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Lessons From Grandpa--Firewood Cutting for Seasonal Employment, by JSW
Grandpa was never one of my favorite people. He wasn’t a bad person,
just that I thought he could be more like the grandfathers in the books I was
reading.
Born in November, 1893, in north-central Minnesota, a World War One veteran
and farmer, he moved to his last residence in 1952. So he’d grown up
in a rough and tumble era, had a rough life and died owning his home, his truck,
and a full
baker’s dozen children had been born to him and Grandma- who I did like
a lot more. Probably because she made bread daily, filled the house with its
wonderful aroma. Of course, she had work for us kids, too.
It was with his background that he taught us boys a few things. When working
now, at home or on the job, I often think of those lessons learned, albeit
unwillingly learned at the time. Too, quite often I find myself in conversation
with Grandpa as I go about the chores.
Splitting wood just a few days ago, I heard his voice clearly scolding me. “That
should have been done last winter, not this spring.”
“
Right, Grandpa,” I replied. He was right, of course.
Firewood is best gathered in the deep of winter- for many reasons. First, but
not most important, is that there’s no plowing or gardening to do in
Minnesota in January. Second, in the deep of winter, there is little sap in the
wood- it’s all in the roots waiting next spring, so it dries faster/more
easily. It also cuts and splits more easily. Too, getting wood is hard, hot,
sweaty work. Doing it in winter cuts back on the sweat factor by ten or more.
“
That’s not very good wood,” he told me.
No, it isn’t: I was splitting Jack pine. Stump dead, it was weathered
and beginning to rot around the edges. But it makes a very good wood for autumn
days when it isn’t really cold, or in the spring for the same reason.
In the dead of winter, preferable woods are oak, ash, birch, and maple, in
that order. These all burn with good heat, not so hot as to risk burning out
a good/new/quality stove. Birch and maple are sappy woods, create quite a creosote
problem if they’re not fully dried. Let them hang a couple years and
they burn clean, don’t clog the chimney much at all. Oak and ash burn
well, cleanly and hot. (Ash has a urine smell when it burns, however, so don’t
get the smoke indoors.) Lesser woods to burn are tamarack/larch: this wood
is excellent for heat, burns hotter than oak and ash, even. Which is its problem:
burning too much tamarack will burn out your stove, or through it if it isn’t
well-built. Poplar is a soft-hardwood, burns well with medium heat output and,
as a tree species, grows quickly, dies almost as quickly. Its biggest drawback
is that it’s really hard to stack due to the slippery bark. Jack pine,
white pine and sometimes Norway are used as firewood- though anything will
work in a pinch- soft pines, they contain some heat but not really enough for
cold-cold winters. Other pines- spruce and balsam are worthless for home heat.
Grandpa’s voice cut into my thinking as I sliced a two inch thick piece
of branch so I had to tell him, “It’s for kindling, Grandpa. Besides,
this splitter makes it so easy I just enjoy it.” Grandpa would have a
fit if he caught us kids splitting pieces smaller than six inches so we learned
quickly to use our hand span. Still, around here, everything gets split once
at least, and I cut down to two inch size branches. It dries better and has
fewer bugs remaining active under the bark. And just because it’s so
easy with the 20 ton hydraulic splitter. Ten inches or more is split into thirds
or quartered.
But that isn’t the only reason. My stove is kind of small, takes a twenty
inch piece of wood if it’s stuffed in and the door slammed. To compensate,
the wood is cut to 16 inches, appropriately, the length of my chainsaw bar.
To keep mess out of the yard, the wood is bucked up in the woods and tossed
into the pickup, hauled home and split as it’s taken from the truck.
I find this to be the best/easiest method for a one-person operation. If a
load is delivered by any local logger, he stacks it about ten feet from the
cordwood pile, leaving enough room to get the splitter between the stack and
pile. (Life is more simple when you have a plan. Besides, I’m lazy and
usually the best way to do something is the easiest.) Any mess made from splitting
is cleaned, thrown into the pickup and hauled back to the cutting area and
dumped before the next load goes in. Follow the KISS principle.
Stacking is how I know how much wood I actually have and can monitor the usage.
One cord is a pile four feet wide by four feet high by eight feet long. My
stacks are head high- six feet- and twenty feet long. About one cord per row,
in other words. In a mild winter, using the stove only during the hours at
home, five cords will last a year. In severe winters with lots of wind, eight
cords will do a season. (My furnace is in the house with two fire extinguishers
near “just in case” and I use the propane furnace to maintain sixty
degrees when not at home.)
Grandpa said to stack the wood bark down. His logic: if the wood is tarp-covered,
the escaping moisture acts like a sauna or kiln and provides better ‘heat’ to
dry the wood faster. One of my neighbors says to stack it bark up to shed the
rain. Personally, I don’t think it matters a whole bunch. Getting the
wood supply large enough for two years, always burning the oldest first of
course, and the wood will have ample time to dry. And birch and maple really
need the two drying seasons. So will poplar/aspen if it’s spring or summer
cut. As to having two years’ supply on hand, three is a more comfortable
margin, though it takes up a lot of yard space.
Of course, most of this thought is considering a total system breakdown where
wood is going to be the only really consumer-gathered heat source. For the
most part, this is what I expect in my ‘imaginings’, though something
less harsh will probably be the case. Either way, wood is the heat source that
warms three times for one season and the most practical heat in any situation.
“
You make a good stack, Jim,” I heard Grandpa say. “Now clean up
that splitter and go have a cup of coffee.” I did as told- cleaned up
the tools and went for coffee, my injured back happy to.
Garnered through years of work in the woods and as a carpenter who helped with
log homes, my tools are the simple and effective tools of a logger. The half-
ton four wheel drive pickup; two 25 foot lengths of ‘skidding’ chain;
two chainsaws- newer Husqvarna and old Poulan with two chains each and toolbox
with assorted
tools; a Pickeroon [a.k.a. "Peavey" or "Cant Hook"] for
moving and/or lifting a trunk to slip the skid chain around, sometimes for
pulling pieces forward
in
the
truck
box;
and
the
new
20-ton Honda powered splitter that replaced the six pound maul and home-built
hydraulic splitter--the latter now owned by my neighbor. A pair of leather
work gloves and chaps conclude the tool list. As for the chaps- everyone should
wear them,
or an equivalent pair of Kevlar jeans, but I find most often I go without. “With
familiarity comes…” is fair warning. Steel toed logger boots are
my standard footwear and they’ve paid for themselves many times just
in bruises alone and a great investment. Except in winter when the steel toe
attracts cold. A wonderful invention these days is the [Stihl brand] helmet
with [integral] ear muffs and face shield. Definitely worth the investment
for hearing alone.
Even
wearing
glasses, the shield will keep large chips away from eyeballs, though I have
had a flier or two get behind the shield and into my eye, it doesn’t
happen often- usually when the wind is ‘right’.
Coffee cup in hand, I gaze at the wood pile and feel a touch of satisfaction
in knowing I’ll be warm this winter, and stronger and healthier for doing
my own gathering. All in all, a good day, Grandpa- thanks for the help. Now
if I only had Grandma’s green thumb. - JSW
