Who here uses firewood to heat their homes in winter?

[bigfellascott]

Anyone here love heating their home with firewood they get out and cut themselves. I do (I love winter more than summer) cos I can get out and cut wood and go for an armed bushwalk afterwards if I feel like it.

Theres nothing I enjoy more to be honest, I am finding it harder to do as my health deteriorates but I still get out and cut what I can as often as I can, I don't cut big loads anymore just a few sticks at a time, enough to keep the fire going for a week or so which is fine by me as I don't mind getting out in the bush each week to do so. I also help cut wood for a few friends and a few older people and people with disabilities who aren't up to getting their own anymore.

I mainly run the smaller saws these days (Oleomac 936 which is 36cc) or my Stihl 029super and I also have a Jonsereds 621 and a Husky 394 so can handle any size wood which is great. I mostly cut stuff that's around 6-8" in dia or there abouts as I generally don't have to split that up which works better for me and my physical limitations and if I really have big stuff to split I can use my mates log splitter if need be so all good either way.

I've got an Ol Lopi Wood heater (I think it's a 380 model) it was built in the 1980's and is still going strong

Americans call it the smoking dragon and I think I know why they seem to burn a lot of greenish wood, I can honestly say once she's going good she doesn't really smoke at all (depends of the wood and moisture content of course but I mostly burn well seasoned wood for the most part or if somethings a little bit iffy I just burn it with some well seasoned stuff and I generally don't seem to have any smoke issues.

Heres a pic of the ol girl, she's still set up in my carport at the moment (been building the room to put her in) it's almost finished so it will be in this winter and keeping us warm and no need for a gas bill which is great!

[TassieTiger]

Hard to talk about this when it’s 37 degrees but yeah - main reason I bought my block was so my family could go enjoy themselves cutting their own wood...about 4-5 of them get up there and play around dragging logs with 4 wheel drives, etc...

[Chappo]

This is mine.
(Stock internet photo)
It’s called an ultimate 500 from Sherwood machinery in bundanoon. They don’t make them anymore and it’s a shame cause they are the best wood heater I’ve ever come across.
Its legal (aus standards approved) but built like a brake drum heater and I can get it glowing red hot but it’ll put you out of the lounge room!

A very interesting design that draws air from the top through a short cone under the lid.
Top loaded firewood and burns everything and I mean everything to a white powder so fine that I clean it out once a year.
Closed down it’ll feel cold and burn for 48 hrs.
A friend of mine was impressed and made one from scratch for his shed.

I too love cutting wood, they say it warms you three times. Cutting it, splitting it and burning it!!

There’s something very satisfying about seeing a huge pile of wood on the ground at the end of a long hard day. Makes the beer taste good too.

[Stix]

That heater looks a beauty big fella...

I too rather burn wood than gas or electricity..

& being a carpenter whos layed many a kilometre of hard wood decking, at the same time as being a self confessed wood addict, i have no shortage of kindling out back...

I usually go for a drive through the eastern suburbs when we have our bad storms blow through & send big eucalypts down to ground level...with that ill hike there quick smart with an empty ute, the new stihl 351 & a bottle of fuel & get to work.

I cut the logs further over the following couple of weeks then leave them laying throughout the garden & slowly split & stack them ready for the following winter.

Its a good deal of hard work, but there is something very satisfying about the work involved...& something homely about a few tonnes & a couple of seasons of split & well stacked firewood...

Its great coming home on a stormy night after a hard days work & firing the heater up with a Scotch in hand.

I live in a character home so unfortunately i have an insert into the existing chimney stack...
I would much rather have a unit like yours where you can chuck a pot of bunny & vegies on it, followed by a desert, followed by the kettle...

I grew up with a pot belly in the lounge room & Sunday nights as a kid were often the obligatory roast, followed by a self saucing pudding done on the belly & a good cuppa tea & lying on the beanbag before bed...

There is nothing like the ambience of a wood heater & a good feed of warm winter cooked meat...

A little off track, but tell the truth i love cooking meat over wood flame & coals too...infact i cooked this the other day out the back...its a small rack of beef, 15 mins each side over flame & coals followed by around half hour in an oven tray on a grate closer to the coals & covered in 2 layers of foil...

Rack of beef...

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Dribbling vegan goodness...!!!

2019-01-18 22.06.07.jpg (488.02 KiB) Viewed 8135 times

Yea baby...!!!

2019-01-18 22.06.37.jpg (415.14 KiB) Viewed 8135 times

Anyway, off track a little--but still related to burning wood...
Im in no hurry to wish summer away...i love summer, the long days & being outside at dawn & dusk during the warmer months...

But wood heating in winter rocks...!!!!

[deye243]

Gday Scott yes yes and yes ..... cutting wood burning wood and the armed bushwalk ......

Cheers D

[JimTom]

Mate I’d love to be able to cut firewood and sit around a fire in winter. Unfortunately we don’t have winter up here.
Very envious of your fire mate. Enjoy it when the time comes.

[Sergeant Hartman]

Ahhh well I too love the wood heater... actually my wife loves it more as she keeps it running at full boil... reckon rooms at 35degs. Plus I am glad the AC inverter bill is low.

Best of all it's a 15 year old with as fan and it works, will put a vent/duct for next winter so the whole host can be toasted.

But I am a....., we get a mate to drop off 1 trailer load at a time of old hardwood fence posts.... already cut up. He gets some grog I get to relax

[Blr243]

When I visit my dads farm in the country I feel like I should chop wood for him but he is a hard old Vietnam vet and he still chops wood better than me Makes me look like a pussy

[Gaznazdiak]

I used to, Scott.
My trailer at the time had had an unfortunate sexual encounter with the rear end of a large tractor and was no more, but I had an old, unregistered VB commodore sedan that I'd take up into the scrub blocks at the back end of the place.
Never a fan of splitting, I'd cut 3 logs about 6 foot long and 3-4 inches diameter and stick them into the boot so there was about 3 foot overhang, then cut more logs the same size and lay them on crosswise until I had no more suspension travel.
I'd take that back to the house and cut it all into stove size.
Funny thing about the brain injury, I used to love it hotter than hell, but since the crash my thermostat goes a bit mental over about 28°, BP and pulse spike, spew, fall down. And I can't whistle anymore
But the flip side is I don't feel the cold anywhere near the same, so I usually don't bother with heating unless the dog complains or I have humans in the house. When I do I use a little 2 burner ceramic jobby that runs one burner for almost 2 weeks on an $18 9kg bottle refill.
The fact that I'm also lazy is purely coincidental.

[bigfellascott]

Hard to talk about this when it’s 37 degrees but yeah - main reason I bought my block was so my family could go enjoy themselves cutting their own wood...about 4-5 of them get up there and play around dragging logs with 4 wheel drives, etc...

Yeah I see you have fires down that way mate, hope all is ok where you are and everyone who's doing battle with em gets through it ok too.

And it would be nice indeed to have your own land to cut on, I'm lucky we have a few properties a few mins away that I can cut on which is great as theres plenty of wood to be cut that's for sure.

[bigfellascott]

This is mine.
(Stock internet photo)
It’s called an ultimate 500 from Sherwood machinery in bundanoon. They don’t make them anymore and it’s a shame cause they are the best wood heater I’ve ever come across.
Its legal (aus standards approved) but built like a brake drum heater and I can get it glowing red hot but it’ll put you out of the lounge room!

A very interesting design that draws air from the top through a short cone under the lid.
Top loaded firewood and burns everything and I mean everything to a white powder so fine that I clean it out once a year.
Closed down it’ll feel cold and burn for 48 hrs.
A friend of mine was impressed and made one from scratch for his shed.

I too love cutting wood, they say it warms you three times. Cutting it, splitting it and burning it!!

There’s something very satisfying about seeing a huge pile of wood on the ground at the end of a long hard day. Makes the beer taste good too.

That's a rippa wood heater Chappo, she'd definitely punch out some good heat

My mates got this wood heater that's a dead set heat monster, man it gets that hot in his joint it can be belting down snow and we have the doors open and sitting there in shorts and t-shirt

[bigfellascott]

That heater looks a beauty big fella...

I too rather burn wood than gas or electricity..

& being a carpenter whos layed many a kilometre of hard wood decking, at the same time as being a self confessed wood addict, i have no shortage of kindling out back...

I usually go for a drive through the eastern suburbs when we have our bad storms blow through & send big eucalypts down to ground level...with that ill hike there quick smart with an empty ute, the new stihl 351 & a bottle of fuel & get to work.

I cut the logs further over the following couple of weeks then leave them laying throughout the garden & slowly split & stack them ready for the following winter.

Its a good deal of hard work, but there is something very satisfying about the work involved...& something homely about a few tonnes & a couple of seasons of split & well stacked firewood...

Its great coming home on a stormy night after a hard days work & firing the heater up with a Scotch in hand.

I live in a character home so unfortunately i have an insert into the existing chimney stack...
I would much rather have a unit like yours where you can chuck a pot of bunny & vegies on it, followed by a desert, followed by the kettle...

I grew up with a pot belly in the lounge room & Sunday nights as a kid were often the obligatory roast, followed by a self saucing pudding done on the belly & a good cuppa tea & lying on the beanbag before bed...

There is nothing like the ambience of a wood heater & a good feed of warm winter cooked meat...

A little off track, but tell the truth i love cooking meat over wood flame & coals too...infact i cooked this the other day out the back...its a small rack of beef, 15 mins each side over flame & coals followed by around half hour in an oven tray on a grate closer to the coals & covered in 2 layers of foil...

2019-01-18 22.05.01.jpg

2019-01-18 22.06.07.jpg

2019-01-18 22.06.37.jpg

Anyway, off track a little--but still related to burning wood...
Im in no hurry to wish summer away...i love summer, the long days & being outside at dawn & dusk during the warmer months...

But wood heating in winter rocks...!!!!

That's a nice looking feed you've knocked up there Stix, YUM!!!

I'm like you mate, I can't stand to waste any wood, so long as it's burnable I'm burning the bloody stuff simple as that!

I can't stand summer anymore, not that I really liked it much anyway, I'm more a cold climate person to be honest, I've always loved being around a fire, it's just calming to me and I love being out in the bush cutting wood too, all the different smells and sounds and sights, there's something magic about it to me.

[bigfellascott]

Ahhh well I too love the wood heater... actually my wife loves it more as she keeps it running at full boil... reckon rooms at 35degs. Plus I am glad the AC inverter bill is low.

Best of all it's a 15 year old with as fan and it works, will put a vent/duct for next winter so the whole host can be toasted.

But I am a....., we get a mate to drop off 1 trailer load at a time of old hardwood fence posts.... already cut up. He gets some grog I get to relax

Your wife sounds a lot like my mates, she's a professional wood burner too We usually cut her around 12-15 ton a year and she's flat-out having a row left by the end of winter

The fans make a real big difference I find, I can put one on mine if I want to but I will more than likely just put a pedestal fan in the door way and blow the heat into the rest of the house, it should work alright with the way I've set the room up, time will tell I guess and I do have ducted system sitting in the shed I can put in if need be,

Bring on winter I say, I'm ready to be done with summer!

[bigfellascott]

When I visit my dads farm in the country I feel like I should chop wood for him but he is a hard old Vietnam vet and he still chops wood better than me Makes me look like a pussy

I'm finding it harder and harder to split wood too, I got some breathing issues and it doesn't take much for me to run out of breath and start having panic attacks (sucks big time) I've even had some issues lately cutting the bloody wood (same problem) which really pisses me off as I love hanging off my chainsaws cutting firewood.

Time for this fat bastard to start getting healthy - I love burning wood and I need to have some ability to cut it myself as I can't afford to buy the bloody stuff.

[bigfellascott]

I used to, Scott.
My trailer at the time had had an unfortunate sexual encounter with the rear end of a large tractor and was no more, but I had an old, unregistered VB commodore sedan that I'd take up into the scrub blocks at the back end of the place.
Never a fan of splitting, I'd cut 3 logs about 6 foot long and 3-4 inches diameter and stick them into the boot so there was about 3 foot overhang, then cut more logs the same size and lay them on crosswise until I had no more suspension travel.
I'd take that back to the house and cut it all into stove size.
Funny thing about the brain injury, I used to love it hotter than hell, but since the crash my thermostat goes a bit mental over about 28°, BP and pulse spike, spew, fall down. And I can't whistle anymore
But the flip side is I don't feel the cold anywhere near the same, so I usually don't bother with heating unless the dog complains or I have humans in the house. When I do I use a little 2 burner ceramic jobby that runs one burner for almost 2 weeks on an $18 9kg bottle refill.
The fact that I'm also lazy is purely coincidental.

That's a bummer about not needing to burn wood Mick, it's amazing how an incident in someones life can change it forever, the brain injury doesn't sound like much fun at all mate, hopefully it doesn't stop you from enjoy other aspects of your life too much mate.

I can't cut much wood like I used to but I just tick along at my own pace and do what I can do now (my mates are all fine with it) they help me much more than I could ever help them but we all just love hanging off saws cutting wood and being out bush, we call it therapy for the soul

[bigfellascott]

Mate I’d love to be able to cut firewood and sit around a fire in winter. Unfortunately we don’t have winter up here.
Very envious of your fire mate. Enjoy it when the time comes.

That sucks big time mate, I couldn't live in a place where I couldn't burn wood, it's just not natural to me to not be able to burn wood.

[bigfellascott]

Gday Scott yes yes and yes ..... cutting wood burning wood and the armed bushwalk ......

Cheers D

There's nothing better is there mate, I'm still using that chain you sent me down (pretty sure it ended up on the Jonsereds if memory serves me correctly or the stihl? it's been a while!

[bladeracer]

We use firewood for heating and cooking, so not just in winter. Our water is heated from the wood stove so if we want hot water we keep the fire going all year.

[bigfellascott]

I often cook on that heater of mine, even in the middle of summer if it's real hot and I can't be bothered cooking inside I will fire it up and put a casserole on or cook a curry etc, I put a wire rack down and sit the castiron pot on that on the bottom deck and when it's cooked I move it upto the top deck which keeps it all warm.

They are a bloody good heater the ol Lopi, not cheap at around $4k depending on what options you go for but they certainly do last a long time so money well spent. 9.5mm plate and bricks I guess it will last a bloody lifetime if one looks after it and replaces the consumables when they need doing.

[Gaznazdiak]

Mick, it's amazing how an incident in someones life can change it forever, the brain injury doesn't sound like much fun at all mate, hopefully it doesn't stop you from enjoy other aspects of your life too much mate.:

It's all relative though Scott.
Sure I'd prefer to not to have ticked "headbut a speeding semi" off my bucket list, but mate, I was extraordinarily lucky to survive.
So a few little niggles like not being able to handle hot weather without getting the vapors, I can handle. At least I can live almost normally, do my own thing and wipe my own bum.

There are young people out there in nursing homes because of catastrophic acquired brain injury from far less than what happened to me.

While in the Brain Injury Unit I met a young guy who had fallen 2m from a tree in his yard.
He was alone, so by the time he was found, a small bleed from the surface of his brain, into the surrounding cerebrospinal fluid had raised the pressure, squeezing shut tiny capillaries all through his brain resulting in him becoming a ventilated quadriplegic. He'll spend the rest of his life in an old folks home with his electric ventilator breathing for him.
His biggest dream was for a midnight blackout.

I truly hope the poor bugger got his wish.

[bigfellascott]

Mick, it's amazing how an incident in someones life can change it forever, the brain injury doesn't sound like much fun at all mate, hopefully it doesn't stop you from enjoy other aspects of your life too much mate.:

It's all relative though Scott.
Sure I'd prefer to not to have ticked "headbut a speeding semi" off my bucket list, but mate, I was extraordinarily lucky to survive.
So a few little niggles like not being able to handle hot weather without getting the vapors, I can handle. At least I can live almost normally, do my own thing and wipe my own bum.

There are young people out there in nursing homes because of catastrophic acquired brain injury from far less than what happened to me.

While in the Brain Injury Unit I met a young guy who had fallen 2m from a tree in his yard.
He was alone, so by the time he was found, a small bleed from the surface of his brain, into the surrounding cerebrospinal fluid had raised the pressure, squeezing shut tiny capillaries all through his brain resulting in him becoming a ventilated quadriplegic. He'll spend the rest of his life in an old folks home with his electric ventilator breathing for him.
His biggest dream was for a midnight blackout.

I truly hope the poor bugger got his wish.

That is very true Mick, as I said to someone the other day it could be way worse, we could live in a place like India and have these health issues, over there they would just toss you on the street with some of the issues he was suffering as lifes pretty cheap over there apparently.

I had a relative who got injured in a car accident at a young age, spend all his life a quad - only died last year at around 60yrs of age, I'm not sure I'd of wanted to live a life like that for that long.

I can't say I blame the young fella for thinking like that, I reckon I'd be thinking the same way too.

[bigpete]

I wish I had a wood fire....

[Daddybang]

As Jim Tom said we don't get much of a winter but we still love a good fire. Cutting wood with a mate a couple of sensible beers in the middle of the bush(or just in the back paddock) is a very special way to spend a few hours then later a couple of not so sensible coldies and what we like to call Inferno Nite !!

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[bigfellascott]

I wish I had a wood fire....

What's stopping ya Pete?

[bigfellascott]

As Jim Tom said we don't get much of a winter but we still love a good fire. Cutting wood with a mate a couple of sensible beers in the middle of the bush(or just in the back paddock) is a very special way to spend a few hours then later a couple of not so sensible coldies and what we like to call Inferno Nite !!

Resized_20180224_193822_6220.jpg

A man after my own heart, we've had a few good bonfires over the years, this is one we made when a mate bought a new place and needed to do a bit of a clean up, 2 or 3 ctns when down that night I can tell ya, it was a great night out and it was cold (sleet and snow) so the fire was very welcome!

[Cooper]

Yes. I quite enjoy cutting firewood. I find it relaxing. Even though using a chain saw is something that you need to make sure you do safely.

Got a bit caught out this year. Had to order a few metres of red gum in as couldn't lift anything and I was home off work for 7 weeks so I was burning a fair bit of wood.

[Daddybang]

F@#kin oath BigFella that'd keep ya warm on a cold night!!!!!

[bigfellascott]

Yes. I quite enjoy cutting firewood. I find it relaxing. Even though using a chain saw is something that you need to make sure you do safely.

Got a bit caught out this year. Had to order a few metres of red gum in as couldn't lift anything and I was home off work for 7 weeks so I was burning a fair bit of wood.

Yep its therapy to me, that's how much I love it, it makes me feel happy just being out bush. I hope you feel better now mate? I like burning redgum but most of mine is either peppermint or stringy for the most part with the odd bit of box and redgum thrown in.

[bigfellascott]

F@#kin oath BigFella that'd keep ya warm on a cold night!!!!!

Yeah she was welcomed alright, you can see in the pic with the bobcat the snow had just started coming in so a good fire was sure welcome!

[Daddybang]

F@#kin oath BigFella that'd keep ya warm on a cold night!!!!!

Yeah she was welcomed alright, you can see in the pic with the bobcat the snow had just started coming in so a good fire was sure welcome!

I've heard about that snow stuff but never seen it in real life except from a distance(Ayers rock back in about 98 but I didn't get out of the truck ) ...at least ya wouldn't be wasting dollars on ice for the beer. Just sit the carton on stump in the paddock!!