When we heated with firewood I thoroughly enjoyed splitting it. Most of the time I had to clear snow in a circle around my splitting stump, which sat out in front of the woodshed. A nice, sunny 20* day and I would often enjoy a cigar as I’m working away. Buck up the 4’ long logs into 16” blocks. Split. Fill up wheelbarrow loads of split wood and haul it into the garage. I had a cradle to stack the split wood and a pass through from the garage, directly into the wood box inside the house. The other parts of wood heating, frankly, I could do without.


Woodshed, splitting stump and buck on the right side of the picture. Some snow shoveling to do before splitting.


My wife's Jeep. Serious snow, good place for a Jeep when you drive 30 miles to work and have to be there at 4:30 a.m.


Merry Christmas everyone!

Nice place you have there!!

I grew up in Idaho, experienced the "thrill" of heating with wood for a while before I went in the army.

We did it a little differently, tho.

We picked up logs, real logs, from the river banks where they came to rest after escaping from the HUUUUGE log pond of the lumber mill in town.

One of my uncles had fabricated a chainsaw that had a 4 foot bar on it. Dad and I used it to reduce the logs into 16-18 inch chunks ready for splitting. Note, I said we got them ready for splitting.

I did the splitting with an eight pound "splitting hammer. And for a couple of years the only heat we had in the house was from a wood burner arrangement. So I got a fair amount of "exercise" out of it.

Oh, and those 8 foot logs we brought home, Dad and I reduced them to 16 inch lengths with a 6 foot cross cut saw. Some fond memories, some not so fond.

I gave up on the crosscut saw idea when we got this place. Bought a chain saw. Still split by hand for a few years. Got too old, tired and got a power splitter.

Anybody yearn for the "good old days?"

I do, sometimes.

If a tree falls in the forest, it must be harvested for firewood! That was the family motto growing up. Kevin and I did lots - LOTS - of cutting, splitting, hauling, and stacking firewood. We used the fireplace quite regularly as supplemental heat for the house. Our family property has an abundance of oak, with much of it being big red oaks. Mother nature usually kept up a steady supply of downed oaks and other hardwoods to keep us in firewood. We did plenty of handsplitting, and we used a disaster-waiting-to-happen of a homemade log-splitter that hooked up to the drive of an old Ford farm tractor.

I always liked using the chainsaws the best. Nowdays, even though I only have a small fire pit at my house, we still go over to Dad's place a few times a year to process whatever has come down or needed to be taken down, and Dad still burns a bunch of firewood. Now, we've got some better toys, though, namely bigger saws and a 27-ton hydraulic splitter.

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
I can't bring myself to burn oak, hickory maple or any of the good hardwoods unless it's being used for cooking. For recreational sitting around drinking beer fires it's slab wood pine or dead fall birch and popple hauled out of the woods.

Not sure what difference it matters? I burn oak, cherry, maple, hickory, beech, locust, and birch, outside in the Summer and inside all Winter. It's not like I cut down live, healthy, trees. I'm just cleaning up fallen and dead, standing trees.
Which reminds me I need to go out now and reload the porch!

I have to laugh! This thread could be about me! My better half calls me a wood whore! We burn 6-7 cords of black Ash a year. Usually March or so, I have a logging company drop off 6-7 cords. Its my therapy too. I do have some acreage that I scrounge also.

Nothing beats a relaxing fire in the living room. Especially if you are burning apple or cherry.
The heart/sap wood from cherry has a honey scent to it.
Good times.

I converted our fireplace to natural gas with fake firewood. It has a remote to control it.

No more hauling ash and chimney sweeps. We love it.

Also let me add this little tidbit of info, "The old adage is that wood warms you three times - when you cut it, when you split it, and when you burn it".

Les Stibly is the son of a very successful farmer,

He's 46 now and has never been employed by anyone, formally.
rumor has it he's never filled out a tax form.

He started cutting wood , in high school, he moved in to a house that his parents owned,

Married a gal from three town's over a has cut would ever since.
He paid for two splitters , 6 chain saws and two tilt bed cargo trailers and a 1 ton truck, cash .

Seems to be the most content person in the county, never a worry , not a drinker or smoker or druggie.

his side job is small motor repair. he's afraid of heights so he won't even consider a bucket truck.

He goes fishing 6 or 8 times a year , in the summer but thats about as recreational as he gets.

even tempered , good husband and generous when it comes to charity .

quote:

Originally posted by Warhorse:
Also let me add this little tidbit of info, "The old adage is that wood warms you three times - when you cut it, when you split it, and when you burn it".

Heard the adage. My experience is that “three” is too low and it’s at least twice that. I could spell it out for ya, if ya like

About 80% of our heating needs is done in wood. We have a tree guy that will deliver cut to length mixed hardwoods for $550. As full time wood turners this turned out to be a bonus, we made vases and cremation urns out of the the Cherry, Holly and Ambrosia Maple that were mixed in this load, it actually paid for the load. Looks like 6-8 cords, we love getting out and splitting wood, stacking and then burn it for heat.