Firewood — Cutting Our Own Instead Of $250+ Per Cord
Every winter many of the trees in the woods across the road from our house are uprooted or knocked to the ground by the winds and the weight of the freezing rain and heavy snows… and these fallen trees become the source of our next winter’s firewood. Unfortunately, because the land that is accessible to us for tree-cutting is what New Englanders call a “side hill” and is very steep and uneven, cutting these trees into manageable size and getting those pieces from the woods to our yard is somewhat more difficult than it would ordinarily be. We like knowing that we’re helping to clean up the woods and that the fallen trees are not just going to lie there and rot. And of course, since the price for firewood in our area is around $250 a cord this year, with delivery extra, we also like knowing that we’re saving a lot of money. Our goal each year is to fill our open shed, which holds about ten cords, with a mix of hard and soft wood, and for the past few weeks we’ve spent some time cutting firewood, moving it, splitting it, and stacking the wood in the shed as soon as it has been split. That shed certainly seems a discouragingly big space to fill when it’s empty!
Written by Shirley | Filed Under Doing It Ourselves, Frugality, Green Living, Simple Living, Voluntary Simplicity
Comments
Comment by robin:
“Every man looks at his wood-pile with a kind of affection.”
-Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Affection, I would think, for the visual reminder of hard work well done, for the memory of crackling hearths of winters past, for the anticipation of the secured warmth of the winter ahead. I envy you your fireplace and your woodpile.
Comment by Jack:
As a city boy I’m also envious. What a great way to practice sustainability.
Comment by orneryswife:
Would that we could have sent some firewood your way. The winter here in Oklahoma was most unfriendly to our trees, and there were sites giving away firewood all over town.
$250.00 a cord seems outrageous! I remember when I was in high school, my brother in law and his brother bought a chain saw, and cut firewood to sell. It was in Arizona, so there wasn’t nearly the call for it that you would have in New England, but they sold it cut, split, delivered and stacked for $50.00 per cord. It was thirty years ago, but that is some serious inflation!
TM
Comment by Niki:
Wow $250. we just paid $160 a cord split and delivered. We burn aprox 4 cords a year depending on the winter. We moved from a home that burned oil and we would be well over $4k a year not including electricity…I love my wood, work and all.
Comment by Dana:
That is outrageous for something natural! We got lucky this year…. John works on a camp and there are dead trees all over…. kinda free reign for us to stock up for next year!
Comment by warillever:
It has been running around $175 for green wood here, but we have been having a hard time finding anyone with wood left right now. Fortunately we have about two cords left over, (and a few fallen trees that we just split) so we should be able to get away with buying green wood later in the season.
Sure beats paying for oil, though!
Comment by Jane:
Here in southern Ontario, Canada, firewood is $300/cord this year for oak. Nobody has any good hardwood left. I’m in a rural area, but unfortunately, I don’t have access to fallen trees nearby (except occasionally) and I don’t have a truck, chainsaw, or enough muscles to cut and split my own wood.
Comment by Shirley:
It’s unbelievable how expensive wood has become. We’ve had a really cold winter so far, and people are running out of wood, so prices have increased even more. In a classified last week, someone was advertising green hardwood for $290 per cord. Burning wood has become a huge expense for anyone who doesn’t have access to “free” wood.
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