Firewood Market

[ultrarunner]

I see plenty of firewood dealers on CraigsList here in the Bay Area who are asking $400 and more per cord
for seasoned almond and oak. I don't know how well its selling.....

Anyway, the no-burn restrictions we endure in the Bay Area counties exempt all of us who have no
access to natural gas. That means all of us rural folks in the Santa Cruz Mtns.

The housing development next to me was built in the 60's... they were homes of the future... at least each house has a medalian from PGE stating this... the homes are all electric... no gas lines. The all do have fireplaces.

They still fall under the ban... homes are in Oakland CA

Interested the bans do not apply to wood-fired cooking... time to get Grandma's Wedgewood out from under wraps in the back of the garage... it has a wood burner!!!

 

[GMForsythe]

I would rather split would with a maul than be bent over a splitter. When I bought a hydraulic splitter for the tractor I picked one that was tall enough so I did not have to be bent over to split. I then build a PT bench to hold the splitter so I had room to stack and move the wood around on. No bending over all day! :thumbsup: Funny thing is, if the wood is straight I can split faster by hand. It is the forked pieces that need the splitter. For the last two years I have split with a maul! :confused3::laughing::laughing::laughing: I like the quiet of the maul. No engine noise. I found a Fisker maul on Amazon with the right handle length. That splitter is NICE! :thumbsup:

I do have a stack of wood I cannot split without using wedges or the wood splitter. What is funny, is that I found a piece of wood that is straight and should split real easy. The Fisker, which came with a decent edge on it, COULD NOT even dent that piece of wood. :confused3::shocked:

Later,
Dan

Down in Georgia we have a variety of wood known as sweet gum which is the most difficult to split that I have ever encountered. I have an 8-lb maul, and when I swing it the thing just BOUNCES off this stuff! I can't even make enough of a split to put a splitting wedge in, so I have to cut a slot with my saw, and even then if I do not hit the wedge spot on, that wood will bounce the splitting wedge right out. It goes a little better if I put two wedges in next to one another, but it is really a lot of work, even if it does burn well.

 

[L355SS]

Well it seems the only constant here is everyone's definition of a cord,(4x4x8). Here in the central part of Kentucky, a rick used to be a half cord. In the 60's and early 70's my family cut stave's from white oak for whiskey barrels. I recall them having to be at least 50" in length and were bought by the cord at $55-65. I would work up the tree tops in 20-24" pieces for firewood. So by my measurement a "rick" was 2'x4'x8'. But once better wood stoves started coming on the market very few would handle 24" pieces of wood. Most of the firewood I cut and sell now is 16"-18" because that's what the customer asks for account of the stove size....it's still the same amount of cuts whether your cutting 16'" pieces or 24" pieces. I sell unsplit wood for $25 a "rick". At my farm a "rick" is equal to three bobcat loads stacked in the bucket. Also I've been informed that in "KENTUCKY" you can no longer move firewood from one county to another, in other words it can only be burned in the county where it was cut....this is supposedly to slow the spread of the emerald ash bore.

A few years back I cut my oak firewood into 2' lengths (rather than 16" lengths) to save 1 cut per 4' length. Seemed like a good idea but hauling it from the storage area to the wood stove to burn it was that much heavier. Cutting into 16" lengths now!
Dennis

 

[Bandit13]

Out here in Northern California a cord of 18" split Black Oak is $300 winter $200 in the summer.

 

[ultrarunner]

Out here in Northern California a cord of 18" split Black Oak is $300 winter $200 in the summer.

I could make a little money at these prices... is that seasoned and delivered? How far North?

Three years ago I gave a co-worker a normal pickup load of split, green oak for free... dropped it off in their driveway and stacked it... they are in their 60's and live in San Leandro.

She is retired now and I happen to see her at the market and asked how the wood supply was holding out... she told me they paid to have it hauled away because neighbor complained every time they used their fireplace in the home they have owned for 40 years... even posted a note in the mailbox from the air quality management district...

 

[Obed]

I purchase 10 cord grapple loads of oak and ash at $70 a cord, then cut and split it myself. I have 40 acres but mostly poplar and pine, I will burn some of that in the shoulder season but right now it is a minus 22* F. I want as long as burn as I can get and since I have a pre EPA stove you are only talking about four hour burn. I burn 24/7.

Do you get up in the middle of the night to reload your stove?

Obed

 

[Obed]

Three years ago I gave a co-worker a normal pickup load of split, green oak for free... dropped it off in their driveway and stacked it... they are in their 60's and live in San Leandro.

She is retired now and I happen to see her at the market and asked how the wood supply was holding out... she told me they paid to have it hauled away because neighbor complained every time they used their fireplace in the home they have owned for 40 years... even posted a note in the mailbox from the air quality management district...

If I had a neighbor like that, I'd be tempted to butcher a pig in the back yard just to give my neighbor a rise.

 

[brokenknee]

Do you get up in the middle of the night to reload your stove?

Obed

I usually just have to reload once a night. Last Thursday night/Friday morning it got down to a minus 35*F. I reloaded a couple of times that night. It's not like I set the alarm or anything, I just wake up, if I think it's getting cold in the house I throw another log or two on the fire. . Better that than a cold wife.

 

[ultrarunner]

If I had a neighbor like that, I'd be tempted to butcher a pig in the back yard just to give my neighbor a rise.

I think it is only going to get worse...

Seems just about anything benefiting self sufficiency is being targeted...

Movement to meter private wells... ban on wood heat, ban on the slaughter of livestock for personal consumption... heck, a little city block farm here got into trouble for having the entire yard in vegetables...

The real mistake is thinking it can never happen here...

 

[DKCDKC]

I get most of my firewood on shares from others cutting on my land. I usually stick to cutting down and up dead trees near roads or buildings, or those that block things. However, with the warmer winters recently, I have lots of wood I can't burn. Called the Salvation Army and Social Services to see if I could donate a few truck loads - me hauling. No takers. The wind storm last summer seems to have brought so much wood down that firewood is just too abundant. And I have 18 inch stovewood already split.

Hopefully somebody will want some soon... It won't keep forever. And I have a dozen big fallen oaks to cut up, more than I will need for next year.