Wood Heat - Rural Lifestyles

Home Heating with Wood

Rural Lifestyles

Though not the bizarre or unusual subject matter that I typically enjoy discussing, this is still a passion that is easy to share with some simple images and a brief description of the work flow process and time lines associated with Wood Heating.

Similarly I get a kick out of the reaction from southerners or folks that live in real warm climes at the thought of living such a rustic life style... Years ago when NetMeeting was new and not a cess pool of deviants and say-nothings, I had hours of fun explaining to a couple in Australia what Ice Fishing was all about.

This where it starts, a bush lot well populated with mature trees.

This road (though drifted in with snow for the season, snakes through and connects up to several others that make a serpentine course of close to 8Km over 100 Acres.

Maple, Oak and Ironwood are plentiful and the best for our purposes. The roads are created when skidding logs out to a central work area.

This lone pine log is left over from last summer's cuttings, Pine is a lousy wood for home heat as it's too soft and burns too quickly, and also has lots of resin and is a mess to handle...

In the spring before the black flies and mosquitoes are out it'll be cut-up for kindling and bonfires.

This particular log has too many knots is crooked and so is useless for making planks or timber out of.

Logs of Market size are sold to a variety of mills, Oak and Maple logs that have less than 1/3rd heart (the dark brown centre) can be worth up to $1,000 per log.

That is for the premium, ideal log, which I've never found.

The branches and tops are mostly what we burn. to get a sense of the size of these trees, the branches are up to 16" in diameter, with minimal value, while the logs we sold this past summer were over 36" in diameter.

This is next years firewood, but due to a ridiculously cold winter, I have to tap into it now. This has been down since May of 2002 and it is now Feb 2003. Generally I would consider this green wood, but I refuse to pay for what I've got sitting in the yard.

This the last pile I'm splitting this weekend, as I'm out of shape through the winter and there are only so many hours before I go back to work.

The wood splitter (hidden by wood pile) is a hydraulic cylinder that pushes a metal plate up to a wedge. It is all heavy 1/2" and 1/4" construction. The cylinder can exert approx 5 tonnes of force against the wood that is being split by the stationary wedge.

I've had friends tell me that an axe in skilled hands can split faster than a wood splitter. To which I reply, "Have at 'er" but a twisted grain or sections with major branch knots can leave you sweating for 10 minutes before finally pounding the axe through with a sledge hammer... I'm exhausted just thinking about it...

Here the "Bush Buggy" is the happiest, hard at work, flexing her springs under a moderate load.

I swear this truck is like an excellent dog, eager to please and just glad of attention and the opportunity to serve.

It's been said wood heats several times... When you cut it, split it, haul it, and finally when you burn it.

Here is about 2 to 3 days worth of heat depending on the outside temp. Right now we're hovering just about -10C and it feels balmy...

The radio has been claiming that we'd hit -5 C for about 2 weeks now, been close, but then back down to the mid 20s in the negative...

I do find summer so much easier to simply exist in, everything from lighter clothing, personal comfort with temperature, to fewer mechanical fatigues from operating in extreme temperatures.

In closing if you're somewhere warm right now and reading this, I'd trade you in a heart-beat but only long enough to shake the chill in my bones, and then I'd have to get back to the great white north.

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