It certainly comes as no surprise to me that there would be significant time spent doing other things growing chickens on a chicken farm. Last night I spent several hours researching feed costs, working on this website, and building a spreadsheet that performs calculations to ensure I am profitable (because without profit, there is no farm). Then today my friend Joel came over and we spent all day splitting wood out of trees that were fallen when we purchased this property. To date I estimate we have split 5 cord of wood (a cord is a tightly stacked block of wood measuring 4x4x8 feet for those who don’t know). At about $150 a cord if I were to buy it split, that is not a bad return on my time for wood that was already laying on the ground. That couple days spent in the warmer part of the winter should save me $1,000 or more next winter in unburned oil.
I like rigorous work outside, and I especially like the work when it betters my position by both saving us money and by improving our farm. Now that the trees are split and stacked, the ground is opened for pigs or veggies, or whatever we decide to grow there. At a minimum, the ground is opened for more trees to grow. From our approximately 6 wooded acres we should be able to draw a lifetime of firewood with proper management.
The firewood chore also provides quality exercise for the whole family. We have all spent several hours working as a team to split the wood, transport it to the woodshed via wheelbarrow, and then stack it. There is some whining at first from the kids, but they get into a rhythm and then the next thing you know we are all having fun stacking wood. At one point it even became a game to see if I could get back to them with a load of wood before they had stacked what was laying on the ground from the previous drop off. All in all, I am glad that we have chores that can involve the whole family, getting us all outside and working together. Once the animals get here I’m sure there will be many more such chores to keep us occupied!