Gathering fallen timber for firewood

[MossRoad]

I will give you some cheaper ideas. Use forks instead of a grapple. Find a splitter that goes both horizontal and vertical. You can find both chainsaws and splitters cheap sometimes that need some work.

If I’m lucky, I might pay off the cost of chainsaws, the splitter and tractor by the time I’m 150 years old. The economics as already stated don’t work. On the other hand, I would need chainsaw any way, just to cut up trees that fall in my yard or across the driveway, I would still own a tractor, so maybe the only extra cost is the splitter. You also get some exercise and satisfaction from burning wood. In our house it’s also backup heat

On those notes, I bought an 18" Poulan factory reconditioned saw for $99 the same year I bought our wood stove. I cut 6 cords per year. 12 years (I think), so 72 cords, plus a lot of small jobs for friends and family that don't involve firewood. Maybe 10 chains and a cheap sharpener. So maybe $350 in the saw and chains, plus $50 in repairs. Heck, let's say $400 for 12 years. Not bad.

My in-laws used to heat with wood. As they got older, they slowed down. In exchange for wood that they want, they let me keep the splitter at my place. I've put a new $99 Harbor freight engine on it after it was about 35 years old. So I have about $5-600 total in equipment expenses in saw and splitter over 12 years.

$50 a year for that isn't bad.

The wood burning stove, chimney pipe, installation, etc... was $3500. Add that to the $600 and it's $4200.

I use my tractor and tongs to drag wood out to a landing. I cut it into 16" pieces at the landing, toss it onto a trailer, and bring it home about 9 miles away. Unload it and split it at home, stack and store.

Tractor costs are hard to pin down. I don't do a spreadsheet on those. Plus the trailer cost. Tow vehicle cost.

I posted somewhere on TBN my costs on firewood. I'd have to go back and search for that.

 

[Jstpssng]

As has been mentioned, if 21 people reply you are going to get (at least) 21 opinions. So here's mine. Decaying wood on the forest floor is good for a lot of reasons. It gives spiders, centipedes and other creepy crawlers to hide, as well salamanders, tree frogs, other vertebrates who will also feed on those smaller things. In turn the salamanders and frogs become feed for snakes, fox, bear, birds, and a plethora of other wildlife. There's nothing wrong with cutting trees responsibly; from your pics you can focus on trees with poor form and/or crowns, giving the healthier trees less competition for light and water. Many hardwoods will sprout if you cut them providing browse for deer, rabbits, grouse, and other herbivores. Try to leave any trees which show evidence of wildlife use; whether it's bear going up beech trees, an old snag with woodpecker activity, or any fruiting tree or shrub.

I have a Poulan similar to MossRoad's which I bought brand new on clearance for $100. It's my spare saw and I might not use it for a year or more; yet it always starts when I need it. The drawback is that there's no vibration dampeners so if I use it very long I lose feeling in my hands. Still, for the money it's a tough saw, and you can go right down to Walmart if you need a chain.

I have a winch for mine but also cut wood off my lot to pay for it. It's handy but not necessary. For years when growing up we brought all of the wood for the house and flower shop using an 8N Ford and homemade trailer; we also used that same unit to help get my neighbor's wood in each fall.

 

[BlueKnife]

So I need a wood stove, a grapple, a splitter, and an education on firewood. So from you more experienced folks does this sound like something worth getting started with or not worth the money, time, and energy involved?

Is this property hilly or fairly flat? In the pic it looked flat. If so, and if there are a fair number of trails/roads on it and maybe even if there isn't, a grapple really isn't needed. A conventional grapple is used, obviously, to move logs perpendicular to the machine. Unless you have a significant amount of space between trees you're going to find yourself doing a lot of dragging logs out from between other trees. Might be simpler and definitely cheaper to just get a good, high clearance trailer. Bring the splitter into the woods, set up and cut and process everything close by directly into the trailer. A grapple is nice, don't get me wrong, but it's certainly not necessary for what you're wanting to do and the money would probably be better spent on other things. You could get a swivel grapple, but we're talking about more money then. What's your budget for all this?

 

[Deere Dude]

I asked my insurance agent about that before we installed our wood stove. All I had to do was have a licensed installer install the stove and provide proof of installation by that installer to the insurance agent. I don't recall an increase in my insurance cost.

My dipwad agent tacked on $50 a year for insurance when I bought the house, just because I had a wood burner in the garage/shop. I then installed a zero clearance air tite fireplace in the house but I needed a carpenter to check it over for the insurance man, even though I just got done installing 4 fireplaces elsewhere. To many redneck DIYers I suppose.

I burn my crap wood when available in the garage and try to use oak in the house, which works for me.

I carry 10-12' logs out of the woods when possible and put on a slab for a year to dry out and to loosen bark, then with forks I carry them out to the lawn, then cut to 20" length in the middle of the lawn.

From there I roll onto a heavy duty pallet and carry the pallet of chunks to some sawhorses right against the splitter. I split using the pallet for a table and the splits I throw in a wheel barrow for my stacker. That works for me as I only need to roll logs up on a pallet and very seldom need to lift much. The tractor and forks do most of that. I just roll chunks around.

 

[Diggin It]

So I need a wood stove, a grapple, a splitter, and an education on firewood. So from you more experienced folks does this sound like something worth getting started with or not worth the money, time, and energy involved?

First and foremost, if you haven't already, check with any applicable authorities and see what kind of codes are involved for installation. Wood stoves can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. If codes in your area require professional installation and inspections, that could significantly more cost. Also check with your insurance company. Many will not write homeowners policies for homes with wood stoves and those that do hike the rates quite a bit.

 

[CobyRupert]

People have mentioned a lot.
Trick to firewood is handling it the least amount of times. I’m a fan of logging winch and forks. Sometimes it’s easier to drag a log to the splitter pile, sometimes it’s easier to move the splitter to the log.
I haven’t seen much mentioned about chimneys and how important it is to keep them clean. Junk or rotten wood holds moistures, any wood not properly dry adds to creosote.

Can you have outside wood boilers where you live?These would tie right into your existing hot water or forced air heating system. This eliminates needing a chimney built for a wood stove. This eliminates a lot of cutting and splitting as you can throw big pieces in it. It doesn’t matter if you burn junk wood, or pallets, no creosote worries, or if there’s bugs or dirt in the wood, wet wood, etc. (other than there’s less BTU’s).
Wood is a lifestyle. It’s carbon neutral. F*** the oil companies!

 

[MossRoad]

First and foremost, if you haven't already, check with any applicable authorities and see what kind of codes are involved for installation. Wood stoves can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. If codes in your area require professional installation and inspections, that could significantly more cost. Also check with your insurance company. Many will not write homeowners policies for homes with wood stoves and those that do hike the rates quite a bit.

I think most insurance companies will write a policy for homes with wood stoves and the ones that will do NOT hike your rates quite a bit. Most I have seen are about $2-$3 a month, so around $36 per year. That's pretty reasonable. Most just require it to be permitted and installed by a licensed/certified installer according to local codes.

 

[Diggin It]

I think my agent checked six companies, maybe more. Only two would write it at all and they both added something like 25-30%.

 

[BoylermanCT]

My insurance wanted to see that the wood stove was permitted and inspected. I installed it myself which was not a problem. My homeowners policy did not change noticeably when I added my wood burning insert.

My #1 recommendation for you is to make sure your basement has insulated walls. Otherwise much of your heat will escape through the walls to heat the earth around your house, and that is a losing proposition. One study I read showed a use 10 cords a year to heat a house with the wood stove in the basement and that dropped to 2 cords when the basement walls were insulated. Concrete is a lousy insulator, so the walls will heat up and transfer that heat right to the ground outside.

 

[Captain Dirty]

As one who practices a form of woodlot management on "neglected" woodlands I get some sound wood, some "punky" wood, and some rotten wood. "Rotten" wood may not make it off the forest floor, or it fails to survive handlings up through splitting. "Punky" may have sound heartwood but questionable sapwood (typically white oak) or sound sapwood with heartwood tunneled by ants (typically black oak). Some punky wood is just in early stages of decay (ash and beech go quickly). A fair amount of punky wood makes it to the wood stove.

Punky wood makes creosote. To the tools already mentioned I would add a chimney brush. I clear approx. 2-3 gallons of creosote from the flue in each of two cleanings during a season.