How We Heat With ONLY a Wood Stove for FREE | Harvesting a Year's Worth of Fire Wood

When you're completely dependent on the wood stove as your heat source, your work starts a lot sooner to be prepared for winter. In some instances, we're even planning a full year or more in advance.

Though we do have an electric forced air system in our home, we haven't relied on this method of heating for 14+ years, only burning what we can harvest from our own property. This means our heating has been 100% FREE for more than a decade.

Follow along on our journey of how we source our wood from our own property, as well as how we manage this "crop" to keep it sustainable year after year.

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Howdy! I'm so glad you're here. I'm Melissa from Pioneering Today and a 5th generation homesteader where I'm doing my best to hold onto the old traditions in a modern world and share them with others.

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#woodstove #woodheat #heatingwithwood

[MelissaKNorris]

Thanks for watching, do you use wood heat or plan on transitioning to it? I confess, I find the crackle of the fire quite relaxing.

[mikebonner]

I'm 70 years old and my wife is 66 years old. We are off grid in north Idaho and heat only with wood. We have a blaze king in the house, kitchen queen cook stove in the summer kitchen and wood heaters in both shops. We cut our own wood and keep a full wood shed with a three year supply. The shed is 12' deep and 36' wide and holds well over 20 cords. We collect pine cones in the summer for kindling. Wouldn't have it any other way.

[smartass]

I sell firewood for a living and the one suggestion I have is cut the wood to length while it's green. Green wood cuts easier and doesn't dull your saw chain as fast. Another tip is split and stack it green as well. It will make better firewood and it will last longer. If you leave it as logs it will rot faster because the fungus can start breaking is down faster. Wood only drys from the end grain. The bark is a natural moisture barrier and it holds moisture, causing the fungus to start. The faster the wood drys, the better quality wood you will end up with.

[autodidact]

My wife and I have been heating our home like this for the last 20+ years. There is nothing more comforting to me than coming home from a hard days work and smelling that wood smoke coming from our flew pipe on a crisp autumn afternoon.

[montygote]

As a guy trapped in a crappy city apartment, homesteading videos like these are always unreal to imagine but so lovely to watch.

[erikvaldur]

A good trick for the woodshed is to put pallets down then stack your wood atop the pallets. This keeps your wood off the wet ground and helps a bunch with airflow under the wood.
Love your videos.

[mollymae]

We have been burning wood for over 50 years. Saves a lot of money. Also have Propane & infrared stoves, heat pump for heat & air. My wife and I are in our 70's and cut and split our wood. I made a wood splitter from an old dozer cylinder and use tractor hydraulics. Hard work (not too hard) slows the aging process.
We enjoy your posts very much. Thanks, Scott & Sandra from Arkansas

[masonwarnke]

U are an amazing parent. Making your son work and figure things out himself instead of mommy and daddy giving him everything. Your helping him in so many ways.

[scottheywood]

We had a very similar wood-burning stove at the cottage that was used in the Fall. We'd place a large 1 gallon cast iron pot filled with water on top and put a stick of cinnamon inside. The scent was awesome and the humidity made it easier to breathe.

[beebop]

What I remember about wood heating most is opening the front and back doors of the house at Christmas when it was about -5 outside to get some breathable air. That because mama didn't have any blood in her veins and she kept the house at a cozy 437 degrees most of the time. lol

[jdtractorman]

Nothing beats heat from a woodstove, constant heat and you have heat even if the electricity goes off. That's important because sometimes you don't know how long it will be before power is restored.

[anpsteph]

Thank you for teaching your son that he has to earn money and not handing him everything. So many parents do not teach this and when their kids grow up, they expect to get something for little or no effort. Besides, one tends to value something they have worked hard to earn.

[MrAlessiobat]

To me is amazing and at the same time justifiable how many people, young and older are opting for living the way our ancestors lived, with a bit more knowledge but simply nonetheless. I myself, with my family have moved a few years ago from a subdivision to a large property and have since invested our time and resources into a more country living. It’s the best when you can combine technology and rudimentary living. Cheers!

[G]

The best way to take advantage of that first heat as the kindling sets fire to the larger dry scrap stock timber, is to position two large logs either side of the fire, and lay two slightly thinner logs across and above the fire, resting on the logs beside the fire.

This draws the flames up faster and hotter, and makes the best use of all that heat, meaning the fire gets going twice as fast.

Plus you don’t need to attend it.

I’ve used this method for over 40 years after building camp fires out in the bush. And it even works with wet wood, though it’s sometimes necessary to re-feed the fire with dry stuff.

[richardanderson]

I grew up with a wood stove and have heated our 1890s farm house with wood for the past 28 years. Frankly I love the wood stove for a number of reasons, but the biggest one beyond saving money is the ability to get close when you're cool and back off when too warm. The simple pleasure of roasting your butt in front of the stove on cold mornings can't be overstated. Our woods have been hammered by the ash bore, killing huge trees in a matter of a year. As such I've been overwhelmed with wood trying to clean it all up, with over 30 cord cut last year. While I've given a good chunk away to locals in need, I've also decided to start banking it myself and am doubling the size of my wood shed so it will hold at least 3 to 4 years of wood.
Your point on self sufficiency putting you in sync with the seasons is an important one. With the seasons come starting plants, gardening, beekeeping, berry picking, fishing, main harvest, hunting, butchering, firewood as much a part of the year's calendar as any holiday.

[georgedavall]

How refreshing! What a pleasure to listen to someone such as this sharp young gal, with nice speaking voice, and knowledge from whence she speaks! Thumbs up! Peace!

[MyMotorcycleObsession]

I've been using just the dead wood on my property for years, so far I've never cut a live tree. Some were 90% dead when cut. Another good source of wood is a landscaping company, sometimes they will have a whole yard full of random cut trees, some are HUGE!

[michaelmorris]

We typically burn wood that's 3 years old. We have an old barn, that we stack cut and split wood in, and generally we work on a 3 year cycle... like you we rarely use our forced air system. We do turn it on every year for a day or two... just to make sure it's in working order, but typically we use our wood stove to provide all our heating needs. We so look forward to our winters... we love to burn the wood stove.

[nickromero]

I would strongly recommend that you have a way to get to your wood from the back as well as from the front.That way you can get to your most seasoned wood, with out having to move it forward. Hope this helps.

[sherryc]

We’re in Western Washington as well and we heat our home with two wood stoves. A Quadrafire stove is in our walkout lower level and heats the house during the day (the heat rises beautifully) but my favorite is the Lopi in my kitchen that we use for heat in the late afternoon/evening and I often cook on it too. Been doing this for 16 years and all wood comes form our land. Love being self sufficient!