There is certainly lots of firewood snobbery going on in every region. If one engages their brain and applies a little critical thinking, everything you said in this video is exactly right.
ahhhhhh but the phrase engage brain???? Doesn't that encapsulate 90% of modern day America?? They don't have to.... From dawn til dusk they are on auto pilot... no brain required... The rut gets deeper n deeper every day
Love the whole process chopping the wood stacking sorting ready to burn. I agree 100% there is nothing like burning wood for warmth. I like millions of people struggle with poor mental health. I find sorting for my log fire helps so much. Thank you for videos.
I started cutting, splitting and stacking my own wood last winter and after I did my first cord I realized that’s a lot of work for what they charge but I also realized I really enjoy it, my wife thinks I’m crazy but she’s not wrong. And once again I thank you for all the things you’ve taught me about wood.
Hi Chris, I stared selling firewood 4 years ago, I’m 60 years old with a full time job, this year I’ve sold 44 cords of firewood so far, it’s pretty much taken over my life!! I just wanted to thank you for all the things I’ve learned from you watching your channel! 🪵🔥😀
Speaking of reforestation, one of the best such programs is in Finland. I witnessed this process personally in 2015 on a visit to Northern Finland. There are 3 stages. 1. Clear cut - sorted by size. 2. Two years of fallow. 3. Ground prep and planting seedlings to regrow new trees. This resembles farmers rotating their crops each year. Wood is a really good renewable resource. 😊
I agree with all of your firewood facts. I love going into the forest (here in Victoria, Australia) to cut my own firewood. The self sufficiency, the exercise, the sense of purpose and achievement, the planning ahead, the processing, and then, the reward of a crackling fire in winter.
Great video Chris! Like I've mentioned before, out here we only have Spruce, Pine, and Poplar. Nobody understands that all firewood burns, I've had access to tons of free poplar but nobody ever wants to buy it. So it just sits there and rots, really sad to see. Wish more people understood what you're talking about.
Up here in Yellowknife a cord sells for $500 bucked no matter what type of tree. $525-600 delivered within our small city. The reason being, besides the equipment need, is that it's 150km(one way) out of town to get to the area where we are aloud to cut wood.
"Firewood is the best exercise you can get." Yes! Bending, stretching, lifting, it has it all. I like swinging the ax to split some wood when it cold out. Firewood keeps on giving. And then you get that instant reward of a hot wood stove to warm up around. I think we lost our values of the things that are important in life. Heat produced by a wood stove is just a security blanket that is always there with mankind. He can cook, stay warm, and always survive. It's the thing we can fall back on to feel secure.
I live in southeast Kentucky and I have burned wood for heat most of my life. I used to sell some, but I my area it's just too easy to cut to command a big price. I do love cutting wood , my kids though? probably not so much. I'll keep heating with wood until I take my dirt nap😊
"All wood is good wood." Agree, but I'd add that the lower BT woods, let's say pine, aspen, cottonwood, will burn fast and HOT! It's great for when you want a quick fire fast - fast and hot-fast. Then pepper in the hard woods - in my area, elm, oak, ash - for that slower, long burn. Again, it's all good.
For years, all I had access to, was cottonwood. Every time someone would ask me why I waste my time with that, I'd always say "Because it's what I can get. At the end of the day, it heats up the wood stove and that's the goal." I still to this day, prefer cottonwood, for those days where I just need to take a little chill off in the house, or garage. I will never understand "wood snobs". It's really crazy what people get wrapped around the axle about nowadays.
hi there that was another good show . you need to do a foxworthy , if you make firewood you will .. have cuts bruises and splinters , if you do fire wood you will ware out more gloves than you can count . if you do firewood you may attract cats lol and so on , best to all john
Merry Christmas! New subscriber here. (Your comments about trees and anti-loggers hooked me.) I am now harvesting maples I planted myself 30 years ago. Even though I have been heating my home almost exclusively from the wood I cut on my little five acres in Ohio, I actually have more trees now than when I started in 1993.
Hey Chris! Loved the video! Lots of common sense. I would like to add one more fact. “Premium firewood” and “value added firewood” are hype phrases invented by content creators on social media channels. It’s a myth. All you need is dry wood. Doesn’t matter if it’s crooked or has knots or bark or misshapen on one end. It’s all going in my fireplace and it’s all going to burn. I like that you keep it real and are genuine. Keep up the great work and take care!
Great info! Even tho I've heated with wood every year for the past 45 years, I always enjoy hearing you talk about the benefits of heating with firewood. Your neighbor from the Eleva-Strum area.
Hi Chris: In a previous video, you complained about daylight savings time making it get dark too soon. BUT, we are back on normal time after Nov 5, so you should ask for DST year-round!
when i grew up . they logging up the road from me . there was so so much left when they left , the owners was in there trying to get some out . and still was much left last time i was in there and though out all the woods just rotting away . sometime i have seen places along the interstate a tree fell and the highway crew diced up . and left there i would see it lay there year after year . i saw a area in ga that a tornado destoryed and tons of trees smashed no one clean that so as a i used to drive truck and see tons just left to lay . and nothin done with it .
You mentioned "iron wood" and got me interested. We don't have that here in NE Missouri but I am curious of what you would sell a 3/4 ton 8' bed pickup load, hand stacked. I like your videos and agree with everything you state. Thanks and keep up the great work!
We have a ton of red ceder. Ive heard of people burning it but its so sappy that I consider it to dangerous for use. Better saved for fence posts. We in the south mostly sell ricks.
Here in Tasmania we start our annual month of wood gathering in November we cut on my parents property and wood has been harvested like this for 70+ years as Chris said trees grow back.
I enjoy supporting your channel daily. I watch you with my little kids. Your family friendly channel is great. I’m gonna miss the Ash trees around me. Got Rock Maples coming in as the Ash die off. GNI 👍
Might have found the best Firestarter yet. Had to cut down a white pine at my house the base rounds were to heavy to lift noodle them saved the noodles bagged in firewood bags. Throw a handful in with some kindling works great. Thinking about packaging in .75 bags and selling with my bundles
Red Oak is the most common Oak here in Michigan. I have some & I like it. I also have some pagoda dogwood that sounds like a wood bat when you drop a log. Nice ring. But I CANT find another splitting spike like the one I got at a yard sale from a Nam' vet. They are all wedges. My 10 inch by 1&1/4 inch diameter spike has a small 3/8s flat like a screwdriver & it blasts that stringy red oak easily its . I'll have to make one at work on the lathe from O2 tool steel.
That was a great video Chris! Tons of great information, chat all about things related to firewood! Up here in NW Ontario we have Black Ash. What kind of Ash do you have down there? Yes Birch is the most common hardwood you see here in our Firewood yards. Going west into the prairies there is some different hardwoods as well. Love the channel, keep up the great work friend take care.
Good day Chris that ending number 7 was spectacular 🤣 bang on with everything you said and delivered as usual educational, entertaining, and professional. Cheers 👌🏻🔥🇨🇦
Chris ~ Great info. today. This firewood Biz is a lot of HARD work! And I LOVE it! I just closed the woodyard after the 2nd year...Learned a TON and excited for next season (5-6 full cords drying). Heading to NC gonna have a campfire with the GF and burn it hot Baby! Got my first customer ready for delivery from the #2 Woodyard in NC. Gonna sell out and keep cuttin' ~ I will be expanding the types of wood (even though ALL wood burns) I want to explore other types. That was interesting for me in today's video! Thanks again! Did I mention I got a truck? CBJ
In Alaska, most of the wood is birch and spruce. I find the spruce is better to get the fire going, high heat, but spruce burns faster. Then, I put the birch in it with it to have a longer burn. I burn it in the wood stove. Oh and thanks for the video!
Thanks for another truly enjoyable video. Kept me entertained while I waited for the dew to dry off. Now I get to go back to work on my 4 cord Firewood shed for long term storage of Black Walnut. I've gathered mostly Walnut in volume this year along with Oak, Poplar, Ash, some cherry, and a little Ceder - All free to me. Every cord I cut up, Split and stack makes me feel good that I am accomplishing something, getting good exercise and saving money.
Your knowledge of the variety of trees and firewood is impressive. I enjoy collecting and splitting my firewood, it's a great form of exercise and stress release. Thanks for sharing your knowledge Chris.
The best firewood is a mixture of everything my customers have been getting a mixture of hardwoods and softwood for years and they are happy and warm over the winter.
Good morning Chris, good content. It’s true all wood burns. I have a forced air wood furnace plumbed into my gas furnace. I’m 65 so it gets harder for me to work like you do (arthritis ) , yes I’m retired so I don’t have to compete with earning money and exercising. Keep on cutting
It surprise my how long you can heat your home from wood. My mom took down a barn last year and took all the wood out to make fire wood. My grandma burns it in her stove by the rate it going she has 5 years of fire wood if not more.
There is so much about trees and forests that is just a fantastic gift of mother nature. We get an almost endless variety of products from wood. We can heat and cook with the wood from trees and do it using stoves that will function through power outages. Gathering the wood does give the exercise benefit plus the wood pile is like money in the bank. The trees capture carbon, produce oxygen, and stabilize soil. They provide habitat for thousands of different species. And just physically being in a forrest can provide health benefits as documented in studies known as “forest bathing”.
Boy you nailed it today again. Here in centra Pa. where I live everybody and their brother has fire wood for sale and if you can get more than 180 dollars a full cord your doing good. If you go 40 miles away in either direction you might be able to get 200 dollars a cord. And thats all hard wood and red oak around here is king. Around here generally in 25 years the woods will get reharvested. thanks Chris
I'm 77. just bought some wood from an 'old guy' ;) who is 92 and still does it. Ole Bill says ... "I likes cuttin' wood. It's fun. And if ya can't have fun doing whatever it is you're doin' ... then what's the point of doing anything ?" Gotta agree with my man Bill. Besides ... he has a whole lot of great stories to tell about life in da U.P. ;)
Another great video by You! Mostly I already knew all that stuff, but for the beginners great primer or kind of ABC for wood. Go Chris! Here where I live, in a very northern part of Europe, our main firewood is pine or birch. We have some oak here, but it´s mostly illegal to cut, because it is kind of rare here. But pine is fine!
I agree with everything, just about. (I'm the buyer, so no I don't want to pay way more, lol) Something about the smell of woodsmoke... Hardwood smoke reminds me of Fall- my favorite season! Pine/spruce smoke make me think of camping. Just a good smell that brings back good memories! For that matter, so does the process of getting firewood. I always loved going out in the woods with Dad, and still consider splitting fun! Your comments on being outside are SO true. I HATE being cooped up inside! Maybe that's why corporate culture is so whack- being stuck inside all day every day has driven those folks crazy and sucked out their souls, lol. And for those spazzing out over CO2: Do you realize TREES filter it out of the air, and capture it? And young, vigorously growing trees do a lot more of it than mature, slow growing trees? Nature figured this out long ago. Grow stuff! It's good for the planet, and good for us! And plants aren't full of gack that hangs around for decades- they rot, and provide nutrients and organic matter that other things need to grow.
Thanks for another great video! I agree with everything, specially the price of wood. I still cant wrap my head around the $180-200/cord guys. Using my ULTRA I can usually put out. a cord in an hour or so and can keep that pace for a few hours but going to get the wood, then cutting the wood, then bringing the wood back etc. can take hours. Those people just don't see the value in time just like most people who don't actually do the work. W have an abundance of Cottonwood around here and hate it! It snows here in again in July/August with the white fuzzy stuff, packs in a/c units, blows everywhere lol
Yeah, wood heat is my favourite.... started with an open fire and backboiler when I left home in my late teens and have never looked back. Got my first high-efficiency stove in the mid-90s and have never looked back. Got a second one less than 10 years after that and have no regrets. Love collecting wood with my bike trailer. Love cutting with my solar-powered chainsaw. Love splitting with my Fiskars. LOVE stacking (my favourite bit of the production cycle).... and then love cooking on the stove, drying fruit, doing bathwater, drying my body.... and if lucky, making love in front of it. The stoves are the centre of our house and my life revolves around them!
You forgot about the lonely Larch or Tamarack , Larix laricina, which because of it's resin produces the most BTU of any wood. Good review. That tree got me into the wood business when studing the insects that effect it, larch sawfly
Hey Chris Carlson! The only wood that is not useable to burn is rotten wood. Birch rottens if it is not protected from moist even cut. Best suggestion I have about birch, stack it in the middle of a wood pile or burn it within one or one and a half years. Yes birch especially can start deconposing in the forest too. Birch is still useable even if it is rotten, look it up.
Birch needs to be spit directly when it’s cut. 👍 And if you keep it off the ground and a roof over it, it will be useable for close to 5 years, with decent btu. Plus that the bark is an exellent firestarter!
Just as all wood burns all wood rots it is just at what rate compared to other woods, all birch is also not created equal White/paper, Black, Yellow, River.
Seven great facts about firewood, my favorite is being outdoors and getting good exercise. Who needs Jane Fonda to stay in shape...oops, showing my age again😂 GNI
Here in North Western PA we have alot of dead Ash ,, lot of Cherry trees, Red Oak , White Oak , Hard sugar Maples,,, Beach , Berch ,, shaggy bark Hickory, white pine & I'm sure more types of pine trees , I think Elm Trees are in PA also
I am 76 years young and I cut and split my fire wood, I do this to get exercise and it is free. Thanks for your support. I burn whatever will burn, pine, willow, box elder. poplar, this man is speaking truth, if it burns, it is good.
Hello I’m in Florida so lots of rain and humidity in summer months I have always kept my wood totally covered with a wood cover, material like a grill cover, am I better off just covering the top and allow the sides to not be covered? Will is season better? My concern is all the rain and humidity we get it was best to cover the entire thing. Thanks
DO NOT COVER IT ALL. Your wood needs to breath to dry. Leave the sides and ends open. The ground will produce moisture too an your wood enclosed in a sealed "bag" will not dry.
I cut my own firewood on my property. I do most of my cutting in the early spring. Within weeks of cutting a tree down there are 5 to 8 shoots growing out of the roots of the trees that i cut. By mid to late summer those shoots are as tall as me with leaves that look healthier than the tree that they are replacing.
We just put a fire pit in our backyard and I went to my buddies house and got some oak and walnut I brought it home and split it with a axe I got a face cord for free I love my fire now I’m going to try to cook on it one day lol but I would burn anything I could get because all wood burns goodnight Irene
We had . Hard wood . Ashe . When . Grew up . Made a great wood . To use cheep by the truck .load . But we had some other on hand . Big wood .small wood . But ya like u said . Whatever u got at the time .
Regarding the price of firewood, we have to teach our young people that the way to be prosperous is to figure out what the market will pay for and to do that. The way to prosperity is not to do what you like and then complain that people won't pay you enough for it. The only way to prosperity for the most amount of people is to provide what the marketplace values, not to provide what you like to do and expect people to pay you for it. People generally place a low value on recreational firewood, kinda like renting a movie. People want to make a fire, like they want to rent a movie, but they can live without it if doing so cuts into what they place a higher value on.
All good points but I have found that people who heat with wood are the cheapest an dare trying to save money and want a deal. The market is the market and it will dictate prices not what you think, feel or want.
Very well done. And I really liked the story about the customer that told his spouse to "take more clothes off" if she complained the house was too hot! LMAO.
82 years old in Vermont. my only source of heat is firewood from my own property. I agree with about all your comments. In Vermont we have a sub spiecie of Hornbeem called "Hardhack" Instead of the smooth grey bark it has a flacky brown bark
Morning Chris. That was a very intriguing episode. Little fun fact for you - here in Canada - you are not allowed to use Face Cord, or Stove Cord, Rick etc as a measure. it can only be sold in tonnes, cubic metres, Cord or fractions thereof. Who knew? LOL. Cheers and thanks for the firewood facts today. :))
I thought you had the trademark rights for orange flannel, Gord? Was Chris granted permission to wear this today, or will a letter from your attorney later this week explain all the details?🙄
GP, that is very interesting. I can certainly see from a consumer standpoint that using a standard unit of volume is the best way. As long as everyone is on the same page and knows the definition of the terms used, then there is no confusion. None of this, pick up truck load. (What size is the bed, how high is it stacked, from which truck manufacturer, etc).
I don't know why, but every time I watch one of your video's I think of Steve Smith who plays Red Green in the Red Green Show. I have been saying the same facts to people for years. I was told you could never burn pine in a camp fire because it was pine. LOL
Excellent video! Thank you for sharing that information! I have a couple of questions. #1 What do you mean by "the ash is dying and we have a lot of it?" Are you saying there is something wrong with the ash like a bug is killing it and we're intentionally harvesting it as fast as we can before the bugs get it? #2 Last year the power company felled and bucked a large softwood tree near the power lines. I brought it home and stacked it, but the logs were unsplit and even needed more bucking. I let them sit that way for 1 year. When I went to buck it further and split it just recently, I found it completely infested with termites. Is the termite infestation a result of me carelessly storing it unbucked and unsplit? I did keep it off the ground, with pallets. Should I keep the wood and let it dry completely and burn it in my house? Or should I toss it all? Will it jeopardize the rest of my wood stack of well split hardwoods? Now that I'm splitting the infested wood, will the termites go away? Thank you!
We have a bug up here that is called the emerald ash borer and it is killing off ALL of the ash trees. We do not have termites here so I can't help you much but off the ground is very important and you might need son additional barrier to stop them...plastic of some sort???
