Burn

This morning my wife and I took a trip to a substantially better-healed town than where we live. Frankly, the housing costs are so far above our means that while we like to visit the shops, we’d never imagine living there. But the garden center is top-notch.

After browsing and looking at things we didn’t need but desired, we made our way to checkout and made our purchases. Then just outside the door, I saw it. a sign stating that a third of a chord of kiln-dried firewood ( debarked) was available for $349.99
I pay $300 for a full cord of good quality mixed hardwoods – mostly oak, ash, cherry, hickory, and just a bit of birch. The third of a cord they had sitting there looked to be mixed poplar, birch, a bit of maple, and some oak. The quality did not typify quality heating wood. In British Thermal Units, a lousy deal. If you are heating a house, you will pay a fortune.

If you are entertaining, don’t want bark on your floor, and it’s a “recreational thing” you do when company is over, I guess it works out. You can have your little fire and not have the mess on the floor.

I’ve spent lots of time with a chainsaw, ax, maul, and wedges in my hands. Most wood burners take their wood, as some people take their religion or scotch; seriously. My dairy farmer friend Melvin would have had a good laugh off of this. My friends along the coast would have shook their heads in amazement at what some people spend money on, and when I tell my wood supplier about it, he’ll just grin and tell me that we are in the wrong business.

I almost turned and went in to ask them if they did a good buisness on their kiln-dried, debarked, overpriced junk wood. But my wife was with me, and I didn’t want to embarrass her. She could dress me up but can’t take me anywhere.

Maybe I’ve been in New England too long and should go back to New York City?