Feeding a woodstove is one of those things I never could have dreamed would become such an essential part of our lives. Late summer our first year here someone asked how we were going to heat the house that winter. We looked around for the thermostat---it had never occurred to us a house could come without heat.
A week later we got our first woodstove, a leaky two burner box that wasn’t too efficient. Really cold nights we’d sleep as close to it as we could. By morning the fire would have burned out out and the bucket of water we kept in the room just in case was frozen solid.
From then on I’ve spent part of every fall or winter cutting wood for the stove. First few years I did it all with a 17-inch bow saw, we couldn’t afford better. Cutting wood took up most weekends.
Prosperity and common sense brought us much better and more efficient stoves. A chain saw has made the work easier. Cutting wood is always a good excuse to spend a day outdoors, getting exercise, outside.
And I’ve learned all kinds of practical things. I scout the woods in summer for trees to cut. Can make a tree fall in any direction, and some won’t no matter how carefully you plan. It’s always the gas or file or wedge or sledge or chain I need that I left behind.
Know all the trees now, and to burn polar or maple when it’s not that cold, and save the hickory and oak for deep winter. Elm and persimmon won’t split, locust will, and it will put out heat but won’t leave coals. Cherry throws some colors as it burns, the nutwoods and cedar smell great as they burn. That hissing and pop in the fire is some poor bug who thought he’d found a safe home in the log.
And, there’s nothing better than coming in out of the cold to a room with the woodstove roaring.
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