It Warms You Twice?

The saying goes that heating with wood warms you twice - once when you chop it, and again when you burn it to warm your home.  I might argue that it has been warming us even more than that - say, again when you move it and then when you stack it - I think that makes for 4 warmings at least.

Our questionable firewood odyssey is hopefully over for the year. Perhaps I will regret that statement as we carefully ration the last logs in March or April, or if we finally have to give in and turn on the baseboard heaters when getting up every 3 hours in the night to load the stove no longer seems romantic to me.  We had a final visit from our firewood contact, and politely but firmly told him we would not be needing any more of his services. (Especially easy after we had to cancel plans for the evening because he didn't show up during the day as he had promised.) And no, we would not need him for building a fence. Or identifying mushrooms on our property. Or building us a proper woodshed. Seriously, if you can't show up on time to make a wood delivery, or deliver the amount of wood you've promised, why would you think I would want to hire you for anything else?  Ahem. Anyway.....

Our final load dropped on Friday, and we have had to put a small amount of that apart for immediate and careful burning due to a termite infestation. We took care to examine the wood, and have chucked the questionable pieces to one side to avoid introducing the bugs to our piles or to the nice warm environment of the house. Termite larva is not pretty.

Hauling 1 or 2 loads into the house from the pile each day was staring to become a bit time consuming, not to mention messy. Then, I remembered the brackets we had brought with us from our last home. They hadn't served us properly there, but something in my packrat brain had told me to keep them.

So, with the purchase of a few 2x4s, a few cuts, and a little shove to the outdoor furniture, we found space at the back door, under cover of the roof, and with room for airflow between the house and a nice 5-foot high pile of wood.

Then I hauled a full wheelbarrow load of wood from the pile beside the driveway, around the house, and transferred it back and forth up the stairs while Adrian continued to split the larger pieces...

And Adrian came up with a timely suggestion... 

Two trips with the truck, and both of us managing the transfer meant having a ready supply of wood at the back door for those days when we don't have time to go out to the main pile.

Here's to feeling warm and cozy, and itchy from splinters...and maybe slightly burnt (we're still learning!)