There is nothing quite like
Being alone with nature to remind me how much I hate being around people.
I am behind on my wood supply...not sure I have ever been ahead. I have about 8 dumptruck loads of cord length and longer wood hauled out of the woods and in my field ready to cut into appropriate size wood for the woodstove or fireplace inside and the wood boiler outside.
I have a system...well, when everything works I have a system...I cut the trees down in the winter and drag them out to the field where it is open. Usually in as long a chunk as my tractor can handle. Sometimes, if I can get the dump truck close, I will use the grapple bucket to load it with whatever I can get in there. By the time the following fall comes, they are generally dry enough to burn.
A lot of what I cut is already down or standing dead and really could be burned right away.
The boiler really doesn't care what type of wood or even the quality of wood, and if I can lift the log to load the boiler, I don't split it.
We have emerald ash borer here, so every ash tree will eventually be dead and many of them already are. This is (along with maple, beech, birch and oak) is really good for the woodstove (although ironwood is really the best). I cut and split to the appropriate size and stack in a rack next to the door.
For the boiler, most days I burn whatever is available...junk wood is fine, but if I am going to be gone for a weekend or a couple days, I want good quality rounds (unsplit) because they last....stuffed full, the boiler will be fine for 3 to 4 days without stoking, which means I don't have to ask anyone to come down and fill it or check it for me. See? Avoiding people, but also avoiding being beholden to people....When my brother still lived here, I would ask him, because he owes me for life anyway...but he is gone, so I usually ask the young man who I let harvest the hay off my field...since I don't charge him, it works out and I don't feel guilty.
I have to deal with people every day...and cutting wood is my catharsis. Something I can do alone and just enjoy being outside and in the woods or in my field.
Right now, I have to go repair the old hay elevator that I use to get the wood from my splitter (I split most of the straight wood by hand with a mall because it is actually faster) up and into my dumptruck. All my equipment is something old or something I have brought back from the dead.
I had one guy come out who wanted to buy a pickup load of wood from me - which I simply do not do usually, ask me why I didn't wear hearing protection when I was running my equipment. I told him it was because I was hoping to go deaf so I did not have to listen to inane chatter from someone who couldn't make his own firewood....he hasn't asked me for another load, which means goal accomplished.
All this seeming grumpiness on my part leads to this....which is immensly satisfying.
I am behind on my wood supply...not sure I have ever been ahead. I have about 8 dumptruck loads of cord length and longer wood hauled out of the woods and in my field ready to cut into appropriate size wood for the woodstove or fireplace inside and the wood boiler outside.
I have a system...well, when everything works I have a system...I cut the trees down in the winter and drag them out to the field where it is open. Usually in as long a chunk as my tractor can handle. Sometimes, if I can get the dump truck close, I will use the grapple bucket to load it with whatever I can get in there. By the time the following fall comes, they are generally dry enough to burn.
A lot of what I cut is already down or standing dead and really could be burned right away.
The boiler really doesn't care what type of wood or even the quality of wood, and if I can lift the log to load the boiler, I don't split it.
We have emerald ash borer here, so every ash tree will eventually be dead and many of them already are. This is (along with maple, beech, birch and oak) is really good for the woodstove (although ironwood is really the best). I cut and split to the appropriate size and stack in a rack next to the door.
For the boiler, most days I burn whatever is available...junk wood is fine, but if I am going to be gone for a weekend or a couple days, I want good quality rounds (unsplit) because they last....stuffed full, the boiler will be fine for 3 to 4 days without stoking, which means I don't have to ask anyone to come down and fill it or check it for me. See? Avoiding people, but also avoiding being beholden to people....When my brother still lived here, I would ask him, because he owes me for life anyway...but he is gone, so I usually ask the young man who I let harvest the hay off my field...since I don't charge him, it works out and I don't feel guilty.
I have to deal with people every day...and cutting wood is my catharsis. Something I can do alone and just enjoy being outside and in the woods or in my field.
Right now, I have to go repair the old hay elevator that I use to get the wood from my splitter (I split most of the straight wood by hand with a mall because it is actually faster) up and into my dumptruck. All my equipment is something old or something I have brought back from the dead.
I had one guy come out who wanted to buy a pickup load of wood from me - which I simply do not do usually, ask me why I didn't wear hearing protection when I was running my equipment. I told him it was because I was hoping to go deaf so I did not have to listen to inane chatter from someone who couldn't make his own firewood....he hasn't asked me for another load, which means goal accomplished.
All this seeming grumpiness on my part leads to this....which is immensly satisfying.
56-60, M
