Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[farmer steve]

Good on you. Burn baby burn! It seems backwards to me that they are even talking about stopping people from heating their homes with a renewable resource like firewood when there are still people with oil furnaces. I'm going through more wood in my little shop these last few days too. An armload usually lasts me the evening keeping it around 60-70 and I've been stepping out to grab a second load.

My farm paper had an article about heating and costs.
https://www.lancasterfarming.com/fa...cle_70d6de74-baaa-510d-995f-11024a8411c6.html

 

[GrizG]

I cut when I have to… year round. Around the houses it has been dead ash and storm damage—not much standing ash left and what is is rotten beyond use. On the rail trail it used to be mostly dead ash but now live trees are falling due to shallow soil and wind. It’s particularly bad when the soil is saturated. The trees lack the protection from the wind they had with the ash.

 

[GrizG]

I cut when I have to… year round. Around the houses it has been dead ash and storm damage—not much standing ash left and what is is rotten beyond use. On the rail trail it used to be mostly dead ash but now live trees are falling due to shallow soil and wind. It’s particularly bad when the soil is saturated. The trees lack the protection from the wind they had with the ash.

My city knows exactly who heats with wood and is pressuring them to switch to electric heat pumps. At the same time a tourist train spews enough particulate matter in one day to probably equal a year’s worth from all the wood heated homes. Politically the city and county don’t have the will to kill off the railroad…

 

[MustangMike]

My farm paper had an article about heating and costs.
https://www.lancasterfarming.com/fa...cle_70d6de74-baaa-510d-995f-11024a8411c6.html

I guess I'm good, maybe even extra good!

The house is Natural Gas, and the Cabin is real wood ... except I don't pay anything a cord other than the fuel in the saws and splitter (when I don't use the Fiskars)!

 

[H-Ranch]

My farm paper had an article about heating and costs.
https://www.lancasterfarming.com/fa...cle_70d6de74-baaa-510d-995f-11024a8411c6.html

And only one of those fuel sources can be harvested by a homeowner (at least without extraordinary means). Most of us don't buy firewood by the cord, so even if the equipment and other sourcing costs are 80% of that, wood is the winner.

 

[MustangMike]

At the same time a tourist train spews enough particulate matter in one day to probably equal a year’s worth from all the wood heated homes.

My uncle used to participate in the "train robbery" on the tourist train in Margarettville NY.

 

[GrizG]

My uncle used to participate in the "train robbery" on the tourist train in Margarettville NY.

That’s a nice operation and in a beautiful area!

 

[sean donato]

My farm paper had an article about heating and costs.
https://www.lancasterfarming.com/fa...cle_70d6de74-baaa-510d-995f-11024a8411c6.html

Good read there Steve. Wonder how they came up with the cord wood cost?

 

[sean donato]

And only one of those fuel sources can be harvested by a homeowner (at least without extraordinary means). Most of us don't buy firewood by the cord, so even if the equipment and other sourcing costs are 80% of that, wood is the winner.

just think though, you're not buying new equipment every year. So your overall equipment cost can get spread out over many years making it even cheaper.

 

[MustangMike]

That’s a nice operation and in a beautiful area!

Until I bought my property in Hancock in 1985, we used to hunt out of Margaretville.

My Uncle used to live up there and a co-worker owned a cabin (off the grid). In addition, my Uncle knew many of the farmers. But, little by little folks died or sold and I found my property (50 acres for $300/ acre) just in time to keep the family hunting tradition in the Catskills going. At the time, most of NYS was still shotgun only for deer, and we wanted to be rifle hunters (as we collected and reloaded).

We could not drive to the co-worker's cabin, so we backpacked food and water up the mountain every year. In addition, I did not have a chainsaw back then, so we went up several times in the off season to shoot and cut wood with bow saws. The cabin had an old (original) wood burning cooking stove/oven. You had to have a lot of small wood to feed it, and the "heating" wood stove was not airtight!

Good thing I was younger then, it was a lot of work!