I have noticed something here.

[manonaputer]

i agree, it's silly to just throw money out the window for oil though a lot of people just don't have a choice....i myself only suppliment my natural gas furnace and only burn a cord or two a year at the max....but there is nothing like good old woodstove heat...on a cold brisk day of 0 out in a few hours of lighting my timberline woodstove, i can get my house in the 80's and 90's...plus for me, there is something theraputic about the smell of fresh cut and split wood..

 

[StihlyinEly]

BTW, nice article in Cabela's mag about pike fishing in Mn.

Huh? If I wrote that it must have been in my sleep. I don't remember that one. Whose name was on the piece?

 

[Jon E]

Wow, all you guys sound like me. I know a lot of you have been doing the self-sufficiency thing for a long time, but for me, it's only been a couple of years. I grew up with a woodstove and a vegetable garden, and then for a few years in my early 30's, had oil heat and no garden and a good income so I didn't care. Now it's gotten a lot tougher and we are slowly draggin' ourselves into some semblance of quasi-homesteaders. I just wish that I hadn't buried my house so far into the woods, I could really use a couple acres of open fields with some sunshine.

I will be the first to admit I am a lazy SOB. I like cutting wood, I tolerate splitting (with a hydraulic splitter), I hate stacking, and the daily feedings of the OWB get to be a pain in the *** when it's zero degrees outside, or raining buckets. But the alternative is paying something like $3000 to the propane company annually for heat, hot water and cooking fuel, and that's not gonna happen.

This is also our first year trying some form of livestock. I've got chickens on order, three piglets coming in the end of April, and I've scratched out enough space for a decent garden this year with more to follow later. I don't hunt, I used to as a teenager, but the first deer that gets a taste of the vegetable garden is gonna find itself vacuum-sealed in bags in the freezer.

Next five to eight years is going to determine how we live the rest of our lives, I think. I've found that as I get older, it's less about having all the toys to play with, and more about basic care and feeding of your family. Not gonna go so far as to say 'survival', but sometimes that's just what it feels like. I wouldn't mind being 90% self sufficient in ten years - food, fuel and energy (solar and wind power are in future plans).

 

[StihlyinEly]

It also seems worth pointing out that procuring and processing your own fuel and food keeps you closer to the land and more in tune with the important basics.

Very, very easy for me when I had a 60-hr/week pressure cooker management job to go weeks without picking up a tool beyond a snow shovel. That's no way to live, and I'm a much happier guy now that I'm back on the land and in the woods. It seems our lives go by in an eyeblink, and I want to spend the remainder of that blink out there in the open air. Well, aside from the time spent on the computer.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Huh? If I wrote that it must have been in my sleep. I don't remember that one. Whose name was on the piece?

I'll try to remmeber to look it up when I go home today...

 

[alderman]

Getting fire wood

I've always enjoyed the process of gathering firewood. It's work, but good for the soul.
I don't understand why anybody would be against spending some time here...

And ending up with this....

Kind of like getting paid for something I enjoy doing for free.
Those $70 dollar Winter electric bills are nice also.

 

[Scootermsp]

Not spending upwards of $6000 a year for oil is incentive enough. I am in the best shape of my life cutting a dozen cords a year. My house is always as warm as I can stand it no matter how cold it is outside. My girls marathon showers don't bother me in the least. I am not giving money to nations that want us dead. I have three nice chainsaws that every guy who comes into my garage envies. The OWB gets shut down mid July and fired back up around Labor Day. I am so lucky to have been introduced to the OWB concept a few years back. I have met some of the nicest folks at Arboristsite. I could go on and on....

 

[k9lwt]

I feel the same way. It's nice to be able to not pay for your heat (or at least drastically reduce a gas/oil bill each winter). I know it will take a long time to repay the cost of the Jotul, the 372 and the SuperSplit-but it's worth every penny.

Scooter-three Sig's-don't let Deval know that...

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Huh? If I wrote that it must have been in my sleep. I don't remember that one. Whose name was on the piece?

Boy, did I screw that up!....Article was written by Tom Carpenter, "Summer smallmouth soujourn", Cabela's outfitter journal, april issue. Pike fishing article was on the Great Lakes.

 

[GPETER]

Cutting firewood is not a chore, it's a privilege that allows me to provide heat for my family.

Thanks Michael for taking the time to remind us all of why we cut firewood.

Amen! I am in the same boat as all you gents as well.

This is my first year for raising chickens starting with some meat birds and getting so excited!!!

It seems that todays society is getting more and more detached from the realities of life, it's all push button instant swipe stripe in combo number 3 reality TV everywhere!

 

[BigE]

Kind of like getting paid for something I enjoy doing for free.
Those $70 dollar Winter electric bills are nice also.

I only *wish* I could have $70 electric bills. I pay about $140 per month year round for electric. I have mainly wood heat, but I do cheat and run a space heater in the bathroom during the winter for the 10 minutes I'm in there in the morning.

I'm pretty sure most of my power usage is water related: between pumping the water, heating it for showers, clothes washing, dishwashing, etc. Hmmm, maybe I should look into an OWB for hot water during the winter and solar water during the summer.

I cut all my wood off my property from downed trees and limbs. It's a nice workout and gets me outside. I'm pretty sure I'm not saving any money, though, between buying a tractor, big chipper, chainsaws, etc. But, it's better than the money going to a gym membership!

-Steve

 

[WatsonDude]

Awesome thread...

Go back and read the original post. It's soooo true!

This is one of the best threads I've read on AS.

Cheers.

 

[danrclem]

I don't look at it like I'm stickin' it to the man but that I'm not letting the man stick it to me. After you make your money you have to pay taxes on it before you pay the man so you're paying a lot more than sticker price.

There is a lot of self satisfaction besides saving money by burning wood and doing the other things mentioned. I know that if my electricity goes out tonight I'm going to be able to stay warm. My kids are grown and have kids of their own but if their electricity goes out they know that they have a warm place to go to.

I also cook some on the wood stove but it's not necessary because we have a 500 gal. propane tank with lots of propane left in it that was bought about 2 1/2 years ago. By the time summer gets here it might take 100 gallons to fill it up again.

I just got laid off again so it does feel good to not have a propane bill staring me in the face.

The reawakening of this thread has got me in a panic. I'd better go cut some more wood before I run out. After this winter I'll only have a little over 3 years worth left.

 

[WatsonDude]

Hey danrclem, sorry to hear about getting laid off...again! My heart goes out to you as we've been hit hard by the poor economy ourselves.

I really like your example of "self reliance" and how your kids can learn from your example.

The nice thing about cuttin wood, is you have control over the process and you get to see a tangible outcome from your efforts.

Hope things improve for you soon buddy.

- Scott

 

[jerryw66]

Great thread, I think you guys have listed all of the reasons that my family heats with wood. I do know that I don't burn wood to save money, I think I spend more on the hobby, than I will ever save. But I will always burn wood as long as I can get er done. Tonight, after a long day of downhill skiing with the kids, I told my family I was going snowmobiling for a few days with there uncle, and it would be ok if they let the stove go out and didn't feed it , the flu might need a good midwinter cleaning and the glass is dirty, so when I get home we can clean everything and restart fresh. My 12 yr old daughter asked how cold the house would be before I return in 3 days. She didn't even realize that we have a furnace. Again, great thread.

 

[adseegs]

The amount of money I save every winter by heating with wood is signifigant. It's not about that though. I have turned down a lot of overtime durring the summer in order to go out and prepare for the coming winter. If I were to do the math I could have probably just stayed at work and used the money to buy oil and had a little extra cash on top. I dont regret it though. Esspecially this time of year. I have only been heating with wood for a few years but it has become a part of me. As lame as it sounds I cant imagine not having a fire to look forward to durring the winter months. The cat feels the same way.

 

[066Bigbear]

I would have to say that everything that has been said is the truth for me too. I have been working with wood all of my life there has not been a year that went by that I have not used a chain saw or made some wood chips. We have two saw mills (not the little chain saw mills big circular mills) so wood has been in the blood before I was born. I am still young and I know this but this site has helped me to advance myself with the info. That being said I would like to say a big thanks to those that have helped. And me myself I do not burn wood by my dad has for over 50 plus years. But with in two weeks we will be starting a fire in this house too. So the firewood that I have been selling will be a little bit less because its will be keeping my family warm and not so much the electric company.

Teddy

 

[clinchscavalry]

This is a great thread, but I can't help but see the paradox of members describing their degree of self-sufficiency and then sharing that information with like-minded folks with the use of a computer

I agree with all the reasons for cutting firewood given, but one thing really drives me to utilize wood for heat. It's the incredible waste I see everyday on logging jobs with literally tons of good firewood piled up on decks to rot and left lying in the woods. My wife and I went out back yesterday evening to check the hickory and oak left in piles when we thinned planted pine stands about 10 months ago. It has aged pretty good, and I'll dull several chains on the dry hickory, but it will be in my wood shed within the next two weeks.

We have a few cows, a garden and are very fortunate to have deer on our own property. The wife is begging me to build a chicken pen and coop, and I'm getting inspired to do just that.

For years I made a very good living as a forestry consultant, but the industry has taken a turn for the worse over the last ten years or so. I just sold 100 lbs. of pecans and three truck loads of firewood. Not much money was made, but every little bit counts these days, and I must say it's a satisfying feeling to be able to produce income independently of anyone else. I have refinished floors, built a shed, and cleared a lot for extra income over the last couple years. Now here I am nearing normal retirement age and my 37 year career in forestry can't pay the bills.

I'll be burning and selling firewood from now on, at least as long as I can run a saw and physically load and stack the finished product. And you know what, it's really a good way to warm up and get the blood flowing - at least three times

I better throw another log on the fire and hit the rack. Catch y'all later.

 

[CountryBoy19]

That is one of the 2 main reasons I installed a fireplace and started burning wood.

Every so often we get ice-storms that can knock out the power for days at a time. I don't want to be the guy that has to leave his house because I can't heat it. My home was built all electric, and it sucks.

Just this week my neighbor asked what my electric bill was (he knows I burn wood). He was sort of upset that his bill is estimated at $650. I said normally I'm under $100. I think he is starting to think about burning wood.

 

[wdchuck]

This is what my mind noticed while spending hours splitting wood and glad its with an engine driven device instead of a sharp stone tied to a stick.

Only a beaver is independant in gathering wood. The rest of us are highly dependant on others starting with those who get ore from the ground, process it into what needs to be manufactured then shipped to the store where we acquire what we need using currency received in trade for our time.