Firewood

Last year we moved to a cute little cabin next to the National Forest. We have a good wood stove to heat up the place and do most of our cooking. According to neighbors who have been living in the area for a long time, we had to have about 6 cords of wood stored up, just in case the winter was long and harsh. Considering that I have lots of time and energy and little money I decided that I would cut all that wood by myself. And despite the fact that people thought I was completely out of my mind, I decided to cut it all by hand, with a bow saw.

I found a good stand of dead Lodgepole Pines and started on my task. I really enjoyed it, spending hours in the quiet woods, without the noise or smell of a chain saw. On average, I could gather a half cord of wood cut in eight foot length in about four and a half hours. Not too bad. Then, I spent the whole winter bucking the wood so that it would fit inside the wood stove. It was actually a great way to warm up in the cold winter air and I learned a great deal about conservation of energy in the process.

This year, I decided that instead of going up in the mountains in order to collect some good quality wood, I would just clean up dead trees around the cabin and, therefore, also decrease the chances of a wild fire burning the whole place down. The wood is not nearly of equal quality but it allowed me to get all the wood within 50 yards of the cabin and, therefore, didn't need a truck to haul it out. I had two cords left from last year and I think I gathered another two cords this year so I'm hoping that will be enough for the winter.