Here we are at the tail end of September. In rural areas that means its truly time to complete any outdoor projects and get ready for winter. Where I live that includes getting wood ready to burn in our wood burning stove for heat this winter. We live in a passive solar designed home which was built so that it makes full use of the sun and wood burning for warmth. We have a propane wall heater placed in the wall between our bedroom and living room for backup and to take the initial cold bite out of the air before our wood burning stove heats our home up.
Around here I do buy some wood and also get wood from fallen trees on our property which are mostly oak trees. I take my chainsaw to them and end up with burnable wood. It's best to make cuts in 16 inch lengths so the wood fits into our stove. When I buy wood it's almond which is quite dense and has the highest BTU's of any wood you can get here. I also buy walnut which is not as dense as almond or oak. I use it to make a hot bed of coals on which I then place the denser wood.
Building fires in a wood burning stove is actually a bit of an art. You start with some newspaper and very light wood such as pine, fir or ceder. On top of that you place a medium-dense wood like walnut or a wood that has lots of oils like bay. Once you have a hot fire and a decent bed of coals, you add your dense wood.
This year we had more than the usual amount of fallen trees and big oak boughs. I believe it's due to our drought in California which is currently in it's third year. Each of these past three years it's gotten worse as less rain fall and negligent snow covers the Sierra Mountains.
Walter Einenkel wrote a diary about Stanford University linking climate change to the drought we're experiencing in California which was republished to Kitchen Table Kibitzing earlier today. You might check it out. It includes a youtube video which was made last winter. No really big storms occurred during the spring of 2013 as they mention could happen. It looks like we are likely to have another dry winter, though we still cross our fingers for some major storms.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Here are some pictures I took this afternoon of some of the work I've done dealing with fallen oak trees on our property. The top pic is of my 20 inch chainsaw that I primarily use. I also have an 18 inch chainsaw as well. So what brand do folks buy? The top two brands are Husqvarna and Stihl. These two brands are Swedish where the first chainsaws were invented. Folks have their favorite. sidepocket favors the Stihl brand while I favor Husqvarna. They are equally reliable IMO.
The next pictures show fallen tree trunks cut into rounds and then piles of oak wood I have in places along the road that traverses our property. I use a wheel barrow to lug the wood to the road. Then I use my car (a Subaru Outback) to bring the wood to our home. I don't have a truck nor a quad. These things would be great but I just make do with my wheel barrow and car. I also don't have a wood splitter so I use an ax and maul to split the wood. Wood that's as dense as oak takes two years to dry before it is usable so most all the wood you see here won't be burnable until next winter.
From the looks of things I should get about 1.5 cords of wood out of the wood I'm working on this year. A cord of wood measures 4 feet tall by 4 feet wide by 8 feet long. Be wary if you buy wood because getting shorted is rampant. Always make sure you get full cords. Below is a picture of an oak tree that fell down two years ago. I haven't gotten to it as its in a bunch of poison oak and the trunk is two feet across. I'll get to it next year. First I'll clear around it then get to work.
What autumn chores do you do where you live?
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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