AWESOME Firewood Alternative That SAVED OUR LIFE!
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2016
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For those of you that are new to our channel, we arrived on our off grid property in September of 2015, which meant that we didn't have much time to get ready for winter! We barely had time to build a primitive structure for protection, and we had close to zero time to collect firewood.
One of the goals with our off grid property is to not always resort to money. In a perfect world, we would have gathered a bunch of firewood in spring and summer, but guess what, the world isn't perfect so we have to make do with what we have!
While we don't THINK we will have to do much more burning this winter season, there is always that possibility we will get another cold snap, so we thought that we'd be better be safe instead of sorry. It turns out that firelogs was going to be the cheaper route to go compared to buying a cord or two of firewood, but this will likely not be the best option for everyone.
Just wanted to share this little tidbit because while this may not be a viable option for you or for everyone, the important thing we want to share is the value of building relationships in the community to find what you need.
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We used cherry pits from a cherry processing factory to heat our home for a while. Was a little tricky drying them. To dry them we went to an old chicken barn that was no longer a barn but just a concrete pad. Covered the pad with pits and spread them out for the summer to dry. Late summer we harvested the pits into chicken feed bags. That one summer gave us enough pits to heat our home for about 3 years. 2500 sq ft home that was over 100 years old with a basement made out rocks and morter... Lots of morter missing. All in all
taking 10 minutes to say 'we got some half price fire logs made from sawdust' is a a special skill.
Will Datsun yep, fast forward, again, again...
We live in the southeast Blue Ridge mts. and I can tell you now, 28 degrees is not a warm day here. Most people in our community heat with wood stoves and gas for backup. We never let the fire go out in our wood stoves until winter is well gone. One thing we don't have to do is sit in our homes with coats and hats on to stay warm. You guys have an awesome and beautiful place to call home. You will be well rewarded some day for all your efforts.
"I just wanted to share a QUICK TIP with you" - goes on for nine-a-half minutes rambling about tangential shit ... Well done.
It took 9 minutes 27 seconds for this guy to say "Broken Scraps from Pre-made Fire Logs".
I really think your wife is a great help to you or you to her. Pretty neat to see her running around with all that material. My wife and I are 71 going down hill to 100 and so not quite as energetic as you two. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on fuel and how to operate a wood stove. One of the fuels some have been using up here in Canada is wood pellets. They produce a nice heat in a pellet stove but do create dust and that gets bothersome after a while. another fuel is logs about 3 feet long used in outdoor furnaces that heat water run through pipe under the floor in a house. That
s pretty neat too. It keeps the dust and ash out of the inside of the house. Anyway keep chugging along and making more videos for us.
I use wood heat as well. Been doing this for 6 years. I love where I get wood because they are cut offs from lumber companies. All sorts of different wood so the smell is intoxicating. All I have to do is split it. The length is already done for me. My wood stove is a Lopi Liberty. Great stove. I love the exercise you get from having wood burning stove. I also like how aware this practice makes me. I cook all foods from scratch. Homemade bread from fresh milled flour is amazing, for instance. This sort of work is wonderful because I can plan how to get things done with my limitations without someone over my shoulder. This kind of living also helps with my depression.
Grew up using wood heat, Wood heat at everyone in my families homes as well, for well over 100 years. Sure it takes a little pre-planning, but when it's 10 below outside and your wood stove is keeping you warm who cares.
*"SAVED OUR LIFE!"*
give me a FREAKIN' break
That is my biggest gripe with videos...most people are in love with the sound of their own voice. Get to the point!
Happy to see your videos pop up over the last few days. Just prior to that I was commenting to my husband that I hadnt seen anything on your channel for a bit and hoped all was going well on your off grid homesteading.
Glad you guys are going strong and doing well. Fun to watch your progress.
yeah because living off grid is dangerous. he might trip over the gas hose at the station down the road.
I keep waiting for the episode where you guys move to an Embassy Suites for a few weeks.
I've recently been making logs from saw dust and junk mail. Still drying but seems like it'll work
+bufunga I make pressed logs as well! paper + sawdust is much easier then cardboard, but that's mostly what we have. I've found them to burn very well, however they have to be put on a warm/hot fire, otherwise they wont burn
Sounds like a most excellent approach to your homestead energy needs at a very affordable price. Once you start burning these I'd be interested to hear about the performance long term and effects on your stove/chimney. I've heard many conflicting reports on use of this type of product. Enjoyed all the whistling music!
I was expecting to learn how to MAKE THESE LOGS - not how to BUY THEM..
Why am I watching this, I live in Florida and haven't seen snow for 10 years
You guys are funny. Off grid with your trucks, compressor, buying fire logs. I'd kind of call this champagne off-grid :)
video was so unnecessarily long
Dude: Great video, but lose that Valley Girl affect of ending every statement? like a question?
our local producer makes 'fire bricks', each is supposed to be two pounds and they come in plastic wrapped 'bales' or in cardboard boxes of ten bricks, making each 20 lbs. We keep ours on pallets outside under tarps since we have very limited 'under roof' space. But what I wanted to say was that we use sawdust for our humanure and our kitchen/garden waste compost piles as well as mulch on the garden, which makes the occasional bale 'exploding' not such a catastrophe.
+Beverly Murphey Great idea! When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!
How exactly did this save your life?
I guess I should have a tricky name to my channel or have more channels, I was off grid for eight years in the '90s built and used windmills solar collectors wood stoves wood steam electricity experiments on and on. Could have told this guy and his lady to use the dry slabs to get a good hot fire and bed of coals, then you can load up some green wood and it will burn a long time, like over night, did it for years. The diversity of off grid videos and ratio of popularity to pertinent information is quite peculiar in the least, this is not meant to be negative rural off grid living is something I have always done and love.
I've been burning wood for heat for many years, and only recently tried Prest logs, made in Washington State. Absolutely no additives, pure compressed wood. I was amazed to be able to put in a log at night and have plenty of coals in the morning to start a fire back up. Very, very handy. We have a small Jotul unit, and it generally doesn't bank enough coals to have any in the morning.
misleading thumbnail! :)
The auto mechanic in me has to comment... don't rest your hand on the shifter of the truck unless you want to rebuild the transmission soon. It wears out the synchronizers by having constant pressure on them.
And I agree with Salmon Hunter - get those things up off of the concrete. Storage units are notorious for being cheaply built, which means water frequently seeps under the crappy weatherstipping on the roll-up door. Those bottom logs will turn to mush in no time.
For those who don't have the luxury of having a manufacturer close by, but who do have a TSC (Tractor Supply Company), you can buy RedStone brand ECO fire bricks pretty cheaply. They're $3.00 per 6 pack. Specs: Hardwood, Single brick measures 9-1/2 x 3-1/2 x 2-3/4 in, Single brick weighs 3-1/2 lb. They would end up being about the normal price for the logs you bought.
+Larry Shinn (Tiny Cabin) Been doing it for many years, have yet to have a syncro fail and I've got 379k on the transmission. They syncros have nothing to do with the gear shift lever, there's a ball/socket type assembly on that shifter not anywhere near the syncros which are actually on the shafts where the gears are located. You may eventually wear out the shift fork but not the syncros...but I'm pretty sure the vehicle will be beyond worn out by then anyhow as like I said I'm at 379k on my 1989 Nissan D21 and its 2nd clutch so pretty sure you aren't gonna wear anything out by holding your hand on the gearshift.
Well, your anecdotal evidence of one car versus mine of many, many cars - + auto manuals/manufacturers - is clearly superior. I bow before your great wisdom.
If nothing else there's always some place giving away pallet's just make sure there not treated or you can always make paper logs
Very nice video man. I hope you folks have a lot of success with your home steading. Its great to see this stuff. I just turned 59 in Jan. I come from the age before videos and tech. A time when we had the glory of the Fire Fox books, well, we actually still have them. They can still be gotten. By the way...nice firewood hack. Hope the rest of your winter is awesome... don't for get the bacon. :)
I live off grid. The amount of wood you need to burn in cold weather is crazy. I used to use about 7 x 1 ton bags of wood a week. I then got oil central heating and now I just use 1 bag of wood a week and 1000L or 250 gallons of oil a year. It costs me about £400 in the UK - you press a button and instant heat - awesome! I get free pallet wood otherwise it would have cost me a fortune! I once bought 2x full lorry/truck loads of wood - 44 tons in total - lasted 6 months and cost me £1600. The pressed wood blocks shown do work reasonably well but are very expensive.
Only a millennial would be living surrounded by pine and timber and wonder where the hell to get firewood.
Brent
WTH, dude? Not gonna insult you by making a comment as snarky as yours, but it's foolish to think that you can survive a winter season with just the loose odds and ends that are laying around the forest floor. Anyone with sense would know that you can't just chop down a tree and toss it in your stove. Wood has to be seasoned to burn properly and to not leave wet-wood byproducts lining your stove. Your comment is kind of what one would expect from those very same millennials. No hate, but your comment was senselessly harsh.
And......why the hell are they so ill prepared for winter without an appropriate stock of seasoned firewood? Sometimes truth seems senselessly harsh but sometimes people need to be slammed head first into reality. If you don't want to do the work prepping for winter then buy the firewood and shut up about it but don't complain about needing to find a way to stay warm when you're surrounded by pine and were too lazy or stupid to do the proper prep work at the cost of your labor to live in a cold climate. Stupid argument.
*****
No, I think you saw an opportunity to take a shot. No hate, but there it is.
Rarely does anyone going off grid - or starting to - has everything magically appear to make them ready. Your argument assumes that stance: all the firewood they need should already be in place, and if it isn't then there must be something fundamentally flawed with them.
But that wasn't your OP: you commented solely on why they simply did not get firewood from the surrounding forest. There are a number of reasons; zoning prohibitions, property conditions, soil stability, etc. But the most obvious is the fact that anything they chopped down would be green and not able to burn well. Anything they scavanged would not be enough.
But as for your additional argument - which you didn't bring up in you OP - you attack them for not having a supply laid in. Guess what? Now they do. Most rural dwellers who use wood DON'T get it from the land themselves, they get it elsewhere, yet you attacked these guys for doing what most rural people do. I grew up on a farm and we got our wood from orchard owners culling their trees. So did our neighbors. My uncle fled to a mountainous area and only occassionally brought down a tree because it damaged his property, choosing instead to buy seasoned fruitwood from down the hill rather than rely on pitchy pine.
From what I gather they weren't complaining and whining, but describing a process. I don't know you, but my take is that you'd fault them for some reason no matter what. That's a shame. No hate, no disrespect.
I grew up on a farm, live on a farm and have always heated with farm produced firewood. Wood is a renewable resource. Quit being stupid. These people just flew into a lifestyle choice to make a youtube channel to make money and play at making a lifestyle change. If they were serious about it, they would have done a tad bit of research and thinking and planning and if they knew they were going to heat with firewood, then any amount of common sense would have told them they needed firewood stocked up if they wanted to burn seasoned wood alone.
I'd propose if they decided to try this lifestyle out it may have been a good idea to have worked out some semi-important details...like how they are going to live off wood heat and supply the damn wood. There is literally no argument you can present to justify their lack of stocking firewood. Environmental...nope, they're burning wood anyway just trying to get it given to them for free or on the cheap, poor planning...that's a stupid thing to teach to others interested in going off-grid so nope.....Broke....nope, they have resources and time to build a damn hot tub...stupid....Go ahead, try something else.
So they have a youtube channel giving tips on "going off grid" but don't have the good sense to plan far enough ahead to secure a wood source for heating....that's the issue and why I commented the way I did. If they had made a video titled, we're ignorant, here's what we did wrong you should avoid if going off-grid...then I'd have kept my opinion to myself.
*****
You're being an arrogant ass. They didn't play to your tune and you take offense. I don"t know why you should, either.
You started this by commenting on why they didn't scavange from the woods, but now you've included all manner of issues to give reason to your angst. Fine. They don't take this as seriously as you want them to so you're upset.
If you had an issue with their lifestyle you should have said so in the OP, but you made a silly comment that was something of an insult, in typical YT fashion. That original comment was lame, so now you list everything you find offensive because it falls outside of what you find acceptable. I get it, no one's as smart or as good or as useful as you, but I don't think they were competing against you. No hate toward you but this gets frustrating; if I disagree with you then I'm being stupid. You opened the door for the silly and typical insults.
These guys aren't making bank submitting YT videos. I don't know why peeps think that YTers get rich with these vids, but they don't. There are BIG channels that make no money and beg you to visit their donation sites, but YT alone isn't making anyone rich.
I find that most YT vids are lame, but I recognize the submitters feel they're offering something of value. This video offered the subject of firewood and a source of an alternative. They didn't sell a reason for their lifestyle and they didn't ask for comments outside of the subject; it was about wood and wood substitutes.
You can argue their shortcomings for reasons only you find as necessary, or you can offer advice that would probably be constructive. Some of the posts here are helpful, but others are just douche comments that serve no purpose beyond making the OP feel better about themselves. Guys like you with an abundance of knowledge could influence these two but you pass up that chance, and that's a shame.
YT had the potential of becoming a great communication source in which obscure knowledge could be shared, but too often those communications bog down into the absolute worst exchanges possible. I often think "that's stupid" but I find it unnecessary to make a comment because it serves no purpose. A thumbs-down serves that purpose.
We won't get anywhere continuing this thread, so I'm done here.
We live in Spain and we have been using a logburner for 8 years now. We are surrounded by olive trees, in fact our province is the world's largest producer of extra-virgin olive oil. Those olive trees have to be pruned, occasionally grubbed out and replaced and there is always plenty of olive wood available. Some of the thin stuff is burnt on the hillsides but there is a good availability of suitable logs for the burner and we pay just over €100 per metric tonne delivered and stacked in our store. The prunings and other wood have to be burnt to prevent the spread of pests and diseases and by burning them in s logburner we help the environment by burning at high temperatures (no visible smoke) rather than low temperature burning (lots of smoke) on the hillsides.
Good post. Those firelogs burn hot and fast unless you have really good damper controls on your stove - your previous post on that subject shows you have that one sorted! My local solution to this 'winter gap' for firewood is using pallets. Everytime I head into town I come back with a few - most businesses are happy to let the go for nothing. They are an eyesore if you don't break them them down quickly, but my better half ensures I do that:-)
We have a endless suply of pallet wood, and we burn them also,
hence people are happy to get ridd of them also, so both party happy,
and we get pallet also that you could use for building they even heat treated and even 6 meters long.
so great for building( we have a local factory that makes stell products so they get the steel delivered in big palllets).
And they are happy we remove them other wise they have to pay to remove them.
Any way we bought a special big sawing machine that cost almost nothing to mske small chunk of them for the stove.
this way we stack them nicely.
And even middle of winter we can cut and usethem right away since they are extremly dry, even when it rain outside.
And we got lot of rain here in Netherlands.
Great ideas. I burnt wood for many years. Slab wood is ok fire wood but watch out for creosol in the chimney (chimney fire) and they don't last long, of course you know that. Oak and hardwood pallets which many times are free, make great firewood and you don't have to split it but watch out for nails. I used a cheap elect chainsaw for pallet wood and my good chainsaw (which I think you have) would be used to fell trees and regular cutting. Now, we used to have a good relationship with contractors who clear land. We would (with permission) chunk up all the dead trees and anything else (wood) they wanted taken away. Win/win for both. Also we removed dead trees from friend as who didn't want them standing. You really need a wood shed. You could build it with some of the slab wood that your getting for free from the mill! One year, we put so much wood (wet oak) in the pick up bed, we had to take about one third out to get it off the wheels and back/forth all day to finish getting all we could. Good job at homesteading, don't spend all your money, you may need it later!
An "off gridder" being saved by Factory built fire wood? =/
"AWESOME Firewood Alternative That SAVED OUR LIFE!"
Anyone that spends money on a product calling it a life saver and does not even use it is a disappointment to me. At $120.00 for a "pallet" that looks like around 1/2 cord 64 cubic feet is not a great bargain, they should of delivered it to you at that price.
The only question I have is how much smoke do those saw dust logs put out when burning?
Those mill-ends are what is known as sap-wood with bark on. They burn well but tend to smoke a bit when the bark is on. Bark does put out nice heat but smokes much more than wood. The center of the tree is where the heart-wood is located. I burn the sap-wood first and keep the heart-wood for storing as it does keep much better than sap-wood with bark. Well seasoned heart-wood with no bark burns best and will not smoke much at all, much less ash is left behind as well.
Did he get the logs? I fell asleep about 4 minutes in!!
I have used this type of product occasionally. Biggest issue I had with it was that it does not make coals, if you let it burn down it is out.
I pick up Christmas trees after it when people don't want to pay garbage fees, plus I go around neighborhood's night before lawn pick ups and grab trimmed branches. But what I mainly use is cardboard shredded up with a third of pellets in milk cartons and let them dry out. 500 is needed up here in Canada.
What kind of setup do you use to heat your house? If you just use radiant heat from a open fire or a cast iron stove you are wasting a lot of the heat. It just goes out the chimney. In my country traditionally we use a terracota stove about the size of a large fridge that can keep a room or two heated for 24 hours with 10 -15 kg of wood burned as it the brick absorbs and slowly releases the heat. Also you can bake potatoes and pumpkin slices in it when the fire dies out in the evening. More recently we use wood burning central heating. My father has ''junkers'' gasification burner and the rest of the system is like a normal heating deal with radiator in every room. A 2 level house with about 140 square meters of living space is kept quite cozy with about 6 to 8 tonnes of wood per winter, and it gets as cold as -30C very often. we do have to have a backup generator for power outages , witch are common in winter where my parents live.
I love your videos. My wife and I want to start a similar journey soon. Have you heard of the Lumbermate lm29. Its a portable bandsaw sawmill made by a company called norwood. It cost a lot up front but it seems like it would save so much time and give the best rewards when milling lumber. I thought you might look into it and see if its right for you and what your purposes are.
You can also use dried cow manure for firewood.
Jesse and Alyssa. Thanks for taking the time to do this. My journey will start this June once my house sells so, you have been a great resource!!! I live in Kelowna BC Canada so our weather is similar. Have you looked into a mass rocket heater. They burn much less fuel. That would mean far less time firewood hunting and more time hot tubbing;) As well the saw mills here give away something called lily pads. That is the end off the log. 6" to 12" in diameter and 3" to 18" long. Green not seasoned. Happy homesteading... Don
The plot: "went to the store and got me some artificial logs" ... "the end".
#amazing
Mike Ries end clickbait/misleading titles! Tired of fucking videos and sites that either drag it out way to fucking long (read this video) or shit that has nothing to do with said story.
He could of made a 2 minute video, no it way too long and useless.
Mike Ries end clickbait/misleading titles! Tired of fucking videos and sites that either drag it out way to fucking long (read this video) or shit that has nothing to do with said story.
He could of made a 2 minute video, no it way too long and useless.
Decent pickup truck will be able to haul a skid of pellets or logs in the bed. They always pack them to just about a ton, so a pickup can get them.
Your wood stack needs re-stacking, if, you want it to dry.
You should lay two lines of logs parallel to the building wall like railway tracks, then a line of logs with the ends pointing into the wall.
Follow that with a layer parallel to the wall, and then another with ends pointing to the wall, and so on, with alternate layers.
Put plastic or other covering over the top so that it overhangs and any water will run off and drip clear of the logs. A fixed lean-to roof of corrugated iron, or similar, attached to the wall would be better.
Remove logs layer by layer, to maintain stability.
If you can orient the logs on a wall, so that they are end on to the prevailing wind, and rain, then there is less likelihood that they will get wet, except on one end, and the wind blowing through the stack will accelerate drying.
regards
nik
PS, get a damp meter, to test your wood with, if you dont already have one.
If not available locally, here's a source. Cheap is fine for firewood.
www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20170214142001&SearchText=wood+damp+meter+tester
Firewood is best between 10%-15%, humidity, [20% max only in emergency] too wet and you get no heat, as all the energy is absorbed by evaporating water, too dry, and the wood burns too quickly.
I use about 6 cubic meters of stacked wood, [6m long, x 2m high, and two stacks of logs 0.5m long,] in France, for a winter, but you may need more in Canada.
My house is rubble stone, about 2 feet thick, about 140 cu m volume, and not very well insulated yet.
The locals here reckon two years from felling to dry, cut, split, and stacked wood, sufficient to burn, minimum.
Very useful tips on how to build a wooden hot tub. This is what I want have at my summer house in PA.
Wood pallets are also great. The automatic stoves can use them well.
wood pallets are a pain to disassemble.....if you use a saw the electricity use is as much as a baseboard heater.......forget using a crow bar ,too much work...altho there are gizmos you can get that makes dis assmbly a bit easier
Except it's like trying to use kindling to heat your home. It's great to start a fire, but sucks for keeping your fire going for hours on end.
also be careful with anything that might have paint or chemical residue.
A friend built a stove with a long wide door that would take a whole pallet in one go, no dismantling needed.
We had a number of storms come through near our homestead project and there was a large amount of downed trees. Pickup truck and chain saw and we had wood for ages plus we were in good favor with all the neighbor's because we offered to do free tree clean up as long as we got to keep the wood. Slab cuts are another great source. Lastly if your in a metro area, go on Craig's list under the free section, type "firewood" and at least in our area there are dozens of people looking to get rid of wood. Most of it is just laying in their yard. Again a pickup truck on a weekend and you can go place to place and have a load in a couple hours. You may have to do a bit of splitting to get it to firewood size. A word of warning - learn what diseased trees look like. Yep the maybe free but it has let's say Dutch Elm disease, you bring it back to your property and now you have just exposed your health trees to the disease.
I find it funn y that there would be seconds for something that is just going to get burnt :)
how many perfect logs do you find out there when scrounging for timber.
The perfect ones are for suburbanites with fireplaces who have to have things "just so" and will pay a premium for it. The seconds are for folks who just need to keep warm.
DENMONKEY iii
you should buy the seconds and chop them to fit into a slightly larger 12 inch mold and add beeswax and sawdust to fill the mold, then sell for 10 times the price of the seconds...call them "organic gluten-free fire logs"
yes gluten free sells stuff...
So glad this wasn't another newspaper wetting video.
Great share, thank U. Where can one purchase this seconds fire log? I've checked in my area, from friends that work in the saw mill and they told that Sierra Pacific don't make this fire logs.
240pcs x 8lbs = 1920lbs so about 870kg and assuming they are dry and good quality around 4.8kWh/kg total 4176kWh.
Then you stove best case 60% efficient so about 2500kWh net energy.
$125 / 2500kWh = 5 cent/kWh so more expensive that direct solar PV heating not the best option long therm.
I did not mention all the additional cost to transport those and the labor involved.
Thats a nice alternative to wood.Love what yall are doing
I hate to see a real 'life threatening emergency'. Just in case back up fire logs...: I'll notify the national guard to assist.
You said that you might restack the fire log if you do put them on a pallet or some plywood to keep them off the concrete. The moisture will wick up and ruin them.
just a thought i know that is a lot of extra work
+Salmon Hunter I agree! I was going to mention the same thing, but then saw your comment. As soon as I saw the logs on the cement my heart sank for them as I know that was a lot of work to stack. I'd recommend a pallet.
Salmon Hunter 70
We lay a row of bricks and then put metal pipes across the brick and lay the wood on the pipes (but our wood is outdoors). On a concrete surface, bricks alone might suffice as they don't wick like concrete.
Salmon Hunter I stacked firewood off the ground on pairs of 2x4's stretched across concrete blocks. In 30 years never had a moisture problem. Stand 2x4's in concrete blocks on ends so logs don't roll off. Neat and effective.
Salmon Hunter to to to to to to to to to be a good copy or something and attach the time because I ordered the time before I like to clear
We are in N. Central Tn and firewood logs are sold as weight wood, $25 per ton. Sawmill slabs are the same price rate. The slabs dry real quick and split easy (me likie).
Nice vid and info. Thanks
Hi Jesse, we have been watching your videos for a week now and we love the job you and Alyssa is doing. We plan to stat building our own home in about 3 months and we have a question, did you look into other icf manufacturers like, Nudura, Fox block or Quad Lock and what factors led to your decision other than the one you said in the video.
Would love to come and visit and help you guys.
Thanks
Morris A. Foster
Take a look at mills and talk with firewood cutting services as well. You can often get a firewood for free or a really low price. Like you said might not work if you need dry wood now.
+Life in Farmland Great idea! Hopefully come summer / spring, we'll be able to get a jump start on our firewood collecting.
+Life in Farmland Oh its far from free around here, the later you are about getting wood the higher the price.
Life in Farmland craigslist is full of people trying to get rid of unwanted wood!
life in the farmland...if you notice....they already have some awesome remnants from a sawmill
znogypogy......pallets are too much work
Little slices off of those fire logs make great fire starters, too. Just a little piece gets a wood fire going quickly. It would be great having an outlet to get those things cheap. Doesn't matter if they are damaged, they will still get the job done, burning.
That's a great idea! Our neighbor who recommended them said he uses half logs at night to keep the fire lit till morning.
That's a good idea, too! Thanks!
Grew up in Nfld, primary source of heat was a wood stove in a 1600 sq ft house. Used slabs to start fire and quick heat, green wood for over night, it burns slow and usually stays burning all night. Never got picky about what we burned, if it was wood, we burned it, regardless of the size, even burned the branches and some people also burned the sawdust. Dragging the wood on the ground gets dirt/rocks in the bark which will dull the chain on chainsaw or teeth on bucksaw, will also dull your axe.
How do they measure a cord in the US? A cord is 4ft X 4ft x 8ft everywhere else in the world unless the metric system is used (not often), then it's a stere (about 0.28 of a cord).
"Saved your life"???? I was expecting some survival tip, not advice telling me to go somewhere to buy fuel when I run low.....I already knew that!
Resourceful! Word gets around at my office I'm a good resource for tree cutting. I've done this for a couple people at work but only in instances where the trees are not near buildings. Last week I was driving behind a Frisch's restaurant and noticed a smaller tree cut-up into logs. I thought to myself - why not ask about it? The manager said help yourself. So it doesn't hurt to ask and to be in the right place at the right time - with a truck. Since you haven't started your house yet, have you considered passive solar? My dad had a lot of windows (glass with metal frames) stored in his garage and my brother used them to build a glass addition (lean-to) on the south end of his house. It works really well! He never used the area for a greenhouse which is what I would have done. My wife and I also rented a passive solar house in Monument Colorado several years ago. It had a gas fired boiler with radiant tubes in the floor. One problem with that house is I had to wear sunglasses inside the house during the day. However the energy bills were quite low. Just a thought. Great video - keep them coming!
Oh, check with the local power company. They have to keep trees away from power lines and you can sometimes get in on a lot of wood - my father use to do this.
+John Brunton There are worse things to be known for in the office than a great tree cutter! Yes, being in the right place at the right time with a truck is gold. When opportunity knocks, answer the door :-)
Yes, we plan on doing some passive solar design. We have a great southern view so I'm sure we'll have lots of options.
We did call the local power company but the person that answered the phone was less than friendly and said that us collecting the trees would be hard to arrange. You aren't the first person to suggest that so we believe we just need to find the right connection... someone that wouldn't mind sending us a text or give a quick call if there is a tree we can come clean up :-)
+Pure Living for Life On the last tree hauling job (a professional dropped the tree as it was close to the house) I had a friend help me haul the logs away. The tree trimmer asked the home owner if he knew of anyone in Shelby County that would take firewood instead of having to haul it to the next county for disposal. Unfortunately I don't live in Shelby County but my friend does. He got in contact with the tree trimmer and now the logs comes right to his property. All my friend has to do is split them. How utterly cool is that?
How fortunate there is a artificial log manufacturer in your area. I'm curious how that works for you financially and otherwise. We use to live next to a national forest. We could get a permit to cut firewood from the scrap the loggers left. Another source of firewood. It seems like other property owners would allow you to take dead trees. We have literally tons of dead trees in the area because of the Emerald Ash Borer.
Just buy a cow, you can hug him at night he'll keep you warm. Afterwards you will eat him.
+m.ali p:--- I did. Do hug. Keeps me warm nightly. Do eat her!
I think that firelogs is sutable only for one season. IF you want to stay of grid you should consider only using firewood as fuel. Since you have your own Woods the firewood is almost free, and it's god exercise
Great video guys and nice alternative to wood cutting. I have done a lot of research over the past few years dreaming about living off grid. (good on you guys for actually doing it by the way) I am planning on building a rocket stove mass heater because I really like the concept and it's supposedly very efficient. Actually I'm going to build one in our new house in the near future. Anyhow, have you guys done any research or considered a rocket stove mass heater for your homestead? Not trying to be nosey, I'm just curious. Keep the good videos coming, enjoying your progress.
+WannaBFree We haven't done any research on that yet (in what free time? HAHA!) but will look into is as it seems to be a common subject in the comments. We'll post a completely irrelevant video and someone will say "ROCKET STOVE!" so maybe there's something to it. We have a long way to go before we have to decide on a heating method. But we do want radiant floor heating so not sure if those two would play well together. Hopefully RUclips isn't going anywhere :-) Glad you're enjoying our vids!
I find sucking on a peppermint works just as good/
Basically you will need to stay one year ahead of your firewood needs. I split all my wood back in the fall for this summers (RVing campfire wood) needs. Keep an eye on Craigslist for people needing to get rid of cut down trees. My brother has 10 acres of woods and always has downed trees. I made a covered firewood shack to dry mine...In logging areas of the country, the forestry service may have areas set aside for you to rather wood. That is what my sis-n-law does up in AK.
+jay super Awesome tips! It'll feel good to be ahead of the game instead of scrambling.
Those fire logs are of good quality!
Paying for storage seems a waste of money you could purchase a small shipping container and own your own permanent storage solution on your land..
Making all your stuff accessible..
+Kellyjean Nairne What's a shipping container cost? Cost to Transport? Our storage will run $600 for a year.
Pure Living for Life depending on how close to the ports you are, a 20footer can be had for as little as 2000. get one that's still shipping grade, it should last you a minimum of ten years.
Thanks guys....Good info but please get to the point. This should be 5 min at most.
Go to stores and get out of date newspapers - especially advertiser type papers - you can roll them for logs. also look for a recycling place that has old newspapers. We heated our house with them for one winter
the slabs are good if they are debarked. Bark is full of dirt. The fire logs where i live are sawduct and wax. I can get hard wood for the same price if not cheaper than fire logs. The slabs are about $50-75 a cord.
You might want to buy a used pallet jack for the storage unit. It would make your life easier. I would also suggest buying an old Bobcat skid steer for the property.
Another alternative is to save all your paper and cardboard and turn it into homemade fire bricks. Loads of videos on that on RUclips.
Easy fix use paper,cardboard, even milk cartons as the wax burns or whatever. Put it in water for a few days to a week to soften it up to return it to pulp..use a drill get a rod and weld a 4" cycler saw blade on the end of the rod and blend the paper mixture well and press it into a paint pails with lots of 3/8 holes like 100 of them. Then press like hell to get the water out and remove the brick set out to dry they are fragile when wet but very solid when dry the blocks should be about 6 inches deep to big and they tend to fall apart more play with and do what works for you . just go to the recycle depot for your supplies.
That is a super cheap price even for seconds. These sell for $280-$360 per 2 ton pallet out in CT where I live (maybe cheaper in the summer - have not checked) and I used them when I moved into my home in the winter initially since proper firewood was not available late in the season. The better prices are from retailers very close to rail lines as they state that is the cheapest way to ship the very heavy product in quantity - by rail car. Given those prices, the need to keep indoors in a dry area, and needing to pick the pallet 40 minutes away with my truck; I opt to pay to have seasoned wood delivered earlier in the season for less $$$ but these work good if you can't find firewood or don't want to deal with it because it is a bit messy. I'd be interested to hear about what tips you learned to burn these - my experience is they burn hot so I mix them with regular firewood then choke the fire down after it gets roaring. Glad you guys seem to be doing well and thanks for the videos. Perhaps one day I'll be inspired to leave suburbia and head for the mountains :)
buy your self a semi trailer that is shot , you can store all your wood for burning in it , and it acts like a kiln drying the wood during the summer. I burn 1/2 a semi trailer in a Wisconsin winter and its about $600 for a winter in a 1800 sq' home.
Look for a pallet making company and get their scrap wood. I get 1200 pound bundles for $7.00 with no bark in it.
Do I hear a French Canadian accent perhaps? (European here). ;)
Never the less, I put my logs high up, as in at least one foot up from the ground, simply because of the extreme moister and high amount of moss that we have here. No tarp at all, at least not from February to November, roughly. Works like a charm for me. But then again, since our home is barely 5 minutes walking distance from the beach, we have plenty of ocean/sea winds that bash the wood. I have gathered green pine logs this year among other green wood, and it's already cracking and splitting by its own from the wind alone (no sun on that part yet).
Cheers.
Can you answer the "Frozen" argument please. Do you stack your split firewood , bark up or down?
Good idea don't forget to use the pallet they came on for firewood I burn a lot of old pallets and then get paid for the old nails when I take them out of the ash from the fire. :)
I enjoy your channel guys keep it up and try to ignore the negativity and ty for doing it your way :)
The fire logs that I can get at Home Depot are a sawdust with a wax binder. Do these fire logs have any binding agent, or just compression?
quick question..... for what your paying for that storage garage couldn't you have purchased a nice shed and had it on the property? I have always thought paying to store stuff was just throwing your money away. sorry not trolling or anything , love the channel.
charger7022 it may be that they have stuff that needs to be climate controlled in storage if not then I agree get a shed.
They already have money. Look at all the toys they are buying !
charger7022 I need a parking spot to park cars and you wouldn't believe how difficult that is to find
people with no money have plenty of toys...then they go bankrupt...
Only if you do it as poorly as these two idiots.
As someone who's been off-grid successfully for 15yrs, I tried to give
these ppl advice last year about considering building into the hill,
design an earthen home, or super insulate in order to use a minimum of
fuel/power for heat. Showed them how they could cut heating requirements
by 90%. It was a major concern of theirs on their first few videos,
even though they're building in a cold-weather climate. Also gave
helpful advice in solar vs. wind options for their area, & utilizing
natural heat and light sources.
All I got in response was an arrogant, snarky, "Thanks, but we don't
need no help" response. Meanwhile, everyone of their videos since are
full of unnecessary mistakes & expenses. They're just
arrogant city Millennials trying for some kind of fame rather than true
understanding of how to live cheaply/comfortably off-the-grid. Like
most off-griders raised in the country, I go out of my way to help folks
trying to learn/help themselves. But these two know-it-alls...fuck 'em!
Hope they go broke & move back to a city condo where they
belong...
AWESOME Firewood Alternative That SAVED OUR LIFE???
How was it that your lives were saved?
So, I guess the WHOLE VIDEO WAS CLICK BAIT?
ffs cant you just have said we got firelogs for cheap price
never ceases to amaze me how the general public won't buy anything that isn't perfect, even though even if it WAS perfect, it will only be for about 2 seconds until the catches fire... i've used almost 6 cords this year since september when i moved to my homestead, but this summer i'll be cutting my own. also a rocket stove is much better for wood burning - more efficient and you can use all the little branches and stuff.
Slab wood (mill ends) is great firewood but it burns fast and very HOT (watch your chimney temps) We would cheat and use slab wood to start a larger (not necessarily dry) logs and this would keep the house warm all day (while we were working).
If you are going to burn presto-logs (sawdust logs) I would make sure your fireplace has great (even better a fan driven) draft to make sure they burn all the way down.
We would also supplement our slab wood with chunk coal (was $90 a ton) back then) which again takes some good heat to get it to go but makes good steady heat. (Worst winter we used nearly 3/4 of a ton for pretty severe Idaho winter)
Yap yap yap mmm yep artificial logs the end.
i recently noticed your videos and i have to say i enjoy watching each one of them alot! Do you mind me asking what is your source of income, what i mean, what do you do for a living?
I feel like i'm about to watch a TED talk every time i click on one of your vids lol.
good vids btw. Blessings.
+Rxist Prepps We love TED talks! Well, not all, but many of them :-)
How did these "SAVE YOUR LIFE"? Is there a followup video that shows how you ended up using (or not using) them?
I am looking into biomass heating Vs the oil we are burning now. Funny thing is once you factor in the calorific value and the efficiency of burning, the price comes out nearly the same. I guess that's how the market works. The only thing that I can get significantly cheaper is woodchips, virtually free for the taking, but they will need to be dried first, I am not sure how to do this economically.
I buy the same firelogs (aka Prestologs) for $109 for 80 logs. Not seconds, you got a good price. They can be a pain to light. Ask around for a prestolog splitter, it cuts them into wafers that are easier to light. Found mine at garage and estate sales. Back in the 60's I paid .10 per log at Safeway.
I have a Esse cooker (looks like an AGA) and I burn them if I can get them. Lasts longer than wood and cleaner burning and hotter too. Down side? cannot keep them outside as they fall to bits, even with a tarp on them. I lost half a stack and ended up putting it on the garden paths. I buy them in 5 KG boxes, three boxes for a £10.00. A box will last all day.
a Rocket stove would solve your problems. In your home put in a rocket stove and your wood problems will be cut down to a fifth. This is what I have learned from permaculture and from others living off the grid who re-designed their homes to have a rocket stove
There is so much BULLSHIT on the web concerning rocket stoves and rocket mass stoves I would be real careful before making a claim like that. My stove is 86 percent efficient (airtight with a catalyst) How the hell would I get 4/5 ths more heat out of the remaining 14 percent available? Why would I want to replace a stove that I can load up with 7 0r 8 twenty eight inch logs and have it operate at medium burn for 8 to ten hours. Please show me the results from a certified lab or epa that publishes actual epa efficiency ratings for rocket stoves. Why would I want a pile of dried mud for mass heat storage rather than 600 pounds of cast iorn along with the stove surround of about 1000 pounds of brick and ceramic?
I noticed you have OR. vehicle plates. I also live in Or. Would you mind telling where you are getting these seconds?
"talked to some of our neighbors ? " when people throw in a question to a statement they loose me.
thanks for the info always learning
I saw your kitty jump down off the trailer. What a rascal.
Ok you should look into buying a grapple load of fire wood. You can cut it to length with a chain saw and then spit and stack it. Or you can use your saw mill and make boards out of it and burn the bark ends. Either way you'll be set for a couple of years. Also you could have a cordwood stacking party after you cut and spit the logs. Basically invite friends over. Have fire and cook out. Every body picks up the wood and stacks it as the party goes on. It's best to do your cordwood that way. Cheapest and you can do it over the spring summer and fall.
I thought you were going to show something that EVERYBODY could use.............good for you, the title should have been " look at how lucky we are"