Is the plural of cord cord or cords? If you know, let me know. Meanwhile, a cord is a tight stack of firewood that is 4’x4’x8’, or 128 cubic feet. Growing up in southern Idaho, we’d burn about six cord(s) a year to keep the house tolerably warm. The first year Jess and I were …

Long, long ago when I was considering trading in my old Camry for a four-wheel-drive something or other, I wondered if I should buy an old pickup truck. For various reasons, I opted not to; and though I’m glad we have the Jeep, we’ve had to make do occasionally. For example, when we built our …

Here’s half of next year’s heat. It’s 60 feet long, 4.5 feet high (average), and 15″ deep or so, and that pencils out to 2.5 cord, or about half of what I’ll need next winter. It looks like a lot of wood, but last year we started burning in September and we burned a long …

Last week I brought my chain saw out of hibernation and walked around downhill of the house, snipping off sundry little dead trees to tidy up the property. I worked my way down the trail to the garden, and then I found myself looking up at this tree. It’s a lodgepole pine, 70 feet tall …

Well, it’s the 2nd week of March and I’ve burned less than four cords of wood since the season began last October. The cost to me? Oh, a lot of entertainment last summer with chain saw and maul. The thrill of assembling the most Dr. Seussian wood shed in the county. The delight of a …

Warning: this is a messy procedure. Learn from my woes and surround your interior chimney with an old sheet before proceeding. Well, since we never actually had winter around here I’ll detail this procedure and post the pictures from when I cleaned the chimbley around Christmas time. The principles are still relevant and I’ll do …

I estimate January 15 to be halfway through the burning season, which ends, by exactly the same precise calculation, on May 1. Here’s our winter heat supply as of the first week of the new year. I’ve used up just over two rows of the seven rows in the wood sheds. Here you see the …

When I was in the eighth grade or so, we read a short story by Jack London called “To Build A Fire” about a dude freezing to death in Alaska. While my circumstances are not quite as dire, I too have had to learn some things about building a fire. Fire needs fuel, air, and …

These trees grew on our mountainside in the sunshine and rain during their dozen years of life. They were brought down by weather or a chain saw, coming though the quiet woods to thin out the stands of weak timber to let sunshine reach the ground again. Their branches and sawdust went back into the …

I came in the other day from a chilly evening outdoors and thought, well, summer’s over. I’m building a fire. And I did. I love heating our home with wood. I love every aspect of it (some more than others). I love dropping a dead tree in the forest and blocking it up in bright …