Urban Rural wrote:Dale, how fascinating about the places with no hardwoods, that had never occured to me. And 20 cords of white spruce!! You must have had a huge yard!
Hilarious about the debates re: firewood diameter, and that they actually [i]count[i] the wood. Newfoundland must be a great place for a person with a sense of humor to live (or at least visit).
"Bush cord" - that's a new one on me.
Thanks for very interesting info. -
Carol
I know these are old posts and probably well out of your head by now, but, I just could not resist countering some of the incorrect info you have been given about Newfoundland. I have been burning wood to heat our home here for years and I can swear to you that we have never once purchased firewood "by the piece". People who use wood as their primary heat source in Newfoundland always buy by the cord. Those who obtain a residential permit to cut their own wood also cut it by the cord as prescribed by law. The term "face cord" is rarely used in this province and would probably only apply to those folks that buy wood already "junked"(cut into lengths suitable for splitting or burning without further processing), and either take their own truck or trailer to collect the wood or have it delivered. In those cases they buy it by the pick-up load. A cord here is the same as everywhere, 128 cubic feet. Of course you can buy bagged wood as well if you are simply using it to burn in a fireplace on special occasions. In none of these cases have I ever heard of a seller counting individual pieces of wood. It's always sold in volume.
This should not be confused with issues of log diameter. The commercial cutters have to harvest all the trees in their designated lot. That naturally leaves a wide assortment of log sizes and many homeowners have a preference for a particular diameter. That can often lead to discussion with a seller. The larger logs represent harder work for the secondary processor as they are more difficult to move around and require in most cases that extra time be spent with splitting. Last time I ordered wood ( 5 cords) the logs were mostly quite large, actually to the point that two people could barely lift them. That made the work to cut and split very difficult and even dangerous as they had been dumped on the ground sort of like a log-jam. On the other hand, people will complain if the purchase contains too many small diameter trees as well. In future I will ask that the wood be delivered by a flatbed with boom and grapple so they can stack the logs in a neat pile. I also purchased a log splitter so those big junks are now easy to split.
Burning seasoned softwood causes no concern as long as the fire is prevented from smouldering excessively and you keep the chimney clean at all times. And, of course, burning a mix of hard and softwood helps generate not just more heat but less work and creosote. Lucky for us Newfoundland has significant stands of Birch to use as fuel. Birch has no other commercial value other than as firewood and many cutters specialize in supplying it to homeowners around the island. I don't know where this Dale character lived when he was in Newfoundland but he obviously never saw the central and Western portions of the province. Both are home to impressive stands of this hardwood. As for him claiming to have burned 20 cords of wood in one winter; you might be left with the impression that our winters are extreme. Well that's not really true either, our heating season is just a bit longer than some other parts of the country. Here, where we live, on the Eastern side of the island, we actually have the second highest average mean temperature in the whole country. Last year we used 6 cords to help heat our 2,000 Sq. foot house and the only time the stove wasn't in use was during the day while we were at work.
Currently, a cord here will cost between $ 160 and $ 200 delivered. All Birch would cost more but the BTU factor makes up for that as long as you have a good quality woodstove that doesn't waste energy. The cost of heating with oil and electric are both rising here ( filling the standard 200 gallon oil tank would cost around $ 1,000 and our hydro rates are among the highest in the country. I'm in favour of exploiting the massive peat-bog deposits we have here for use as a fuel as is done in Ireland. It is estimated there is enough bog here to heat every building in the province for 500 years.
Also, it was pointed out that a pick-up will not hold a full cord. Here we simply put stakes in the truckbed walls and stack away. I can easily fit a cord in my pick-up truck. In fact, if I leave the tailgate down I can take logs as long as 12 feet with ease so actually I can get over a cord in back if I select longer logs.
One more thing; Newfoundland is a great place to live, or visit. You would be well served if you bring a sense of humor though as otherwise, you'll feel out of place.
