Got Wood?

We’ve got wood! And for this, I am feeling very grateful. I really can’t take any credit for it, and my husband is due some serious thanks for keeping us warm this coming winter. One of the first projects we took on after moving into our house last year was installing a good, sturdy Jotul woodstove. We had always wanted wood heat, and the house had no other heat system in place, so it pushed us to realize that long standing dream. We bought our firewood right after moving in, knowing we wouldn’t have enough time to go out and cut it ourselves, but also knowing it would be a luxury outside of our budget over the long run. Like so many other things, we would need to do it ourselves. Somehow, during this busy first year on our little farm, we knew that having wood heat meant we would need to produce some firewood before the end of the summer.

In the early Spring, a neighbor who works at the mill hooked us up with a cheap pile of rough logs. With the foul weather and all the busy goings on of life, the pile stayed in our driveway for a very long time. The kids decided it was a great jumping off point for their rope swing. The sight of it became very familiar. We ought to have given it a name. Log mountain, perhaps?

When the rain stopped, my husband got out there with a chainsaw and began sawing up sections of the logs. It looked to me like a monumental undertaking, but before long, there were many log rounds where “log mountain” once stood. Who ever said a determined man couldn’t take down a mountain?

Then he got out there with an axe and started splitting the logs into firewood. He didn’t use a splitter. He did it all himself. Our son even helped a little. Before long, we had piles of firewood in our driveway.

Then he started filling one end of the barn with wood. He stacked it up higher and higher, until the barn was  looking nice and full.

It is a good feeling, indeed, to know that we have heat for the winter squared away. No expensive heating bills, no having to rush out to buy overpriced cords of wood at the last minute, just a big pile of neatly stacked wood in our barn.

I’m looking forward to many a long Winter’s evening by the warm, crackling fire in our woodstove.

(I think the dogs are too!)