Heating with wood ?

[Roger in Iowa]

Funny how our perspective changes over time. I used to burn a lot of wood, because I thought that the price of heating oil was too high. While I had a lot of regular farm work to do, I did have wood on the farm, and I was still in my early 40s. Doing a bit of extra work seemed worth the $$ savings.
But as I aged, that extra work became a drag, and my kids had grew up and were not living with me to enjoy the benefits of the wood heat, and didnt want to come help old dad put up winter wood.
I put new windows in the house, and a new furnace, the savings made a noticeable difference, so I only cut a fraction of the wood I used to, and only light the stove up when the temperature drops near 0F.
Well time marches on, and I am crowding 61, the price of heating the house hasnt gone up much over the past 5-6 years, but the number of trees dead and dying around the farm are adding up, and need to be cleaned up. So I guess I will be back out cutting more firewood this year than in years past, just to keep the trees from falling into the field. Who knows, maybe I can save a buck or two on the cost of heating this winter. Not fooling myself though, I have cut wood all my life, and there is a price to be paid in labour. Firewood isnt free heat, but if you have the trees, no money leaves your pocket.

I have a stove in a surround with a glass front fireplace for ambiance but also when power is out. Using this week.
Don't have to cut and split anymore (79) but give a friend 4 oak logs and he gives me one back cut and split.

 

[37chief]

Funny how our perspective changes over time. I used to burn a lot of wood, because I thought that the price of heating oil was too high. While I had a lot of regular farm work to do, I did have wood on the farm, and I was still in my early 40s. Doing a bit of extra work seemed worth the $$ savings.
But as I aged, that extra work became a drag, and my kids had grew up and were not living with me to enjoy the benefits of the wood heat, and didnt want to come help old dad put up winter wood.
I put new windows in the house, and a new furnace, the savings made a noticeable difference, so I only cut a fraction of the wood I used to, and only light the stove up when the temperature drops near 0F.
Well time marches on, and I am crowding 61, the price of heating the house hasnt gone up much over the past 5-6 years, but the number of trees dead and dying around the farm are adding up, and need to be cleaned up. So I guess I will be back out cutting more firewood this year than in years past, just to keep the trees from falling into the field. Who knows, maybe I can save a buck or two on the cost of heating this winter. Not fooling myself though, I have cut wood all my life, and there is a price to be paid in labour. Firewood isnt free heat, but if you have the trees, no money leaves your pocket.

When I built my house in the 70's ceiling heat was the greatest thing. It was a series of wires in each room in the ceiling. and each room was controlled by a thermostat. sound like a good idea, until electricity starting going up in price. I purchased an antique wood stove and started heating my house with wood, in the 80's. The bedrooms if needed heat was a portable heater. My stove kept the front of the house fairly warm. I usually found a good supply of wood. Only last year I had to buy some logs. This year the neighbor cut down a large tree, and I have wood for a couple years. Plus a tree trimmer saw my pile of wood, and came along and just dumped a load of good wood. A picture of my electric splitter, and wood stove. When I was 40 years old wood seamed like a good idea, and it was, Now at 81 it's still now as attractive as it was. as long as I can still do it, I will keep working with my wood, l which I enjoy doing. Same as my weed mowing business. Stan

 

[Ted in NE-OH]

Funny how our perspective changes over time. I used to burn a lot of wood, because I thought that the price of heating oil was too high. While I had a lot of regular farm work to do, I did have wood on the farm, and I was still in my early 40s. Doing a bit of extra work seemed worth the $$ savings.
But as I aged, that extra work became a drag, and my kids had grew up and were not living with me to enjoy the benefits of the wood heat, and didnt want to come help old dad put up winter wood.
I put new windows in the house, and a new furnace, the savings made a noticeable difference, so I only cut a fraction of the wood I used to, and only light the stove up when the temperature drops near 0F.
Well time marches on, and I am crowding 61, the price of heating the house hasnt gone up much over the past 5-6 years, but the number of trees dead and dying around the farm are adding up, and need to be cleaned up. So I guess I will be back out cutting more firewood this year than in years past, just to keep the trees from falling into the field. Who knows, maybe I can save a buck or two on the cost of heating this winter. Not fooling myself though, I have cut wood all my life, and there is a price to be paid in labour. Firewood isnt free heat, but if you have the trees, no money leaves your pocket.

 

[Ted in NE-OH]

I'm 80 stopped cutting firewood two years ago. I did purchase an additional propane tank so I could buy propane in the summer when it is cheap.

 

[randyrenfro7]

Indian build small fire to keep warm, white man build large fire and keep warm cutting wood

 

[Richard G.]

When I built my house in the 70's ceiling heat was the greatest thing. It was a series of wires in each room in the ceiling. and each room was controlled by a thermostat. sound like a good idea, until electricity starting going up in price. I purchased an antique wood stove and started heating my house with wood, in the 80's. The bedrooms if needed heat was a portable heater. My stove kept the front of the house fairly warm. I usually found a good supply of wood. Only last year I had to buy some logs. This year the neighbor cut down a large tree, and I have wood for a couple years. Plus a tree trimmer saw my pile of wood, and came along and just dumped a load of good wood. A picture of my electric splitter, and wood stove. When I was 40 years old wood seamed like a good idea, and it was, Now at 81 it's still now as attractive as it was. as long as I can still do it, I will keep working with my wood, l which I enjoy doing. Same as my weed mowing business. Stan

Same here Stan.
I was out splitting wood yesterday and I enjoy doing it at 71.
Hydraulic splitter of course.

 

[stevieb49829]

Luckily, I have an obsessed Brother-in-Law. He gets PO'd if I don't call him and tell him I'm going for wood. He is almost 10 years younger than my 74 years, so might have a bit more energy left. We make a day of it, cut a bunch of dead, dry maple, then drink a couple of barley pops on the way out of the mountains. Takes 6-7 Tacoma's full to get all of a winter's worth of shop heat. It's supposed to be close to -20 tonight, and the shop floor is at 67 degrees. Life is good. Shop Cat is happy!! steve

 

[560Dennis]

i Think the benefits of getting out and getting some physical exercise out weigh the savings in later life .

 

[Randy.A]

Twas interesting back in the 70's when fuel went up, lots of people put in wood burners of various sorts. Some were good, many were bad. They made heat, but did not burn the wood, nor capture the heat, efficiently. As time went on, folks started to wise up, and work to keep the heat in the house (insulation, windows, sealing, etc), and burn fossil fuels more efficently (gas furnaces were hardly 70% efficient in that era). Wood stoves available today with the catalyst are amazingly efficient. I am considering one for my new house.

Still amazes me the wood boilers that folks have at the edge of their yard. They are neat, in that the wood and all the dirt that comes with it stay out of the house, but efficiency, from what I gather, is poor. My dad heated our 1900 sq ft tri-level house in the early 80's with a nice wood stove using 10-11 face cords (16x4'x8'). People I know with these boilers, heat the same size house for 2-3X that amount of wood.

Stay warm this winter......how ever you choose !

I have cut fire wood or helped cut wood my entire life. I only cut down or dead trees, fence row trees that have grown & crouded the fields. Working on 67 years & it has always given me great joy to make things look better. I create rabbit hutchs from the limbs, build blue bird house's that are all over myt property. I believe don't work harder but work smarter as time goes on.. All of my fire wood remains on wheels. It remains mostly bug free, each load is tarped ,never frozer to the ground. With a dozen wagons I park them out of sight in the summer, my only clean up in the spring is where I throw the wood into the wood room & for the most part a couple bushels baskets will clean up that area to mow. All the wood is ready to put in my furnace when I load it, all the mess remains in the woods from splitting. I only bring the wagons closer to the wood room window in case the snow becomes over whelming. And it has a few times that is how one really gets the BTU's out of wood. I will continue to cut wood as long as I am able. For the most part I burn 4.5 to 5 loads per year.. During the winter of the polar vortex I burnt 6.5 loads & all my wagons but 2 will hold a full cord . Cutting word now give me a chance to work my 2 cylinder tractors, they like me enjoy it.

 

[Turkeyfoot]

Funny how our perspective changes over time. I used to burn a lot of wood, because I thought that the price of heating oil was too high. While I had a lot of regular farm work to do, I did have wood on the farm, and I was still in my early 40s. Doing a bit of extra work seemed worth the $$ savings.
But as I aged, that extra work became a drag, and my kids had grew up and were not living with me to enjoy the benefits of the wood heat, and didnt want to come help old dad put up winter wood.
I put new windows in the house, and a new furnace, the savings made a noticeable difference, so I only cut a fraction of the wood I used to, and only light the stove up when the temperature drops near 0F.
Well time marches on, and I am crowding 61, the price of heating the house hasnt gone up much over the past 5-6 years, but the number of trees dead and dying around the farm are adding up, and need to be cleaned up. So I guess I will be back out cutting more firewood this year than in years past, just to keep the trees from falling into the field. Who knows, maybe I can save a buck or two on the cost of heating this winter. Not fooling myself though, I have cut wood all my life, and there is a price to be paid in labour. Firewood isnt free heat, but if you have the trees, no money leaves your pocket.

I'll turn 64 this year and still heat with wood. But it doesn't require all that much work. I burn about eight 4x4x4 stacks each winter. I'll never run out of wood here. Lots of dead hedge and live trees to keep trimmed. I started using a wood splitter about eight years ago after developing shoulder pain from splitting with maul and sledge. Shoulders healed but I'll never go back to splitting by hand! 1°F here this morning. Fire feels nice as I sit in recliner and type this. The dogs like it too.

 

[SkipperII]

Raised in an old, uninsulated farmhouse with wood heat. Wood heat wasn't too bad when Dad had a job that was 8hrs a day, with weekends off,. We would log/cut wood on Saturdays, and usually split and stack it for a while on Sundays. He became foreman for a fair sized potato/cattle operation that was a lot of 12+ hour days, usually six days a week, and feeding cattle twice a day on Sundays. I ended up, as a teenager, having to handle the firewood. At least by then we had oil heat in the living/dining room areas, but still had wood heat in the back half of the house. I started working for a dairy farm a mile away when I was 13, so I got to hate having no spare time. I swore I would never have wood heat of any kind, and I still keep that promise.