So hurricane Brian brought one of my neighbours trees down a couple of weeks ago. As it’s windfall it’s free which is great but
I’ve spent four hours cutting and chopping wood today. Chainsaw, splitting maul etc.

Is it worth it? I mean cutting chopping, stacking and prepping wood, are you not just better buying two cubes of seasoned wood each winter rather than all the fannying about?

How rich are you?

what he said

Time rich cash poor do it cash rich time poor dont

Coal is better to use anyway IMHO

Old guy I learned form, his theory was that you get 3 heats from timber, one cutting it down, one chopping, and one on the fire.

All depends on your outlook, I quite enjoy a cold autumn day chopping, earn your Sunday roast.

Gives you an excuse to wear checked shirts, rugged boots,own a chainsaw,axe, splitting mauls,log grenade, log splitter and generally be stw compliant though.

Coal is better to use anyway IMHO

Wood from storm fall is about as carbon neutral as you’ll get, coal is the fastest way to greenhouse the planet.

Do you want to be fit or fat, OP? Keep choppin’.

Old guy I learned form, his theory was that you get 3 heats from timber, one cutting it down, one chopping, and one on the fire.

I like that, it’s very true. I would love to burn peat or coal but some control restrictions mean I must toe the wood party line.

You won’t kill a mouse but you’re happy to burn peat, very strange 😯

From a commercial aspect its a hard way to make a small profit, I sold logs for 14 years off the back of my tree surgery company. A lot of the time the wood was free, after cutting, splitting and dry storing for a year you then load up and deliver it for peanuts really as loads of people do it round here. I now sell direct off jobs to anyone who wants some logs to split themselves and it money in the bank without all the messing about.

4 hours? 4 hours?!

Ya big wuss. I’ve spent the last 4 weeks every spare hour cutting and splitting 5 huge fir trees that we had taken down.

And I had to build 3 new log stores to put them in to season.

Absolutely love it. Next year I’ll buy some fresh cut timber and do it all again (no more big trees of our own need to come down).

And yes, you sure do get 3 warms

Some of us enjoy it, but there is no doubt it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. I get arb waste, then cut, split and stack it myself. I reckon I’m working for about £10/hour compared to buying, maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less. I enjoy the exercise and time in the garden though.

Is it worth it?

I’d say yes. I thoroughly enjoy working outdoors especially with winter around the corner, knowing I have enough fuel to see me through a few years. I’ve never tried to quantify the time/cost balance, though I was stunned recently at what my neighbour charges for a Land Rover tipper load of logs.

My holzhausen collection has grown rapidly due to a tree surgeon friend. If he has a job locally that needs uplifting he gives me a call. Making a hydraulic log splitter was the biggest time saver.

I’m not sure if this link to my Instagram page will work but there’s a video clip of a walk through of some of my holzhausens if you scroll down a bit

View this post on Instagram

A walk through the holzhausens #woodpiles #woodpile #firewood

A post shared by Peter McLaren (@mcmoonter) on Oct 13, 2017 at 9:46am PDT

View this post on Instagram

Holzhausens walk through #woodpiles #woodpile #firewood #buckinbillyray

A post shared by Peter McLaren (@mcmoonter) on Oct 13, 2017 at 9:49am PDT

I enjoy it, but it’s also a by-product of managing a small bit of woodland. And as Kilo says above, it gives me an excuse for all the lumberjack stuff and 4×4.