Wood heat

[Rayshields]

I know that Johnlee and I use wood for our primary heat source...I love the warmth you get with wood. I am wondering just how many of us heat primarily with wood.

Here are some facts I learned this summer about wood: All wood has the same BTU/pound of DRY wood. Dry wood has more BTU per pound than corn, which really surprised me.

We have wood called Osage Orange or Bois d'Arc or Hedge in Missouri. The settlers planted hedge rows for fences...thorny stuff. Much of those rows have been dozed out. When I was growing up, you could count on hedge rows to produce Morel Mushrooms and they always had a covey of quail someplace nearby. It has about the highest BTU/cord because it weighs so darned much per cord. In fact it is so heavy that freshly cut hedge will not float. When cut into fence posts it lasts over 100 years...we have a very few old hedge telephone poles still standing that were abandoned in 1962 for underground lines and rotary dial phones...they were only about 4 inch diameter and 12 feet sticking out of the ground...I've got a picture of one someplace. Big corner posts will last 150 or more years.

Next best firewood we have here is Hickory, then Locust, then I like White Ash better than oak even though it is lower in BTU it sure splits easy and dries a lot quicker than oak.

 

[DonH]

I use wood, too. In New England most furnaces run on oil which is pretty expensive now. Our wood burning stove is not big enough to provide all the heat but it saves us a lot of money and we can keep the house at 55 degrees in the dead of winter if the power goes out. Our new stove paid for itself after on winter.

The new ones (EPA approved) are very efficient and don't emit much smoke.

 

[Knucklehead]

Cut wood when the moon is on the decrease (getting smaller after the full moon). It will dry better, not become worm eaten, and it won't pop or sprew water out the ends when you burn it.

 

[johnlee1933]

Cut wood when the moon is on the decrease (getting smaller after the full moon). It will dry better, not become worm eaten, and it won't pop or sprew water out the ends when you burn it.

Better yet -- Get the wife to do it.

 

[SmokesAhoy]

i heat with wood, about 6 cord hardwood for the year,
yeah all wood is the same btu per pound when dry, hardwoods advantage is not having to split as much nor fill as often.

 

[leverhead]

Better yet -- Get the wife to do it.

You'd get cold!

 

[Boboro]

I know that Johnlee and I use wood for our primary heat source...I love the warmth you get with wood. I am wondering just how many of us heat primarily with wood.

Here are some facts I learned this summer about wood: All wood has the same BTU/pound of DRY wood. Dry wood has more BTU per pound than corn, which really surprised me.

We have wood called Osage Orange or Bois d'Arc or Hedge in Missouri. The settlers planted hedge rows for fences...thorny stuff. Much of those rows have been dozed out. When I was growing up, you could count on hedge rows to produce Morel Mushrooms and they always had a covey of quail someplace nearby. It has about the highest BTU/cord because it weighs so darned much per cord. In fact it is so heavy that freshly cut hedge will not float. When cut into fence posts it lasts over 100 years...we have a very few old hedge telephone poles still standing that were abandoned in 1962 for underground lines and rotary dial phones...they were only about 4 inch diameter and 12 feet sticking out of the ground...I've got a picture of one someplace. Big corner posts will last 150 or more years.

Next best firewood we have here is Hickory, then Locust, then I like White Ash better than oak even though it is lower in BTU it sure splits easy and dries a lot quicker than oak.

we call them bodock

 

[Boboro]

Iheat with wood 1 or 2 cords a year. I got a Eden pure heater for chirstmas last year and like it a lot when it ant real cold I can turn it on and it keeps the house warm.

 

[Rayshields]

we call them bodock

That is Southern for Bois d'Arc pronounced Bodark. It was French for bow wood.

 

[Boboro]

Them french ppl talk funny.

 

[skychaser]

All wood heat here. We go through 6-8 cords per year, depending on how ugly it gets. Mostly Douglas fir and Ponderosa pine. We have gas heat too but almost never use it. The wood is free, and you can't huddle up to a heat duct when you're cold like you can with a nice warm stove. We have a small wood cook stove in our kitchen too for when the power is out.

 

[Rayshields]

When I was growing up, we had an Ashley wood stove that had two steel walls...it was oval shaped and was our primary heat source. My mom made vegetable beef soup on it. It took two days and nights to make a batch of soup. I have never been able to duplicate it.

 

[dkh2]

I've used wood my whole life

 

[SmokesAhoy]

When I get home I gotta take a pic of my pile, 1/8th gone already so if I want to show off I need to hurry lol

 

[Lakota]

We move to a new place, sure do miss the wood heat. I used to cut 8 or 9 cord a year. Mostly spruce and poplar. Not great wood but that is all we had.

 

[dkh2]

Here is the next load before I sawed it up.

 

[dkh2]

This is a 2 cord load I bought off a guy who needed the money.
He sawed this pile up and delivered it fairly cheap.

 

[dkh2]

He built himself a trailer to haul one cord loads lined with two full sheets of plywood (8 X 4) on the sides
and a (4 X 4) sheet in the front so you knew you were getting a full cord.I thought he did a damn fine job
of truth in salesmanship.

 

[Chicken]

i was at my moms yesterday,,,,

they have had a trailer for 5 years and havent lit the fireplace at all,,,

i pondered and asked them, why not use it,?

it would make the house very warm, very quick,

i wish i had a fireplace,,,,, then i could get my woman outside chopping me wood,

 

[johnlee1933]

i was at my moms yesterday,,,,

they have had a trailer for 5 years and havent lit the fireplace at all,,,

i pondered and asked them, why not use it,?

It's easy man. Mom thinks it's too messy. -- J