Wood Day

One of the things we have had to adjust this winter/spring, is how we get our wood.  We do a huge portion of the heating of the Lodge with wood stoves, so we use about one cord a month.  We usually have a wood guy deliver four cord at a time in a great dump trailer he has.  But you see, this year we have had over 190% of normal snowfall, so when it was time for our second wood shipment – there was nowhere to put it.  In fact, he couldn’t even have gotten his rig up here, much less dropped the wood anywhere.  So Bill and I took to hauling our own wood; we can get 1/2 cord on the flatbed of our truck without changing out the racks.

Surprisingly, wood has gotten a little scarce.  You would think that with all the wood laying around due to the flood, it would be easy to come by.  When we questioned all the wood suppliers, they said that there was so much of a need for instant cleanup, that all the equipment was being used to pick up the wood – and put it through chippers as it was too wet to burn.  There wasn’t time to stack it and let it dry and get the work done on time.

Today was wood day; something we do every two weeks now – but at least today was sunny – and really nice down off the mountain where we can purchase wood reasonably.  When we get home, Bill backs the truck up to the front porch and the unloading begins.  Our rack next to the wood stove holds the same amount of wood as one row on the truck, so every few days we do this routine – because we still have 3 – 4 foot snow drifts anywhere we could put the wood outside.  I stack the wood at the end of the truck, or put it in Bill’s arms, and he takes it inside.

Once I get a row lined up on the tail of the truck bed, I help take it inside.  The rest gets retarped on the back of the truck.  Good thing we don’t have to haul hay right now!