piece, just sizzle, it burnt but no heat. Not sure what he's doing that I'm not but it can sit for now.

We have a small 7 ton electric splitter that gets through just about anything we can lift on to it. Eventually the big stuff will get cut and split too, a lot or work but STILL better than paying for oil, hands down.

Sick thing is, my hubby is taking vacation days mon and tues because its going to be in the mid to upper 50's here and we can get more of it cut, split and staged. A friend gave us a few truck loads of black walnut too so wood, wood everywhere!

 

[Jags]

Jeni - sounds like you folks have got it figured out. Good on ya. and welcome to the forum.
Ash is a low moisture wood, even when live, but in new epa stoves ain't worth a darn till it has dried down. I still recommend 12 mo. of split and stacked - even for ash.