Firewood - Buying My First Cord (Boise: garage, trees, companies)

[cliff949]

Wow, THANKS to everyone so much for all the great ideas and advice. Hauled home a couple of old pallets I got for free today. Looks like we'll be getting 1/2 tamarack 1/2 Red Fir for $180 for 1.25 Cord.

We bought a Moisture Meter today. I think it is a "must" for the un-trained eye. The Fir that came with our property and has been sitting awhile tested at 8% (very dry), the wood a neighbor took done from last year was 30% and the dead stuff I cut from the yard was about 12%. I like my little moisture tool/toy.

Thanx again!

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

Originally Posted by Hawknest

...We used 15 cords last winter..

Dang, that's alot of wood. I usually burn 3-4 cords.


With regards to stacking, I put two strips of evenly sized splits on the ground and stack on them. A couple 2x4 or 2x6s would work too. I don't like pallets, seems like I always end up walking/tripping on them to the the wood in the rear row.

[lucknow]

Don't you folks out there have any decent hardwood to burn? No maple, oak, birch, beech etc????

[elousv]

conifers dominate 1000 to1

[KTMMan]

We used 15 cords last winter.

Whoa! That's a lot of firewood.
What a great way to get your kids to leave the nest.
"Hey Jr., we need another load of wood".

My uncle in Wyoming burns 2 1/2 to 3 cords a winter in a pretty good sized house.

[lucknow]

Man we are lucky here in Ontario. I used to have this big old house with no insulation, lousy windows and the wind just whistled through that old place. I had my own hardwood bush but it was not even worth my time and effort to cut and split wood. There was a mill near me that made hickory implement handles. All the cutoffs and slabs and other assorted pieces went into an old triaxle sitting at the end of a conveyer. He would bring a whole triaxle over to my place for $125. I had a wood furnace and a kitchen stove. It was so funny, there would be 4 ft of snow on the ground and about 5 ft out from the walls of my house the grass was green from the tremendous heatloss. One Feb. day it was -35 and a friend of mine showed up from the city. He laughed his head off because I was running around the house in my shorts and tee shirt, I had all the doors open and it was over 90 degrees in the house.

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

Originally Posted by lucknow

Don't you folks out there have any decent hardwood to burn? No maple, oak, birch, beech etc????

No maple, oak or beach, unless someone is taking down a lawn tree. There is some birch, which isn't great anyway. I don't think there is a hickory in the state. Predominantly conifers out this way. There is a bright spot-tamarack and red fir split really nice, not like oak! And also make decent fuel. Not up there with a good hardwood, but not bad.

[Hawknest]

Originally Posted by KTMMan

We used 15 cords last winter.

Whoa! That's a lot of firewood.
What a great way to get your kids to leave the nest.
"Hey Jr., we need another load of wood".

My uncle in Wyoming burns 2 1/2 to 3 cords a winter in a pretty good sized house.

Yep, the house we had wasn't insulated too much - lotta leakage. Plugged the cracks with triplefoam. We're up high in NM - and now in need of a new home, since we got pushed out from the fire. When I lived up on Wind River Rez we used 4 cords.

[Hawknest]

Originally Posted by lucknow

Don't you folks out there have any decent hardwood to burn? No maple, oak, birch, beech etc????

If I had that pretty wood - it wouldn't be going into the fireplace! We have some birch - but it provides very little btu's, so we make canoes.

[KTMMan]

Originally Posted by Hawknest

Yep, the house we had wasn't insulated too much - lotta leakage. Plugged the cracks with triplefoam. We're up high in NM - and now in need of a new home, since we got pushed out from the fire. When I lived up on Wind River Rez we used 4 cords.

Ok, that makes more sense. I had a cousin that lived in a mobile home in Dubois and he couldn't hardly stop hunting firewood all year to get ready for winter..