Come fall, I realize that I am almost out of time for all the chores I planned for the summer. Collecting firewood is one of the most critical ones. We finished this weekend.

Hollow oak tree

Last year we had troubles filling our wood rack in the fall, and the winter was extra cold and cloudy which left us scrambling at the end of winter. This year, Tyson wanted to make sure we had enough. In the spring he cut down some half dead trees on the property. Some of that wood was dry and split easily. Other sections were green and would not split even after drying all summer. We even chopped up some of the planks from the old deck, but we do not know how well they will burn.

Isaac helped just a little

I helped Tyson find more standing dead wood on our property. But that was not enough. He cut down some more of the half dead trees. The bottom of the big oak turned out to be completely hollow. Unfortunately, the dead parts of the oak were filled with carpenter ants, so we can’t bring them into the wood room. By this point, if we could get the green wood from the spring to split, we probably had enough wood for the winter. But Tyson wanted to be really sure. So he scavenged on the airport property and found a large aged blow down and several trees chopped down by a beaver. We also borrowed the neighbor’s hydraulic splitter to split all the wood, even the brand new green wood.

Wood room

Next year’s wood

This weekend we split and split and stacked and stacked. I stacked the wood up to the rafters in the woodshed. With all the new dried wood Tyson found this weekend, we have more than enough dry wood for the winter. The outside wood rack is piled to the tippity top with plenty of green wood for next year and all the extra dry wood. I think we are probably set for the next two years especially since this winter is starting warmer than average.

Indoor and outdoor temperatures the last 30 days