Tweet
Do you have at least 3 years of firewood in your sheds right now?
Going to go ahead and explain the "3 years" lest I get challenged for coming up with an "arbitrary" number -in other words some new person doesn't understand WHY that number.
You will want to allow at least a year (hopefully more) for your cut, split wood to dry out enough to burn efficiently in your wood stove(s).
A year's worth ready to do, a year's worth seasoning now and at least another for coverage. This could be something as simple as what I've been experiencing the last couple years- work so damn busy I rarely have time to get caught up on homestead tasks past the "this has to happen now" stuff.
We are in the South but heat solely with wood. Sometimes it only takes a cord a year for our three woodstoves. I get nervous when the sheds start getting low.
Just start looking at the "logistics train" of each thing you need to do:
Example- Want to make sure we don't freeze=
*Firewood- goal at least 3 years always in the sheds in various states.
*Passive solar- includes improving insulation in structures as well as situating building for best passive solar usage- south facing windows, flooring to help hold heat, etc.
Needs:
(3) Chainsaws of the same type/model. Ideally 1 or 2 will be new, fluids removed and in storage.
3 dozen chains for same, plenty of fuel mix and oil.
Spare parts- sprockets, bars, plug, filters for everything, carb, pull string starts, brake, minor things like fuel caps, nuts for bars that WILL get lost from time to time.
Edited to add- SERVICE (not user) manuals for saws as well as some practical experience working on them. You tube is great for that NOW. Ask at the local saw shop if they had a non working/for parts jacked up model of your same saw and buy it. If nothing else, tinker with it, replacing parts and getting that experience on the saw you don't use.
Spare stove pipe- you will need to replace this from time to time.
Rope for seals on wood stoves
Good selection of cutting axes and files
Good selection of splitting axes and files
Wedges
Peevee (sp?)
Eye pro, chaps, related safety equipment for cutting
Files/guides for chainsaws
Hydraulic log splitter- I was told once I wasn't a "real homesteader" because I said I used a hydraulic log splitter.... by some dunskie that doesn't LIVE this way and doesn't understand the importance of LABOR SAVING DEVICES both now and when SHTF.
Parts, fluids, filters, etc. for log splitter
Obviously- fuel for these things, stored properly.
Hand saws as total worst case backup
Way to process and transport wood/cut tree as you are working it. You will want to try to "handle" firewood as little as possible. This will cut time down. This could be something like learning to drop trees in a manner that makes cutting easier- i.e, making a "table top" to work on. Or it could be something like this-
We remove trees with the roots intact, cut the root ball off, cut the top off where the branches go small, then I let the log lay like in the pic. My son cuts on one end, I cut on the other, balancing the log on the bucket, cutting it into stove width pieces are we go. The last piece that is just over bucket width is cut on the ground. This saves back as well as wear and tear cutting into the ground accidentally with the saws. Sometimes the rounds are split right there wherever we pulled the wood (usually at our range property) and this is IMO the most efficient way. Sometimes though we have the splitter at home and we move the rounds via truck the couple miles to the house and split them there as we have time.
One thing that has helped us is to measure your smallest wood stove box and mark your chainsaw bars with that (maybe slightly smaller). Until you get used to eyeballing the size of your cuts, this will help you get the size of the rounds cut right and not have a bunch of wood that won't fit.
Finally- fire starting materials-
Plenty of lighters and Zippos with fluid, etc.
Once every few years we watch Walmart in the spring for when they will put on clearance the little firestarting blocks. They are usually about $10. a box but we have gotten them on clearance as low as a $1. and never more than $3. buy all they have. They are individually wrapped in plastic inside the box so they store pretty well and light fine after 3-6 years in storage.
All the "list" of items above came off the top of my head from thinking through what we do regularly with this as well as some of the items we have for 'worst case' (that means no chainsaw and splitter) wood cutting.
Edited to add more thoughts/rememberings: A couple wheelbarrows are handy to move wood from the sheds to the house(s). These could also be used to move rounds to the splitter, etc. I tried to find ones made of metal, hard to find a quality one any more. The black Lowes ones cracked and broke in a year or two (several of them).
For fuel planning- I budget a 5 gallon Euro can of gas in storage for each year's wood cutting and splitting. It often times doesn't use that much, but never the less, keep 15 gallons at least for wood cutting in storage.
For the new folks that don't know, you don't want to try to burn wood that hasn't been seasoned (left to dry) for at least a year or so. It won't burn very well and it will create a LOT more smoke. We recently rotated some wood that was around 5 years old. I checked the view from outside and there was very little visible smoke. Later that day I threw on some wood that was "only" a year old of the same type and you could see the difference coming out of the chimney. Also being as running chainsaws and logsplitters is LOUD... you want a couple years firewood stacked and ready to go so you maybe won't have to have that noise signature for a while during the early times which could be more dangerous than later on. Finally, have some tarps, old billboard vinyl ads are great for this and usually are free or very low cost- to completely cover your wood shed if you are concerned about nuclear issues. Keeping fallout out of your firewood shed may become important. A firewood shed by it's very nature should be somewhat free flowing to air and sunlight, but a nuclear scenario would be one of those times where you would want it completely covered.
There is much value in THINKING THROUGH each task you will need to perform and then backtracking through the logistics trail of what will be needed for that.
Comment