I said I would have the barn filled up with firewood, but easier said than done. We go through it so fast heating three buildings we are constantly going out to collect more. I guess this is life in the country during the winter, or at least it is for me. I am glad, it gives me something to do when the plants and fields are not growing. But wow its a constant struggle having enough firewood if I choose not to use the heat strips or propane. But feels good heating the house using a fuel I can just collect from the forest and with the right amount of drying its good to go.
This time of year I am spending a few hours a day collecting wood for the furnace when the weather is okay to work in. With temperatures in the 10s and 20s fahrenheit we are going through wood faster now. At one point we ran out of seasoned wood and that was not very fun, so we plan on stocking up the barn the best we can.
The barn will let the wood dry out and become what is known as “seasoned” wood. This means its dry enough to burn at its best. Wet wood may not burn as hot so its best not to use unseasoned wood that is just cut (green) or soggy wood.
As we go through the piles by the furnace we restock that area and then add the rest to the barn.
All those annual wildflowers I had around my green house and sheds have died, but the stalks make a very good fire starter kindling.
Looking closer we can see how its all soft hollow wood which burns fast and hot.
We make a few different piles by the wood furnace, so we have the right wood when we need to refuel it. Depending on the coals inside at the time we may use little wood to start it again or just throw in large logs when the coals are hot enough to just reignite it.
Luckily I have help moving all this wood, my partner helps me out and my foreman also helps me move the wood around the farm.
Usually the way it goes is my foreman cuts up the logs and then me and my partner move them.
Some of them are just too big and need to be cut down more.
I bought a splitter to try to get these a little smaller, as they are just massive even when cut into thin rounds.
We load up what we can in the UTV and move it over to the barn.
Speaking of the barn, the barn cat came out and my partner had to smother it in love for a minute before we continued.
Another late afternoon cutting up more logs with my foreman. At this point the chainsaws need to be sharpened just about every two weeks.
I start loading up my truck with another load of firewood, its small now but soon it will be overflowing from the bed of the truck.. lol
Once I have enough we load up the UTV and we both drive back to the homestead. On the back roads with find an near infinite amount of downed trees to collect firewood from.. But its all soggy and wet, so it needs to dry in the barn for awhile.
I follow my foreman up the hill and we unload the firewood. It should get us a few more days. Our goal is to fill up the barn with enough wood for many months, but it seems to be a lot harder than I thought. I guess we are in the middle of winter now, so it seems at least half the wood we collect just goes right to the furnace for use. And the other half usually gets stored in the barn for seasoning.
