I WOOD you KNOT!

Husband is busy outside sorting wood that is too long to get into the new fire burning stove....again...still.


The saga began about a year ago when the 'woodcutter' whom I shall refer to as 'He", as I am no Red Riding Hood and I no longer have a grandmother, nor are there any goodies in my basket ( if there were I'd have eaten them decades ago) and this ain't no fairy tale,  bought a new wood burning stove.
  'He' always has had two years worth of wood cut in in preparation for the winter's fuel stored in the wood bin and partially  for future hedging against some time when wood cutting isn't possible, and partially for  having the proper curing time for the most efficient burning for heat .


 Unfortunately the opening to the new stove  is about 5" smaller than most of the wood already cut , so  a solution had to be found so that we (He) can use the seasoned wood before He is forced to use the newer green wood cut only a year  ago. 


 Besides there is nothing quite so disappointing as on a cold minus 40C January night while filling the stove at 3 a.m., finding  that a too-long-a- stick won't let the door shut and one has to quickly pull the stick out and put the now warm and sometimes glowing piece of wood into the washing machine and then close the door on the  rising  flames from what apparently is referred to as 'the fire dome'.


As cutting each piece with a hand saw beside the stove (and in the house) every time He came across a piece of wood that was too long had become an option no longer considered efficient due to dust / noise/  and labour,  it was  decided that the logs would now be measured at the SOURCE. That is to say, the chunk would be measured right at the wood bin, and if it was too long to go into the stove it would be relegated to being 'camp' wood."


That solution worked well until it was noticed that the 'camp' wood pile was getting higher than the 'stove' wood pile and the certainty that the winter is going to be longer than the seasoned wood. 


 What to do? What to do?


This is what you do...you build a bucking horse...'bucking' wood is when you cut it into small chunks and the thing that holds the wood is called a horse...hence...a Bucking Horse.

 
 




Woe to the one who wants  wood for the winter without the wise wisdom to wonder if  one can readily wedge the wanton  wide wood into the width of the warmer .  For without this wise wisdom, more work and worry will be warranted before one has a welcome and warm hearted winter's long rest.