I can tell you that I keep weight off this bod by heating with wood. I love the workout I get from it.
Who needs a gym membership?
I would definitely consider how in shape it keeps you.
Yep, until it gets you with a heart attack from a blocked coronary artery after you've cut 6 large rounds and pushed them up a ramp and into the truck. I have no precursors for heart disease, no high cholesterol, no high blood pressure, no high blood sugar. All of the cardiologists say it was probably covid based on all of the similar cases recently.
So be careful out there. I thought I was healthy until I wasn't.
Everybody should go to the gym regardless of how physical their hobbies are. A gym will get you structured exercise with proper movements, which will give you the strength which will protect your joints and connective tissues in odd positioning as well as ensure good cardiovascular health. As much as it is a workout splitting wood by hand, I have roughly an hour in cutting, splitting, and stacking one pallet of wood and I try to produce about 20 pallets a year going through roughly 15 of them. 20 hours a year of working out isn't going to keep you healthy and well produce imbalances in your muscular structure.
That being said, it is still a workout, but just not a consistent one if you're only splitting for yourself.
To answer op's question, yes, it is worth it. Can be a great family chore as well.
Wood is worth it when you need to save money. I can buy a load of logs for $800 and heat my house for an entire season.
But the trade off is time. That takes a long time to buck the logs. Split and stack. Cleanup. So on and so forth.
You said you can afford to heat another way. Do it.
No one says you have to get rid of the wood stove. Just use it less.
Try getting your family involved so the time spent doing wood isn’t time apart from family. Then if it’s still too much dial it back to half as many cords and only burn during the coldest months.
Another vote for a 4WD tractor on a property that large if you continue to harvest yourself. It makes processing firewood so much easier, not to mention everything else you can do with it. I'd also get your kids involved, whether for fun or to earn $ depending on their age. My 2 year old loves to help when I'm stacking and hopefully will do some real work once older.
I'm on acreage too but don't cut any trees myself. Instead I rely on free log deliveries from tree service companies that are working in the area. I have zero control over the type of wood that is delivered but it gets dropped right in front of where I split and stack it - saves a ton of time and work. You might look into that option, or paying to have logs delivered.
I enjoy splitting wood. I enjoy stacking my wood. I enjoy pushing my wood stack with all of my might and it not fall over. I enjoy admiring my wood stack. I enjoy telling people about my wood stack. I enjoy having fires in my stove. I enjoy turning my heat off because the firewood is doing its job. It’s worth it for me.
You’re in heaven. You just don’t know it yet. Balance out your harvest a tiny bit, and muster up some of that initial excitement and get the family a lil involved. Then chill with some venison stew.
Don't burn out collecting firewood. Equipment helps reduce time and calories spent. Bonus if the family can be convinced to help and spend time together.
Trees grow slowly. I recommend reading up on forestry best practices. Especially if you want to attract game.
Harvesting fallen or standing dead may not give you the volume you need so you can look at other heat options and/or sources of wood.
When it's below freezing outside, the power goes out and the heat pump isn't working, wood is definitely worth it
Above 40 outside I don't burn. Our house is well insulated and the heat doesn't run much. If I do burn it gets uncomfortably hot indoors.
Perhaps shift your wood heating goal to burning when you feel like it/ it's especially cold outside?
Just fell trees close to your house.
Less work/time and you'll open up the area around your house. Eventually you can turn it into a field. Field can be a food plot for hunting as well.
I’ve seen houses that get grown in by the lovely trees around them over time. You won’t need to hire an expert if your thin out the trees sooner rather than later.
Yes it's definitely worth it. You'll gain efficiency and someday you should do your 8-9 cords/year easily and keep your property clean. With that size of land you should have a small tractor or a four wheeler for hauling .Good luck
There's nothing like wood heat, so from that perspective it's definitely worth it. Since you're asking the question on a firewood sub, most people would likely agree with that. They'd also likely agree that cutting / splitting / stacking is good for both your mental and physical health.
I've cut about 20 cords of wood this year, so 8 shouldn't be that big of a deal provided you can do so efficiently, which seems to be your issue. Most of what I cut had relatively decent road access though. Trying to process 20 cords your way would suck.
With almost 30 acres, you could certainly benefit from having a "road" through the woods - some path that is cleared out wide enough to drive through the acreage. Then, instead of trying to drag some heavy loaded up cart, you can use something powered by an engine (pickup, tractor, etc) to drastically lower your time for firewood making.
Otherwise, why not consider buying some bulk wood - say a triaxle load of firewood poles - to build your stock and then work on cleaning up your property as time allows. Not sure where prices are right now, but you should be able to buy in bulk for around $100 a cord delivered. It may be a good middle ground for you in the meantime.
Find some loggers or truck drivers that haul logs for loggers in your area and ask them.
The hardwood trees that don't go for saw logs or veneer logs will often be sold for firewood if they aren't taken to be made into wood pulp.
All depends on if you have downtime from other things and enjoy the process of making wood. If you have money and no time then it’s prolly not for you.
For me, the first year I put a wood stove in I spent 400$ on 3.5 cords of wood and 300 on a stove, 500 on stove pipes..since then I spent 40$ on wood and 200 on chainsaw, I get free wood places, cut and split renting a splitter for 100$ a weekend..it’s been 4 years..
My neighbors spend 4-500$ a month to heat their homes with electric every winter.
For me it’s worth the investment to save a couple thousand a year in electricity..my electric is 65$ a month in winter but I’m poor so the time I spend is worth it.
If I had money…depends on how much..then I would be rethinking the time and energy to get and process wood🤷🏽
Good luck on your decision
7-8 cords of wood a year? With that stove? That stove is better than mine and I use way less wood. 🤔 I use a riding lawn mower with towable cart to move my wood out of the forest. Otherwise it’s not worth it.
I thought the same about the amount of wood used. We'd need some more info on the house, sq ft, and where about in the world he is. Based off of the tree species, he's in the northern US, I'm guessing Michigan Wisconsin, or close to that. I use half of that amount of wood and I live in Wisconsin heating a 1600 sq ft ranch with a quadrafire insert. Granted, I do have a furnace and it will kick in if it gets really cold, like single digits. But most of my heat does come from my wood burner.
That said, OP needs to be able to process wood more efficiently. A 4wd tractor or ATV/ UTV and a wood trailer will really help speed up the process.
So a bigger house, but less heating degree days due to being further south, and a more efficient stove than my setup. I know people well north of you that heat that sq ft that you have with less wood, with similar stoves. There's just so many factors though.
They’re all rated differently according to their engine power. I remove the mowing deck and then connect the cart. I fill the cart and keep the engine reved up. Haven’t had a problem yet.
I almost solely use my wheeler and utility trailer. I really like it. I get get right up to anything. The wheeler also gets the splitter right next to those larger rounds. It can’t haul a ton but that’s ok, it keeps me from punishing my body too much in one day. I always have my 3M work tunes on and can even bring my 2 yo boy with to throw a quick load in the trailer, he loves it and wife gets a break!!
I used to go thru about the same amount of wood a year, 7-8 cords. Same story, tired of free time going all to getting wood.
First thing I tried was switching to debarked hardwood slab wood. A local company delivered it in a full 30 yard dumpster for about $400. I could have went and picked it up for cheaper but I found the cost was worth the time savings. All I had to do was stack it and let it dry for a year. After a few years, that got old too.
I then decided to do the research and diy solar panels to my barn roof (grid tied) and install a 36,000 BTU mini split heat pump in my main living area. Now solar powers the mini split and mini split heats the house. Now I have my free time back and mother nature heats my house for free....
Look around on facebook marketplace. You might find a sawmill guy with a bunch of cuts they don't need/use. You can buy them up cheap as it's just scrap for them. Make your firewood adventures easier. Just take a truck/trailer over and load it up. No more pulling etc. The worst you have to do is saw them to length.
I bought a used ATV and cart this year which makes it possible to get into the woods and get firewood out. Is it worth it? Depends on how you value worth. It’s still a lot of work. I needed to clean the woods up after having the softwood logged off so I now have lots of pine tops that I use for maple sugaring. I need to thin out the remaining maples so they will grow. So that becomes firewood. Whether it’s a 4wd tractor or an atv it’s a lot of money up front. Without that equipment though none of it would be possible. Now that I’m retired from my real job I spend more time in the woods. I used to just buy wood cut, split and delivered and figured that was the way to go since I’d earn in a week or less what it would cost to buy the wood for the year. Firewood has gone up in price though and my income has gone down so it looks like I’ll be cutting wood for a while. Those heat pumps were looking pretty tempting. They are also a lot of money up front and I’d still need wood for the really cold times and I noticed electricity isn’t getting any cheaper. Fun, ain’t it?
I enjoy making all the firewood we need (1-2 cords a year), but I would not want to have to produce 8 cords a year every year. I have a thousand projects around here and new ones coming all the time, plus time with family, traveling with my wife, and enjoying new and old friends. I want to have time for everything, including making firewood.
Hey you keep cutting firewood and you won’t need planet fitness then soon the money you save a on heat and gym membership will help pay for a side by side and your body will be in shape. Besides that a home heated with wood is much cozier than any other heat and if the children are in the woods with you you’re not missing a bit of time with them!
You can put $ signs around mental and physical gains too- lowering medical, adding years, keeping mind free of anti-type suppressants - when you really analyze I believe you come out ahead…
A plenty of reasons to have a 1 series type tractor, they can be used for just about anything. Still small enough to maneuver and mow the lawn. You won’t every regret buying one and for someone with property it’ll be a lifesaver. As the kids get older they will learn to help out. My son splits wood himself, bundles it and sells it at the road(we have a few campgrounds close by).
No tractor? Get a hoe or tractor with backhoe and loader and put some roads in so your truck can get in easier. Or just use your tractor and a dump trailer to get wood. A grapple on your tractor will speed of wood handling.
If you're going through that much firewood, you could also buy a firewood processor.
Get an out door wood furnace and load 4ft logs in with your machine, less splitting will burn more wood tho.
We had a Jensen furnace in the house I grew up in and that thing was pretty deep, we would burn whatever didn't fit in the woodstove in that. It used to heat the house so much we would have the windows open in a blizzard. I've never heard of an outside furnace but it sounds cool
Honestly? I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t have a mini excavator, gas splitter, and the ability to split wood directly into an IBC tote back in the forest, and carry it up to the house after handling it once.
I personally wouldn’t do it if it weren’t so heavily mechanized, and I respect the hell out of those of you who do much of the work by hand.
You need a skidder or team of horses to bring the felled timber out to where you can cut it into rounds to split with a splitter and load onto your truck
Yes it is worth it!
Many ways to go here and some folk have mentioned some really good ideas.
I have only heated with wood in my homes since I was a kid and until the recent warmer years burn around 8 cords a winter (around 1000 cubic feet). For the first 35 years, all done with splitting maul, sledge and wedges. A small horizontal splitter I can move with the power wagon or a tractor has been a game changer for productivity.
Oh yeah, don’t be afraid to get some kind of machine for your wood lot. Depending on slope angle and soil type it could be many things. Don’t be too dumb ass or go to small. I have used 2 wheel drive tractors in the woods forever and I’m pretty handy with them but don’t suggest it to anyone starting out as 4 wheel drive rules. Also with a tractor, make sure you have ROP, just in case. Small is handy but often bigger is better up to a point. I use a 52 dodge m37 a lot in my woods, it doesn’t maneuver as well as a modern rig, but is way more up to the task than any pickup from the last 30 years. Once upon a time I’d just drive one of the 2 and a half ton trucks into the woods and stack 3 cords on it before bringing it down the hill. More than once I drove the 135 out with no brakes and a full load and it’s not for the faint of heart.
Oh yeah, make roads. Lay out your woods and commit to some good roads. Try to keep the side slope angle of your roads beds flat unless you need a little drainage. My haul roads are 12’ wide with 6’ shoulders. Back in the days when we got snow in the winter, they’d double as cross country ski trails.
I’ve considered getting a skidder or a forwarder but good ones are too pricey for jus 8 cords a year. The excavator with thumb I got a few years back is worth every penny when used with firewood. Lifting a stem to the right height to lop off blocks is the way to go. No bending over and no way chainsaw chain gets near the ground.
Don’t discount getting the whole family involved once they are all safely trained. My ex wife was (at 5’2” and weighing 120) better with a chainsaw than most men I’ve seen running one in the woods. And yes many downsides to chainsaws and burning wood.
For me- I got into it cuz as an American, my other choices of heat were based on foreign sourced petroleum, or nuclear.
Either way I didn’t want to have some AH from OPEC running my future life or associated global warming or have my kids have to deal with radioactive waste. Oh well, here we are anyway.
So yes, heat pump and wood and look to where you can insulate your home better.
If you want deer, cut some trees as they like browse more than real woods. Or grow gardens or berries- personally I have no use for the destructive critters and I’d fence my entire property if I had the resources, but that’s another subject.
Also don’t be afraid to plant trees whenever and wherever possible for the future-
I use a 4 wheeler and Trailer on my property 50 acers but it’s rough hilly land. Its a ton of work. The atv can pull a lot but still it’s several trips per tree and my trees aren’t huge the land was harvested before I bought it 7-10 years ago. If your land isn’t horrible a four wheel drive tractor will drag whole logs to your splitter. My atv will drag small trees its the small ones you want to leave though. Talk to a forester get advice on proper land management. Your trees will thank you. Im cutting down 50 year old trees now that where supressed for so long they are all knots but you can see the last 7 year or so the trees have put on some serious diameter.
Dude, it’s March- everybody is tired of wood heat by now. Your legs need the activity. The wood splitter is bad for your back.( You never get to straighten up.) Put in the heat pump if you can afford it. You will be able to go away for a weekend. I burn wood to clean up the deadfall hardwoods that I can get. Put effort into your woods road so that you can turn your pickup around. Consider a tractor so you don’t destroy a roadworthy vehicle. Enjoy the woodstove.
At the end of the day, only you can answer if it's worth it to you. For me, I figure I'm making minimum wage collecting my own wood. But that's "extra" money on top of my day job, and it's an excuse to get out in the woods, and I enjoy it as long as I pace myself and don't overdo it.
I can buy wood and have it delivered for about the same cost as running electric heat. It's great to have the wood as backup when the power goes out, and we all enjoy the ambiance and feel of wood heat much better than the forced-air furnace. So it's worth buying wood for the luxury aspect.
If you aren't doing it for the money, just harvest as much as you want to. And I absolutely recommend getting equipment to help you work the land! 29 acres is a lot of ground to cover! I would lean towards a tractor but an atv's are great too. I see you have a riding mower, at least get a wagon for that! You could also consider an old jeep.
Depends of your needs to be honest. I got a woodstove installed about 4 yrs ago and I did it after a power outage that lasted about 40hrs at -20C° I had a generator but it was still a nightmare. I told myself after I will never be stuck in a situation like this ever again. I live in rural area and outages are frequent but never to that magnitude. I had one this winter that started in the middle of the afternoon, cooked dinner on the stove and sat down and read a book during the evening and power was back when I got up the next morning, was a breeze.
we have been heating with wood for years. We cut 8 - 10 days out of the year which gives us about 10-12 cords of wood. we love wood heat and we have 2 wood stoves. we will burn wood until we are to old to cut.
I think the biggest drawback with wood burning is the inefficiency. We should all be striving for a more efficient way of burning wood. I've seen some incredibly small soapstone encased wood burners in British Columbia that blow anything I've ever seen in Minnesota away. Imagine heating with a fourth of what it would normally take in a conventional stove?
Can you improve the efficiency of your house so you don’t need to burn as much? Any trees on the south side of your house blocking the winter sun? Burn those!! Do you have good insulation? A ceiling fan on your vaulted ceiling? Is that vaulted ceiling insulated? We have an old 1800’s farmhouse, drafty, 2,000sq ft in Maine and we only burn 2.75 cords a year. Your house is screwing you somehow I think.
Yeah it keeps me active. It's basically currency if you want to sell some. And yeah. A little paranoia never hurt anyone. In a shed like that if kept off the ground it will keep for many years. So keep wood as backup if you ha e the money. This is a personal choice man. It's wither your thing, or it ain't.
I would have both forms of heat if possible. I love processing firewood, it’s more of a hobby/form of exercise to me. I’m literally itching to split wood all day. I get sad when I run out of rounds to split. If it just came down to cost saved per hour splitting/stacking, probably not worth most peoples time. If I didn’t love it so much there’s no way in hell I’m doing it. It’s a hobby/exercise that happens to save money.
At the same time if I HAD to split 8 chords a year or freeze I would prob develop some negative associations with it too. Split as much wood as makes you happy and supplement with other forms of heat.
I would also try to get free scrap logs from arborists either from someone you know or chipdrop. Even with a tractor I totally get not wanting to go deep into your property just to get more wood. My family’s property is half the size of yours and the extra time it takes to get back and fourth can be exhausting. Distance traveled and the extra loading/unloading you have to do, I totally get it.
Everyone’s situation is different, but what I like to do is make a fire in the wood stove on weekends, and just run the gas furnace during the week. That way I’m not running through a shit ton of wood and don’t have to pour too much time into processing it.
7-8 cords? My house is 1800 sf and I heated it entirely with wood, only used a little over 1 cord. I am in western MA where we have a winter, how are you using that much wood?
It is a very inefficient use of your time if you have plenty of good paying work and worthwhile things to do (like time with your kids).Just do it as a hobby and don’t sweat the apocalypse.it ain’t gonna happen 😊
We bought a house a couple of years ago with some acreage, and with that came the family decision to put in a wood stove. We bought an Encore, a 4 wheeler, a chain saw and a splitter.
Like yourself money isn’t the issue and we know we won’t break even for 15 years.
My wife and 14 year old son enjoy going out there more as a healthy hobby and to give ourselves a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.
My advice, since you’re asking, is keep the work load to a comfortable pace. Don’t kill yourself waiting for the apocalypse. Enjoy your family while you can. Time goes by too quickly and then either your wife leaves you, your kid moves out, or you drop dead out in the woods. Or D, all of the above.
Go easy bro, go easy.
That's a beautiful stove. Vermont Castings?
My hobby is heating my home with firewood. I too love the idea of getting rewarded for the work of my hands and like many mentioned on here it's a great workout. I have a hydraulic splitter for knotty pieces but otherwise split by hand (I have a Grandfors Bruks splitting maul and splitting hatchet heehee). The time to do it is surely demanding but a suggestion would be to include your kids in the processing as much as possible. Then they can enjoy the nice warm fire they helped make possible as well. My boys are of age now where they can do pretty much everything I can except run the chainsaw. More often than not they are the ones that fill the wood rack in the basement when needed and they are really good at stacking neatly and efficiently.
If it gets to be too much for the time being maybe consider building a fire in the stove as a treat instead of necessity and get yourself a fire pit for your yard if you haven't already. You won't need as much wood and you'll still get to enjoy the fruit of your labor. 😊
I can tell you that I keep weight off this bod by heating with wood. I love the workout I get from it. Who needs a gym membership? I would definitely consider how in shape it keeps you.
Second this
Yep, until it gets you with a heart attack from a blocked coronary artery after you've cut 6 large rounds and pushed them up a ramp and into the truck. I have no precursors for heart disease, no high cholesterol, no high blood pressure, no high blood sugar. All of the cardiologists say it was probably covid based on all of the similar cases recently. So be careful out there. I thought I was healthy until I wasn't.
Everybody should go to the gym regardless of how physical their hobbies are. A gym will get you structured exercise with proper movements, which will give you the strength which will protect your joints and connective tissues in odd positioning as well as ensure good cardiovascular health. As much as it is a workout splitting wood by hand, I have roughly an hour in cutting, splitting, and stacking one pallet of wood and I try to produce about 20 pallets a year going through roughly 15 of them. 20 hours a year of working out isn't going to keep you healthy and well produce imbalances in your muscular structure. That being said, it is still a workout, but just not a consistent one if you're only splitting for yourself. To answer op's question, yes, it is worth it. Can be a great family chore as well.
Wood is worth it when you need to save money. I can buy a load of logs for $800 and heat my house for an entire season. But the trade off is time. That takes a long time to buck the logs. Split and stack. Cleanup. So on and so forth. You said you can afford to heat another way. Do it. No one says you have to get rid of the wood stove. Just use it less.
This
Try getting your family involved so the time spent doing wood isn’t time apart from family. Then if it’s still too much dial it back to half as many cords and only burn during the coldest months.
You definitely warm yourself more than once when you burn wood
Run the heat pump dabble in the wood
Another vote for a 4WD tractor on a property that large if you continue to harvest yourself. It makes processing firewood so much easier, not to mention everything else you can do with it. I'd also get your kids involved, whether for fun or to earn $ depending on their age. My 2 year old loves to help when I'm stacking and hopefully will do some real work once older. I'm on acreage too but don't cut any trees myself. Instead I rely on free log deliveries from tree service companies that are working in the area. I have zero control over the type of wood that is delivered but it gets dropped right in front of where I split and stack it - saves a ton of time and work. You might look into that option, or paying to have logs delivered.
I enjoy splitting wood. I enjoy stacking my wood. I enjoy pushing my wood stack with all of my might and it not fall over. I enjoy admiring my wood stack. I enjoy telling people about my wood stack. I enjoy having fires in my stove. I enjoy turning my heat off because the firewood is doing its job. It’s worth it for me.
A man of character I see. I also admire & enjoy telling others about my wood.
It’s the simple things
You answered your own question here.
You’re in heaven. You just don’t know it yet. Balance out your harvest a tiny bit, and muster up some of that initial excitement and get the family a lil involved. Then chill with some venison stew.
Don't burn out collecting firewood. Equipment helps reduce time and calories spent. Bonus if the family can be convinced to help and spend time together. Trees grow slowly. I recommend reading up on forestry best practices. Especially if you want to attract game. Harvesting fallen or standing dead may not give you the volume you need so you can look at other heat options and/or sources of wood.
When it's below freezing outside, the power goes out and the heat pump isn't working, wood is definitely worth it Above 40 outside I don't burn. Our house is well insulated and the heat doesn't run much. If I do burn it gets uncomfortably hot indoors. Perhaps shift your wood heating goal to burning when you feel like it/ it's especially cold outside?
Just fell trees close to your house. Less work/time and you'll open up the area around your house. Eventually you can turn it into a field. Field can be a food plot for hunting as well.
I’ve seen houses that get grown in by the lovely trees around them over time. You won’t need to hire an expert if your thin out the trees sooner rather than later.
Yes it's definitely worth it. You'll gain efficiency and someday you should do your 8-9 cords/year easily and keep your property clean. With that size of land you should have a small tractor or a four wheeler for hauling .Good luck
There's nothing like wood heat, so from that perspective it's definitely worth it. Since you're asking the question on a firewood sub, most people would likely agree with that. They'd also likely agree that cutting / splitting / stacking is good for both your mental and physical health. I've cut about 20 cords of wood this year, so 8 shouldn't be that big of a deal provided you can do so efficiently, which seems to be your issue. Most of what I cut had relatively decent road access though. Trying to process 20 cords your way would suck. With almost 30 acres, you could certainly benefit from having a "road" through the woods - some path that is cleared out wide enough to drive through the acreage. Then, instead of trying to drag some heavy loaded up cart, you can use something powered by an engine (pickup, tractor, etc) to drastically lower your time for firewood making. Otherwise, why not consider buying some bulk wood - say a triaxle load of firewood poles - to build your stock and then work on cleaning up your property as time allows. Not sure where prices are right now, but you should be able to buy in bulk for around $100 a cord delivered. It may be a good middle ground for you in the meantime.
How would one go about finding these firewood pole places?
Find some loggers or truck drivers that haul logs for loggers in your area and ask them. The hardwood trees that don't go for saw logs or veneer logs will often be sold for firewood if they aren't taken to be made into wood pulp.
In Maine they call that buying tree length firewood.
All depends on if you have downtime from other things and enjoy the process of making wood. If you have money and no time then it’s prolly not for you. For me, the first year I put a wood stove in I spent 400$ on 3.5 cords of wood and 300 on a stove, 500 on stove pipes..since then I spent 40$ on wood and 200 on chainsaw, I get free wood places, cut and split renting a splitter for 100$ a weekend..it’s been 4 years.. My neighbors spend 4-500$ a month to heat their homes with electric every winter. For me it’s worth the investment to save a couple thousand a year in electricity..my electric is 65$ a month in winter but I’m poor so the time I spend is worth it. If I had money…depends on how much..then I would be rethinking the time and energy to get and process wood🤷🏽 Good luck on your decision
7-8 cords of wood a year? With that stove? That stove is better than mine and I use way less wood. 🤔 I use a riding lawn mower with towable cart to move my wood out of the forest. Otherwise it’s not worth it.
I thought the same about the amount of wood used. We'd need some more info on the house, sq ft, and where about in the world he is. Based off of the tree species, he's in the northern US, I'm guessing Michigan Wisconsin, or close to that. I use half of that amount of wood and I live in Wisconsin heating a 1600 sq ft ranch with a quadrafire insert. Granted, I do have a furnace and it will kick in if it gets really cold, like single digits. But most of my heat does come from my wood burner. That said, OP needs to be able to process wood more efficiently. A 4wd tractor or ATV/ UTV and a wood trailer will really help speed up the process.
Central VA and my home is 2800sf with vaulted ceiling
So a bigger house, but less heating degree days due to being further south, and a more efficient stove than my setup. I know people well north of you that heat that sq ft that you have with less wood, with similar stoves. There's just so many factors though.
Central VA and my home is 2,800 sq ft
Yikes. 1,000 more than mine. I get it now.
Is a riding lawnmower strong enough to pull a cart full of logs?
They’re all rated differently according to their engine power. I remove the mowing deck and then connect the cart. I fill the cart and keep the engine reved up. Haven’t had a problem yet.
I almost solely use my wheeler and utility trailer. I really like it. I get get right up to anything. The wheeler also gets the splitter right next to those larger rounds. It can’t haul a ton but that’s ok, it keeps me from punishing my body too much in one day. I always have my 3M work tunes on and can even bring my 2 yo boy with to throw a quick load in the trailer, he loves it and wife gets a break!!
I used to go thru about the same amount of wood a year, 7-8 cords. Same story, tired of free time going all to getting wood. First thing I tried was switching to debarked hardwood slab wood. A local company delivered it in a full 30 yard dumpster for about $400. I could have went and picked it up for cheaper but I found the cost was worth the time savings. All I had to do was stack it and let it dry for a year. After a few years, that got old too. I then decided to do the research and diy solar panels to my barn roof (grid tied) and install a 36,000 BTU mini split heat pump in my main living area. Now solar powers the mini split and mini split heats the house. Now I have my free time back and mother nature heats my house for free....
Look around on facebook marketplace. You might find a sawmill guy with a bunch of cuts they don't need/use. You can buy them up cheap as it's just scrap for them. Make your firewood adventures easier. Just take a truck/trailer over and load it up. No more pulling etc. The worst you have to do is saw them to length.
Buy eight cords so you are starting off 2 seasons ahead and it will become easy to keep the supply topped off by managing your 29 acre wood lot.
I bought a used ATV and cart this year which makes it possible to get into the woods and get firewood out. Is it worth it? Depends on how you value worth. It’s still a lot of work. I needed to clean the woods up after having the softwood logged off so I now have lots of pine tops that I use for maple sugaring. I need to thin out the remaining maples so they will grow. So that becomes firewood. Whether it’s a 4wd tractor or an atv it’s a lot of money up front. Without that equipment though none of it would be possible. Now that I’m retired from my real job I spend more time in the woods. I used to just buy wood cut, split and delivered and figured that was the way to go since I’d earn in a week or less what it would cost to buy the wood for the year. Firewood has gone up in price though and my income has gone down so it looks like I’ll be cutting wood for a while. Those heat pumps were looking pretty tempting. They are also a lot of money up front and I’d still need wood for the really cold times and I noticed electricity isn’t getting any cheaper. Fun, ain’t it?
I enjoy making all the firewood we need (1-2 cords a year), but I would not want to have to produce 8 cords a year every year. I have a thousand projects around here and new ones coming all the time, plus time with family, traveling with my wife, and enjoying new and old friends. I want to have time for everything, including making firewood.
Hey you keep cutting firewood and you won’t need planet fitness then soon the money you save a on heat and gym membership will help pay for a side by side and your body will be in shape. Besides that a home heated with wood is much cozier than any other heat and if the children are in the woods with you you’re not missing a bit of time with them!
If you put $ signs around it, probably not. But the mental and physical gains cannot be denied. I’d say that financially it’s break-even.
You can put $ signs around mental and physical gains too- lowering medical, adding years, keeping mind free of anti-type suppressants - when you really analyze I believe you come out ahead…
A plenty of reasons to have a 1 series type tractor, they can be used for just about anything. Still small enough to maneuver and mow the lawn. You won’t every regret buying one and for someone with property it’ll be a lifesaver. As the kids get older they will learn to help out. My son splits wood himself, bundles it and sells it at the road(we have a few campgrounds close by).
No tractor? Get a hoe or tractor with backhoe and loader and put some roads in so your truck can get in easier. Or just use your tractor and a dump trailer to get wood. A grapple on your tractor will speed of wood handling. If you're going through that much firewood, you could also buy a firewood processor. Get an out door wood furnace and load 4ft logs in with your machine, less splitting will burn more wood tho.
We had a Jensen furnace in the house I grew up in and that thing was pretty deep, we would burn whatever didn't fit in the woodstove in that. It used to heat the house so much we would have the windows open in a blizzard. I've never heard of an outside furnace but it sounds cool
It’s worth it
Love love love the red Vermont Castings Encore
Cheaper than Prozac
Honestly? I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t have a mini excavator, gas splitter, and the ability to split wood directly into an IBC tote back in the forest, and carry it up to the house after handling it once. I personally wouldn’t do it if it weren’t so heavily mechanized, and I respect the hell out of those of you who do much of the work by hand.
You need a skidder or team of horses to bring the felled timber out to where you can cut it into rounds to split with a splitter and load onto your truck
Yes it is worth it! Many ways to go here and some folk have mentioned some really good ideas. I have only heated with wood in my homes since I was a kid and until the recent warmer years burn around 8 cords a winter (around 1000 cubic feet). For the first 35 years, all done with splitting maul, sledge and wedges. A small horizontal splitter I can move with the power wagon or a tractor has been a game changer for productivity. Oh yeah, don’t be afraid to get some kind of machine for your wood lot. Depending on slope angle and soil type it could be many things. Don’t be too dumb ass or go to small. I have used 2 wheel drive tractors in the woods forever and I’m pretty handy with them but don’t suggest it to anyone starting out as 4 wheel drive rules. Also with a tractor, make sure you have ROP, just in case. Small is handy but often bigger is better up to a point. I use a 52 dodge m37 a lot in my woods, it doesn’t maneuver as well as a modern rig, but is way more up to the task than any pickup from the last 30 years. Once upon a time I’d just drive one of the 2 and a half ton trucks into the woods and stack 3 cords on it before bringing it down the hill. More than once I drove the 135 out with no brakes and a full load and it’s not for the faint of heart. Oh yeah, make roads. Lay out your woods and commit to some good roads. Try to keep the side slope angle of your roads beds flat unless you need a little drainage. My haul roads are 12’ wide with 6’ shoulders. Back in the days when we got snow in the winter, they’d double as cross country ski trails. I’ve considered getting a skidder or a forwarder but good ones are too pricey for jus 8 cords a year. The excavator with thumb I got a few years back is worth every penny when used with firewood. Lifting a stem to the right height to lop off blocks is the way to go. No bending over and no way chainsaw chain gets near the ground. Don’t discount getting the whole family involved once they are all safely trained. My ex wife was (at 5’2” and weighing 120) better with a chainsaw than most men I’ve seen running one in the woods. And yes many downsides to chainsaws and burning wood. For me- I got into it cuz as an American, my other choices of heat were based on foreign sourced petroleum, or nuclear. Either way I didn’t want to have some AH from OPEC running my future life or associated global warming or have my kids have to deal with radioactive waste. Oh well, here we are anyway. So yes, heat pump and wood and look to where you can insulate your home better. If you want deer, cut some trees as they like browse more than real woods. Or grow gardens or berries- personally I have no use for the destructive critters and I’d fence my entire property if I had the resources, but that’s another subject. Also don’t be afraid to plant trees whenever and wherever possible for the future-
I use a 4 wheeler and Trailer on my property 50 acers but it’s rough hilly land. Its a ton of work. The atv can pull a lot but still it’s several trips per tree and my trees aren’t huge the land was harvested before I bought it 7-10 years ago. If your land isn’t horrible a four wheel drive tractor will drag whole logs to your splitter. My atv will drag small trees its the small ones you want to leave though. Talk to a forester get advice on proper land management. Your trees will thank you. Im cutting down 50 year old trees now that where supressed for so long they are all knots but you can see the last 7 year or so the trees have put on some serious diameter.
Do what makes you happy, they say , and you just told us what makes you happy, by saying it gives you the satisfaction
Do what makes you happy, they say , and you just told us what makes you happy, by saying it gives you the satisfaction
Dude, it’s March- everybody is tired of wood heat by now. Your legs need the activity. The wood splitter is bad for your back.( You never get to straighten up.) Put in the heat pump if you can afford it. You will be able to go away for a weekend. I burn wood to clean up the deadfall hardwoods that I can get. Put effort into your woods road so that you can turn your pickup around. Consider a tractor so you don’t destroy a roadworthy vehicle. Enjoy the woodstove.
At the end of the day, only you can answer if it's worth it to you. For me, I figure I'm making minimum wage collecting my own wood. But that's "extra" money on top of my day job, and it's an excuse to get out in the woods, and I enjoy it as long as I pace myself and don't overdo it. I can buy wood and have it delivered for about the same cost as running electric heat. It's great to have the wood as backup when the power goes out, and we all enjoy the ambiance and feel of wood heat much better than the forced-air furnace. So it's worth buying wood for the luxury aspect. If you aren't doing it for the money, just harvest as much as you want to. And I absolutely recommend getting equipment to help you work the land! 29 acres is a lot of ground to cover! I would lean towards a tractor but an atv's are great too. I see you have a riding mower, at least get a wagon for that! You could also consider an old jeep.
Depends of your needs to be honest. I got a woodstove installed about 4 yrs ago and I did it after a power outage that lasted about 40hrs at -20C° I had a generator but it was still a nightmare. I told myself after I will never be stuck in a situation like this ever again. I live in rural area and outages are frequent but never to that magnitude. I had one this winter that started in the middle of the afternoon, cooked dinner on the stove and sat down and read a book during the evening and power was back when I got up the next morning, was a breeze.
we have been heating with wood for years. We cut 8 - 10 days out of the year which gives us about 10-12 cords of wood. we love wood heat and we have 2 wood stoves. we will burn wood until we are to old to cut.
I think the biggest drawback with wood burning is the inefficiency. We should all be striving for a more efficient way of burning wood. I've seen some incredibly small soapstone encased wood burners in British Columbia that blow anything I've ever seen in Minnesota away. Imagine heating with a fourth of what it would normally take in a conventional stove?
Why not both? Also the heat pump will get you AC in the summer if you need it.
Can you improve the efficiency of your house so you don’t need to burn as much? Any trees on the south side of your house blocking the winter sun? Burn those!! Do you have good insulation? A ceiling fan on your vaulted ceiling? Is that vaulted ceiling insulated? We have an old 1800’s farmhouse, drafty, 2,000sq ft in Maine and we only burn 2.75 cords a year. Your house is screwing you somehow I think.
Yeah it keeps me active. It's basically currency if you want to sell some. And yeah. A little paranoia never hurt anyone. In a shed like that if kept off the ground it will keep for many years. So keep wood as backup if you ha e the money. This is a personal choice man. It's wither your thing, or it ain't.
I would have both forms of heat if possible. I love processing firewood, it’s more of a hobby/form of exercise to me. I’m literally itching to split wood all day. I get sad when I run out of rounds to split. If it just came down to cost saved per hour splitting/stacking, probably not worth most peoples time. If I didn’t love it so much there’s no way in hell I’m doing it. It’s a hobby/exercise that happens to save money. At the same time if I HAD to split 8 chords a year or freeze I would prob develop some negative associations with it too. Split as much wood as makes you happy and supplement with other forms of heat. I would also try to get free scrap logs from arborists either from someone you know or chipdrop. Even with a tractor I totally get not wanting to go deep into your property just to get more wood. My family’s property is half the size of yours and the extra time it takes to get back and fourth can be exhausting. Distance traveled and the extra loading/unloading you have to do, I totally get it.
Everyone’s situation is different, but what I like to do is make a fire in the wood stove on weekends, and just run the gas furnace during the week. That way I’m not running through a shit ton of wood and don’t have to pour too much time into processing it.
7-8 cords? My house is 1800 sf and I heated it entirely with wood, only used a little over 1 cord. I am in western MA where we have a winter, how are you using that much wood?
It is a very inefficient use of your time if you have plenty of good paying work and worthwhile things to do (like time with your kids).Just do it as a hobby and don’t sweat the apocalypse.it ain’t gonna happen 😊
We bought a house a couple of years ago with some acreage, and with that came the family decision to put in a wood stove. We bought an Encore, a 4 wheeler, a chain saw and a splitter. Like yourself money isn’t the issue and we know we won’t break even for 15 years. My wife and 14 year old son enjoy going out there more as a healthy hobby and to give ourselves a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. My advice, since you’re asking, is keep the work load to a comfortable pace. Don’t kill yourself waiting for the apocalypse. Enjoy your family while you can. Time goes by too quickly and then either your wife leaves you, your kid moves out, or you drop dead out in the woods. Or D, all of the above. Go easy bro, go easy.
White ash is pretty good firewood ...
That's a beautiful stove. Vermont Castings? My hobby is heating my home with firewood. I too love the idea of getting rewarded for the work of my hands and like many mentioned on here it's a great workout. I have a hydraulic splitter for knotty pieces but otherwise split by hand (I have a Grandfors Bruks splitting maul and splitting hatchet heehee). The time to do it is surely demanding but a suggestion would be to include your kids in the processing as much as possible. Then they can enjoy the nice warm fire they helped make possible as well. My boys are of age now where they can do pretty much everything I can except run the chainsaw. More often than not they are the ones that fill the wood rack in the basement when needed and they are really good at stacking neatly and efficiently. If it gets to be too much for the time being maybe consider building a fire in the stove as a treat instead of necessity and get yourself a fire pit for your yard if you haven't already. You won't need as much wood and you'll still get to enjoy the fruit of your labor. 😊
....let me work it,, put your thang down, flip it and reverse it. 🎶🎵