From the managing editor, February 2020

Winter, again.

As good an exercise as it is, I do not miss heating with wood.

We spent several years in a beautiful but rustic house deep in the woods in Yancey County, North Carolina, heating as much as we could with wood split and dried and stored under the carport.

We had a forced warm air furnace, but not the money for oil deliveries. Surrounded by 30 acres of trees, it made sense to heat using the insert built into the large fireplace.

We had had 30 diseased hemlocks removed by a local woodsman, and he called me one day to ask if I was interested in a long dump truck of hardwood tree trunks to cut into firewood.

“How much?” I asked.

“$300,” he replied. He could get about that much if he hauled the wood to the mill, but that didn’t take into account the cost of gasoline to go there and return.

Selling it to me shortened his day and put a little bit more money in his and his crew’s pockets.

$300 was a good price for everybody all around. I didn’t really have the money just sitting there, but I was able to scratch it up. I thought the deal was too good to pass up.

When they delivered the wood, I realized just how great a deal it was. It took a bit of magic to turn the extended dump truck around in our narrow drive and yard, but when they dumped the wood I was the proud owner of a pile of hardwood tree trunks, each about 25 feet long, in a stack about nine feet tall and 15 feet wide.

A cord of wood is 128 cubic feet. I had much, much more than that. All in straight-from-the-forest condition.

There was a lot of oak, some locust, some hickory, even cherry. Most of the trunks were at least two foot across at the base. When I walked up the stack I was high enough to look onto the flat roof of the carport.

I needed to get busy.

At that point in time I had two operating chain saws, maybe five decent chains, oil and gas, a sledge hammer and some steel wedges.

My stepsons gifted us with a new axe and a wood maul. Never were gifts put to use as quickly as those tools.

I began the task of cutting the wood by pulling out my files and sharpening each saw chain. Then I got to it, picking out the most advantageous trunk for the first cuts. Within minutes I had rendered it and a couple more trunks down to 20-inch sections. Some of the pieces fell free, while others dropped into the stack. Those had to be fished out of crevices between the trunks and tossed onto the driveway where I had my splitting spot selected.

Now the fun began.

Splitting wood is one of life's most invigorating and worthwhile activities. Experts say extended time spent cutting firewood is great for your heart, and you also work your arms, back, and core swinging the maul and axe. You’re using all of your abdominal muscles as you work.

Splitting straight-grained wood is almost magical as the blade of the axe slices deep, popping the wood apart. With a large diameter trunk section it wasn’t difficult to quickly knock out eight decent pieces for the wood stove. I’d position a piece on my chopping block then step back to begin even, well-centered cuts. Quickly the firewood piled up around me. Then I would stop, set the axe aside, and begin stacking. 

I was splitting within 10 feet of the carport, and after a few hours I had numerous six-foot tall stacks ready to dry with help of the mountain wind that came up the grade.

I worked hard, but it didn’t appear the mountain of logs was really decreasing in size. Later that year the wood warmed nights when the temperature dropped below zero.

Those memories come back now as winter casts its pall. We currently have two fireplaces, but they just could not heat the house consistently on cold winter days. I have considered getting a wood stove or insert, but my knees are telling me some surgical repair is on the horizon, and I have chosen to not press the issue by cutting or hauling firewood.

Splitting wood for heat is a declaration of self determination, but right now I put my trust in the oil furnace and heat pump to ward off the cold of these long winter nights.