Conservation Currents
Doing Wood
June 2008
by Jim Henderson
Despite the sweats we've all been feeling this spring, heating season will be upon us soon. Considering the scary price of heating oil these days, I find myself feeling thankful that I have two woodstoves and a good, mature woodlot to keep my family warm. I'm also thankful that I truly enjoy the hard work that is involved with heating with wood. It wasn't always so. While splitting some wood the other day I found myself reminiscing about my many seasons of heating with wood.
Firewood
Growing up on Cape Cod, we were the only family I knew that heated their house with wood. When my brother and I were young this meant many weekends would be spent hauling and stacking wood. As we grew older, and capable of swinging a maul and working a chainsaw, "doing wood" meant a series of notes left on the kitchen counter that read something like "before you boys go hunting, fishing or whatever you will split and stack 1/4 cord of wood".
Knowing there would most likely be a note waiting for us after school, we would convince our buddies that we needed to stop at our house before heading out. We'd read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer several times and found the passage on fence painting rather interesting. Splitting wood with our friends always turned into a competition. You'd be surprised at how fast a group of teenagers can split a pile of logs when their manliness is being questioned with every swing of the maul. Furthermore, it's quite interesting how operating a chainsaw can seem really cool to a kid whose hasn't been told he has to do it.
We often complained to Dad about how much work this burning of wood was. Dad's response was always the same. "Wood can heat a body at least seven or eight times." Inevitably this was followed by the list of the different heat stages of wood. 1) Cutting down the trees and bucking up the logs. 2) Carrying the logs to the truck. 3) Carrying the logs from the truck. 4) Stacking the logs. 5) Splitting the logs. 6) Stacking the split logs. 7) Carrying the split logs into the basement (where our woodstove was kept) and finally, 8) Oh, that wonderful heat from the woodstove. (Needless to say, Dad didn't care to respond to the fact that we never really wanted to get heated up "doing wood" during the warm months of spring and fall.)
Some of you familiar with Cape Cod might be thinking that the only trees that grow there are pitch pines that aren't very good for burning in a woodstove. Well, there is also a sprinkling of scrub oak, maple and birch. Dad was in the construction business, and it seemed like he was always volunteering us to clear a house lot on our treasured weekends.
I clearly remember the dreadful year Dutch Elm disease hit Cape Cod. Suddenly all those stately elm trees that lined Main Street were being cut down by the town road crew and hauled off to the stump dump, which happened to be adjacent to the town dump. Since we were the only family in town heating with wood and since Dad was a confirmed member of the OBN (Old Boys Network), he figured that all that good burning elm was ours for the taking. Suddenly "doing wood" meant going to the dump, with its smells, flies and rats. You can imagine the relief my brother and I felt when the fire that was always smoldering in the town dump got blown over to the stump dump and burned up "our" wood.
While all of this recent reminiscing did bring back some good (and not so good) memories, I am left with one distinct thought. Where were my sisters when we were always "doing wood"? Come to think of it, where are my three boys while I'm out here "doing wood"? I guess I'll have to call Dad and ask him where I'm going wrong.
Jim Henderson is the GIS-Senior Planner for the Bennington County Regional Commision, and the vice-chair of the Bennington County Conservation District. The district's mission is promoting rural livelihoods and protecting natural resources in southwestern Vermont.
This column appeared in the Bennington Banner in June 2008, as one of the BCCD's Conservation Currents pieces, a bi-weekly feature written by BCCD board and staff members since August 2006.