Does anyone else cut their own firewood ?


NS whitetail

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Lately, after the wife gets home from work at 3 pm, I've been going in the woods behind my Dad's house for a couple of hours and cutting firewood for next winter. So far, I've got about 4 cord cut.

I love ripping the chainsaw through those big spruce and maple and watching them fall :D, limbing them and cleaning up the mess is a pain in the butt though :D

Anyone else cut, block & split their own firewood ?

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I never did when we lived at our other house with a wood stove, but my brother and I started cutting firewood to sell when we were 12 and 14. We cut Osage Orange(hedge) 1/2 mile at a time, hauled it home, split, and delivered it. 4-5 years ago we each bought ourselves a Stihl MS310 with 18" bars and went nuts. 2 years ago I had enough (were making about $4.50/hour by the time it was delivered), and told Shane I'm done. Last year he cut about 1/3 mile for posts and sold the logs for firewood to a guy just up the road, and this year I helped him for about a week and a half on another row for posts. I wish those chainsaws had hour meters on them just out of curiosity. We run 'em hard and they haven't let us down. I do sort of wish that we had a wood stove in this house as expensive as propane is, and how nice wood stoves are to sit around and warm up. If you have any spare time, wood is a really cheap, and naturally renewable resource to heat your home. The great thing about hedge trees is this; when you cut them down at the base, they grow right back faster than ever because they already have an established root system, and can be harvested again in 20-30 years. Hedge is also the hottest burning firewood in America. A cubic foot of Hedge puts out 5,000 times as many BTUs as a cubic foot of propane. I'm sold.

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I have done my share of wood splitting!! And will continue to do so im sure... Thats part of my 'farm chores' i do to help out the farmer who owns the property i hunt on. He has more logging planned on the property so as long as trees are fallin, my splitting axe will be swingin. Its a small price to pay for the hunting opportunities that i would not have if it werent for him. And it sure beats pickin rocks!!:D

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What you mean I actually stumped Orlan ... :eek::eek:

A RUN is 16" wood stacked 4' high , 8' long .. 3 of these equals 1 CORD of wood .. ;)

That's what we call a rick of firewood. Around here they're getting about $35 bucks a rick. Doesn't matter what length. They just stack in 4 foot high and 8 foot long.

I was in the firewood/tree trimming/post hauling business for 13 years through high school and college. Starting out, I made $25 a day. By the time I was in college, I was pulling $100 a day....but after getting nicked twice by chainsaws, falling out of two trees and watching my friend cut a 6 by 2 inch cut in his shoulder(I call it cut, but chainsaws don't cut...they rip and shred:D), I wouldn't go back if they paid me $500.:D:D

BTW---the very worst job is cutting Bois'd arc(sp) posts. Not fun.:D

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Funny you should ask. I split about 1/4 cord today. :D I hand split it, I think it's fun.

Electric company has been trimming trees in the area and they cut down 3 of my neighbor's trees. These neighbors are old widows. I went over and offered to split the wood if I could have some and they agreed. Red maple and it splits pretty easy.

I need to cut some more, I'm down to about 1 cord left. :(

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I used to burn 12 to 15 cord per year (4x4x8ft) I now burn corn...dont miss the extra work...

hey tedicast..only one of you are wearing safety chaps and steel toed boots??

Honestly...neither of us is wearing chaps. I keep saying I'm gonna buy a pair, but I haven't yet. I know I should....it is kind of like hunting from a treestand without a harness.

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With two wood-burning inserts (one upstairs and one down), we burn about 20 or more face cords a year (say, 7 cords). Fortunately, we live on acreage with plenty of woods and are able to do it all ourselves. Of course, my husband's homemade splitter (that we attach to our New Holland Skidsteer) sure takes a load off and gets the kids in on the action, too! He does some by hand for the health of it, and, of course, the moving and stacking of the wood is a workout in and of itself. Yes, I help!

I love the heat from wood, and with our central humidistat, the air never gets too dry. :) In these single-digit temps we've been having, nothing beats the warmth and beauty of a good fire.

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That I........

That's a face cord....outside of New England ;)

understand!:):D

Those people from Vermont have to name everything differently so people will ask them what they mean!:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Now if they were smart enough, which I doubt, take your 3 runs and multiple it out and what do you get??:rolleyes::eek::D

I'll be darned, it comes out to be 4'X4'X8'! I know that is higher math for VH!! LOL!!:D:D:D

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