A Firewood First

Interestingly enough, despite the load of work that I've had to assume this past week, I've gotten a lot done. Year 1 of firewood is split, stacked, and covered, and I even finished what I hope to be an entire year's worth of kindling. This is a first because in years past I usually made kindling as the year progressed. I figured that five full trash cans would be enough, at least I hope it will be enough. In the early days of my frontier life, I had plenty of scrap lumber to make kindling, and it was easy because you can split the stuff just by looking at it. Now that I'm several years into it, scrap wood is a little trickier to obtain, so I make it myself by splitting hardwood into smaller pieces. I try to choose something that splits easy and clean, like ash or beach, and then make it in the basement. As you can imagine, it makes a mess, and usually I put it off for as long as possible. Now it's done and I can forget about it.

One nice thing about using hardwood is that I keep a bunch of un-split blocks in the basement in case I need more later in the year. Since it's hardwood, I can use it as firewood, as well, so in a pinch, I can toss some blocks into the stove when the wood box is empty and I don't feel like trudging into the vast wilderness to get more. I love when I do something and it inadvertently becomes a good plan.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to DalaiMickey for the pic.