I go through this every year. At some point, hopefully, I’ll learn to trust the numbers and relax. Thus far this year, we’ve been burning firewood from last year. That means we heated October and November without touching this year’s wood. The other day we exhausted that supply, and I loaded up the wood crib from the new wood for this year.
This will be our fourth winter here. We have learned from experience that we burn just over three cords of wood in a heating season. Behind the house, in two big stacks, is the pre-measured wood, stacked neatly, ready for this season. There’s a certain confidence, looking out the window to see those two big piles of split wood–each of these piles is four feet wide, twelve feet long and four to five feet high. It’s a generous three cords.
The wood crib, our storage area just outside the back door, holds between a third and a half cord. And that’s a good thing. But it means I’ve just pulled a significant chunk of firewood from the winter’s stores. It’s a big bite, and it shows. (Though we’ve only just moved it to a more convenient location…it’s not like I ate it or anything.) Of course, I panic. Will we have enough?
You know, some of the forecasters are predicting a particularly cold winter. (Though so far, they’ve been wildly off the mark.) And, this year, a percentage of that wood is beech, instead of ash. Ash is denser and has significantly more heating heft than beech. I look at that woodpile and wonder if there’s enough.
I do it every year.
It doesn’t even seem to help that we have already cut and brought in most of the wood needed for the following year. Because, poaching on next year’s wood would be robbing Peter to pay Paul, wouldn’t it?
I seem to have invented a whole new category of seasonal anxiety. The woods from which we harvest is directly behind us. It’s unlikely that, in any given year, we’d be able to exhaust the supply. When I purchased the property, some 30 years ago, I specifically selected it, in part, because the hardwoods section was big enough for our needs, without ever cutting a live tree. For this year, we can continue to bring in more wood, until the snow is too deep for the Kubota. Beyond that, we have an ice-fishing sled with which we could continue to haul in more if needed (and it’s all downhill). But that’s not really the issue. Needless anxiety is the issue.
The weather has turned colder, and we have our first real snow that “sticks.” To work through my needless anxiety, I asked Rick for his outdoor priorities with what’s left of the outdoor work season. Without hesitation he answered that there’s a couple more trees that have fallen and he’d like to cut them and bring them in.
I guess it’s contagious. Sigh. We do enjoy harvesting firewood–so it’s not a problem. At some point, we’ll be able to relax, knowing that there’s enough. We should be there, now. We won’t run out.
Maybe fraught elections aren’t enough. Pandemics aren’t enough. We’re humans and we find reasons to worry.
Are you off grid? Is wood your main source of heat?
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Well, yunh. Worry your seed catalog order will come in complete, instead of missing your Beefsteak and Big Boys. That you get your seeds in the cold frames in time to be ready for optimum transplant. That Bob down the road again discovers he’s got way more fish in his freezer than he and his family can handle before they head out for spring fishing. That Emily across the way will be making blueberry pie again and delight in taking your excess when you need room in your freezer for free fish. That your pruning of the berry canes this fall wasn’t as severe as it looked. That you won’t run out of popcorn when the three-day road closing makes a trip to Meijers impossible and you have to snack on hickory nuts. Enjoyed the read. Nice to know I’m not the only worry-wart. Worry is good; burns-off excess bile.
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Ah yes – wood anxiety! I don’t feel ‘comfortable’ unless we have at least 10 cords put up. I’d be much less ‘anxious’ if there were another 5 piled someplace.
Hubby feels the same. We always seem to make it through- yet come beginning of March we’re already talking about going to cut more wood 🤦♀️
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I’m thinking that that is the ultimate solution. My sister likes to have at least two years’ supply. We’ll probably go that way, too.
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We’ve tried aiming for the two year supply….never seems to be enough hours. This year we found an awesome stand of standing dead – but it was a two hour round trip over some pretty sloppy logging roads, not including cutting, falling and loading. Almost all the ‘free’ wood on our property is poplar. Takes years to dry and lousy to burn. 😊
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Yes, we’re lucky that way. My sister has to forage for free wood, too. Our deadfall is mostly ash and beech, with maple, black cherry, and occasional ironwood (hop hornbeam) and/or basswood. The basswood is no better than poplar, but it lights…and free BTUs are free BTUs.
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Good point on the free BTUs….any poplar that fall eventually heat the barn. Up here we’re spruce, pine, fir, maybe some larch. All conifers. There is birch up here, but mostly it gets knocked down during logging, piled up and burnt on the landing when the loggers are out. If you come across a pile it’s free for the taking – but you have to be quick. Once it’s slated to be lit up they deactivate the road and there no getting near it. Ticks me off.
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Seems like a wasted resource…around here, logging spoils, tops or incidental wood is “permitted,” meaning that regular folks can harvest it for firewood, if they register for a permit.
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Yes it’s a government in charge type issue – logging companies aren’t allowed to leave anything behind. The wood pellet plants have some contracts to go in afterwards and take that stuff – but it depends on where it is and whether or not they can get it out in a particular time frame. Between two pulp mills and several saw mills in the area – there’s not a lot of waste. But none of them want birch.
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Odd that it’s the hardwood they don’t want–at the least they could use it for biomass fuel.
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As long as the bark stays intact, a dead Birch will rot even standing upright. We had one here years ago that literally exploded into a bunch of wet pulp when it finally hit the ground! (Twas a bit of an experiment really – just to see how long it would take – and was only ten feet of trunk left by the time the wind blew it over; but the bark, while split open from the impact, was still perfect for starting fires: )
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“Better safe than sorry” (and anxiety be damned; )
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Oh, and it’s a La Niña year, so not as cold but a lot more snow to contend with (and that’s been bang on the money so far… 5cm predicted/ 5 inches delivered:/)
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Yes, but snow doesn’t increase one’s wood needs. If anything, it keeps you warmer because you spend so much time outdoors, moving it from one place to another.
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‘Zactly! That, plus the insulating layer it puts down is great for the soil, plants and gardens. However, that’s also assuming that it actually stays on the ground and doesn’t keep coming and going (get a huge dump of snow but then have it melting away every couple of weeks like what happened a few years ago… We wound up going into a very warm spring, far too early and there was virtually zero spring melt to help gardens sprout. (Truly hoping my memory is faulty:/)
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Roller-caster winters are also very hard on the bees. A really cold winter–that stays the same all season–is actually easier on them than a constant transition from warm to cold and warm again.
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Yes indeed! Our Fall was so long – with cold followed by warm- I even saw them harvesting pollen and couldn’t help wondering if they’d been ‘fooled’ into a brood-rearing cycle at the absolute worst time of year… Guess only time will tell, hey?:/)
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I get what you mean about what seems to be unreasonable anxiety, of running out of things. My thing has been TP. When shutdowns begin, everyone panics, and TP cannot be found at Costco until they begin rationing it. So, I ordered a carton of 80+ rolls, and though my husband laughs at me (and I do at myself), the anxiety is considerably lessened. Strange how our minds work, and our emotions, too.
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