Heat in the iron box anc heat in the hand.

[DavidV]

Sitting on my screened porch listening to the rain.....;..The Steel box inside is full of whispy blue flames and red coals. It disturbs me that so few of my friends are willing to burn wood to heat or supplement their heat needs. thousands of tons of wood go to waste around here every year. I burn oak. If it doesn't provide BTU's comprable to oak I won't even bother with it. That's how much wod is available around here. I don't pay for wood. Won't do it. Because I don't need to. I wish there was something I could do to influence my peers but they just aren't willing.

 

[Roospike]

Good post . I see a lot of wasted wood in my area as well and seeing it go to the city dump is just teeth grinding when i see it.

I have cut down a lot of not so great of BTU wood like cottonwood around here and to not even see this wood go to waste i normally cut it up and dump it at lakes , rivers and camp sites for the outdoor fire pits.
Elk has mentioned many time of going to the dump and picking up many cords of wood that was dropped of there to rot or get buried.

Down in Kansas where i had lived they had a separate dump in town for wood from take outs and what not and was all burned at set times of the month. They let wood scroungers and or who ever was interested in the wood come down and pay $5.00 for all the wood you could take out/off the lot within business hours of the day. If you could cut up 4 cords of hard wood in 9 hours than it only cost you $5.00 for the total load.
Great idea and I would love to see more of this kind of action in cities.

 

[DriftWood]

The winter temperatures may be to worm for people to "bother with the mess, burning that stuff". The cost savings may not be worth the hassle. It would be easy to heat your house using wood in your area both saving money, not using fossil fuel and cutting CO emissions.

2006 climate
January MEAN temp. 45.0 F, SNOWDEPTH AVG. 0 in.
Febuary MEAN temp. 40.0 F , SNOWDEPTH AVG. 0 in.

(broken link removed)

 

[Sandor]

Wood all over here too. Several weeks ago, got a load of white oak from a fallen tree along the road, compliments of TS Ernesto. Did not have a chance to get it all. There is still maybe two cords sitting there. Will go again soon to clean it up.

How high must the cost of energy go before people switch? I know in WV, if there was a fallen oak next to a road it would have dissappeared in less than a day! About a third of the homes heat with wood up there. Maybe 2 percent around here in the Middle Pininsula.

 

[DavidV]

Yeah, I agree we are softer. Am I older? yeah I am .....hate to admit it, but I'm plenty young enough to go pick up wood. I'm going to cut up a tree that fell last night at a neighbor's home. I cut it enough for them to pull from the driveway since it was dark, and am going back down there right now.. Have another neighbor who cut up several takedowns all oak and all I have to do is pick it up. At least a cored maybe 2 . Already cut into rounds. Just load and go. No kidding, I'm gonna have to give some wood away next year. Just can't burn this much. Maybe I'll let my boys sell some of it at a low cost to raise their own spending money for Christmas....just to teach the value of a dollar.

 

[wahoowad]

My friend's hands are too soft to run a chainsaw or stoke a fire. City boys who live in a college town. One lives in a fancy house without a fireplace, the other in a house with two unused fireplaces. Nancy boys raising nancy-boy kids - soccer and french classes, don't even think they own a football. We don't hang out much because they like indoor activities and I like the outdoors. Just as well, they would look funny hauling logs in their Audi's.

 

[PAJerry]

I bought a load of slab wood and mill ends this past weekend. Looks like it will be just fine for my stove. The seller said that this stuff gets landfilled if it sits around too long, which is a real shame. How much 'energy' is wasted when that happens? I figure the load will heat my house for at least 3 months and cost me $90, whereas natural gas in the middle of winter would run me $700+ for the same period. I'm kinda old (55) but still cut and split 3 cords last spring, but I like the idea of using waste wood when I can because it involves a little less work on my part.

 

[jldunn]

Fossil fuels warm you twice. Once burning and once from the greenhouse effect.

 

[suematteva]

Good post...This morning driving through northern vermont and they had cut trees along the side of the road for new telephone poles and you could see where people had been in there poaching, little further down the road saw a two wheel drive farm tractor with chains on just completely stuck in the mud, scrounging to the next level...probably a forum member...

Last week was going by a buddy's place and the tree crews had been cleaning along the road, I stopped to say hello and ask him why he wasn't out there with saw and trailer..nice sugar maple and oak, elm....Wifey was there..we shot the breeze for 20 minutes and i left...Later that night i get a message asking for the big saw and truck....Wifey went down and ask a couple neighbors if they wanted the wood...

Half of next years wood is now in his yard and by the end of this week it will be 75 %. They go through 4 cord a year...

 

[Corey]

Actually...I really hope that NO more people around me start burning wood. When a hand full of people engage in an activity, it is pretty much under the radar...no one really cares, and there is not much regulation. As soon as people start engaging in an activity in mass...along comes regulation, fees, taxes, licenses, laws, etc. Then it is really not fun anymore.

I love burning wood, but if I had to pay license fees, taxes, and registration...like driving a car, hunting, fishing or face burn bans or could only burn on certain days that would really bite and I'd probably start looking for something else.


Corey

 

[nshif]

I agree with Corey, if too many more people start to burn it will be harder to find wood and the restrictions will go up because there will be money to be made.
Ill also agree there arnt too many young people willing to work this hard to save a few bucks. I cut all my own wood @ 55 and split and stack it all. Granted I have some help, Hes 90 and still outworks me. Hes a life longlogger and loves to be in the woods. Between his place and mine we put in about 18 cords this year.

 

[DriftWood]

Actually...I really hope that NO more people around me start burning wood. When a hand full of people engage in an activity, it is pretty much under the radar...no one really cares, and there is not much regulation. As soon as people start engaging in an activity in mass...along comes regulation, fees, taxes, licenses, laws, etc. Then it is really not fun anymore.

I love burning wood, but if I had to pay license fees, taxes, and registration...like driving a car, hunting, fishing or face burn bans or could only burn on certain days that would really bite and I'd probably start looking for something else.


Corey

Don't look now but the EPA regulations are in place, stoves are better and cleaner but cost a lot more. This happened as a lot of people in 1980s tried to use Francklin stoves that were not clean, safe or efficient. The cost of permits on my new install was $120.00 and as the inspector left he mentioned some insurance companies want annual inspections. Burn bans are a fact of life and death in mountainous areas today. Something else? Electric heat is happening in Europe. Groups of neighbors are getting together to buy really big wind powered electric generators and making real money selling the surplus to the electric grid.