ONE OF THE OBVIOUS ADVANTAGES of living on a wooded property is the natural abundance of firewood. Of course, much has to happen between the woods and the wood stove. Felling trees is extremely dangerous work — I’ve heard it compared to working with explosives — and fortunately David is both skilled and experienced in this task. He often has me come out with him when he is about to cut down a tree. A second person on hand helps, especially if the tree in question is a large one; often we are dropping trees over a hundred feet tall. It is virtually impossible, when you’re standing at the base of a tree of this height, to determine when the top of the tree has started to move. Also, you never know when a sudden gust of wind will come up and set the tree swaying when you’re not expecting it.
David always makes sure that we both have at least one escape route planned before the cutting begins. Sometimes the tree simply doesn’t fall in the direction you planned; fortunately, largely due to David’s skill, this doesn’t happen often. In addition, when the tree does fall, it usually knocks branches off adjacent trees. Hence the need for hard hats, even for the person who isn’t actually doing the cutting.
Once the tree is down, we knock off the smaller branches with the limber (a fairly lightweight double-bitted axe) and thicker branches with the chainsaw. The larger branches are usually sawed up for firewood too.
Next the log is cut into lengths that work in our wood stoves. The rounds are hauled to the woodshed near the house. If the tree is near a road in the woods, we can use the pickup; otherwise we use a wheel-barrow, or even a sled when there’s enough snow. Finally, the rounds are split and stacked in the woodshed according to type of wood (we have several kinds of fir, and red alder) and whether it is green or dry. Our woodshed is capable of holding about twelve cords of split firewood, but as we’re heating our house for seven or eight months of the year, it seldom stays more than half full for long.
Sure, it’s a lot of work. We always hope to get plenty of wood split and into the shed in the spring, but that’s difficult to accomplish. There are just too many other things going on this time of year. Egg production is high, so more time is spent processing, selling and delivering eggs. It’s the busiest season for gardening, since the bulk of the planting happens in spring. And poultry breeding is in full swing as well. So realistically, it’s usually late summer before we’re able to put some serious time into the gathering of firewood.
Personally, I love splitting firewood, especially since David bought me my very own six-pound splitting maul. (Nothing says “Happy Birthday” like a splitting maul, you know.) It has enough weight that a person of my phenomenal strength can use it with some authority, while not being so heavy that it wears me out in the first five minutes. I can generally swing away for an hour or more, depending on the type of wood and how dry it is, before needing a break. So usually, David hauls the rounds out of the woods, and I do most of the splitting and stacking.
We have two wood stoves: one in the living room and one in the kitchen. Together they do a great job of heating the house. The kitchen stove is a beautiful wood-burning cook stove, complete with a roomy oven and a five-gallon copper-lined hot water reservoir with spigot. We keep large pans of water on this stove during the winter. This helps humidify the air (wood heat does dry out the air), and also to provide extra hot water for dishwashing. Yes, we do have a gas hot-water heater, but it’s nice to save a little gas when we can. I also like to keep a pot of soup or stew or chili simmering on this stove too; it’s so handy during the short winter days when it seems like there is hardly time to eat, much less cook.
The living room stove is a soapstone and cast iron model (see Appendix B). It features double walls of soapstone, with an air space in between. The soapstone efficiently absorbs and radiates heat, even long after the stove has gone out. A heat-powered fan on the top helps direct the rising heat into the room. A shallow pan of water placed in front of the fan improves the humidity.
Our gas wall lamps also contribute some heat; David says each lamp is the equivalent of a 400-watt heater. All I know is that, between the solid construction of the house, the wood stoves and the gas lamps, we stay comfortably warm even in the coldest months.