Firewood Economics

There's nothing quite like woodfire heat.  Some would say its cheaper. . . . . Maybe it is, but I'm going just to say its nicer.  Last spring we decided to share a logging truck of birch with 2 other parties.  It was a last minute thing, and a friend asked if I wanted in on it.  The 1/3 of a load cost $500.  Conditions were optimal as he could have it dumped in his yard and I had a couple weeks to get my share out of there.  I didn't want to buck it in his yard and make more sawdust mess than necessary, so we decided to bring it home in 8-10ft lengths on my overloaded flat deck raft trailer.  The moving of the wood was done over 2 days.  Not to say that we were busting ass for 2 days but it occupied a reasonable part of 2 days for KK and I to get it back home. We made small piles of these lengths around the yard trying to keep them as close to their final destination (the woodpile) as possible.  We decided to call in a favour from a friend Cam in exchange for storing his belongings over the summer.  The bucking, splitting and stacking used up the meaty part of another day but I won't say it was a full days work.  Anyway, wood is done, drying and we've got 4-5 cord of beautiful birch for winter.  Seems reasonable right? Not too bad.  Well, let me bring it to you this way. . . . . . . .

This Firewood comes at a price, I fight tennis elbow, and my shoulders bother me, Kara's back isn't the best, and although we weren't injured from this activity, I'm sure it did us no good. 

Split, dry, delivered cordwood is $200-250 per cord around here, so let us say 5 cord would cost us $1000-1250.  We already paid $500 for the wood, so that's a $750 difference. Divide that by 3 for the number of days we worked on it so $250. Divide that by 2 as there was 2 of us working at it so $125.  Nevermind the biggest day we called in the favour, so that's another man day. So we paid ourselves $125 a day to wreck our bodies when I could have tied a dozen and a half Steelhead flies and sold them instead and of been done in 2 hours each day.  No mess to clean up and No wear and tear on the body, truck, trailer, or chainsaw.

Truth be told I really like doing firewood.  I enjoy splitting and working with the saw.  I think when you can pick at it, and do it at your leisure it's a different story.  We had only a few days to get it done and made it fit.

For the time being tho, I've told Kara that the only way we are cutting firewood next year is if a tree falls across the driveway.  I'll buy it.