Got wood?

I burn firewood here to home. My other two options are to burn fuel oil, or freeze. Back in the day, fuel oil could be had for 70 cents all day long. How do I know? Because my dad used fuel oil and he bitched about the price even when it was that low. When I bought this house in 2004, I was happy that it had an oil furnace. Oil was about $1.42 at that time. Then, when gas prices started climbing, fuel oil started flirting with and surpassing $3 per gallon. This place wasn't insulated very well (seeing that it was built in 1925). On a very cold month, I could burn about 200 gallons of oil. What would cost just shy of $300 for a very cold month now was going to cost $600 or better. Mind you, that's each month. My heating bill for the season would have been several thousand dollars. I also grew up with wood heat as a child. Dad would raise holy hell with me if I didn't keep that wood fire going. This is how I remember how much he despised buying fuel oil. This house used to have a coal furnace back in the day. Coal smoke is a little more corrosive than wood smoke, and you need a greater draft. For those reasons, most chimneys built for coal are larger than those for wood, and they almost always are clay lined. Such is the case here. The coal furnace was long gone when I bought the place. They had the oil furnace vented into the chimney, as well as the sewer pipes! Well, the sewer pipe was eventually moved to vent outdoors, but the oil furnace still vents into this chimney. There was a spot to hook into the chimney below the point that the oil furnace connects, so I used that and put a wood furnace in. KinDee was pretty reluctant to go to wood at first as she never grew up with it. It made her nervous. However, she is a happy convert now. She too prefers the warmth of wood heat over any other. I bought my wood from a friend of mine who sold it to me in large pickup loads for $50 per load. I was able to heat my house for under $1200 per season, and I sweat my ass off in the process - even with no insulation. This worked fine for years until my wood man moved away - and left me without a source for wood. Like I said, the man was my friend. I got a good price for a large load of wood. Nobody else was willing to offer me that sort of deal. My buddy still made money off of me at $50 per load, but most people like to make LOTS of money. I have found that with more people returning to burning wood because of rising fuel prices, there's a lot of cut throat shit going on in the field of firewood.

First on the list is price gouging. That $50 load of wood, sold by other people, is at least $80, if not $100 per load, and the quality of the wood isn't all that great. On top of that, the loads are pretty measley in size compared to what my buddy brought me. I was now looking at my yearly heating cost going up half again as much as it was under my buddy. The reason for the expensive wood? I am told by those who are asking for high prices that saw gas and bar and chain oil are really expensive. Guess what, they're not. I've cut about 10 loads of wood this year, if not more and have only gone through about 3 gallons of saw gas and a jug and a half of bar and chain oil. Saw gas (which is standard gas with 2 cycle oil in it) is about $4.50 per gallon, maybe even not that much. Bar and chain oil is about $8 per gallon. Not too damned much when you consider automotive oil is about $3 per quart, or $12 per gallon. It's a bunch of hot air and just bullshit that they expect you to bite on to justify their high prices. Do you want to know the highest expense in cutting wood? Right now it's transporting it. With gas prices so high, a lot of your expense is in transportation. I offered to haul it if they'd give me a discount. No dice. Why do you think they wanted to haul it for me? That's right, so they could justify their high prices and to ensure that you get a measley load. I decided that I needed to find a way to cut my own wood. I had a couple of options.

The first option I tried was to hire someone to cut wood for me. I would find the land, purchase the gas, oil, etc. that it takes to cut wood. I then offered $15 per hour to cut wood. No splitting - just running a chainsaw and cutting wood. I would load and haul it. I even purchased a trailer for hauling wood. Guess what, I was told by the neighbor guy that I was insane and that I was asking for someone to do "slave labor". I couldn't find any takers. I thought it was a fair deal.

The second option was to buy the equipment myself and we cut wood from start to finish. I had to go this route, so I went and bought a chainsaw, and other things needed to cut wood.

I live close to Volga River State Park. I go out there with the family quite a bit and noticed that they have piles of wood just laying out there. When I asked about cutting out there, I was told no. So, I wrote to Des Moines and got permission to cut out there, and I could tell that the park ranger wasn't the most pleased that I went to Des Moines for permission. He said that I could cut out there - but only where he told me. That's fine I thought. He was friendly at this point. He took me to a pile of wood which they had tried to burn a year or so prior, and had failed. He said the quality of the wood was very poor. Sure enough, it was. Then, I've noticed over the course of the year that brush was coming in there - oak and hickory brush (I could tell by the leaves) and there were large patches of sawdust on the ground by this brush indicating that some good wood was brought it, and that they took the good wood and left the brush. Geeze, I wonder who could be cutting that wood? The park ranger told me that I was the only one allowed to cut out there? Could it be a park ranger who burns wood too?

I started asking around to other people about ground to cut on. Some of them say that they don't allow cutting on their property for liability reasons. That's just a fucking cop out in every way. Most people have homeowners insurance. That would be like me saying that I don't want you coming onto my property because you could slip and fall and sue me. You know, liability reasons. As long as the person isn't hiring me, their insurance would cover it - but, beyond that - there is such a thing as a liability waiver. I know - I signed one with the state before I was allowed to cut on state property. This whole thing of "liability reasons" being the reason for refusal is bullshit. So, for those of you that hide behind that excuse, I see through your bullshit!!! I would rather someone say that they think I'm a piece of shit and they don't want trash like me on their property. At least they're honest that way. By them choosing to insult my intelligence with this "liability reasons" baloney - it says more about them than it does me.

I had a really hard time finding a place to cut wood. Not just that, but finding a place to cut good wood. Let me tell you, there are a lot of people who are sure nice to my face, but when asked about cutting wood on their property, by God, you'd think I was asking them to had over their bank accounts or something. These aren't even people who burn wood themselves many times. However, they let their "true buddies" out to cut wood on their property - I know that. Nothing says "fuck off" like seeing certain people given the right to do something while they tell you no. Do you ever remember growing up and wanting to play with the big kids - and they'd tell you no and be mean to you???? Well, that's sort of how this is all panning out. Let me tell you, I consider myself to be a God fearing man. I pray to God. I know there is a God. I believe God listens to me. It doesn't mean that God does anything I say, but I think he listens to me. When these people pull shit like this on me, I can assure you, I pray to God and let him know what's going on. I leave it in his hands. This leads me to the end of my story which is this -

I found a place to cut wood. I may have found a second place. While the ink isn't dried on either deal, both are very promising. One chunk of land is rather large and close to home. Nobody is cutting on it and it has a lot of good wood on it. The other chunk of land is much smaller, but has recently been logged, and also has good wood on it. If I can snag both of these chunks of land, then I should be set for a long time. When people ask me where I'm getting my wood, I'll just shrug my shoulders and say that I don't know.

A funny anecdote - my neighbor guy - the one that originally told me that I was driving a terrible deal wanting to hire him or anyone else to cut for me at a rate of $15 per hour plus fuel and other expenses -well, he recently came over to my home and said that if I paid him for gas in his saw and pickup, that he'd bring me a jag of good wood. I turned him down. I told him that I had a pickup and that I had saw gas already mixed up that he could use. He refused the counter offer. While I need the wood, I know he needed the money so he could cut for himself. He would have brought me some tiny load of shit wood and said that it was good wood. He didn't want me out there to pick the load up - nope - he insisted that he bring it to me - which translates in this cut throat lifestyle as, "I want to fuck you over". Then he could say his saw went through two gallons of gas when it went through half a gallon. No thanks.

My concluding prayer; Thank you Lord for all your blessings. Thank you for showing me the true hearts of those around me. I came to them asking for help and they offered none. These were people who led me to believe that they cared about me and my family. I see the truth. Thank you for those who have offered assistance and helped me. These are people who I wouldn't have thought would have been helpful - which is why I turned to them last - out of desperation. Lord, bless those who follow your ways and help their fellow man. Help me be like those who have been kind to me. Amen.

And that's my 2 cents on this matter.