It's time for the "W" word again, and I'm not talking winter: It's wood season!

[FarmerBeth]

My 11 year old says that "wood" should be a 4 letter swear word.  Last night we had to fire up the wood furnace after an ice on the windshield kind of day.  We've got two cords at least left to split and another 7 cords coming.  Where is everybody else at with this seasonal chore?

[joyfulheart]

ahhhh...we have a cord of hardwood stacked in our woodshed and we have another smaller stack behind the shed.  Winter?  Bring it on!!  We're ready!!! 

We use only about a cord a winter -- winter's aren't too cold here in western Washington compared to where I grew up in the mid-west.  It's all relative, I suppose.  We have a wood stove that heats our main living area.

How many cords a year do you go through??  Sounds like a whole lot! 

--edited for typo

[FarmerBeth]

We go through seven cords of wood a year, but  generally our central heat wood furnace is the sole heat source (we do have an oil furnace for back-up but only use it for if we are away from home to stop the pipes freezing).  Nova Scotia isn't bad for Canada, but we still get cold enough that we can easily need the stove from now to mid April, and it can get worse so we always have to prepare for a little extra in case.  DH was singing the "If I had a million dollars song", today, and he said "I'd buy myself a pellet stove"!.

[Adaline'sMama]

We will go through 5-7 cords this year, and its all cut and waiting to be split. We have very little split, but thankfully in Kentucky we dont really start needing a fire until late October. Dh's hand is broken, so we are really hoping to wait a few more weeks to have a splitting/stacking day. We heat only with wood and have an empty propane tank that could be filled if need be, but we havent filled it in 3 years.

[FarmerBeth]

Broken hands and wood season are a tough combo.  Hope your DH heals soon!

[hildare]

dh is done.  i have no idea how much we'll actually use, we just put in the insert in the middle of last year.  he and his dad share the work and a log splitter, so there's actually not that much spread out labor they do-- they get it done together with the splitter over the course of weekends.  not to make less of their work, but that machine is extremely loved. it's not that cold here, for prolonged periods.. we haven't used a/c or heat in a month or so.  it's 70's today.

[FarmerBeth]

Sometimes we covet the neighbour's wood splitter.  They're great!

[Caneel]

Originally Posted by FarmerBeth 

Sometimes we covet the neighbour's wood splitter.  They're great!

I know!  We borrowed one last year and DH and I made quick work of two chords.  We don't heat with wood but use quite a bit of wood for campfires/outdoor cooking and our fireplace.

[sprinkle pocket]

Our home is strawbale with lots of solar gain in the winter. Last winter our coldest night was -20°f and we still only used two sticks through the night, keeping it a luxurious 80°f. We don't use much wood and are still going through what we've had from years ago when some developers decided they could sell land for more money if they widened and graded the road. Slash piles of trees were left and dh and I got 4 or 5 cords that fall. We do have a bunch of juniper stumps to split but we save that for ds who loves manual labor. Pellet stoves imo don't give that amazing penetrating heat of the sun or a woodstove so we have no plans to switch. Of course if we went through so much wood each year, maybe we'd try to swing getting one.

[lifeguard]

This is our first year heating with wood. We have our house & mil's house to heat & think we have enough split & stacked for this winter (luckily the previous owners left this much for us. But we started cutting up ther tandem load for next year this past weekend.

[velochic]

We only supplement with firewood, but I also cook some on our cast iron wood burning stove.  It is not in a location to do a *great* job of heating the whole house, but it helps quite a bit for 70% of the house.  We go through about 2 cords per year (or less, not often more).  We have our firewood on rotation and we get it ready in the summer months, so what we cut, split and stacked this year will be used next year or even the year after.  We also buy from a friend that heats 100% with wood.  I love to begin burning firewood and will probably do so this week due to the weather.  So although we're not stacking any right now, it's definitely wood burning season and I can't wait to fire it up.  The smell of woodsmoke is definitely comforting.

[hildare]

ok.... can i hijack and ask a question too?   since we're talking about it? 

what do you guys do about adding humidity?  a pot on the stove would be the answer, but we have an insert and there isn't room for that as an option for us..

[joyfulheart]

Originally Posted by velochic 

 The smell of woodsmoke is definitely comforting.

Oh, yes, I agree!  I smelled it when I was out for my walk today.  Someone had a fire going and with fallen leaves crunching under my feet and that smell in the air, I thought, "Fall in here!"  and I love it!

[FarmerBeth]

Love the smell, too.  And there's something especially penetrating about wood heat.

[mbravebird]

Originally Posted by sprinkle pocket 

Our home is strawbale with lots of solar gain in the winter. Last winter our coldest night was -20°f and we still only used two sticks through the night, keeping it a luxurious 80°f. We don't use much wood and are still going through what we've had from years ago when some developers decided they could sell land for more money if they widened and graded the road. Slash piles of trees were left and dh and I got 4 or 5 cords that fall. We do have a bunch of juniper stumps to split but we save that for ds who loves manual labor. Pellet stoves imo don't give that amazing penetrating heat of the sun or a woodstove so we have no plans to switch. Of course if we went through so much wood each year, maybe we'd try to swing getting one.

Wow, that's cool to hear about how well the strawbale works. We're in the Virginia mountains, and we use about 5 cords a year, but we're never really ready!! We heat only with wood, and have a large house with a central chimney, thank goodness. If it was an outside chimney it probably wouldn't work as well -- I'm so glad we're able to heat the whole house with just wood.

We cull standing dead locust from the property near us, which is rather large. Love locust fires. My husband just goes out and gets a few every few weeks until we have enough. Has anyone else noticed that locusts tend to get sick and die while still standing? Anyone know what that's about?

I love talking about wood and wood season!

[sprinkle pocket]

We don't do anything to add humidity. We cook everything from scratch...that probably adds humidity, but our climate is super dry, so I dont know. But we built our house to be very tight and I think the earth plaster keeps the humidity stabilized? Hm.Yeah, I would say just a pot of water on the stove, maybe with lavender or Rosemary or cinnamon. :°)

[Chicky2]

Ours is ready to be split, and we still have some split from last year.  We usually get a splitter on Tday weekend and spend the weekend splitting and stacking.  We just found out that someone we know has a splitter and I think we'll talk him out of it for a weekend in exchange for split wood stacked for him.   I'd say we use about 2-3 cords, but it doesn't get cold for as long here (or as cold!).  Lows for us are in the teens at the worst of Winter.  We just use our little fireplace, but really want to build some rocket mass heaters--one in other part of the house, and one in our 'little house' (we have another house connected to this one by a ramp--it was my MIL's house til she died and now is a game room/extra storage).  Anyone here heard of those?  I'm absolutely sold on them!  We had been discussing 2 wood burning stoves, but I like the looks of the rocket mass heaters ('cause you can make it however you wish), and they use 80-90% less wood!

[JPiper]

We had just finally stacked and covered the last of 17+ cords for this winter.  Our yard was neat and orderly!  

My husband was able to arrange for a whole truck-load of logs to be dropped off for next year.  It came yesterday...sigh....I'm glad to be getting ahead, but it is a little discouraging to not even have had a month of a cleared out yard before getting another overwhelming amount of wood to cut and store.

[mbravebird]

Originally Posted by JPiper 

We had just finally stacked and covered the last of 17+ cords for this winter.  Our yard was neat and orderly!  

My husband was able to arrange for a whole truck-load of logs to be dropped off for next year.  It came yesterday...sigh....I'm glad to be getting ahead, but it is a little discouraging to not even have had a month of a cleared out yard before getting another overwhelming amount of wood to cut and store.

17 cords!!!! My goodness. And I always daydream about getting a bunch of logs and getting ahead. We've never done it, though.

[lifeguard]

For those that don't get a year or two ahead where do you get your wood? My understanding is that the wood really should dry for at least a year before use to make it burn hotter & to cut down on creosote in your chimney.