At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

Obed

Same story on this side of the state. I have almost burned all the wood I had slated for this year and fixing to start burning next years wood.

Scooter

Scooter,
We've been conserving wood. We have only been burning if the lows are in the 20s or colder. We have plenty of wood for this year, even without conserving, but I'm behind on next year's supply.
Obed.

 

[Scooter78]

Scooter, We've been conserving wood. We have only been burning if the lows are in the 20s or colder. We have plenty of wood for this year, even without conserving, but I'm behind on next year's supply. Obed.

We burn all winter, burning just the buck stove which has a blower and firing up the Vermont if temps drop down.

 

[Bill 55]

Obed do you have wood to cut on your property or are you going to have to find a supply somewhere. If you have trees to thin on site now is the time to do it. I really prefer to cut when it iscold. Hate to cut in warm weather.

 

[Obed]

A friend of mine helped me with the installation of a wood burning stove within our home..... I must say, there is nothing that compares to this type of heat. Three years has passed now and we have yet to turn on the gas furnace. There is something very primitive and satisfying about this process, I know that it is a LOT of work to owning/maintaining a wood stove, but somehow I don't mind. My wife enjoys the heat it produces because it not only heats the air, but the floors, furniture, and most importantly- the toilet seat

drajj5, I can definitely relate. Sitting by the warm fire on a cold day is a nice feeling. After a hectic week at work, I can enjoy spending Saturday cutting, splitting, and stacking firewoord. I always seem to be "behind" on my firewood supply though.
Obed

 

[Obed]

A LOT of work is right but could not agree with you more. Plus you don't really need a gym membership if you own a wood stove. I have two in my house. When we were having our plans drawn I picked out stoves first and we laid house out based on the stoves. In the winter I put a curtain up at stairway and that's how we regulate heat. If it gets a little warm open curtain up and the heat is sucked up the stairs. Even when curtain is closed it still stays pretty warm up stairs. The only bad part is when the humidifiers can't keep up with how fast the stoves dry out the air man that can make for one bad head ache. Speaking of it burning all night long getting mine ready to do just that.

View attachment 357897

As you can see even the dogs love it.

Scooter78,
We did the same. We picked the location of the fireplace and designed the house plan around it. We had our fireplace choices down to two models/manufucturers, then designed the house so that either of the two models would work. Our fireplace is located close to the center of the house on an interior wall for maximum heating.

Our munchkin really likes the warm fireplace.



Obed

 

[Obed]

Obed do you have wood to cut on your property or are you going to have to find a supply somewhere. If you have trees to thin on site now is the time to do it. I really prefer to cut when it iscold. Hate to cut in warm weather.

Bill,
We have 30 acres of woods, mostly mature hardwoods. I am still cutting firewood from a pile of logs resulting from clearing the lot for our house and garden. I would guess I have 2 winters worth of potential firewood left in the pile.



I doubt I will ever have to cut down a tree for firewood. Enough trees fall down on their own to keep me supplied. Is is very convenient to be able to cut wood on our own property.

Obed

 

[Obed]

I really prefer to cut when it iscold. Hate to cut in warm weather.

Me too! For me, the ideal time for cutting firewood is when the temps are in the 40s. Temps in the 50s starts getting uncomfortable; anything warmer and I turn into a wet rag.
Obed

 

[Tororider]

Has anyone heard of or tried this vipikirves axe? Watched a video on YouTube about it and it seems interesting.

 

[Larro Darro]

Has anyone heard of or tried this vipikirves axe? Watched a video on YouTube about it and it seems interesting.

Was it this one where he put a tire around the log before splitting it? It's a funky looking axe, but it does the job. If anyone should know about wood heat, it would be the Finns.

Larro

 

[Scooter78]

That axe is crazy!

 

[motownbrowne]

That's a technique, though not a tool, that I use every time I split wood. I use a gransfors bruks splitting maul, which I LOVE, I learned about "splitting with a twist" from peter video, a renowned scythe advocate from Canada. He's right about it being easy to do with any axe or a sharp maul that will penetrate a round. I use the technique in conjunction with a bungee cord around the round. First I stand up the round, put the bungee around it, then spilt the sides off all the way around. Then I split the sides into small pieces (our evaporator likes small wood). I use the twist method to split the sides which are on the opposite side from where I'm standing because it protects the handle. All I do is hold the bit at a slight angle while still swinging straight down. The weight of the head levers the pieces apart. Takes some getting used to, but it's a great tool to have. The bungee method holds all the pieces together, and really makes the task a joy.


Axe Connected: Wood Splitting with the Twist

 

[Bill 55]

I know what you mean about not having to cut standing trees, We have about 75 wooded acres, and the past couple of years storms have uprooted or broken off more trees than I will be able to burn in my lifetime. I heated with wood for many years but with free gas I don't think I will be heating anything with wood unless I can get rich and build a shop/garage/meatcutting room.
Bill

 

[Scooter78]

I know what you mean about not having to cut standing trees, We have about 75 wooded acres, and the past couple of years storms have uprooted or broken off more trees than I will be able to burn in my lifetime. I heated with wood for many years but with free gas I don't think I will be heating anything with wood unless I can get rich and build a shop/garage/meatcutting room. Bill

How do we got some of that free gas!

 

[PhysAssist]

The vipukirve axes seem to be very expensive, and I would worry about it torquing my wrists, if I held onto it to firmly, something I would have a hard time letting go of, given extensive past use of regular axes...

That axe is crazy!

 

[PhysAssist]

Beans!?!

How do we got some of that free gas!

 

[Bill 55]

My inlaws left us 140 acres that had two gas wells on it. When they passed and we sold the house, barns and about 40 acres we kept the mineral rights and the free gas that went with it. Royalty wise we made $119 in the past 6 years but heat in the house is free. Free is hard to beat

 

[Beltman60]

I like free :dance1:

 

[Iowachild]

That axe is crazy!

It is a 12 lbs. splitting axe available at ACE. Splitting Axe

 

[dsquire]

Hi Guys

It has been a few years since I have chopped any wood. I have had plenty of practice both manual and power splitting. I have used an axe and a splitting maul. The secret that I have found is to let the head of the tool do the work rather than just powering thru. I would have loved to have had one of these new style wood splitters shown in this short video. This is slow motion so you can see how it works.

Vipukirves slow-motion video, part 3 - YouTube

Cheers :drink:

Don

 

[motownbrowne]

Like I mentioned, you can do that with any Axe. Just hold it at a slight angle and still swing straight down. Don't grip too tight, because it'll do the same thing as that fancy one. One downfall to the vipukirves is that that's the only thing it does, it's not also an axe , can't drive a wedge, etc.