Wood can save your life and that is why we stack up on wood. We never want to be without wood. While we have central heater, we know we can not fully rely on it. On February 17, 2021 BazaarDailyNews wrote, “People in Texas have no heat or power and are nearly freezing to death, Texas lawmakers don’t seem to care.”
We spent a majority of our late winter months and early spring months chopping wood. We didn’t want to chop wood in the summer because it gets too hot and chopping wood really warms you up. We had wood lying around on our property. We also found people in our area who deliver a cord of wood to us. When ordering wood you’ll need to know how much cords you’ll need. A cord is 4 feet high by 8 feet wide by 4 feet deep. A cord can weigh up to 5,000 pounds. It all depends on the type of stove you have. If you own a catalytic wood stove you will likely only need one cord. Open fireplace uses one cord per seven days. Non-catalytic stove uses up to one cord every 30 to 60 days. It also depends on how big or small your house is. How well your house is insulated will depend on how much wood you will need.
A cord usually costs around $150 to $200 during the spring and summer. If you buy during the winter you might be paying up to $300. Most people are looking for wood when its cold and they need it. Be that person who plans ahead and has it chopped before the cold months. You can buy firewood through craigslist and Facebook.
The best wood for your indoor fireplace is : hickory, black locust, oak, ash, Douglas fir, fruitwood, and birch.
You need a splitting axe, saw, and splitting wedge. The previous owner were gracious enough to leave us a hydraulic log splitter. It is pretty simple to use and we love that it does all the hard work for us.
Stacking wood seems simple until you get half way through and it all crashes down to the floor. We stack our wood in a single row, in the sunlight, and breezy area.
If you enjoyed this post, you might be interested in reading about Rabbit Foot Key Chain.
Thank you for reading our blog post.
Crissy
Wow! Look at all of that wood! Y’all did a fantastic job. Living in Mississippi, I very well remember that happening in Texas and it was a scary time as our elderly neighbors had recently moved to Texas and were without power for three frigid nights. It doesn’t get very cold in Mississippi too often but you have given me something to think about in the way of being prepared just in case. It sure wouldn’t hurt to have a small supply of it in case of emergency. I have a brick shed on a concrete slab in my backyard and there is about a 3ft gap between it and my privacy fence. I wonder if this would be a suitable spot for stacking? I wonder if it would invite termites to my shed as I’ve heard to never stack the wood against the house for this reason. I took a screenshot of the good types of wood to use. I love watching you and your family become homesteaders and live efficiently and I’m learning so much from you guys.
I adore the family photo at the bottom. You look gorgeous!
Your friend,
Crissy