Winter Prep

I know, the eleventh commandment states though shalt not speaketh of winter, moron...

But winter in Creemore is not exactly on parallel with winter in the GTA (Toronto).  And perhaps I should point out, that a lot of the disparity is self-imposed.  Lee Anne uses the term "Pierre-imposed", but I see that wholly as semantics.  We heat with wood.  Yes, we have electric baseboard heaters, but they are reserved for when we are traveling.  The household first commandment is "Though shalt not adjustous the thermostat"...

Even "heating with wood" is a bit misleading.  Many people do so.  They make a phone call to Acme Firewood Company and ask them to deliver 4 bush cord of wood.  They then spend an incredible amount of time and effort moving the pile of firewood from the driveway to the wood pile and stacking it.  Phew!

In order to save the cost of buying 4 bush cord of wood, which can run as high as $1200, I bought a 92 acre property, which includes about 60 acres of hardwood forest.  Yes, I make maple syrup on the same property, but that is simply a massive time consuming perquisite.  The property is primarily to supply firewood.   However, as I factor in the cost of chainsaws, tractors, wagons, fuel and the property, I'm beginning to realize that the savings are not massive.  Even spreading out the cost over the next 412 years, I'm not that far ahead...

If you decide not to phone Acme Firewood Company, you are going to need equipment and  some unique skills.   A tractor with a front end loader is very handy for gathering logs in the bush, as there is less walking with your arms full of wood.  I advise against learning how to drop mature hardwood trees by viewing a few You Tubes...  It is similar to learning how to play the violin by watching an orchestra on You Tube.  You are going to miss out on some salient bits.  Unlike learning to play the violin, cutting down an 80 foot maple tree can be (and usually is) a near-death experience.  I worked as a cutter (lumberjack) for a sawmill back in the 1980's.  The job was thoroughly enjoyable, but had one minor drawback.  I could see that at some point in the near future, I was going to get seriously injured.

So, let's review the steps that are normally replaced by the phone call to Acme:

1.  Cut tractor paths to the wood.
2.  Drop some trees.  The number depends on how much wood you need.  I supply my sister and neighbour with wood, my house and pottery studio, and the evaporator.  A total of about 15 bush cords.
3.  Buck the trees (cut to 16" length for wood stoves, 20" for the evaporator)
4.  Wait 8 months
5.  Gather the wood with the tractor, load it unto the wagon.
6.  Drive the wagon to the wood staging area and unload.  You need to build up a big pile since the wagon cannot be fully loaded in the bush.  The pile is used to fill out the wagon loads when delivering the wood.
7.  Load the wagon in the bush, then load from the pile until the wagon is fully loaded, then drive it somewhere.
8.  Unload the wood
9.  Chop and pile the wood

There!  In less than 10 steps, you too can save $1200, as long as the wood is free and you don't pay for equipment, fuel, maintenance and repairs.  I'll leave the steps needed to actually heat the house for a future blog entry.  The expression "Wood heats you twice" is totally misleading.  I calculate it heats you 12 times...

Creemore Vertical Challenge

I was quite surprised at how many people viewed my blog entry on the demise of the CVC.  I had 1400 views in the first 2 days.  Most understood the reasons for its discontinuation, but the race will still be missed.

Cheers!