Even though fall is still about 2 months away, we’ve started to prepare for the things we’ll need in the coming months here in Mid-Coast Maine. It feels good to be prepared and to have a bunch of items knocked off our list already, because really, who wants to be scrambling around at the last minute? I know I don’t.
We had the oil tank filled last week {@ $2.79 a gallon} and yesterday, had 2 cords of seasoned firewood delivered {@ $315 a cord}. Our house is extremely well insulated {unlike the last two houses we’ve lived in here in New England} and so the HH thought 2 cords would be plenty of wood to get us through the winter.
I of course, wanted to buy more {I thought 4 cords would be a solid amount} but whatever. What do I know.
All I know is this… at todays oil prices, $2.79 a gallon in our neck of the woods, it would cost roughly $750 to fill our oil tank if it was bone dry. Last winter, it seemed like we had the tank topped off about every 6 weeks or so {we typically have it filled when it gets down to 1/4 of a tank}.
So heating primarily with wood seems like it would be a considerable savings, don’t you think? I mean, especially since the house is so well insulated. I can’t imagine we’d go though 2 cords of wood {at a cost of $630} in the same amount of time we’d use a tank of oil {$750}.
But I guess we’ll find out. This year I am going to keep track.
I’m happy to report though that all that wood we had delivered yesterday, it’s all been stacked! And that today has been declared a pajama day {oh my aching bones}. The HH and I stacked some in the garage…
And at the back of the house…
And in the trees!
And hey, we even have 8 boxes of kindling ready to go.
Winter! We’re almost ready for you. And we’ve got the sore muscles to prove it. 😉
Staying ahead of the game… that’s what it’s all about.
Have a great day everyone, I’m off to watch a movie or two {or three} and enjoy some tea.
~Mavis
Holley says
Wow! Do you ever need a pajama day!!! Good for you! I’m having a pajama/reading day here too! My reason is not physical rest, but mental rest!!! I hope you have a wonderful day Mavis!
Rebecca in MD says
Wow, that’s a lot of wood to stack. I bet your muscles are glad you didn’t get 4 cords instead of two…….
We heat our house with propane, and I keep a spreadsheet recording the date, price, and total for each fill up. I like to compare year to year. In 2017 and 2018 our costs were higher than 2019 and 2020 – by $400 and $300 respectively. I am interested to see where we end up for 2021. We only need to refill twice each year – – – once in the spring and once in the fall. Propane is also our source for cooking and hot water.
Our previous home of 20 years was heated by oil, and propane is running cheaper so far, so I am glad about that. Also knowing we can get filled up in September or October and not need another fill up until spring gives me peace of mind no matter what the weather.
Nancy says
Hi Rebecca: we are in Northern Wisconsin and heat with propane. We prebuy every year and have a prebuy this year @ $1.49/gallon. Last year was $1.39. I usually send in $1500.00 per year and have been spending less than $1000 per winter. It’s good for us because the rate is locked in and paid for-I don’t have to worry about it.
Jeanine says
I prefer wood heat over propane. Feels warmer to me. Wood is messy, but propane is less work. Getting older makes a difference. That being said…since we had trees cut last yr, we have plenty of wood to keep us warm. And yes, it is a lot of work. My husband split the wood and I stacked it, we work as a team. When the electrify goes out, wood is our only option. Also, I can cook with the wood stove. One of these days we will get a generator. That would be a help since we are an all electric household.
Jeanine says
I make firestarters with egg cartons, leftover candle wax and dryer lint. They work great! With all that wool you are dyeing and drying in the dryer, you can make them! Or just save the wool lint and throw some of that in with the kindling.
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes, they are so fun to make. We made them a few years ago and they worked great. https://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/make-your-own-fire-starters-for-free/
KC says
I’d expect wool lint firestarters to smell a lot like burning wool, though? And wool is naturally less flammable as well. I’d go for cotton, myself (the lint after a towel load or a t-shirt-and-jeans load).
Wool would be better than plastic, though! 🙂
Cindi says
We have natural gas heat but primarily rely on the wood stove, using the gas at night and while we are away. We are in the Colorado mountains and burn about 3 1/2 cords a year — and our house is well insulated. I prefer the coziness of wood heat over any other though it is more work beforehand.
Michelle says
We live in the Cascade foothills of Washington State, and our only heat source is wood. We typically go through about 1.5 cords a year (Oct. – May). We have a catalytic wood stove, so we typically only burn about 4 pieces in 24 hours. Our winters are much more mild than yours. I’m with you – get two more cords! Wood is good! 🙂
Vy says
Our oil tank is about $1100 to fill (Seattle prices) and we go through a full tank per year. I’m just now getting solar put in (yay for negative electric costs!!) and part of it is they put in new insulation and weather stripping, so I hope to get that much lower this winter, along with supplementing with wood. It’s an open fireplace though, so a lot of that heat goes right up the chimney.
Emily says
I’ve been looking into wood stove inserts for our fireplace. I can’t speak from experience yet, but they sure look like a promising way to get more heat out of a fireplace.
Kim says
Just reading about gathering firewood, etc., gets me dreaming of cozy winter days.
Sue says
Wow! Wow! That’s a lot of wood.
That was a lot of work! I had no idea wood was that expensive.
Precious picture of Lucy!
Linda T says
Wood is more expensive there. The emerald ash borer went through Ohio and everyone had to cutdown dead trees, making demand and prices drop. My husband says he gets heat out of wood three times. Once when he cuts down the tree, once when he splits the wood and once when we burn it. He is 75 years old and strong as an ox.
Pj Truman says
When we moved to the country, my husband would only look at farms with free gas. Smart man.
Nancy D says
You’re doing great getting all ready for fall and winter! I was remembering your nifty stacking without supports a couple houses ago! What kind of firewood do you get in Maine? Here in SW Washington we get a lot of alder and fir. I remember my brother and his friend selling firewood for $65 a cord delivered back in the 1980s. Sheesh! Of course gas was less than a dollar a gallon then too!
Mavis Butterfield says
There was mostly oak with some maple and a little birch.
Katie says
That’s a lot of wood! And so satisfying to look at all stacked up. Our new house has a fireplace, and I will never live without one again. Our last house was in a new, all electric subdivision. So besides not having a fireplace in our particular house, we also didn’t have gas! Thank goodness our house was well insulated because the Texas power outage put us without power, covered in snow, and with very low temps for 4 days. The fireplace for us is more to be cozy on really cold days/nights than it is to get us through a winter. So we don’t need that much wood. My sister just bought a house and had a tree taken down. She let us come pick up several stumps and thick branches to chop up for firewood.
Debi says
We heat primarily with wood, only using our furnace when we are away, but there aren’t many who sell it here anymore. We have a source but he delivers some here and some there. I guess the upside of that is that we don’t have to stack it all at once!
Lisa Millar says
Wow Mavis – thats SO much work. I can imagine you are feeling every muscle at the moment!
I must say, not only does your kindling stash look EXTREMELY aesthetically pleasing, but the rest of it does too!
I hope it will be enough to get you through the upcoming winter. I hate the feeling right at the end when its still cold but the supply is dwindling at a pace faster than you are comfortable with!
Enjoy your sloth day! You deserve it!
Cheryl says
$315.00 a face. Wow. We burned 20 face every year…the most we paid was $40.00 a face. It wasn’t seasoned and we had to get it really early in the year like March in order to be able to burn later in the season. What a work out my husband and I got. Cranked the radio, slapped on the leather gloves and got to stackin’…lol.
Mice like to build little nests in your stacks, so don’t be surprised if you come across the little critters.
We heated with wood for almost 30 years and switched over to a gas stove five years ago. All I did is hit a switch. I really miss stacking wood, but with both knees and a hip replaced, it would take me weeks instead of days to get it all up. My Dad used to say, “the wood heats you twice…when you stack it and when you burn it!”.