Wood shed and Getting old

Kirk-NJ

Well-known Member
Finally got the wood shed filled. Seem like every year it take longer and longer. Felling trees,skidding, blocking,splitting,stacking wood has gotten harder each year as I'm getting older. When my son was here it wasn't too bad but he moved to Fla so I work alone. With my bad back I'm thinking this may be the last year for the outdoor wood burner. A friend sez I should get a pellet shove. I think I may just pay the oil Man.

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Very nice picture. I know cutting wood is a lot of work , bending and lifting, but even with your back pain , I am sure the work out is of great benefit as exercise . I don't know your personal situation , or age , and we all have to slow down some day. I wish I had more time to work at cutting wood, as I enjoy being in the bush or even just cutting fence row trees, but there is always so darn much farm work to do. When I do go to cut wood , it will be nasty and cold with snow halfway to my a$$ , and It is tough to enjoy being out working at wood when ever thing is covered with snow and frozen.
 

Pellet stoves appear to be the way to go, but my concern is the volatility of the price of the pellets. I suppose that it is no worse than oil however. You could also look into putting in bulk pellet storage. Then you get it delivered by an auger truck like they use to deliver grain to dairy farms.
 
I have had 2 pellet stoves and would not recommend you get one. better choice would be to just cut what wood you are comfortable with and use the oil to supplement.
 
My best advice is make it as comfortable as possible, I'm probably half your age but still feel it when handling too much wood. I built a simple log deck I lay the logs on to cut at a comfortable height and keeps my saw chain out of the dirt. Also I'm not lifting the cut pieces off the ground then. Also added a hydraulic crane with log tongs for the heavy pieces, the whole process works very well, and as you can see a few apprentices isn't a bad addition to the process!
 
I just cut as we burn. We have 40 acres with lots of dry live oak. Old place takes 12" wood, new place has big hearthstone. Wife likes to burn wood but does not like it stacked up. We got our first rain so time to cut and burn.
 
Dixie keeps wanting to reduce the heating cost and thought all the out door wood burners seemed like it would do just that. Shen could not understand why I was never interested. Last week on a cold rainy day she spotted a fellow loading his wood burner and ask, Do you need to go out in the snow to fill it? Then she said, Maybe that wouldn't work well for you in a wheelchair. However I did cut two trees and cut them up using my electric wheelchair and battery powered chain saw. Along with the loader tractor and close to two weeks. :)^D One 60 volt battery is plenty as when it was ready to be recharged so was I. :)^D

I fell the trees by cutting the back side almost to the point of tipping and used the loader tractor to push them over. Watched to many kick back to try cutting until they start to fall from the chair. I didn't tell Dixie until they were all cut up and dumped in a pile by the back door.
 
I figure I might quit wood soon. Maybe if I lived in NJ I'd go longer with the milder winters.
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I cut my own wood for 40 years in central and northern New York. Often used a 12-14 full-cords per winter. Had all my own hardwood forest. That said, the wood was not free. Cost of my dozer or tractor, truck, chainsaws, fuel, woodsplitters, cleaning chimneys, time spent cutting, blocking, stacking, splitting, etc. Not cheap at all, in the end.

Now living in northern Michigan by Lake Huron and Lake Superior. Same basic cold dismal winters as central New York. Cold is just more steady. But - I have 100 acres of forest and NO hardwood. Just white pine, cedar. balsam fir, and poplar.

So now I buy truck-loads of hardwood tops. I just got done cutting and splitting two year's worth of wood.

I just sat down and figured the cost. My firewood, assuming my time is worth nothing - cost me 5 cents per BTU of heat. Wood pellets cost me 3 cents per BTU. Plus with the pellets - no cleaning chimneys, no stacking, no splitting, and NO starting fires. Kind of a no-brainer.

I bought a pellet stove for my large shop on sale at Tractor Supply. I used to hate even the thought of pellet stoves. Now? I love this thing. I have around 1 year's worth of wood left and then, I think, I am done.
 
Not all pellet stoves are created equal. Like everything else, you get what you pay for. Have had a Quadrafire MT Vernon AE pellet stove in our finished basement for 9 years now. It has a blower fan, programmable thermostat, and an igniter to relight the fire by itself so you are not burning pellets non stop. I store one ton of pellets under the basement stairs, and the rest of the bulk storage on pallets is in my pole barn. Every situation is different, and depending on the layout of your house will have alot to do with how well the pellet stove heats the house. We also do have a propane furnace for heating, but have had to downsize from a 500 gallon tank to a 300 gallon tank as we were not using enough propane through the winter to justify the larger tank. We do not have to get the propane tank refilled during the winter, the pellet stove does most of the heating. We use the propane furnace fan to circulate air throughout the house.
 
After I skid logs out to the landing I'll pick them up with one arm loaders or forklift and carry them over to the splitter behind the wood shed. I cut the blocks while still on the manure bucket loader about waist high to try to save my back. Even though the block are near the splitter still have to wrestle them around.

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Pretty well everyone up in these parts is hooked up to natural gas, even the rural areas. Some burn wood or other ways of heating. We have an 1150 square foot bungalow built in '71 so not what you would call energy efficient by today's standards. Prices have jumped up lately but right now we are paying $125 per month (year round on the equalization plan) so $1500 CDN for the year (that'd be maybe $1200 USD). That's a mid-efficiency furnace and a gas-fired water heater. We can have five to six months of what one might call real winter weather and it can get pretty cold up here, sometimes for extended spells. If we replaced the furnace now, we would have to install a high-efficiency furnace, it is no longer legal to install anything else, you wouldn't get a permit for a mid-efficiency unit (but I suspect some get around that one way or the other). Not sure how much of a difference it would make if moving from the mid to the high efficiency design. Maybe somebody knows the answer to that?
 
Further to the mid vs high efficiency furnace question I posed above, here's a good article written by a guy from Minnesota (so he knows what cold weather can be). The article is somewhat dated (2010) but that wouldn't disqualify his opinions. Good article to read because it's not written by anyone with a vested interest in either selling new furnaces or convincing someone that the high efficiency thing is a scam.
Value of High Efficency Furnaces ????
 
I had a wood stove in the kitchen of my old farm house for 30 years due to it being a cold spot with no cellar under it. I took it out last year and installed a propane monitor heater. The oil furnace still takes care of most of the house and the monitor heater keeps the kitchen area comfortable during the cold Maine winters. I'm very happy with the monitor heater and the only maintenance is cleaning the filter once in awhile.

Mark
 
Have you ever figured out what various fuels actually cost to make heat where you live? With current prices here in northern Michigan, and average efficiency of various types of stoves or heaters - this is what we have. Considering how labor intensive a wood burner is - it does not make a lot of sense unless you pay nothing for the wood. Considering a brand-new 93% efficient propane furnace cost less then $900 - it seems like the best bet. Just does not have the steady heat of a wood or pellet burner.

Price per 1,000,000 BTUs of heat

Hardwood - $13
Wood pellets -$15.25
Propane - $14
#2 Heating oil/diesel -$23
 
If you go for a pellet stove, you might want to talk with your insurance company first. Not all stoves are equal, and not all installations are viewed with favor by insurance companies.

When I was doing insurance inspections, I really felt sorry for one young couple. They'd bought a high dollar wood stove and paid $2400 to have it professionally (so they thought) installed. Their insurance company got a bit nervous and asked me to check it out.

The upshot was, everything about the stove and installation was per code except at one point the pipe ran horizontally for several feet about 4" from a flammable wall. A wood stovepipe running horizontally, and 4" from a flammable wall, are both big time no-no's. And from where the stove was set, there were no other options for the pipe. My job was not to make decisions, I just reported what I saw at that point in time, so I turned in a report with copious photos and heard no more about it.

I suspect the outcome was to completely tear out the original installation and move the stove to a location where the pipe could be properly installed. I have no idea if they had any recourse against the company who installed the pipe, although a reputable, professional installer should have refused to install the pipe that way.
 
I hated cutting wood with a grand passion when I was younger. I sure don't want to do it now that I'm older.
 
If you have some carpentry/sheet rock skills you might consider improving the insulation in your house and sealing air leaks. It is a one time cost that reduces your heating and cooling costs every year after that. If you have access to your attic, adding insulation is fairly easy. Adding insulation to exterior walls is more work, but it's not difficult once you know how to do it. Some guys do one or two rooms a year as home improvement projects. A combustion air inlet in a furnace room or near a gas water heater may seem counterproductive, but adding one can save heating costs and will reduce the cold air drafts though out the rest of the house.

IMHO, expensive high efficiency windows (R3 vrs R1) does not have a good return unless you need to replace the windows anyway. Sealing drafts and installing good curtains will do the same thing for less cost.
 
Hi, I live very close to crown land and carry a free firewood permit in the pickup. They log some areas back in the woods where there are huge burn piles. I take my pick up and sometimes my utility trailer and get a few loads. I always take my chainsaw with me and a good axe when I go hunting. I always bring some wood home. I have a a certified wood stove central in the house.
My wife loves to go with me. We take lunch sometimes.
Also there is a band mill near me and get all the cants for free. I'm very lucky. I love doing it. Ed Will Oliver BC
 
I pay nothing for the wood which comes off my property except my hard work to get it shove ready and cost of gas and oil for chainsaws and tractors.
 
I was brought up with wood heat in the spring and fall and coal in the winter. Since getting married in 1963, we used our own wood as the prime source with oil backup for when we're out of town etc. We also have a pellet insert in the fireplace we rarely use. In recent years we started buying our wood for $180 per cord, cut split and delivered, Last year after finally realizing that it's a lot of work just stacking, carrying the wood in and ashes out, the fact that I'm not getting any younger and we bought oil at the local farm show for $1.78 per gallon. We decided to run strictly oil last year. At the $1.78 per gal it was $300 cheaper than pellets. It was about $300 more than Wood at the $180 we pay. One thing I do remember was when the oil was near $4.00 per gal, It would have been a whole lot more expensive. We do miss the nice steady heat of wood and coal.
Here's a couple links to calculators that will tell you exactly the costs of different fuels.

https://coalpail.com/fuel-comparison-calculator-home-heating
This site used to have another calculator that you could plug in the amount of oil, wood, pellets or whatever you use and it would tell you exactly how much it would cost in another fuel. Unfortunately they have eliminated that feature.

http://www.woodpellets.com/support/fuel-savings-calculator.aspx
This one compares only pellets vs oil and propane
 
It was same for me in New York. "Nothing" did not include my property taxes on 100 acres of woods, lots of equipment expenses, and lots of labor @ zero cents per hour.
 
I miss the old wood cookstove that used to heat this part of the house where I spend most of my winter time. Insurance did not like it so a wall mount natural gas heater replaced the wood burner. Its ok and puts out good heat but it is not a steady and constant heat like a burning wood stove. I still help my brother's family cut their firewood and get to enjoy the wood heat every time I'm there in the winter time. My farm has more dead wood for firewood than I could ever use up in a life time. All free for the taking.
 
I burned wood for almost 40 years,did what you do every fall. We had our own woodlot. The insurance company kept giving me a hard time about solid fuel burning and about my oil tank inside the basement. My oil furnace finally was done and we installed natural gas furnace and fireplace..best thing I ever did, Natural gas way cheaper than fuel oil , my heating bill is about $66 a month year long , $792 a year...one tank of fuel oil was more than that and we used to use two tankfulls along with our wood heat. If you have access to gas it is the way to go. The gas furnace is about a third of the size of the old furnace so I had room to build some storage shelves where the oil furnace once occupied the space. I have a wood furnace in my garage but seldom use it, still have a wood pile beside my shed if I ever want to light it.I did like getting out to the bush for a day and filling the pick up , was good exercise but started feeling the stiff sore muscles the next day !
 
i used to do that for house and big shop. i spent more time cutting the da!! stuff than doing what makes money in shop. heat big shop now with radiant heaters and house as of this season is all geothermal, plus in floor in basement also.54x75 shop one fill usually does it 800 gal aprox. just filled yesterday little over 900.00 usually runs me to last feb so its little over 200.00 month you have that in cutting would. house be first winter so far its running off the buried lnes for temp,hardly runs and house is 75,
 
I have wood supplement heat. So do my parents as well as a wood furnace in our shop. Dad is no longer able to work the cutting, splitting, etc... (age 85). He can use the tractor loader or lawn tractor and trailer to take it in the basement, just can't do the heavy part any more. I am not home enough to do it, SOOOO, we started getting wood from a pallet company. I built sides for my gooseneck trailer. Wood box is 2ft x 8 ft x 27 ft. Haul 13000 to 15000 # per load. Loaded with backhoe. Smaller pieces make good kindling, burns hot. Larger blocks stacked in furnace can last 8 or more hours. No falling trees, cutting blocks, splitting, chainsaw upkeep etc... WORKS FOR US.
 
I can see one reason you are Smiley. A quick internet search shows furnace oil in my area at $114.1 per litre plus 13.1 cent sales tax. That should be about 127.2 per litre times 3.79 is 4.82 per US gallon which is about 3.76 US dollars per US gallon. Five years ago we moved into this house and used almost $1000 in January. The furnace hasn't run since.
 
I'll be in liter country next week to see the in laws in Montreal area and know that gas was close to $4 a gallon last time we were up, but I had no idea fuel oil was up that high. I guess I'd stick with wood at that price too.
 
Has anyone tried the pellet bricks for wood stoves. Tractor Supply carries them and the package says they are cleaner and cheaper to burn and provide more BTU's than wood by volume. They also come packaged and wrapped in plastic with 6 bricks per bundle so they are much less of a mess. Almost seems to good.
 
It sure costs you a lot of money to cut firewood. I went thru 30 gal of gas, 10 gal. of diesel fuel, 2 containers of 2 cycle oil out of a 6pk., 2 gal of bar oil, and an 18" bar and chain, to cut app. 3000cu ft. of firewood, nearly 2 years worth of wood for me. That is from standing tree to stacked in the woodshed which had 30 cord in it, before lighting the boiler back on election day.
For me, cutting firewood is a hobby and a way to spend my summer days. This time of year I kick back a bit and enjoy the fruit of my summers labor.
Loren
 
What are you guys using for wood stoves??? That amount of wood would last me 5-7 years. Gets to 30 below here but not for long.
 
Central boiler outdoor wood stove. The guy across the street from me rebuilt his a couple of years ago but with minor maintenance I haven't had a problem with mine for the last ten years.
 
I noticed that when we were up there in late spring that road diesel was cheaper than gas, down here it's the opposite. Gas today was $2.65, diesel $2.89, home heating $2.50. I assume it is sky high taxes that makes yours so high because you export about twice as much oil than you use.
 
(quoted from post at 15:21:03 11/18/17) Has anyone tried the pellet bricks for wood stoves. Tractor Supply carries them and the package says they are cleaner and cheaper to burn and provide more BTU's than wood by volume. They also come packaged and wrapped in plastic with 6 bricks per bundle so they are much less of a mess. Almost seems to good.

Yes--- I tried them, recorded temperatures and they did not burn as hot as my good old hardwood and were a lot more expensive (a little more than pellets per ton)

The reason I tried them is I always heard and thought that coal would produce much more heat than wood and be a lot less work. So, I bought some bags of coal to burn in my old 1920's Glendale kitchen wood/coal/gas stove that has been our primary heat source since we built the house in 1975. After several bags of coal,
recording of temperatures in various areas and being cold, it turns out wood ran much hotter than coal in my stove.
I found on the net that in a stove or furnace designed primarily for coal it does burn hotter, but in an old kitchen stove it doesn't work that way. For coal to burn correctly, draft has to be supplied from underneath and wood doesn't care much where it gets it's air from, it uses it to burn. In an old leaky kitchen stove, any air coming in from the top it simply serves as a damper on coal and cools the fire. We love our old combination stove and so as I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread, stayed with wood until last year when we used only oil because it was cheaper than buying wood. The old Glendale is still in it's place, we cook on it daily and there is 3 or 4 cords of wood in the woodshed in case of power outages or the price of oil goes back up.
Smiley
 

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