Keeping Warm

[bowtarist]

I like to mix it up if I have that kind of option. A little of this a little of that and like was already said, some is better for cold nights and some is better if the days get warmer. You all know that though if you've heated w/ wood long enough.  dp

[Marc St Louis]

I've used a lot of different wood types, yes even Tamarack.  Can't say I have come close to melting a stove with it but I did see my old stove glow once or twice while burning the stuff.  There was an article in a Harrowsmith magazine years ago that said you could sustainably heat your house on 1 acre of Poplar by rotation cutting, maybe 500 miles South of where we live you could.  Up here you would need 5 or 6 acres of Poplar and even then it would be touch and go

I looked at quite a few Maple before selecting the one I cut Del, I am very picky.  The Elm I had been watching for many years.  I noticed last year that some of the Elm were starting to die around this one so I figured I had better cut it before I lose it to disease.

[Zuma]

I have been burning wood for comfort for fifty plus.
But I got a story.
One day I was going by John's house.  He was an old widower
we all sorta kept  an eye on. He lived remote and had been burning wood since childhood. He was close to 90.
When I saw him it looked like he was having trouble with his chainsaw.
I went back to see if I could help. He was his stoic self I think, feigned help.
I guess I smoozed him a bit and he handed me the saw.
But there was this weird noise coming from his dwelling.
I asked him if he heard it? He said no, what are you talkin about.
I walked forwards and back and deduced that the high pitched noise was coming from his front door, which was open. I asked him to come with me. Again I asked can you hear that, as we approached the door. No was the reply.
When I entered the house it must have been a Swedish Dream.
All I would have had to do would be throw some water on the wood burning stove
that had a pegged thermometer at max 500.degrees.
I asked again, what is that noise John? He said, " I don't hear a noise".
I swearer I was at a loss until I looked behind a photograph of his mother in the bedroom .
That is where I found the first of three blareing smoke detectors.
Zuma

[Alpinbogen]

Nice bunch of rounds you have stacked.  Are you going to split them all soon?  I can appreciate the amount of work that takes.  I cut/split between 10-11 cords each year to keep my family and my older inlaws supplied.  We have a gas furnace, but try to heat as much as we can with our Jotul fireplace insert.  My inlaws heat similarly.  I always scavenge wood where I can...from tree cutters in town, to blowdowns along fields, etc.  It's a lot easier than cutting stuff up in the woods.  I'm not picky about what it is if I can get it with minimal work.  Sumac, poplar, sassafras, and even slightly punky wood are fine by me if I can get it easily...just so long as it's not pine/pitchy.  I got lucky recently and have been cutting up mostly locust and some hackberry trees that a neighbor had taken down, which will probably get me to 8 split cords.  I'll get the rest from few more girdled locust trees that should have a jump start on drying.  Being mostly good, hard locust, this will be the nicest firewood we've had in a few years.  I love burning wood, but man it is a lot of work.

[RidgeRunner]

We burn firewood as well.
Most winters we burn somewhere between two to four cords of wood.
About all I ever cut is standing, dead oak. 
We have an old, 40 to 50 year old, fireplace insert.  It is not an effecient burner at all.
However, If you feed it it will pump out some heat.

A few years back something came threw here and started killing the hickory trees.
No where close to all of them. 25% would be a good guess

Cut two out of the front yard last year got a 30+ inch diameter hickory in the back yard to cut this year.

Pat B.  I have always preferred White Oak over Red Oak.

David

[Marc St Louis]

When you guys say "cord" are you all talking face/single cord or bush cord?

[Pat B]

Approx 4'x4'x8'.  My cords are a bit short of a cord because my logs are cut to 18" to 20" long and not 24".
 I usually burn between 4 and 6 cords each winter. Wood is our primary heat. We did build our house passive solar so when the sun shines the house heats itself and we stoke the stove as the sun goes down, before we go to bed and again first thing in the morning.

[burn em up chuck]

  hey joe, no frenzy needed, even with the restrictions I've been put on(one log per hr) I could make short work of those stacks