Sign of the times

Ok, after I got my load of wood, me being the talker I am, was talking with the guy who dropped off my wood. He informed me, that I was lucky to get this load as it was one of the last he had access to. He told me that the wood market has mostly come to a halt. There were 5 sawmills in the area that had folded because of the housing market. No new houses being built so no demand for cherry, maple or oak. This is the reason loggers log certain areas. Firewood is a by-product so to speak. Normally someone would call to have a lot cleared. Someone goes in and marks the good trees and anything around it is considered firewood. Most of them are around 6 - 10 inches in diameter, or twisted logs, or starting to rot.
So, if you burn wood, you may want to start to look for it now instead of the fall and expect the price to go up also. Around here, cut, split, and delivered was going for roughly 200.00 a cord, or 128 cu feet. A cord is roughly 4ft wide x 4ft tall x 8ft long and stacked. Most don't stack it anymore, just trown in the back of a truck.
Good luck and keep preppin.

Got wood?

Got an unexpected call last night from a co-worker who does firewood on the side.
"Just got a call from Mike and said he lost your address and phone number to deliver your load of logs. He wants to drop it off at around 8:00am."
"OK Cool!"
Needless to say, I wasn't quite ready for it, but such is life. Yesterday was supposed to be yard clean-up day, but mother nature wasn't cooperating. Cold, windy, and a stray snow shower. Not good for burning brush and such. I still have some unsplit wood left from last years load.
I'm a bit lazy at times, as the wife will let me know more often than I care to hear. LOL
Anyway, there is approximately between 6-8 cords there. I paid $650.00 for this load. I like to think and say it costs me that much to heat my home every year. Heating with wood is awesome. Nothing better than throwing a couple pieces in the stove and not having to feel the cringe of turning up the thermostat. Depending on the temp outside, it is usually around 70 -75 degrees inside. My furnace is oil fired as is my hot water. I filled up the tank in Nov. and I just ran out last night. I knew the tank was near empty, but the "I'll order it next week" phrase kept getting moved up. LOL Worse thing was, was my son was in the shower when it ran out. "DAD! The water is cold!" Ahhhhhh Crap. Down to the gas station with my 5 gallon fuel cans and got 40.00 with of diesel fuel. 15 gallons should last me till Wednesday. Fingers crossed.

Oh BTW, you can use diesel fuel for heating oil. It is pretty much the same thing. Same thing in reverse. Just don't get caught by the DOT. Heating oil is normally dyed as it is a Non-taxable fuel. Diesel fuel is taxed. They put the dye in heating oil so that truckers can't get around not paying the tax. The DOT has a test kit for testing for the dye.
Back to the wood. We had a relatively normal winter with only a few days of sub-zero nights and almost no zero degree days so I didn't burn much wood. If it does get that cold the furnace might kick on overnight. I have it set for 65 so it won't get too cool. Hopefully with the wood left over from last year, and this load, I won't have to buy any next year.

There is one bad point of get wood this time of year. It's the sap. Spring and fall are the worst times to get firewood. Here in the Northeast we have an abundance of maple trees. The reason New Yorkers come up here in the fall for leaf-peepin. Cold nights and warm days makes the sap flow for the maple syrup fans. Some of the logs are sapping as we speak as the sun is shining on them.

This just makes for a little longer drying time. No biggie. If I have it all cut up and split and stacked by May, it will sit till October when I start to burn. Actually I'll use up last years wood first and won't use the new wood till Jan. or Feb.
Wish me luck.