A load of firewood arrived today. Lovely dry ash at a very good price. The young farmer who brought it told me about his tractor, broken down in the woods, his competitors slashing prices in their ads and the fewer and fewer people using wood to heat their homes because of insurance company displeasure.
A cord of wood, 4 x4 x 8 feet, has a lot of sweat in it. The trees, often deep in some frozen swamp accessible only in February, or clinging to a hillside too steep to cultivate, must first be felled, trimmed of branches, turned into cordwood and logs and hauled out of the woods. Next this hard-won booty is cut into foot long blocks by chain saw or buzz saw, then laboriously split to fit all kinds of stoves, dried for a year and, finally, loaded up by hand and delivered to the customer.
Wood is heavy, the work dangerous. My check was cashed within the hour. I hope it helped with the broken tractor. I will appreciate my fire and order another cord or two before the price climbs in the fall.