Coniferous Firewood

[Arbonaut]

I want to move to Northern Minnesota where the winters are much colder. I'm looking for input from people who heat with mostly coniferous fuel. Is it worth it? If not, I'll switch to anthracite as I own a few shares. Just thinking ahead. Thanks. This isn't intended to be a hot seat for debate like my last thread became. Just looking to hear from people who heat with fir and pine.

 

[Hddnis]

You can heat a house with conifers. Some really cold places on this here earth where all the houses are heated with nothing but softwoods; softwoods that a yankee wood snob wood point his nose in the air at the mere mention of.


(That should help your thread get off on the right foot.):hmm3grin2orange:




Mr. HE

 

[russhd1997]

I'm one of them yankees and I burn a lot of hemlock, spruce and pine in my OWB. From my own experience and from what I have read here I say go for it.

 

[bobt]

In northern Minnesota it shouldn't be too hard to find Tamarack to use as firewood. Tamarack is a species that grows on the edges of old fields and also near wet ground. It is denser than pine, spruce, and Balsam Fir. Try it, you will like Tamarack. Also known as Eastern Larch.

Bob

 

[Labman]

I have done some camping in northern Minnesota and Michigan. I have found cedar burns quite cleanly, almost as good as a hardwood.

 

[Arbonaut]

Fish is Brain Food

Thanks for the replies, guys. Got my sights set on Warroad, MN. I'm definitely a wood snob, no doubt. Though quite spoiled in the hardwood respect, I'm looking forward to improving the diet on some serious fried Walleye from Lake of the Woods. I posted an entire thread on this already, but evidently, it got hung up with the moderators.
How do you conifer gurus suggest I convince my wife to live where summer is only 90 days long?

 

[HorseFaller]

I burn alot of fir (Doug, Hem, grand/piss, noble, and some spruce). I also mix in some hardwood. Here it is alder, birch, and maple. Cedar here is used primarily for kindling. It burns hot and fast, well old cedar anyways. Like old or second growth.

 

[Ronaldo]

I used to live in Wyoming and all I used to heat the house was Ponderosa Pine. Worked out just fine-not as long in the burn times,but plenty of heat potential. As was stated before,there are a lot of places that only have pine to burn. Good luck on the move.


Ron

 

[openloop]

The only reason us yankees turn our noses up to pines is because we cant throw a rock without hitting oak, locust, maple, or hickory. :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[Hddnis]

The only reason us yankees turn our noses up to pines is because we cant throw a rock without hitting oak, locust, maple, or hickory. :hmm3grin2orange:

This is true. A fellow has to burn what he can get. I know an old guy that burns pallets. He cuts them up with a sawzall and just rakes out the nails with the ash. No splitting, mostly unknown wood types, but it sure works for him. He gets some big chunks 4x6" and 6"x6" that he burns at night. He doesn't even own a chainsaw, a splitter, or an axe, just a hatchet for making kindling.




Mr. HE

 

[One Shot Will]

I live in southeast north dakota. I burn about half spruce and pine the other half ash,elm and maple. It is what i can get.

 

[rarefish383]

I used to have contracts removing pallets from stores in strip malls where they couldn't leave them out back. The recylcer I delt with gave me $2.00 a piece for rebuildable pallets, and $3.50 a piece for like new ones, they could put straight into inventory. The vast majority of pallets I saw were made out of Oak, then Beech, Poplar and Maple. Many coming from over seas were Mahogony, beautifull wood. My contracts stated I removed all the pallets, but the recycler only took 40"X48" standard pallets, so I cut the rest up for the stove. They wouldn't take any Pine pallets so I burned them, just to get rid of them. Now I'm a wood snob again. My cousin owns the family business and all I have to do is go over to his wood lot and cut all the Oak I want for free. Leave knots and forks lay, they get ground into mulch, Joe.

 

[Arbonaut]

New Terminology.

I don't even know what a Wood Snob is. I've been using this site for two days and noticed when people come right out with name calling it's easiest to just agree with them. Like people calling a hard hat a brain bucket. I mean, go ahead. Mine is a hard hat.
This wood snob has an illustrious 26-year wood cutting history that ranges from busting apart red oak pallets with a wrecking bar, burning sawmill slabs, clearing out spent apple orchards to chopping up hedge roots just to see how hot they burn. I've been a builder since the eighties, also and I burn all the lumber scrap that isn't pressure treated with chemicals and not plywood. I burn crotches and knots because I have a Heatmor. If you can lift it, you can burn it at my house. I can go around and scavenge what other people won't. Bulldoze piles are a favorite. Four wheel drive, powerful saw with sharp semi-chisel, wool long johns and tons of volition, combined with a willingness to level with landowners and get the job done keeps you in wood. Sometimes they call me with references for trees, is that a snob? Though since I've done part-time tree removal, I never run out of wood. Input=output. Thanks for the post.

 

[Whitespider]

Well, I must say Woodcutter TV, you’ve picked one cold-azz snowy place to live. I’ve spent some time up in that area and Conifer trees are prevalent, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to find birch, oak, elm and maybe even some hard maple to supplement the softwood. My family has a lake home/cabin in Minnesota (not as far north as your going) that sits in the middle of a pine/birch forest… until dad installed the furnace system a few years ago he heated just fine using a 80/20 mix of Jack Pine and Paper Birch in the old stone fireplace during his Ice Fishing trips up there.

 

[Arbonaut]

Cold Weather

Thanks for the post, Spider. Yes, cold. That is the idea. Warroad, MN is world headquaters for Heatmor the ultimate heater. You'd think some of them are in use, right? I've had my feel of hot summers. When I framed houses in Tucson, AZ when I was a kid, one morning in March I picked up the last sheet of plywood and there was a six-foot female diamondback rattler under it that didn't want disturbed by el Va'cho. That's the price to pay for warm weather. Everything is a tradeoff. I want to go where the hardy people go.

 

[cheeves]

I'm one of them yankees and I burn a lot of hemlock, spruce and pine in my OWB. From my own experience and from what I have read here I say go for it.

Like my good friend burn pine. Species we call around here scrub pine. Indians used the pitch for their boats and houses. I usually wait until it's 3 yrs old before I burn it. High heat, just doesn't last as long as oak and the coals aren't quite as big. But IMHO good firewood and around here very plentiful.

 

[sawkid15]

burns good

we heat with almost all doug fir, and ponderosia pine. with just a small amount of oak. we burn about 6 cords a year

 

[stumpy75]

When I lived in Coos Bay, Oregon, I burned Doug Fir and Western Hemlock because that is what I could easily scrounge. Burned it in a single barrel stove too(30 gallon size), with the single-walled stack going out a window! Never burned the place down!:msp_tongue:

I still won't turn down free coniferous wood, but it is so looked down upon around here, that most is just chipped or otherwise disposed of...