farmdoc's blog post number 376

Here in Mole Creek I rely on firewood for cooking and hot water. So it’s unsurprising today’s is the sixth Farmdoc’s Blog post mentioning firewood. And also the sixth mentioning windfall trees. No trees have fallen lately, but sawing up the fallen ones is a seemingly perpetual job. The two best times for doing it are autumn and spring – because summer’s snake season, and chainsawing in winter’s foolish due to the slippery ground and timber. So now, with autumn exactly two-thirds gone, I’m trying to get on with it. I generally clean up the fallen trees in the order they fell (I have a list, naturally). But firewood quality and accessibility to my ATV and trailer also influence the order. Speaking of order, I neatly stack the larger pieces – from trunks and big branches – either inside the woodshed (if the wood’s seasoned) or along the shed wall exposed to the weather (if it’s not). Because the small branches, sticks and twigs can’t be obsessively stacked, I mostly take them direct from the trailer into the house, as needed. I call this ‘free wood’. I can’t explain why, because all my wood is free – in the sense of gratis. Maybe it’s free in the sense of free-form, i.e. not neatly stacked. Anyway just as the Inuit have several words for snow, so I have several words for firewood. Whatever I call their wood, trees that the wind blows down are for me a windfall – in both senses of the word.