Part of living the homestead life is being energy efficient. In the winter months we use a wood burning stove as our main source of heat. We try to get enough wood stacked up in the fall to carry us through the winter months, but this winter has seemed to stretch on longer than most. Faced with a forecast of freezing temperatures and a dwindling stack of wood outside the door, we needed to take action. So, off we went to cut some wood. Here's how the day unfolded...
 Step 1: Saw |  Step 2: Split |  Step 3: Rest |
| This log was part of a tree that fell last summer during a windstorm. It was just asking to be turned into firewood. The first step was to saw it into sections with the chainsaw. | Once the log was sawed, it was time to split it into pieces. My husband told me to aim for the diagonal veins intersecting the growth rings. I just let him do it... | ...while I held the chainsaw. He was doing such a great job, I hated to interrupt him by asking for a turn. Notice my yellow work glasses? Wearing those made the cloudy day seem brighter! |
 Step 4: Load |  Step 5: Haul |  Step 7: Stack |
| When the wood was all split, it was time to load it. This is where I came in. Here's my routine: Grab as much as I can carry and carefully stack it in the truck bed. Repeat... | Due to the sudden drop in temperature and my resulting frozen fingers, the careful part went out the window. I just threw it all in the truck bed, and we headed toward home. | The final step was to unload the pickup. By then it was snowing pretty heavy, so we hurriedly stacked the wood on the porch. Right outside the door, ready to be burned. We'll straighten it up later! |
RSS Feed
