Traveling for firewood?

[Wood Doctor]

I Travel a Little...

Good Post, Spider.

Yes, I travel a little, about one mile or so to a drop off site where there are plenty of wood rounds that I cut to length. The branches are shreded before they get to the site. Some of the rounds are enormous, but others are perfect diameters, and I load them onto the truck, once bucked to length.

From there, I travel 20 miles to an old landowner's place who owns a good logsplitter but who lost his leg and cannot run it anymore. We divide it up and I carry back whatever split wood I need to burn at my place to heat half the house. If there is any excess left over, I sell it at a reasonable price at his place. Usually there is, so I cover almost all of my traveling costs.

What's more important to me is the exercise and fresh air, all the while being productive rather than walking on a tread mill. Plus, it's a fabulous hobby to take care of my equipment, especially the saws. Being a mechanic, I've started to offer small repairs, restorations, and maintenance to other chain saw and small engine owners, and they appreciate my work. Several of my customers have also become very good friends.

 

[drumbum]

Seems strange you would hang out on a forum such as this if you don't dig chainsaws and firewooding.

 

[woodbooga]

My supply comes from a woodlot whose entrance is 3 miles from home. About 5 minutes to drive and another 5 minutes or so down the access road to wherever I'm cutting.

 

[Rudedog]

I love to hunt for wood. When I turned 40 years of age I suddenly realized that I will never play quarterback in the NFL or pitch in MLB. This is my sport. I have made some mistakes such as driving too far for a find that was not up to the time/fuel spent. But all in all it beats paying $1800 a year to fill my oil tank. I have also enjoyed spending time with the people on this forum. The unintended consequence of this sport is CAD and I am now signed up for a small engine repair class at the local junior college every Monday night.

 

[southpaw]

The last few years I only have to go 4 or 6 miles to the few places that I get my oak.

It has me spoiled right now but someday when that ends a little more driving is not going to stop me .

 

[atvdave]

Seems strange you would hang out on a forum such as this if you don't dig chainsaws and firewooding.

Sounds to me like he starteded this thread just to start a argument.

:notrolls2:

 

[Whitespider]

Naw... I wasn't trying to start an argument, just some ramblings over morning coffee.
If'n I wanted to start an argument I'd post something about pouring used oil over my firewood, or burning shredded tires in my stove. :hmm3grin2orange:

And it isn't that I don't like chainsaws, or any other power equipment...
And I don't dislike cutting firewood, just don't think I'd like hunting for it...
But I hang out here for the fellowship... it's all about fellowship with you great guys.

 

[peterc38]

My wood supply strategy is twofold. First I have grapple loads delivered by a logger as needed. Second I scrounge whatever I can get. For my scrounging strategy, I target locations between home and work, so that If I get a score, I can stop after work and cut and fill pickup as needed. This works really good for me as I have a looonnnnggg commute, so I can cover a lot of territory and I have a company gas card, so fuel costs are not an issue either

 

[Mowingman]

I might be setting a record for long wood hauls. I travel 104 miles one way, to get wood from my cutter. It is the closest place i can get wood cheap enough to resell at my lot, and make a fair profit. I haul 8 ricks, cut to length and split, on each load. Last load grossed 27,440#, and the net, after subtracting the weight of the truck and trailer, was 14,440#. It is really hard to find large quantities of good hardwoods to cut, here in our part of Texas.
Jeff

 

[Wood Doctor]

I might be setting a record for long wood hauls. I travel 104 one way, miles to get wood from my cutter. It is the closest place i can get wood cheap anough to resell at my lot, and make a fair profit. I haul 8 ricks, cut to length and split, on each load. Last load grossed 27,440#, and the net, after subtracting the weight of the truck and trailer, was 14,440#. It is really hard to find large quantities of good hardwoods to cut, here in our part of Texas.
Jeff

For traveling large distances, volume makes it possible, and in Jeff's case, operating a large truck that can carry it. I believe Jeff's "ricks" are about the same as a half cord or 64 cu ft.

Even if you have the truck/trailer, the timber supply, saws, the men that run the saws, and the loader have to be considered. Then you have to find the buyers.

 

[litefoot]

I tow a trailer that'll hold about 2 cords from my home at 5600' to USFS land in the mountains at about 9000' to cut lodgpole pine for the winter. About a 2 hour round trip. I usually make enough trips so that I have enough for this year and next...just in case. Then I ask around to see if any needy persons in the area need wood and I'll make a trip or two back up the mountain for them.

Usually my wife and a couple of my kids (who are mostly grown) will go with me. We take a picnic lunch and enjoy the day. Hauling wood is good exercise (a little too good at my age) and we get to work together as a family to do something meaningful for us and for those in need. We end the day dog tired, but with a real sense of satisfaction that we and our neighbors won't be cold this winter. What's not to like?

 

[Jmaffei]

I agree with others, you are spoiled. I have the same sorta mindset about people that own chainsaws but don't heat with wood, WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? Some people just don't think the same. I do plan on having my next house have a bunch of wooded acres and scrounge mostly off it and make a bunch of trails for an atv and walking with my dogs and wife. I think that is ideal. On the other hand, when I first started burning I was desperate for wood, even paid for some (GASP!) and once word gets around your whole property is full of wood that people have given you. I can pretty much guarantee you if you moved to the city you would be scrounging like a bunch of us fellers. Also, no one makes their stacks that neat that aint obsessed with firewood (or anal retentive in every facet of life). I do commend you for resisting CAD.

 

[Circle B MN]

Rare that I cut a tree off my own place, but I do cut a lot around town. Farthest I have or will travel for wood is twenty miles. Too much close woo to stretch a leg for it.

 

[MARAZONAGT]

will pickup wood if its tree wood, not travelling for skids or old fence cutoffs or snowfence pieces. WILL TRAVEL AND REMOVE TREES OFF SITE, fee for tree removal, will give credit for valuable wood, offer a chipping service if required plus certified to climb and rig dangerous and dead trees. BUT...my good ol' buddy from high school has a cottage he is worried is gonna get mashed by a big ol' hardwood. So some old cooler out of the garage, a few good sharp saws and away we go, now i am gonna take wood home you can bet.. why not?first off, why pay insane insurance and never go down the road with what the pick up truck was invented for in the first place? and what could be better then keepin mama bear warm? but ome just have to brag about how perfect their situation is to begin with, thats fine brag on and we will drag on! keep burnin rubber! oh yeah that really stinks too! good to hear !hear hear!!

 

[WidowMaker]

100+ miles round trip, try to get at laest 2 cord load, getting harder to do as the years creep up....

 

[Steve2910]

I'm traveling to cut somebody else's wood.

Just helping a friend in need, but I'll leave the details out of this public forum.

 

[Whitespider]

Sounds like a nice system......except for the old Smokehause wood stove.

Well, not really sure what qualifies as a "Smokehause" wood stove, but my stove is actually an up-grade. I used a homemade double-barrel stove for several years back in the day... now that will keep you busy cutting firewood. It would put out some heat though... could stuff around a quarter-cord in the fire box (just kidding, but you could get a lot of wood in it) and it would get so hot you couldn't walk within 15-feet of it. Once you got the smoke and gasses to ignite in the smaller, upper barrel it would glow a dull red color, but you could almost lay your hand on the lower firebox barrel. Talk about smoke... during start-up, until that upper barrel ignited, it would belch black smoke out the chimney like a poorly tuned diesel engine.

At the time I'd cut my firewood about 24-inches long and wouldn't split anything less than 10-inches diameter. I'd stuff that monster full of big heavy pieces of oak twice a day and let it heat the basement to sauna-like temperatures... the heat would radiate up through the floors and heat the main level enough that I had a window or two cracked open all winter. About 16-years ago, when I got married and moved out of that ancient old farmhouse my new wife made me leave the stove... she was afraid of it, afraid it would burn the place down... darn city girls.

 

[svk]

Naw... I wasn't trying to start an argument, just some ramblings over morning coffee.
If'n I wanted to start an argument I'd post something about pouring used oil over my firewood, or burning shredded tires in my stove.

It's amazing these topics continue to recycle themselves on here.

From a recent thread:

I do save it... use it for dust control on the driveway and starting slash/trash pile fires.
If I start getting too much collected, I just walk along the wood stacks and pour on the top (adds to the BTUs and makes a fine water repellant ).
Oh... and if ya' have a problem groundhog, pouring a gallon or two down the hole will cause 'em to vacate the den permanently.
But I don't want that filthy stuff in my saw ‼
*

Back to the OP. Now that I have an ATV I could scrounge endless wood at my main burning location but it would be mostly aspen. I can get much higher BTU species near my hunting cabin and make enough incidental trips up there throughout the year that I can bring a cord home each time and not have to allocate a 80 mile round trip to my heating bill.

 

[slowp]

Just noting all the women on here posting, according to the avatars.

This old thread points out what I've been ridiculed for pointing out--that where I live, our power costs are fairly low, and most of us must drive a bit to cut legal firewood, so if one did a cost analysis, wood heat and electric heat would probably be similar or maybe using the electric heat would be cheaper in the long run. At the rate I'm cutting firewood, I may find out next winter. Electric heat is the most widely installed heat around here. We have no natural gas lines here. Some folks who are off the grid have propane for a backup. I know of one house that has oil heat, but most have electric heat.

I have trees on my property that could come down, but I need a yarder or a shovel or a skidder with a winchline to get the logs near a road. Most of my property is on steep ground and a large part that isn't is on the other side of the drain field. I refuse to waste money on a glorified lawn tractor or a tractor or an atv. I'd rather spend it on travel.
So, I might be heating with the wall heaters next year. Who knows?

 

[olympyk_999]

I'd rather spend it on travel

don't travel here!