Firewood on the Homestead, by Grouse Mountain

As energy prices soar and the dollar loses value, people are purchasing firewood for the future. Heating oil is a grade of diesel, propane is an oil by- product and with the rise of over twenty cents a gallon in just a few weeks, people are planning ahead where there may not be any fuel to warm their homes. Those with electricity are starting to look at any solar power possibilities, meanwhile, the big oil corporations have bought up many of the solar-panel producing companies!

Firewood providers in our area are getting orders to bring customers as much firewood as possible- the customers will take all the wood they can provide. (And, of course, the providers like to be paid in cash…) The customers are saying that next year -and beyond-, heating oil will be too expensive to heat their homes with.  Add to that the uncertainty of any oil being available for our rural area. Firewood will also cost more due to fuel for delivery trucks as well as the chainsaw maintenance, which includes bar oil and gasoline.

Natural gas is not available in our area, and many rural folks use propane. Rising in cost, our recent fill up cost us over $700, and that was with a price break of filling over 200 gallons! ($2.15 a gallon.) Typical fill up rule is to fill to 80% to leave room for expansion and for safety reasons. We have propane ‘on-demand’ water heating and are looking to improve on that system with firewood .  We live on a mountain; in winter there is no delivery. We can fill our own small portable tanks, a bit hard to use with a major home hookup. Firewood it is!

We heat and cook with  wood, using our ‘Pioneer Maid’ air-tight stove. It works great.  It is Amish made, available from Lehman’s or from Obadiah’s in Troy, Montana. We had it delivered to a local hardware store.  They used a forklift to set it into our truck; when we got home we used our tractor to lift it out onto a dolly with wheels.  That dolly was pre-tiled to compensate for any further moving of the stove, it went right into place. Wheels, what a concept!

Consider purchasing extra stove pipe to replace or repair yours in the future, along with spark arrester-tops, chimney brushes and creosote blocks or powder. If  you can afford it,  buy stainless steel chimney pipe which costs quite a bit more but will last a long, long  time.

Have a safe way to get up to your chimneys to clean them out with chimney brushes.  Roof ladders come to mind, if you don’t know anyone with a “cherry-picker” extension on their truck!

We located our woodshed(s) uphill from our dwelling location, that way everything can be downhill when bringing wood into our home.  We purchased a large wheeled wood-hauling cart that is wonderful to use from Harbor Freight as well as a black plastic tub that slides well in snow.  It takes at least eight months to dry or “season” firewood, with it being stored under cover with open sides all around. We do hang tarps during winter months to block the weather from wetting the wood. The best strategy is to have at least two years of wood stored, we rotate by having two woodsheds. If you can, purchase your firewood, saving ‘your’ wood until other wood is not available. If times get challenging, you will be glad of this strategy!

We save the scrap from our woodpiles in old construction buckets under cover. It is great fire starter along with pine cones and needles! The caution here is the creosote potential.  We use “Safe Lite”natural fire starters made by Rutland.  (Pine needles in fall, are also good for bedding your raspberry bushes!) We save newspapers when thrown out at the post office. (Black & White papers are better, since color pages have cadmium, etc.,) You’ll have to use your creosote powder remover more often as well as clean your chimney pipes more frequently. One thing; we tended to burn our stove pretty hot, and ended up needing a few more bricks to have on hand to replace the ‘liners’ in the stove firebox that cracked.

Here at our center, we are planting trees for the future.  Tamarack and others are sold through our county conservation district and we found hardwood species through Lawyer Nursery. We are fortunate that we have enough downed trees (and diseased) trees that we do not need to cut live trees. Our thought is the small nursery trees have a better chance of surviving the days that are here.

In our experience burning Ponderosa Pine and Western White pine is like trying to burn wet cardboard! Here is our order of preference for the N.E. Washington Rocky Mountain Foothills:
1) Western Larch (Tamarack,)
2) White Birch,  
3) Douglas Fir  
4) Aspen
5) White Fir.

A combination helps to cook with Birch and Tamarack, but of course, for heating, you will use what works! In our area a cord of Red Fir a.k.a. Douglas Fir is $125 per cord. Western Larch (also known as Tamarack) and Birch sell for $145- $150.

Attached is a composite list from several sources on common firewood ranked by heat produced, (BTUs= British Thermal Units) per cord of wood. A Cord is wood stacked four feet wide, four feet high and eight feet long.  Please note we do not have some of the exact BTU ratings for some species, (“u/a”) but they are categorized just the same.  Google Search “Firewood Characteristics”, U. S Forest products Laboratory, also see:  Hearth.com,  and the Firewood rating chart.

“*” denotes  Overall  rating of combination Split-ability, Ease to start, low sparking, and how hot fire burns: 

Common Firewood Species

           
Supplies for Firewood Users

If possible, have two chainsaws, with extra bars and chain, a way to sharpen those chains, and a supply of bar oil, fuel mixing oil, and gasoline.  We also have a couple of splitting mauls, ($28 at Wal-Mart, Big R farm and ranch stores have them too.)  Add steel wedges, and repair manuals for your brand of saws!  We use a sledge hammer (our ‘finishing tool’) and bow saws with extra blades. (Avoid blades that are not made in Europe!)  Get extra wood handles for replacements.  For a good Axe: www.snowandnealley.com  They’re in Maine and they offer a lifetime guarantee.

As mentioned above have at least two quality chain saws. Husqvarna (made in Sweden) and Stihl (made in Germany) are the most popular in our area. We personally have a “Husky”(for Husqvarna) and old McCullough, which the local small engine repair shop calls a “museum piece”. Most saws come with 16 to 24 inch bars. Our advice is to buy the  longest bar that will work on your model. That way you don’t have to bend over as far to cut the firewood up, reducing back strain.  Have extra bar oil, fuel lines, spark plugs, carb re-build kits, and learn which files work to do your own sharpening/ Be sure to get Kevlar safety chaps, eye and ear protectors.

Try to find non-alcohol added gasoline. This saves on the fuel lines and carb gaskets.

There are fuel preservatives for both gasoline and diesel fuels.  For your stored gasoline, PRI-G is an excellent product. They also have a diesel life extender product called PRI-D   We were told by our small engine repair business, preservatives keep the fuel for up to two years, although the product label doesn’t say that. The author of the book No Such Thing As Doomsday says that it will store even longer! Add it to fuel you are storing longer than four months. The experts recommend storing this fuel with preservative in the equipment over winter, rather than running them dry for storage.

Have a ‘two-crew’ cross cut saw of good quality. See Traditionalwoodworker.com, or Crosscutsaw.com. (The last manufacturer in USA).  There is a $4 manual that is a handy reference. For someone who reconditions and sharpens crosscut saws: Jimscrosscutsaws.com.  Definitely non-electric!

Have some wire rope to drag trees out of the forest so you don’t have to haul out the cut up logs. If you don’t have a tractor a four wheel pickup can sometimes work if not muddy. A Peavey tool with the attachment to lift the log off the ground is great to have as well, they are referred too as ‘log-lifters’. Or “Back-savers!” 

We hope that this is a very useful bit of information to help you in the challenges we may face in the coming years.  Please pass it along for others!

We are living ‘ Inspired’, hope that You are too!