My friends just don't get it!

[fireview2788]

So my buddies and I are sitting in our local Italian deli enjoying our dinner when I strike up conversation with the owner about the smoked corn chowder I just had and he started explaining his smokers (has two). He comes back a few minutes later with a piece of cherry and comments on how it takes him two hours to split what he needs to keep the big smoker going and how sore he was because he was splitting by hand. He said that he really doesn't have the time to spend splitting but he does it because it's so good. I, being a friendly fellow woodburner, offer to bring my splitter over and get things done in no time for him. WOW, my buddies start giving me all sorts of grief and telling the owner not to egg me on. All I know is that when I go spend 1/2 an hour splitting for him and get rewarded with an awesome Italian meal I'll be the one laughing.

fv

 

[katwillny]

People who are not wood burners dont understand why we are still messing with firewood if the summer is coming. I told someone last weekend that Dave Ramsey told me to get firewood to lower my heating cost and they looked at me like I had an extra head growing out of my shoulders. And asked "who is Dave Ramsey" at that point i said my pleasantries and said so long. LOL.

 

[Thistle]

Oh yeah I get the "jeez dont you have enough?","Wont that rot before you burn it all?" & "Why are you cutting this when its Spring/Summer?" from some others than family members once in a while.I just ignore them usually.

 

[bogydave]

Same, When neighbors & friends come by, & I'm out back they ask if I sell wood.
I say no it's too much work, no one could afford my price.
"Why so much" they ask. Takes 2 years to dry it so it'll burn, gotta stay 2 years ahead.
They shake their heads & say "never heard that".
Some think it will rot before I get to burn it.

 

[fireview2788]

Yeah, my neighbor told me it would rot before I used the 3 cords I had mid-summer last year. I wonder what she's thinking now that I'm over 6?

fv

 

[PapaDave]

Yep.
Everyone who visits (I don't show the stacks to locals) gets a tour of the wood rows out back. They look at all that wood and ask if I did all that.
It's pretty funny and seems as if no one knows what manual labor is.
Not too many people I know who are willing to put this much into keeping their house warm, in this manner.
Had an old friend recently telling me his propain bills average between $350-400/month for winter heating.
I told him to sit down, then said I heat my house for less than $60/month average. Didn't seem to phase him. I'm confuzzled by that.

 

[DMZX]

I sometimes ask people that wonder why I am putting up wood, (and pellets), this time of year this:

Have you ever heard the story of the ant and the grasshopper? Well, I am the ant.

Then they get it.

 

[HJsimpson]

My wood stacks are only shown by invitation only. If they ask why i have so much they are asked to leave .

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I doubt that many will ever understand. Especially the part about working with the wood when the house doesn't need heating. It probably has something to do with this thing about buying gas when you need it and not before. It also has something to do with the old ways and some still practice it; that is, cut the wood when you need it. Of course, the fact that those are the ones that have problems has nothing to do with it! And have you noticed that there are many who wanted to burn wood to save dollars but... First, they want to get into burning wood without spending many dollars. Second, they want the buy the wood just when they need it. After all, the guy said it was ready to burn...

 

[katwillny]

My parents came up last weekend to visit and my mother was impressed that I, a systems analyst by trade and lazy teenager that I was, had cut, split, scrounged and stacked so much wood in so little time. She coudlnt get over the fact that I TOUCHED ever single piece of wood that was stacked. I guess when she mentioned the touched every piece, it put it into perspective and gave me a sense of pride of what I had accomplished. I told pop, its not that I have to do it, is that I want to and can do it and him being a janitor for 30 years can certainly appreciate hard work. I tell my friends that its not so much the savings, is a lifestyle that my wife and I enjoy. I have a relatively efficient natural gas furnace which price is very affordable, but I like the way wood heats us, must be the country boy in me.

 

[Pallet Pete]

You can't watch a beautiful lazy fire with a furnace knowing that you supplied your own heat and remembering each split that you put in ! That's what makes us happy over here !

Pete