The largest newspaper in Maine has recently printed an article that endorses using soft wood ( which they call low grade wood) as an additive to regular seasoned hard wood for burning in wood stoves. They use the disarming name of this product as "biscuit wood". A holdover from the past when softwood was used in cook stoves to stretch primo heating seasoned hard wood. They also suggest that this softwood be used on the shoulders of the heating season when only a little heat is needed. I guess I am in agreement with this approach as long as the user of softwood knows that softwood creates more creosote in chimneys and users should be more vigilant in their maintenance of their chimneys. When I lived in Portland the local dump had tons and tons of softwood just waiting for a chainsaw. You would only have to ask permission to take some of this wood, and having shown the proper respect of asking first, the dump rangers would often direct you to the choicest places to cut and take this wood. Now I live in Cornish Maine and there is no dump for this town. I asked at town hall...what do i do with my disposables and they said well put them out to the weekly trash collection. So I asked what about disposing of building demolition and large articles and their reply was I don't know what to tell you. This kind of town run goverment is a joke and fosters illegal dumping on the side of the road or in the woods or etc.
I figure I pay enough in taxes on my silly trailer to this town to have a proper disposal site available. My trailer, which I paid $70,000 less than a year ago has a tax bill of close to $800/ year. The town policy is if you haven't moved here by April you are responsible for the whole tax bill without homestead exemption. So even though by the time taxes are due by Dec31 , I still won't qualify for a homestead exemption even thought as of Dec 31, I will have lived here for 16 months.
One thing that bothered me about the newspaper article is they claimed that one cord of seasoned oak is equal to 155 gallons of heating oil. This has to be wrong as I burned 750 gallons last year in an 1100 sq ft place. That would mean i need 5 cord to get through the heating season... and there is no way I'll burn more than 3 cord at most. Where do they get these stats?
I figure I pay enough in taxes on my silly trailer to this town to have a proper disposal site available. My trailer, which I paid $70,000 less than a year ago has a tax bill of close to $800/ year. The town policy is if you haven't moved here by April you are responsible for the whole tax bill without homestead exemption. So even though by the time taxes are due by Dec31 , I still won't qualify for a homestead exemption even thought as of Dec 31, I will have lived here for 16 months.
One thing that bothered me about the newspaper article is they claimed that one cord of seasoned oak is equal to 155 gallons of heating oil. This has to be wrong as I burned 750 gallons last year in an 1100 sq ft place. That would mean i need 5 cord to get through the heating season... and there is no way I'll burn more than 3 cord at most. Where do they get these stats?
