January 23, 2008
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A Single Log
I decided this year to try and figure out how much firewood I use, since I still don’t have a good sense of that yet. So, I measured all I had to create my official starting point, and then periodically I can re-measure what remains to determine usage over time. For this photo, I used a wide angle adapter to get it all in one shot, hence some fishbowl effect bending the larger trees towards the middle.
Anyway, omitting the one super petite pile, here is what I discovered I had on hand:
the stacks have an average height of 4 feet, with a cumulative width of 58 linear feet.I am particularly pleased that 50 of my 58 linear feet
of 4 foot high woodpile I was able to salvage from trees damaged or destroyed by the severe ice storm we had in January of
2007. So many trees were destroyed in nearby Springfield, Missouri and were blocking so much infrastructure that the city’s mulch site was overrun, and they hauling tree ‘debris’ off to a rural site to burn en masse just to get rid of the ‘waste’ ASAP. I was so struck by the sheer wastefulness of destroying all that fabulous firewood that I managed to break through my hermit’s shell sufficiently to go around
town knocking on doors of homes having ‘waste’ wood stacked out by the curb,
and 8 out of 10 were as eager for me to take it off their hands for practical use as I was!I
did not want to counter-act my resource conservation effort by burning excess fossil fuel driving back and forth too much as it is 60 miles each way. So, I mostly just collected the wood one car-load at a time during my errand days
in town, typically weekly. At first each individual car-load seemed a mere drop in
the bucket as I began stacking it at the cabin, and initially I wondered whether my efforts were really worthwhile. But my goodness, the way that ‘bucket’ filled full over time with each additional drop totally astounded me. As those wise ones might say, a 4 foot high woodpile of a thousand linear feet begins with a single log. Any guesses out there as to how long this
much firewood will last?
Comments (6)
No idea, Cath… but I have to give you massive props (and a mini!) for your ingenuity and foresight.
If I guess right, do I win a prize?? heh At a guess, I’d say two and half to three months. And good on you for salvaging that wood. How wasteful of the city. It would have been more forward thinking of them to at least turn the wood into mulch or to make it available to people with wood burning stoves at a small fee if they wanted to offset the initial price of collecting and storing it. Yeesh!
I guess 6 months!
Good for you using that wood. I am always impressed by your green thinking not to waste what is at hand. I do a lot of that with composting my garden and other things like collecting lumber from sites to repair my home. Love to you, Judi
depends on how cold it gets and how warm you like to keep it I suppose. I can see going through all that in one season. I agree with harmony0stars, it was wasteful of the city. I love to read your bloggie!!!!
Interesting and very creative it seems….have a good week..:)