Not to sound alarmist, but we're on the brink of a serious firewood shortage. Let's not mince words; this is an impending crisis. I saw it looming months ago, when the remnants of last year's wood sat in an otherwise empty shed next to a pile of unsplit logs from a neighbor's newly cut tree.
I spent some quality time with my splitting maul over the holiday, and now those logs are split and stacked artfully in rows measuring about 6'x6'x6' - about a cord and a half - too little too late. The Golly household used up the last of the cured wood on January 31. It just worked out that way, it wasn't planned.
So now we either burn uncured wood (not desireable) or don't have a fire (unacceptable). You know it needs time before it's really ready to burn, hence my concern. Of course we could use the new wood scrupulously, take only the smallest sticks, load the stove loosely to give them plenty of air, use more kindling, and try to finesse it. Do I sound skeptical? I am.
The cold, hard fact is that green wood doesn't want to burn. The tree might be dead, technically, dismembered and put rudely into storage to have its molecules recycled by other carbon-based life-forms (homo sapiens sapiens Golly), but it hasn't gone through the complete death process, passed through all the bardos, and released its arboreal soul into the universe. Some things can't be rushed.
It's a quandary. Gven even dared to bring up the possibility of - excuse the expression - buying firewood. No way. I've seen a couple of possible sources while driving around the streets of Methodistville, but no approved access is forthcoming yet. Like subprime borrowers letting their mortgage payments balloon, I waited too long before refinancing the woodpile, and now it's my karma.
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3 comments:
I am sure you will be saddened (but not surprised, surely?) to hear that I purchase the wood we infrequently burn in our fireplace.
And worst of all (?) I buy it from Krogers!
We've only used the fireplace a few times since we've moved in--more as a lark than anything else. (I haven't even tried Alton Brown's fireplace method for Welsh Rabbit.) But your post reminded me that I need to go "acquire" some more wood for when my parents visit on Hannah's birth. Dad like to woolgather in front of a fire and what better way to pass the time during an Ohio February?
Just one more sign of the decline of civilization (and don't call me shirley). What next, gas logs? DVD of fireplace, complete with crackling audio? Woe is me.
Our pal Perk, who provided my previous hearth with a load of wood from a tree in his front yard, would appreciate the campaign anecdote of Mitt Romney, who heard about an Iowa family whose gas was cut off, whereupon he rounded up two of his sons and filled their old station wagon with firewood and dropped it off for those folks in need. Gotta love that.
If only I had known! Kevin and I left about a cord of big chunks of old hardwood up at the Centerburg house. I'm sure the Orcs who bought the house are either using it or would find a way to sue you if you could somehow get ahold of it. You could always be bold and drive out there and see what happens....
I feel your pain, but mine goes much deeper. We don't even have a woodstove! And in a small house with brand new windows (shamefully leaky), insulation, and furnace (pathetically inefficient--and loud), we have a hard time getting warm and conspire about where we will put our woodstove. Our only decision thus far is that we WILL find a place and it WILL be in by next fall. NOTHING beats the heat of a good woodstove fire (or the smell...or the sound) and we really miss it!
Good luck to you.
Lulu
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