Big Ugly Wood...part deux.

Ah...firewood. Both the bane and blessing of my life. As heat goes, I like it the best. The rumble of that furnace as those double blowers cut in, makes the citified guests jump in their chair and squeak, "What's that?!" Oh, it's just the furnace cutting in...don't worry. I suppose to someone who is not used to the sound, that roar, like a 747 revving up for take off, might be alarming.

We have ducting. SERIOUS ducting. None of this sissy, limp wristed foil lined cardboard junk. What the heck is up with that? Know some people with a geothermal furnace system and they have this wimpy ducting...an embarrassment really. The blower is too big for the cubic capacity of the ducts and instead of that deep, serious, manly rumble, theirs has this high, pitiful operatic wheeze. Puhleeeeze...save us from tiny little delicate ducts! Cardboard! I think it was installed by one man with a helper who was still in grade 9. Our ducting..sheet metal workers were here for days. Oh yeah, sweat was expended on our ducting and there is as much metal in our plenum (sp?) as in Hubby's pickup truck.

I complain about wood heat, the bugs, the smoke and the labour, the endless labour. BUt it defines me to some degree. I may not go to the gym and look all svelte like my small sized citified cousins. But I doubt many of them could wave a 5 pound maul over a gnarly piece of fir at 5 in the morning in barefeet. That I have not hacked off my own toes is the truly amazing thing. There have been some close calls. I started out closing my eyes with each random swing of the maul. Now...I judge that wood. Is there a knot, avoid it or leave that piece for late at night for a slow burn. Find the crack that is already starting and work with the wood's natural tendencies. It is amazing how you learn to read each piece of wood for how it's going to go between the three of you. You, the wood, the axe.

We have a selection of axes and mauls in the basement. HUbby favours an axe and does most of his splitting with that. This axe is special. I searched for it for a long time. I would walk through axe places and flick each blade with a fingernail, same movement you use to eject a bug off your shoulder. Flick. The common axe says thuk. Flick, thuk, flick, thuk. The one I bought was the one that went flick, pliiiinnnngggg. That steel holds the better edge. That axe is wicked sharp and stays that way!

Because Hubby is 6'6", he has great swing from that height. He sets his rounds of wood up and just FLIES through them. People are amazed (citified people) the rest of you know what I'm talking about and it has lost its amazement factor. But he is able to do things with that axe that would boggle the average suit with a briefcase. Because I am shorter and do not have the downward thrust, I use the heavier maul. After about 25 whacks, my arms are tired and I have lost the ability to aim so it becomes a dangerous situation of just waving a heavy, sharp object around randomly. We pile almost 4 cords of wood into the basement woodroom and have a chopping block down there, but I have put a few chips in the concrete floor when the maul glances off a knot and goes south. This is where I think doing this in barefeet might not be so smart.

If it weren't for that smoking, belching, dusty, wood hungry furnace, what would I do with myself all winter? I keep the house warm, someone has to feed the dragon. As we grow old we might look for other heating means if we ever build again but I think there will always be some wood in our lives, a fire somewhere that we can stoke and listen to as it crackles...and as smoke belches into the house...and as the chimney starts on fire. Oh the joys of wood.

Well put,we do most of our cooking on a wood stovepeople seem to think it takes too long to prepare a meal but I've got lots of wood and lots of time.A buddy,a vocal critic of our mode of cooking called one night bitching about the power going off and his roast was uncooked,felt good to tell him my steak was doing fine,best thing was he came over for coffee the next morning.I get called a hillbilly and love it.

Ah, the wonderful, sweet heat of wood. We have no heaters here, other than the old Triumph woodstove in the kitchen. It's a tiny thing, as far as woodstoves go, but nonetheless, heats this place up like a hot damn. That woodstove is running non-stop from October until about May or June, weather determines this.

I too, wield long hours on the axe, to keep that stove pumping out its wondrous heat for that many months. You don't want to guess how many cord of wood we go through in a winter, even out here on the wet coast.

The neighbour has a skidder, and drags here whatever we decide we want. Good fella. Hard as nails that one. Living in the middle of a forest has its perks. Free wood, and the ability to drive whatever type of machine you want to push, pull, or drag it home with. He has a plethora of fine forestry equipment.

Aaahhhhhhh, sweet, sweet wood.

There has been some talk of a new Princess Auto splitter here as our old splitter has a bad shoulder from stopping the puck carrier as well as the puck many years ago. We are going to need to do some logging here very soon as our supply has nearly run out. With so much building going on here putting up enough wood for the winter was a problem. There are lots of fallen trees close to the house.

Big, ugly, wood, yes Uno, think that was one of the first of your writings that I had the pleasure to read, and clearly recall it to this day, it made an impact on my soul. Is it here on this forum, for others to enjoy, or is it left behind, no one having read it for probably well over a year. Bring it here, resurrect that original, big, ugly, wood post, it was a good read!!

My days of wood burning is over and done. Just don't want to do it anymore, and yes as 5'2", I could wield a splitting mall, back in those days, powerful little gal that I was. Those days gone, only memories, and I well imagine that I could bring back that upper body strength. Muscles have memory and I bet they could remember, but would certainly make me pay for it. I am now a digger, smiling, I like to dig and shovel, and push around my little Mantis rototiller, which is a magnificent specimen itself. Rats, this was about big, ugly wood.

When I was young, oh so many years ago, we always had wood stoves, not for cooking on, but for house heat. Used our frontroom fireplace many a time to heat our home when power was out, love wood. Maybe one day, one fine day, I may have a little, teeny, tiny wood burner, just for that wintertime cozy warmth. I do so love the beautiful ambiance that wood heat brings, but I won't cut wood. Would leave that to my Sons-in-Laws that would love nothing more than to do this for their Mamma-in-Law, my boys....I could carry wood, stack wood, but I ain't goin' in no bush anymore to fall, drag and move and split those big hunkers, nope, just ain't goin' there. I feel great awe for those that can have fire to warm their homes, fire to cook their meals upon, all contained inside a big belly of a great wood stove, lovely thoughts. (my Son-in-Law noticed at a Jersey cow the other day.....you know my feelings on this.....oops, sorry Uno, off topic, but hey, I hear that's allowed ). Big, ugly wood, beautiful I should say!! Have a most wonderful and awesome day, CynthiaM.