Saturday, August 24, 2019

Prepping for winter -- the cheater's way

Here it is late August, and already it's time to start preparing for winter. While our house has received lots of interest on the market, we haven't had any bites; so we're getting ready to overwinter in place. Fortunately we're not in a hurry to sell, and overwintering is just fine with us. (It will give our girls a chance to come home and see how pretty the house now is.)

However because our focus has been making home improvements, we've had less time to devote to one critical winter prep: Firewood. So we decided to do something we've never done before -- buy firewood already cut and split.

Don answered an advertisement by a local fellow whose prices seemed reasonable. Last week, the gentleman brought in multiple truck loads of wood.


We were going through a hot spell (highs in the 90s), so he often started bringing loads at 6 a.m. when the air was still cool. Fortunately I'm an early riser, so this wasn't a problem.


After every load, Don and I stacked. After three days of hauling in loads of firewood, we had four cords of wood stacked and ready to use.


We stacked wood inside an inner pen (you can't see the rows stacked in back) ...


...as well as the outer wall.


We also have some stacked on the side porch.


We feel vaguely guilty for buying stuff already cut and split -- are we cheating? -- but hey, our focus has been different this fall and time is at more of a premium.


Four cords may not be quite enough to get us through next spring, but we also have some dead trees on the property we can cut and split ourselves. And I must say, it's nice to have our firewood already in.

15 comments:

  1. Working on same project. Moving wood from outside drying to the wood shed. Need to start spitting next years supply and stack up for drying. It will get covered with a tarp for a year.
    Nice looking sssupply you have.

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  2. Having gone through more moves than I care to count, I've always said that moving would be relatively easy if we didn't have to keep up with regular life at the same time. It's very understandable that you chose to handle your wood this way this year.

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  3. Oh, my, my friend in Idaho is worried about only getting three cords split with two cords still unsplit. I was wondering whether it takes five cords to get through the winter; you seem to have answered it!

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  4. Good move. You guys have had a lot on your plate. Just selling a house is a heap of stress. Now you'll have the comfort of knowing you have firewood this winter. Likewise for any potential buyer.
    Montana Guy

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  5. Cutting and splitting wood is a time-consuming job. I always tell my family we get heated by it twice! Don't feel guilty, you both have to much on your plate to tackle this project from scratch.

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  6. Patrice, congratulations! Your homestead is being featured on SurvivalBlog AGAIN today.
    Montana Guy

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  7. For the first time in 36 years we bought firewood the last 2 years. Age caught up with us, we are in our 70's. Love to feel the warmth of a wood stove and am glad people are out there selling wood.

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  8. I see no reason to feel guilty for paying someone for their time and effort so he can feed his family. That is worthwhile in my book.
    LSM

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  9. There are always trade-offs. This seems like a reasonable one.

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  10. maybe you will find this funny (or not , but we don't heat with wood) We had a cord of wood out by our camp fire for the kids to use when they had campouts...My 12 year old niece from Arizona was fascinated with the idea you could actually burn wood outside ( guess they can't in Arizona) So they camped out , we went to bed ,in the morning she had burned the ENTIRE cord of wood !She said it was just so exciting she stayed up all night piling wood on the fire , it is funny now.

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  11. No guilt. Efficient use of available resources. Hmm, should I spend 20 hours remodeling something to save three or four thousand dollars? Or, should I cut and stack wood for 20 hours and save a few hundred dollars?

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  12. I have purchased our wood for the last several years. The last guy charged $80 a rick delivered and stacked. We go through about 5 ricks a year. At 74 years of age it just is not something I want to do anymore.

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