(quoted from post at 07:15:41 03/05/14) I like your post. I think it's a joke when people say they saved money heating with wood. WOOD ISN'T FREE.
However wood heats many times:
The time you cut it.
The time you split it.
The time you load it.
The time you stack it.
The time you carry it in the house.
The time you clean the chimney.
The time you remove the ashes.
The time you burn it.
Finally, the time you clean up the mess left behind when you burn your house down.
Hmmmm....lessee, I've heated strictly and soley with wood for 34 years. Never had a flu fire or burned down by house, btw.
We all have hobbies like drinking beer (don't do it), or going to NASCAR races (never did, never will), maybe even owning a bass boat and fishing all the good lakes (never did that either).
But what I do enjoy is an eclectic collection of old chain saws, old tractors, home made trailers and a home made wood splitter and countless hours spent with all my kids learning the benefits of work and fun in and around the wood pile.
That having been said, I couldn't even buy a good bass boat with the money I've spent on the above mentioned stuff...AND I would have bought all that stuff anyway because of the fun factor. So to me it's better to use the stuff than let it sit and what better way to use them than cutting and hauling wood !!!
So say the normal heating bill for the winter in the midwest for a 2100 sqft house was $500 back in '80.
Say it raised to $800 per season in the 90's. And just for grins say it is $1,000 per season now. I took that first 10 years of unspent heating money and invested it in gold...the next years of unspent heating money was invested in McDonalds stock....and for the last ten years, that unspent money has been invested in internet upstarts like Amazon, google and 3D printing.
Have you by chance even seen how much any of the above mentioned stocks have changed in 30 years ? To think, if I would have only spent those conservative figures on heating my house for the last 34 years, I might possibly still be actively involved in the work force paying taxes to fund all the other retirees Social Security.
The way I see it, heating with FREE wood not only saved me a lot more than my low balled annual estimates above, but the exercise gleaned from it has kept me healthy, gave all three of my kids a wonderful start towards understanding the fruits of hard work AND had funded a very comfortable RETIREMENT from the work force....
Soooo.....just which of our two differing opinions seem the most logical ??? Just sayin....
By the way, I am really enjoying this friendly discourse.... and conversely, I think its a joke to hear someone say a fellow is not saving money heating with FREE wood.