Where do you get your wood?

[SeanBB]

Most of my wood I buy from a one-man general contractor. I have done for years. Some of his work is clearing land and that sometimes includes trees. Although he sells firewood cut and split, I only buy wood from him green and in rings, therefore I pay a lot less. When he has a job near me that will produce wood he comes to my house and asks me if I am interested. It means that he only has to load it onto his truck once instead of taking it to his yard, processing it, seasoning it and loading it again for delivery. I pay cash and so it is a laissez faire arrangement which suits us both.
I also get some wood from my land although that is not enough on its own. I have a Honda Civic so scrounging is limited.
I am currently about four years ahead and never have to burn anything that is less than three years seasoned. I have oak, sycamore, silver birch, holly and hazel.

 

[peakbagger]

Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you have a great setup. Buy it green and season it yourself is the way to go. Hard to justify all the gear to cut your own when you have reliable supplier and can get a couple of year ahead.

 

[Rangerbait]

I was initially concerned about finding a reliable source of supply around here when I first decided to start burning wood again, since there is very little public forest land in this region. Growing up in California, it seemed like everything was either owned by the state or the Feds, so Forest Circus land is where we did 99% or our cutting.

Within about a week, word had spread around my place of employment that I was looking to cut, and now I have essentially an endless supply of trees on private land to harvest. Actually heading out early on Saturday to take down a patch of standing dead wild cherry on a friend's property that's about a mile away.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I am primarily a scrounger.. I owne all of my owne equipment... dump trucks.. michenes ect.. so its super easy for me to process wood. I live in a wooded area with farms and neighbors with acreage... trees fall in the woods and i select what i want to take. I also have a friend in the tree bisness that drops log lenth wood at my home or i get to go to his wood lot and select my logs and take them home for process... all at no cost i get to take what ever, and how much i want its a great set up..i have never purchased wood.. i get great satisfaction heating my home at no cost..

 

[Dobish]

i walk to my back yard... wood always seems to pile up there, and i don't complain!

 

[fishki]

Also a scrounger. My idea was to cut heating cost, if I have to buy wood then I am back to square one. The only thing I pay for is some labor cost with one of my employees on occasion to help cut and load, but that is very minimal compared to buying wood.

 

[johneh]

I get all my wood from a 600 hector forest that i own
been cutting there for 20 years and from one year to the next
it is hard to find where cutting took place .
Hard Maple ,Red Oak , hickory , iron wood , cherry , and
ash is what I harvest . We also harvest some spruce for lumber

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

I scrounge as much as I can. Roaming CL a lot. Occasionally I buy if the price is right, like a few months ago, 3 full cords oak and maple, split for $350 delivered. Have 6+ cords in the back yard right now. I do not cut trees, I leave that to the pro's.

 

[maverick06]

I buy mine. Its waaaaaay cheaper than buying heating oil (my other option, not counting the heat pump i use). living in suburbia, scrounging is hard. but the guy i get it from (chip's tree service) is an arborist so 100% of the wood is landscape removal stuff. I buy it march, sometimes already seasoned, sometimes not. It usually gets burned the year after that (year half seasoned/covered), sometimes it gets burned at the end of that year (10/11 months) if the winter is harsh... works out well

 

[firefighterjake]

Still trying to figure out what wood in "rings" looks like . . . I picture a guy bucking up really thin pieces of firewood and then hollowing out the middle . . . which cannot be right.

 

[SeanBB]

Ha! Ha!
Try to picture a tree trunk cut into discs that can be split to make firewood.

 

[Dobish]

Ha! Ha!
Try to picture a tree trunk cut into discs that can be split to make firewood.

how thick are these discs? now i'm picturing a frisbee...

i think the term you might be looking for is a Round

 

[sportbikerider78]

I bought some to get a year ahead. Now i'm sitting pretty on my own supply.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Been heating since 1989 and all of it has been scrounged from compost sites, construction sites, people's property with their permission, wherever I see downed wood I ask and most times can get, or someone needs some wood removed, have yet to pay for any of it and want to keep it that way for as long as I can! Wherever, whatever, whoever if I like the wood I ask and if they say "take" I take!

 

[Woody5506]

Scrounge everything, and typically am willing to lend a hand to any friends or family needing tree work done....assuming I end up with all or a lot of the wood.

 

[TreePointer]

75+ acres in the backyard. Infrequent major firewood production after timber harvests. Normal firewood harvest of select (not all) dead trees, storm blow downs, field clearing, and utility line trimming on the property.

I never thought of it this way until now, but I'm actually a net exporter of firewood off the farm.

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

All you guys are so lucky. We live on just 0.3 acres with only a few trees, so if there is nothing to scrounge, I have to buy. And because I am traveling 50% of my time internationally, time is very limited. I would love to be on 75 acres.

 

[TreePointer]

All you guys are so lucky. We live on just 0.3 acres with only a few trees, so if there is nothing to scrounge, I have to buy. And because I am traveling 50% of my time internationally, time is very limited. I would love to be on 75 acres.

As with everything, it has its plusses and minuses. There's a lot of work to do, and I'll gladly trade you property tax bills.

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

As with everything, it has its plusses and minuses. There's a lot of work to do, and I'll gladly trade you property tax bills.

Well, Jersey. We pay 8500/yr. Are you sure you want to trade?

 

[TreePointer]

Well, Jersey. We pay 8500/yr. Are you sure you want to trade?

Ouch, I don't want to think about having a farm in your neighborhood!

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

Ouch, I don't want to think about having a farm in your neighborhood! We're about $12.5K/yr.

That's what my neighbor pays for 1/2 acre. You're lucky.

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

Getting wood around here is easy.

Unlike money, wood DOES grow on trees!

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

Getting wood around here is easy.

Unlike money, wood DOES grow on trees!

Don't have enough trees. The ones we have, Oak, are sick and dying due to a fungus.

 

[Alpine1]

I buy my wood from the community. 15$ (give or take) for 12 (metric) tons. Mostly Norway spruce, silver fir and a little European beech. No idea how many cords it is though.

 

[Dobish]

All you guys are so lucky. We live on just 0.3 acres with only a few trees, so if there is nothing to scrounge, I have to buy. And because I am traveling 50% of my time internationally, time is very limited. I would love to be on 75 acres.

i am .49 acres, and I used to have quite a few trees! not so much any more, but I have a craigslist search for scrounging, and people know i like wood, so they just drop it off. it infuriates my wife sometimes