Today, the three bundles of slab wood were delivered. Slab wood is essentially the leftovers from the sawmill. It's considerably cheaper than regular firewood, and because it is not cut to length, one can cut to fit one's own fireplace. Each of the three bundles is about 12 feet long. Two of them are primarily oak, with some maple. The other seems to be mostly pine and other softwoods, with some poplar. The hardwood bundles are a combination of pieces cut to a great size for burning (about 2.5" square) with some pieces that are truly massive.
I was told that this would be about 1.5-2 cords. At the current rate, I think it will be closer to 2.5, though that is partially due to my less than perfect stacking skills. It should burn well, I think. Anyway, it seems to me an excellent value - it was $175 for the three bundles, delivered. Around here, a cord, delivered, costs about $225-$250.
I've begun cutting the wood to fit our fireplace. This evening, I was able to get through about 2/3 of the first bundle. The other two bundles, the hardwoods, should be easier to cut, due to their relatively consistent size. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it all cut and stacked by the end of the day on Wednesday.
5 comments:
You're one small step away from buying some horses & a sled to cut down the trees yourself! Maybe next winter?
Jason, if I were going to cut down trees myself, it would be primarily for lumber. If I could find someone else willing to be on the other end of one of those two man saws, and borrow the machinery to haul such logs, I'd love to work on some trees that have already been felled - I'm envisioning giant tabletops.
Oh god, don't give him ideas!
My father gets his firewood in the same way. Seeing this makes me wish my house had a fireplace. Are you using a chainsaw to cut them up or something else?
I'm using a cheap Ryobi compound mitre saw. I bought it to cut picture frames, but there was too much blade wobble for that to work well. It makes it easy to cut pieces to lenght because I have a mark that I line the end of the piece up with and then make the cut. For larger pieces, I have to flip them over afer the first cut and cut again.
I'll be using a chainsaw for the largest pieces. Otherwise, though, I avoid it, for safety reasons.
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