Three cords of wood are all stacked and waiting for winter. Two more are due in. Those last two are semi-dry. It’s a bit cheaper, and I’ll stack them in the back to finish curing. They’ll be my March, April, and early May wood. When they come in I’ll be carefully watching the contents.
The company that those final cords are coming from has a history with me. They have deposited in my driveway dry ash, wonderful oak, and, unfortunately, less-than-great birch. But then they also left me an entire cord of cherry. Most of the cherry has not burned in the stove. It’s been converted to cherry spoons, spatulas, and other items made of cherry. Even the birch made contributions to the workshop’s output of bowls. So I have forgiven the birch in hopes of better quality wood this time around.
It helps when you have a relationship with your wood guy. His mom is a wonderful woman who grows flowers and makes some of the most beautiful arrangements in our part of the state. He and I spend lots of time jawing about local affairs. In a world where things are increasingly anonymous, actual authentic connections are important even if there is an occasional cord of birch thrown into the mix.
Solutions to real problems through wood!
But back to the wood. Unless you are a total city type, you may have heard the old saw (sorry about that- I couldn’t resist) that wood heats you four times: when you cut it, when you stack it, when you lug it into the stove, and finally when you burn it. That’s a better economy than the oil burner offers. But there is more, still. The wood ash is a potent and beneficial fertilizer. Not only does it feed that garden with valuable nutrients, but the bits of charcoal are a biochar that retains water, and adds water-retaining abilities to the garden soil. It also adds volume. I’ve never hear similar claims about either oil or gas.
Want to stay toasty warm in winter, get involved in your local community and economy? And get plenty of exercise. Also, improve your garden…AND have cuddly, warm, romantic evenings with your honey?
Get a wood stove!
Discover more from Louis N. Carreras, Woodcarver
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I lived alone for nearly six years in a wood heated cabin in the woods in California- and needless to say that is not a mistake I will ever repeat! Great write, Lou!
Maybe I romanticize just a bit too much.
I no longer have wood heat, but nothing beats it!
I agree!
I miss my woodstove out in Rainier so much. I would get that thing roaring, and heat up the whole house till I was running around barefoot in January. It was luxurious. Here, every degree costs money, so we add a sweater instead.
How about a small pellet stove?
We actually have big hopes that our furnace and AC will die soon and we will replace them both with a heat pump. Our house has THREE gas fireplaces which we think is kind of silly, as they barely put out any heat. It would be a big undertaking to replace those with pellets or wood, but I imagine that’s an option.
The problem with the conventional wood stove is the chimney. But pellets usually vent through the wall.
I have not been convinced yet that heat pumps are really up to a true New England winter. Being that it would be secondary heat, it would be an expensive replacement for the oil burner that comes on for about two hours every night when the wood stove goes down.
I think that in your climate, you have a wider range of alternatives.
Exactly! I think our climate is probably one of the better kind, since heat pumps are mostly for cooling, and they do a little bit of heating. Our typical wintertime temperatures are mild, with 40s and 50s in the day and 40s and some upper 30s at night. We only freeze a couple times in a whole winter, and temps below 30 are uncommon. On the other hand, climate change is resulting in 80s, 90s, and 100s every single summer now.
We’ve been getting hotter summers, too, but the temps still hover in the teens in January and February.
I loved my woodstove in Descanso CA. The first year I lived there I stacked my wood, after that? Nope I did what my neighbors did; threw a tarp over the pile. Winter was short but cold and our wood was more chunks that pieces. Because of the wildfire risk out there, we all kept our woodstash as far from the house as we could. When I moved back to CO and saw people stacking their wood by their front doors? It was the same thing I felt when I first move to Southern California and saw driveways facing north. “NO!!!!”
Chunks? that’s interesting.
Couldn’t really stack them. It was all beetle kill red oak and white oak, maybe 20 inches around and 10 inches to a foot long. I didn’t know anyone who further split that stuff.
Oak burns nicely!
Very hot and clean! I had a system. I laid my fire in the morning, came home at 7 or 8 pm, one match, 3 minutes, I had a fire. Fatwood.
I agree 100% Lou.
I had to Google “cord of wood”!
City girl! Louis would love to have a cord of wood to climb on! My cats love hunting around the wood.
You are right, he would love it!