First Year Heating With Wood Fiasco

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At what point do you move a modular home in next to the place you’re living in? Having done a complete gut remodel of a place on a solid foundation, you’re biting off quite a chunk. Ours had a solid basement, and good siding. We did all the rest over...windows, insulation, wires, bathrooms, moved walls new plumbing, new hvac, and roof. Came out good on it, but was a lot of work.

I’ve seen quotes from $100-250/sq foot for additions. I’m still waiting on a guy to get back with me on it all, but he already told me I’ll have $35/sq foot of addition just in lumber in ours...a basic living room on a slab.


I guess I find having my house on fire a lot less funny than you do...even if it is little bits at a time. Best of luck to you. It will warm up one of these days.
 
At what point do you move a modular home in next to the place you’re living in? Having done a complete gut remodel of a place on a solid foundation, you’re biting off quite a chunk. Ours had a solid basement, and good siding. We did all the rest over...windows, insulation, wires, bathrooms, moved walls new plumbing, new hvac, and roof. Came out good on it, but was a lot of work.

I’ve seen quotes from $100-250/sq foot for additions. I’m still waiting on a guy to get back with me on it all, but he already told me I’ll have $35/sq foot of addition just in lumber in ours...a basic living room on a slab.

I have time, and planned on all of this when buying. The true value of this property is in the barns. 5 of them, all metal sided, and all but one metal roofed. As I keep logging I am stashing timber in my back barn for the mill, and ill be milling the vast majority of the lumber I will need for the house and the barns (3 more planned). Ill undertake the additions myself and pay a friend or two with beer. I am a carpenter and equipment operator, built buildings and poured foundations, am a pipe fitter and underground trench-man, and have experience in electrical and roofing. Perks of growing up in the rural Midwest on the farms I suppose. I also hold a degree in aerospace engineering, so I have the design side covered. I am actually getting ready to install the new septic and leach field this summer as is.

I bought the only house and property I ever expect to own, so I am ok with the work that needs done. It allows me to build everything the way that I want it to be for myself and my future family.
 
Friend/neighbor is going through this. We refer to it as being the local Winchester mansion. They remodeled then built up on over and under. Last part of the original house comes down this summer (maybe). Pay as they go so they stay out of debt but progress is very slow.
 
My sister and her husband bought a REALLY old "1800's" farm house that needed a lot of attention, a lot I say.

And guess who they called ?
I ran out of excuses until finally they got they're hands dirty.

I'm glad you have the energy and skill to accomplish this endeavor but in my case....knowing how lazy my BIL is, I ran.
 
If this is your forever home then I would get my pencil sharpened and look at an outdoor boiler. Put it between the house and wherever you are going to build your shop because someday you will want to heat it too. I bought a used over sized unit 7 years ago and wish I had done it 20 years ago. I heat 2 houses and a 24x 55' shop with mine. I cut my wood to 32" long and split with a homemade 36" splitter with 4 way hydraulic wedge. Realistically there isn't much price difference between the smallest and the biggest ( within reason) outdoor boilers. I used to heat the one house with a Hotblast and it did pretty good considering the investment. I still have it sitting there in case I ever need it again.
20190218_112756.jpg 20190131_173405.jpg 20190131_173424.jpg 20190124_195926.jpg
 
Talking to people here, outdoor boilers use more wood than a fireplace insert, and a fireplace insert uses more wood than a free standing wood stove.

I'd recommend insulation, insulation, insulation. The more the merrier. Ceilings, walls, windows, doors, etc. Stop any cold air from coming in and you will be much better off, If you can, see if there was an outside air for combustion kit for your stove. Add one if you can. That way you aren't sucking cold air into the house to be sent up the flue. I saw my heat bill drop in half when I added insulation to this pre 1900's farmhouse. Then I replaced the aluminum triple track windows with insulated double pane windows and saw another drop in energy used. Still have problems with keeping the pipes from not freezing in the crawlspace when running just the fireplace insert, but it keeps the house warm, I have seen 100°F above outside ambient temp inside.

Change the water supply pipes to pex if you can, they won't bust if frozen. I keep all faucets open to trickle about a pencil lead thickness of water when it's below zero. I'll run the forced air furnace (ducts are uninsulated and run in the crawlspace) when it's below zero out too to put some heat down there in addition to burning the insert. I'll go thru 4-5 cords per year and this house is right at 2,000 sq. ft. with 2 bedrooms upstairs.
 
As others have said, Insulate tour home and fix those issues first. I moved into Our family homeplace after my grandmother passed. I installed an OWB and was doing upgrades. With her prior heating bills it would pay for itself in leas than 4 years and that was without heating the 36' x 50' attached garage I was building + hot water. First year I used 28 cord WITHOUT heating the garage. We cut everything so everything from willow to hardwood comes into play.

If your home is an energy hog BEFORE an OWB, it will be after as well. Don't expect it to be more "efficient". You have longer burn times because of shear volume that you can stuff in there. My stove was an early Central Boiler Stainless so it isn't as efficeint as the newer catalytic. After working my but off the next year on a complete house redo while working a full time job, I cut it down to a 13 cord usage(with the garage as well). It has averaged that now for 15 years. I can do one load a day on most days but tend to light load twice a day. Extreme cold naturally eats more and you adjust accordingly.

If you want some ideas and tips, look at my house redo in the below picture album. Album 12

http://imageevent.com/kevininohio?n=0

I'm happy with my boiler.
 
Juat another note, see if the local utility company can do a fan test on the house. That is where they install a false door with a fan in it. They turn the fan on, and find all the places where outside air is doming into the house. The tighter the house, the less it will cost to heat it. I forget what the correct name for that test is, but that is my next step to reduce the heat loss in this old house.
 
Well, it’s been a heck of a winter. Work finally brought me home to the upper Midwest last year, so I bought an old family farm in BFE because people suck and nosey neighbors are terrible. House started as an old single room with cellar and front porch. House was built in 18-something-freaking-old, and has been added on to at least 6 times. Apparently in 19-something someone had the bright idea to attach the cattle feed barn to the back of the house. Then years after the dairy barn was built out across the drive, the old barn and milk room were renovated as part of the house now. Yeah, the fiancé was already “thrilled” about where and how we were living, and now knowing that our kitchen and dining room are in an old cattle barn, well, you can imagine.

In the house was a circa 1994 Vermont Castings Dutchwest 2462. Given the awful price of propane and that my best friend’s family farm was only an hour away, I decided wood was going to be the primary heat. So I dismantled the stove, redid the door seals, scrubbed the flue and chimney, and fired her up. Was new to wood burning, and followed the owner’s manual a bit too literally. Cue:

“Oh God, get the bypass closed! It isn’t supposed to be open for long!”

Quickly discovered that the cat and refractory packaging were bad, and replaced those. Fired her up again and ill-be-darned if the stove didn’t hit 1400F in under an hour and light off the chimney. Learned the response time of the local volunteer fire department that night. Good guys, and the sheriff deputies enjoyed playing with my German shepherd.

So, called in a pro to look everything over, basically said there was nothing wrong and that any chimney fire would have been minor and simply cleaned out the flue (from burning under temps on the bad cat). Was told to “let her rip,” so in late December I fired her up and kept her warm. Quickly learned that taking the wheelbarrow out to the barn for a load of wood every night is annoying. Also, storing a small amount of wood inside to warm up and fully dry out in the super dry indoor air seems to help the burn.

Then the true cold hit. There are now straw bales wrapped in plastic all around the entire exterior foundation and infrared space heaters placed in the crawl spaces aimed at pipes. Only took one frozen pipe to dictate this. Then the extreme cold hit (-30+) and I was reloading the stove every 3 hours. Between the stove ripping, the LP furnace going, and the space heaters, we marginally maintained 62F.

Wood sourcing is no problem for me. I started logging at the farm back east at home for field expansion in November, and will have the equivalent of 40-50 chords stashed in my back barn by April….and im not even halfway thru logging yet. All of this dictated new chainsaws….plural. My little Farm and Ranch ms311 is a beast, but I was running it like a raped ape and felling 36”+ trees with a small saw is neither optimal nor truly “safe.” So, I now own an MS661 and have an MS462 on order (the more I log, the more local farms want me to log their areas, so the saws are truly an investment). In the logging process, I couldn’t bring myself to hack beautiful, straight, hardwoods into firewood, so I bought a partially built sawmill and finished it so that I can mill my own timbers and boards. All of this then necessitated multiple chains, bars, and the purchase of bar oil by the case. Then with the sheer time im putting on the saws, parts galore to keep them running well (my local Stihl dealer loves me). I got a crash course on the new M-tronics as well as tearing a saw down and rebuilding it when the 661 ran into issues….there went money for a new control unit and fuel solenoid. Then, tired of always getting halfway thru a tree then stopping and walking away to get a wedge, I figured it was time for a kit load out to keep everything on me. And, not liking the age of my current plastic hardhat, now in the market for a steel pot. Weeks later, I understand exactly why fellers and loggers use everything they do (tape measure is ridiculous, and loggers tape is a dream!).

So here I am in March now. Not even really the end of the season, and I’ve already burned 6.5-7 chords for a collective maybe 90-100 days of run time. Clearly this stove is a hungry monster. I have holes burned in the carpet from embers, a mangled tool box in the truck from hauling wood, two saws in the truck that the fiancé does NOT know the true price of, a lawn mower engine powered chainsaw mill in the barn, a new-to-me trailer for hauling trees and timber that the fiancé also does NOT know the price of, and the need for more barn space to store cut and split firewood for drying. The fire department now knows me well, the local chimney sweep is awaiting my call this summer for installation of a new stove that doesn’t eat wood like cookie monster eats cookies, and within a year I need a bigger truck and trailer to haul full 8’-14’ sections of timber for milling from the increased logging work I am now doing. Oh, and given the fiasco of everything, the propane tank has been filled twice now as well, at $800 each time, which is what I was trying to avoid in the first place!

On the up side; selling a few timber sections of cherry and black walnut should offset most costs incurred…..I hope. And by goly is that 661 worth every penny that it costs. I have also managed to get back into the shape I was in late high school at this point by swinging the 661 with 36” bar around and humping out logs on my shoulder to where equipment can get to them. All in all, felling and logging is truly enjoyable work.

So, does this all sound about right for “first year of wood burning” and cost of such? Also, I would not mind suggestions on a new wood stove for the house to get this old hungry VC out. Currently looking at the Blaze King Ultra models.

And I am truly grateful for this site. The untold hours of research and reading I have conducted here have helped immensely throughout this winter when I was running into problems and second guessing decisions. So, i want thank you to all and express my gratitude.
Great story and life experience.
 
Juat another note, see if the local utility company can do a fan test on the house. That is where they install a false door with a fan in it. They turn the fan on, and find all the places where outside air is doming into the house. The tighter the house, the less it will cost to heat it. I forget what the correct name for that test is, but that is my next step to reduce the heat loss in this old house.
Probably not necessary if you can see light in the crawl space.
As others have said, Insulate tour home and fix those issues first. I moved into Our family homeplace after my grandmother passed. I installed an OWB and was doing upgrades. With her prior heating bills it would pay for itself in leas than 4 years and that was without heating the 36' x 50' attached garage I was building + hot water. First year I used 28 cord WITHOUT heating the garage. We cut everything so everything from willow to hardwood comes into play.

If your home is an energy hog BEFORE an OWB, it will be after as well. Don't expect it to be more "efficient". You have longer burn times because of shear volume that you can stuff in there. My stove was an early Central Boiler Stainless so it isn't as efficeint as the newer catalytic. After working my but off the next year on a complete house redo while working a full time job, I cut it down to a 13 cord usage(with the garage as well). It has averaged that now for 15 years. I can do one load a day on most days but tend to light load twice a day. Extreme cold naturally eats more and you adjust accordingly.

If you want some ideas and tips, look at my house redo in the below picture album. Album 12

http://imageevent.com/kevininohio?n=0

I'm happy with my boiler.
I've fallen into the same trap, should have been doing repairs instead of cutting wood. I also want to add, sometimes it's years later that your realize, if i had shoved this in a hole and started over, i would have been so much better off.
 
I have an older (1986) Suburban Woodchief I bought for $100 off craigslist, you can put 24" + logs in it, stuff it full and it will last for 12+ hours. The ash pan is below in a separate compartment, no burning embers anywhere ever, the firebox is separate. No fire to see but it does the job better than most I have seen and setup for friends. Ashley makes a similar unit. Below is what it looks like, loads from the side and has a thermostat controlling the fresh air coming in.

View attachment 720896


Ashley is the original IIANM. I have a "King" (Ashley knockoff). Those types are known as "Circualtors" as the theory is the hot air around the firbox rises up, pulling cool floor air up into the shroud. They do work pretty good. Been heating my house with one since 1983.
 
I have time, and planned on all of this when buying. The true value of this property is in the barns. 5 of them, all metal sided, and all but one metal roofed. As I keep logging I am stashing timber in my back barn for the mill, and ill be milling the vast majority of the lumber I will need for the house and the barns (3 more planned). Ill undertake the additions myself and pay a friend or two with beer. I am a carpenter and equipment operator, built buildings and poured foundations, am a pipe fitter and underground trench-man, and have experience in electrical and roofing. Perks of growing up in the rural Midwest on the farms I suppose. I also hold a degree in aerospace engineering, so I have the design side covered. I am actually getting ready to install the new septic and leach field this summer as is.

I bought the only house and property I ever expect to own, so I am ok with the work that needs done. It allows me to build everything the way that I want it to be for myself and my future family.
@CaptainMauw So, 4 years later. Can you give us chapter 2 (or 3) of your progress with your farmhouse, insulation, heating, etc? How are things going for you on the plains?
 
@CaptainMauw So, 4 years later. Can you give us chapter 2 (or 3) of your progress with your farmhouse, insulation, heating, etc? How are things going for you on the plains?
Ha! Funny to see that people are still reading the old thread and interested in it. Sure, I can do an update.

Where to start. Well after that first year I ended up rebuilding that old VC Duchwest stove which turned it from that wood hungry monster it was into a much more mellow, long burning, heat throwing machine. It made a world of difference up until the 2021 heating season when the top web decided to form a crack which by the end of the season was growing to the point where any more use was going to result in the crack spreading to the outer portion, allowing gasses to vent into the house. Granted it wouldn't be as bad a thing as normal since the house was so drafty the CO monitor would likely never pick it up, but with a newborn in the house I knew better. So last fall I ponied up and got a Blaze King King 40 installed. Lets just say that we won't be going back to any other stove for as long as I live.

As for the house. Its still standing. Its still a farmer fixer disaster. Its still about as sealed up as a pasta strainer. But, it isn't as bad as it was. By now I have pulled off every bit of trim and sealed around windows, walls, doors, and seams between additions. Ive mitigated it about as much as can be done at this point which has made a huge difference, particularly on days with a stiff north wind. Combined with the King 40, the house never drops below 68F on 12 hour reloads in the coldest of conditions. Given the lack of proper sealing of the house, I was able to save some money on the install by not needing a cold air kit for the stove. Win! Not really. Not something to be proud of. This past year was the first year I didn't have to line the foundation in straw bales. It was wonderful, and I didnt have to constantly hear how "bad it looks from the road" and "what do the neighbors think of us" for 6 months.

I ended up going to the county and getting hold of the plot maps and did some digging. As it would turn out, the original single room house that is the center of this cobbled together mess was constructed sometime between 1860 and 1880 after the original house (or more likely cabin) which was closer to the road was torn down. Then the footprint slowly increased over the next 150 years as the farm was built around it. Yes the dining room/kitchen is in fact the old milking barn attached to the back of the original 1 room house, I have verified this via crawl space and attic. Additionally the bathroom wasn't added until sometime in the 50's-60's, so this place operated with an outhouse until then.

The bathroom is still slowly sinking, there is literally no foundation under half of the house (its seriously just field stones placed on dirt with floor joists and beams resting on them), some bozos designed this mess to have westward (prevailing wind direction) facing doors which are all going bad, and the entry way is slowly settling. And as if that weren't enough, mother nature apparently doesn't want this house standing any more as yellow jackets invaded the attic last fall (I waged genocide on them) and a groundhog burrowed under our non-existent foundation and dug his hole directly under a main support stone of the back half of the house (suffice to say said groundhog was permanently put to sleep). So The decision has officially been made to just get by for now and stockpile money for the next few years until we have enough saved to allow me to run the D6 thru this hot mess at full throttle and start fresh! And while that happens we will likely temporarily move into the now remolded old dairy barn, to which surprisingly that wife isn't firmly against. The farm life must finally be rubbing off onto her....

As for working with wood........well the pasture is full......with logs instead of cows, I built a 2.5 ton log hauler that ran over budget like a 747 at 40k feet, I ditched the old worn out 661 and smaller saws and now exclusively have fully built/ported/tuned 461, 661, and 361, I have a custom home made sawmill that looks like a Norwood bandmill and Alaskan chainsaw mill had a inbred problem child, every local farmer has my number and calls me when they are clearing fence lines and windrows (have a stack of huge pin/red/white oaks in the pasture for the mill for a neighbor), im in the market for a loader, and im about to start buying b&c oil by the 55 gal drum and chain by the 500ft spool. It seems I went for broke with it all, but have met some cool people and actually turn a profit these days finally. By the time my son is old enough to begin helping out, I should have a way for him to make some real money at a young age.

So have things gotten better? Id say yes, but the reality is probably a no, we have just become accustomed to it at least. But theres a plan and a goal in sight, so we bide out time and just keep working to stay warm!
 
Ha! Funny to see that people are still reading the old thread and interested in it. Sure, I can do an update.

Where to start. Well after that first year I ended up rebuilding that old VC Duchwest stove which turned it from that wood hungry monster it was into a much more mellow, long burning, heat throwing machine. It made a world of difference up until the 2021 heating season when the top web decided to form a crack which by the end of the season was growing to the point where any more use was going to result in the crack spreading to the outer portion, allowing gasses to vent into the house. Granted it wouldn't be as bad a thing as normal since the house was so drafty the CO monitor would likely never pick it up, but with a newborn in the house I knew better. So last fall I ponied up and got a Blaze King King 40 installed. Lets just say that we won't be going back to any other stove for as long as I live.

As for the house. Its still standing. Its still a farmer fixer disaster. Its still about as sealed up as a pasta strainer. But, it isn't as bad as it was. By now I have pulled off every bit of trim and sealed around windows, walls, doors, and seams between additions. Ive mitigated it about as much as can be done at this point which has made a huge difference, particularly on days with a stiff north wind. Combined with the King 40, the house never drops below 68F on 12 hour reloads in the coldest of conditions. Given the lack of proper sealing of the house, I was able to save some money on the install by not needing a cold air kit for the stove. Win! Not really. Not something to be proud of. This past year was the first year I didn't have to line the foundation in straw bales. It was wonderful, and I didnt have to constantly hear how "bad it looks from the road" and "what do the neighbors think of us" for 6 months.

I ended up going to the county and getting hold of the plot maps and did some digging. As it would turn out, the original single room house that is the center of this cobbled together mess was constructed sometime between 1860 and 1880 after the original house (or more likely cabin) which was closer to the road was torn down. Then the footprint slowly increased over the next 150 years as the farm was built around it. Yes the dining room/kitchen is in fact the old milking barn attached to the back of the original 1 room house, I have verified this via crawl space and attic. Additionally the bathroom wasn't added until sometime in the 50's-60's, so this place operated with an outhouse until then.

The bathroom is still slowly sinking, there is literally no foundation under half of the house (its seriously just field stones placed on dirt with floor joists and beams resting on them), some bozos designed this mess to have westward (prevailing wind direction) facing doors which are all going bad, and the entry way is slowly settling. And as if that weren't enough, mother nature apparently doesn't want this house standing any more as yellow jackets invaded the attic last fall (I waged genocide on them) and a groundhog burrowed under our non-existent foundation and dug his hole directly under a main support stone of the back half of the house (suffice to say said groundhog was permanently put to sleep). So The decision has officially been made to just get by for now and stockpile money for the next few years until we have enough saved to allow me to run the D6 thru this hot mess at full throttle and start fresh! And while that happens we will likely temporarily move into the now remolded old dairy barn, to which surprisingly that wife isn't firmly against. The farm life must finally be rubbing off onto her....

As for working with wood........well the pasture is full......with logs instead of cows, I built a 2.5 ton log hauler that ran over budget like a 747 at 40k feet, I ditched the old worn out 661 and smaller saws and now exclusively have fully built/ported/tuned 461, 661, and 361, I have a custom home made sawmill that looks like a Norwood bandmill and Alaskan chainsaw mill had a inbred problem child, every local farmer has my number and calls me when they are clearing fence lines and windrows (have a stack of huge pin/red/white oaks in the pasture for the mill for a neighbor), im in the market for a loader, and im about to start buying b&c oil by the 55 gal drum and chain by the 500ft spool. It seems I went for broke with it all, but have met some cool people and actually turn a profit these days finally. By the time my son is old enough to begin helping out, I should have a way for him to make some real money at a young age.

So have things gotten better? Id say yes, but the reality is probably a no, we have just become accustomed to it at least. But theres a plan and a goal in sight, so we bide out time and just keep working to stay warm!
Thanks for the update and hope the new house happens in good time for you.
 
Ha! Funny to see that people are still reading the old thread and interested in it. Sure, I can do an update.

Where to start. Well after that first year I ended up rebuilding that old VC Duchwest stove which turned it from that wood hungry monster it was into a much more mellow, long burning, heat throwing machine. It made a world of difference up until the 2021 heating season when the top web decided to form a crack which by the end of the season was growing to the point where any more use was going to result in the crack spreading to the outer portion, allowing gasses to vent into the house. Granted it wouldn't be as bad a thing as normal since the house was so drafty the CO monitor would likely never pick it up, but with a newborn in the house I knew better. So last fall I ponied up and got a Blaze King King 40 installed. Lets just say that we won't be going back to any other stove for as long as I live.

As for the house. Its still standing. Its still a farmer fixer disaster. Its still about as sealed up as a pasta strainer. But, it isn't as bad as it was. By now I have pulled off every bit of trim and sealed around windows, walls, doors, and seams between additions. Ive mitigated it about as much as can be done at this point which has made a huge difference, particularly on days with a stiff north wind. Combined with the King 40, the house never drops below 68F on 12 hour reloads in the coldest of conditions. Given the lack of proper sealing of the house, I was able to save some money on the install by not needing a cold air kit for the stove. Win! Not really. Not something to be proud of. This past year was the first year I didn't have to line the foundation in straw bales. It was wonderful, and I didnt have to constantly hear how "bad it looks from the road" and "what do the neighbors think of us" for 6 months.

I ended up going to the county and getting hold of the plot maps and did some digging. As it would turn out, the original single room house that is the center of this cobbled together mess was constructed sometime between 1860 and 1880 after the original house (or more likely cabin) which was closer to the road was torn down. Then the footprint slowly increased over the next 150 years as the farm was built around it. Yes the dining room/kitchen is in fact the old milking barn attached to the back of the original 1 room house, I have verified this via crawl space and attic. Additionally the bathroom wasn't added until sometime in the 50's-60's, so this place operated with an outhouse until then.

The bathroom is still slowly sinking, there is literally no foundation under half of the house (its seriously just field stones placed on dirt with floor joists and beams resting on them), some bozos designed this mess to have westward (prevailing wind direction) facing doors which are all going bad, and the entry way is slowly settling. And as if that weren't enough, mother nature apparently doesn't want this house standing any more as yellow jackets invaded the attic last fall (I waged genocide on them) and a groundhog burrowed under our non-existent foundation and dug his hole directly under a main support stone of the back half of the house (suffice to say said groundhog was permanently put to sleep). So The decision has officially been made to just get by for now and stockpile money for the next few years until we have enough saved to allow me to run the D6 thru this hot mess at full throttle and start fresh! And while that happens we will likely temporarily move into the now remolded old dairy barn, to which surprisingly that wife isn't firmly against. The farm life must finally be rubbing off onto her....

As for working with wood........well the pasture is full......with logs instead of cows, I built a 2.5 ton log hauler that ran over budget like a 747 at 40k feet, I ditched the old worn out 661 and smaller saws and now exclusively have fully built/ported/tuned 461, 661, and 361, I have a custom home made sawmill that looks like a Norwood bandmill and Alaskan chainsaw mill had a inbred problem child, every local farmer has my number and calls me when they are clearing fence lines and windrows (have a stack of huge pin/red/white oaks in the pasture for the mill for a neighbor), im in the market for a loader, and im about to start buying b&c oil by the 55 gal drum and chain by the 500ft spool. It seems I went for broke with it all, but have met some cool people and actually turn a profit these days finally. By the time my son is old enough to begin helping out, I should have a way for him to make some real money at a young age.

So have things gotten better? Id say yes, but the reality is probably a no, we have just become accustomed to it at least. But theres a plan and a goal in sight, so we bide out time and just keep working to stay warm!
I've been through something very similar to what you've gone through. Difference was that we weren't living in the house (1880s 2 story farm house) at the time. The house had about 1/2 a basement. The only thing that's original on the entire house is the frame. We dozed everything that wasn't sitting on a foundation, lifted the house and poured a new foundation, dug the basement out a foot deeper, removed and replaced all of the exterior siding, replaced all the doors and windows, ran new electricity and plumbing, replaced the insulation, removed the plaster and lath from all the interior walls and hung new drywall. This was about 25 years ago. Made a nice home, but it was a lot of work. With what you've described, I'd say you've got a good plan in place. For reference, a friend of mine had a very nice pole building style home built 5 years ago. I'd estimate around 2,000 sq ft. I think he had less than 100k in it, but I could be wrong. He sold it this past spring for a health profit.

For what you are doing, I would strongly recommend a skid steer with tracks and a grapple. I have an old tractor with a loader and it does what I need it to do, but I'm mowing CRP ground and cutting my own firewood. I also volunteer as a sawyer with an organization that does disaster relief work across most of the midwest down to the gulf. I've been on sites with both tractors/loaders and tracked skid steers with grapples. Might as well park the tractor back on the trailer to keep it out of the way. They also use track hoes with thumbs which are even more effective for disaster relief, but the grapples do most of the log work. Raise your logging prices to cover the investment :)

If you're still dealing with 36" logs, I can attest to the use of a trailer mounted arch and 12K winch to get the logs up on the trailer. Last year I took down a 6' pin oak in the back yard. The smallest section of the trunk was 10' long and 4' across and I was able to use my arch and winch to drag it onto the trailer. The next lower section was closer to 5' across. When I lifted it with the arch I miss calculated and lifted the whole thing allowing it to rotate in the air which made for a real mess. Bottom 2 logs were 6' across so I ripped them in half before trying to load them. Its a slow process but for moving big stuff it works well.
 
For what you are doing, I would strongly recommend a skid steer with tracks and a grapple. They also use track hoes with thumbs which are even more effective for disaster relief, but the grapples do most of the log work.

If you're still dealing with 36" logs, I can attest to the use of a trailer mounted arch and 12K winch to get the logs up on the trailer.
Most of the work I do revolves around the use of a skid steer with forks and grapple as well as excavators with thumbs. I do not outright own any of the equipment yet as equipment prices skyrocketed in 2021 (im talking full on doubled and even higher) and the plan I had to have one paid for in 2019-2020 prices went out the window and its simply not feasible right now. For now I just work with the farmers who do have said equipment and basically work for free so long as I get to keep anything I cut/want. Being a heavy equipment operator helps here. My plan is to scrap the notion of a skid steer (prices haven't begun to fall yet) and focus on getting an older full size loader with forks which will be bigger than what I need and thus I can grow into. I can find those on the used market for dirt cheap compared to the size skid steer necessary for moving logs, and I can straight drive it to the work sites and don't have to worry about hauling logistics to and from local cutting sites.

I outright ditched the trailer option all together. Im all about efficiency and at the end of the day you spend more time, fuel, and effort screwing with a trailer than you do a truck, so I built a truck to haul logs with a dump frame for offload. Its cheaper and a whole heck of a lot easier to get back offroad where the logs are which means I can fall and load anywhere vice falling, hauling to the nearest access point, and then loading, followed by offloading back at my place, all of which requires multiple pieces of equipment. Granted its far from the "most efficient" route, but given finances, situation, and environment here, it is the "most efficient" as per current operational capability. Plus, there's just something about an old school rig with lots of gears and no power steering loaded up with logs ripping down the road. It turns a lot of heads.
 

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Most of the work I do revolves around the use of a skid steer with forks and grapple as well as excavators with thumbs. I do not outright own any of the equipment yet as equipment prices skyrocketed in 2021 (im talking full on doubled and even higher) and the plan I had to have one paid for in 2019-2020 prices went out the window and its simply not feasible right now. For now I just work with the farmers who do have said equipment and basically work for free so long as I get to keep anything I cut/want. Being a heavy equipment operator helps here. My plan is to scrap the notion of a skid steer (prices haven't begun to fall yet) and focus on getting an older full size loader with forks which will be bigger than what I need and thus I can grow into. I can find those on the used market for dirt cheap compared to the size skid steer necessary for moving logs, and I can straight drive it to the work sites and don't have to worry about hauling logistics to and from local cutting sites.

I outright ditched the trailer option all together. Im all about efficiency and at the end of the day you spend more time, fuel, and effort screwing with a trailer than you do a truck, so I built a truck to haul logs with a dump frame for offload. Its cheaper and a whole heck of a lot easier to get back offroad where the logs are which means I can fall and load anywhere vice falling, hauling to the nearest access point, and then loading, followed by offloading back at my place, all of which requires multiple pieces of equipment. Granted its far from the "most efficient" route, but given finances, situation, and environment here, it is the "most efficient" as per current operational capability. Plus, there's just something about an old school rig with lots of gears and no power steering loaded up with logs ripping down the road. It turns a lot of heads.
Nice! The loader makes sense, and I totally agree on the truck. When my F350 finally rusts to the point that I don't want to take it out on the road any more, I'd love to find an F450 dually with a dump bed to do the same thing ( but on a smaller scale). I won't be able to haul as much weight as my trailer (hauls almost 2 cords per trip), but I'm thinking that making more trips might be worth it.
 
Most of the work I do revolves around the use of a skid steer with forks and grapple as well as excavators with thumbs. I do not outright own any of the equipment yet as equipment prices skyrocketed in 2021 (im talking full on doubled and even higher) and the plan I had to have one paid for in 2019-2020 prices went out the window and its simply not feasible right now. For now I just work with the farmers who do have said equipment and basically work for free so long as I get to keep anything I cut/want. Being a heavy equipment operator helps here. My plan is to scrap the notion of a skid steer (prices haven't begun to fall yet) and focus on getting an older full size loader with forks which will be bigger than what I need and thus I can grow into. I can find those on the used market for dirt cheap compared to the size skid steer necessary for moving logs, and I can straight drive it to the work sites and don't have to worry about hauling logistics to and from local cutting sites.

I outright ditched the trailer option all together. Im all about efficiency and at the end of the day you spend more time, fuel, and effort screwing with a trailer than you do a truck, so I built a truck to haul logs with a dump frame for offload. Its cheaper and a whole heck of a lot easier to get back offroad where the logs are which means I can fall and load anywhere vice falling, hauling to the nearest access point, and then loading, followed by offloading back at my place, all of which requires multiple pieces of equipment. Granted its far from the "most efficient" route, but given finances, situation, and environment here, it is the "most efficient" as per current operational capability. Plus, there's just something about an old school rig with lots of gears and no power steering loaded up with logs ripping down the road. It turns a lot of heads.
You've skillfully navigated the changing equipment landscape with creative solutions. Collaborating with local farmers and leveraging your heavy equipment skills, despite non-monetary rewards, shows practicality. Opting for an older, cost-effective full-size loader is a wise choice, offering room for growth. Ditching the trailer for an efficient truck setup streamlines processes. Your financial situation and adaptability make this approach logical. The image of your rugged truck hauling logs adds character. Resourcefulness shines in your unique blend of practicality and nostalgia. Any specific points you'd like to delve into further? Your approach is truly captivating
 
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