If oil was .25, would you still use wood?

[nathandrews]

I'd probably go back to gas for my primary heat and keep wood as a backup. What I would not do is go back to my forced air system. I hated to hear that thing running. I'd have to buy a propane boiler to tie into my radiant system.

 

[Billy_Bob]

Having a woodstove saves me the cost of a membership in a gym!

Plus I like the "cozy effect" of a fire going, cooking on the woodstove, etc.

 

[acer saccharum]

I would. It seems like such a waste to let the dead stuff in our woods just rot. The same with tops after logging.

That dead wood does not necessarily go to waste. When a tree dies it might not have green leaves but its life cycle is only half over. Dead and rotting wood is essential to the cycle of life in the forest. Standing dead snags get some bugs on them, then a woodpecker makes a cavity, then some other animal nests in it.... The peeling bark provides cover for those dreaded bats to sleep under.... Rotting on the ground it can be a source of bugs for foraging animals... It returns nutrients to the soil... Tops from a logging operation provide cover for critters like rabbits... Tops from logging provide some protection to new trees growing under them, allowing them a chance to grow in places where the moose/deer population is putting a lot of pressure on the forest undergrowth... (Granted down tops might constitute an excessive fire danger in certain places.)


And to stay on the original topic, I would still burn wood.

 

[Hugenpoet]

Very similar question to "If the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders invited you for a month long trist on a dessert island, would you chose to stay home with your wife". Notwithstanding the fact that I really love my wife, in the incredibly unlikely event that such an opportunity might come up, I would want to make up my mind at that time.

 

[YCSTEVE]

Cheap Natural Gas

I would use the oppurtunity to stock pile wood and burn more gas. It seems like I don't get enough time in the timber to cut, split and stack and I always run out of wood in February (8 cords). If the temperature was around 32 degrees I wouldn't burn wood if natural gas was real cheap but I would continue cutting wood until I ran out of places to store it. Right now I have an old hog shed that will hold about 3 years worth of fire wood. Once the temperature dipped into the 20's and below I would start to burn again.

 

[johnha]

Yes. And free wood would be as easy to come by as it was back when I started heating with it, now just finding it is becoming like work.

 

[JBinKC]

Oil at 25 cents I probably wouldn't be around much to feed my stove.

 

[Dennis_Peacock]

I would keep using wood for heat unless other resources were free. :greenchainsaw:

 

[LumberjkChamp]

Great thread!

What an interesting thought exercise that you have set up.
To get to the point and answer the question I would, without a doubt, still burn wood even if oil was free. Why? 'Cause it feels good. It gives me a little purpose. I like to work, and processing wood is one of the hardest forms of work I have ever done. (This year I have processed almost 10 cords of wood by hand -yes!- with my four foot one man crosscut and, of course splitting mauls- and i'm goin' for 5 more (at least.) Its one of my hobbies to do it this way and i'm not rushed to get it done so it works out. It takes me 6 hours at an easy pace to make a cord if I have the logs decked up for myself.
I'm even trying to figure out how to use more wood. And I dont feel old fashioned by burning wood -I feel warm. Why dont all of us who use wood laugh at all the suckers -who for some reason make fun of us- paying $4.00/ gallon for oil. They'll see the wisdom soon enough. I'm not talking about the people who have no other choice- they dont laugh at me (us)- I'm talking about the ones who think they're better than the ones who burn wood.
And me? I dont think i'm better than anyone, I just don't like being laughed at.
What a way to inspire thought. I was so excited to post that I didn't even finish reading the whole thread. I'm gonna do that now.

 

[YCSTEVE]

Lumberjkchamp, I to have a crosscut saw that I use sometimes and split with hammer and wedges. I need to make a buck board and I need to find an old jig? that you clamp to the saw so I can sharpen it. I've heard you can use a dremel tool.

Cut wood like this for a while and you really appreciate a good chainsaw and log splitter.

 

[windthrown]

No choice of bruning oil here for heating. We have the option of spendy electric, or wood. I put in an OWB and tunred the electric boiler off about 2.5 years ago. The electric bills have been down by about $300 a month since.
No oil needed. Firewood here is FREE. It grows on trees...

And $0.25 for oil? Even in Dubai, where oil gushes out of the gournd, they pay a buck and a quarter a gallon for gas. Heating oil will prpbably be about $5 a gallon by next winter. The days of cheap oil are over. It only a matter of how fast and how high oil/gas will get before it is replaced by something else.

 

[kevin j]

QThere is something relaxing about it.Q

yes, because iit is one of my last connections to the land and farm. And it is good therapy for me. Thankful to do it.


QCut wood like this for a while and you really appreciate a good chainsaw and log splitter.Q

the second part of the good therapy: when I am moping about how bad things are, I recall the pioneers who axed, split, hauled, burned in an open fireplace, in a house with sod walls and single layer or oiled paper for windows.....
Thankful not to HAVE to do it, but choose to do it.


k

 

[pdqdl]

Lumberjkchamp, I to have a crosscut saw that I use sometimes and split with hammer and wedges. I need to make a buck board and I need to find an old jig? that you clamp to the saw so I can sharpen it. I've heard you can use a dremel tool.

Cut wood like this for a while and you really appreciate a good chainsaw and log splitter.

The old fashioned way to sharpen is with a traingular file. A bit slow, but you should get good results.

 

[timbrjackrussel]

I will burn wood as long as I am able to

Glad to see the responses, and know that we are all trying to be easy on this planet earth. Oil has been too cheap in the past see http://www.oilism.com/oil/2007/12/15/crude-oil-price-history-1950-2008/

 

[LumberjkChamp]

Lumberjkchamp, I to have a crosscut saw that I use sometimes and split with hammer and wedges. I need to make a buck board and I need to find an old jig? that you clamp to the saw so I can sharpen it. I've heard you can use a dremel tool.

Cut wood like this for a while and you really appreciate a good chainsaw and log splitter.

I agree about the buck board. I don't have one and have not tried to make one yet. I just set it up on the bench with a vice on each side and clamp it in. Not the best way to do it, but I take my time (2 hours to sharpen and set it)
I'm not sure about the dremel so I couldn't say either way. I use a triangular file for the points, an 8'' mill bastard file for the sides and a flat diamond hone to clean the backs of the teeth up and to get the set just right. Probably have $200 bucks in stuff to sharpen and could spend some more on one of those really nice racing saw jigs to get the angles just perfect.

And, also, I hear ya about the whole chainsaw and logsplitter thing, you know, for when we wanna be lazy and make some firewood quick.

 

[Pork]

Yep I'm a cheap som b

 

[ropensaddle]

aughhh like yeah, like I got to get rid of the mountains of it
some way! I could not imagine my farm after a year of not burning!

 

[abohac]

That dead wood does not necessarily go to waste. When a tree dies it might not have green leaves but its life cycle is only half over. Dead and rotting wood is essential to the cycle of life in the forest. Standing dead snags get some bugs on them, then a woodpecker makes a cavity, then some other animal nests in it.... The peeling bark provides cover for those dreaded bats to sleep under.... Rotting on the ground it can be a source of bugs for foraging animals... It returns nutrients to the soil... Tops from a logging operation provide cover for critters like rabbits... Tops from logging provide some protection to new trees growing under them, allowing them a chance to grow in places where the moose/deer population is putting a lot of pressure on the forest undergrowth... (Granted down tops might constitute an excessive fire danger in certain places.)


And to stay on the original topic, I would still burn wood.

Get real

 

[aokpops]

if oil was 25 cents a gallon I would still use wood . but that.s not happing. when I get home from working outside all day want it be warm upper 70 to 80when I look at the wood pile there no cheating.no taxes no giving to the boss or kids .hard work that actualy get reward for doing the work .

 

[bassman]

I am so fed up with my boiler I would gladly burn oil at any price.