stacked like cordwood
yesterday at about 4:30 the firewood i ordered arrived. and what an assload of firewood it was! in a classic moment of spack, without asking any questions, i'd ordered a cord — not a face cord, a cord. this difference is important. a face cord, which is what i wanted, measures 4' x 8' x 2'. but a cord measures 4' x 8' x 4'. in short, we ended up with twice as much wood as i'd intended. (click the picture to experience the full impact of an entire cord of wood.)
oops.
the load was unceremoniously dumped in the driveway, exactly as advertised. rain was forecast for overnight, so the race was on to get it hauled to the back and stacked neatly before the monsoon swept in. paul stacked in the back while i ran loads in the wheelbarrow.
it was chilly out, but i was warm as i worked — not from the exertion, but from the woodpile. the wood was kiln-dried, and the pile retained a surprising amount of heat from the kiln. we must have the finest firewood in america: you don't even have to light it to be toasty.
now, you'd think that loading up a wheelbarrow full of logs would be fairly straightforward, but this is paul and julie you're talking about. the logs were the easy part; those went to the backyard for stacking. but the kindling had to be sorted, the interesting burled pieces went to paul's workshop for later dissection, and the odd bits of chunky stuff were set aside to serve as structural support in lieu of good andirons. our firewood is so well organized it's practically alphabetized.
we worked from 4:30 to about 7:30 and did, in fact, get it all stacked. the rain rolled in as expected at about 4 am today; as i lay tucked cozily in bed i heard it begin and felt excellently smug. not only do we have wood for the winter, we have wood for several winters thanks entirely to my ignorance.
Comments
Oh, BTDT, right down to ordering a full cord...I remember being in the driveway in the dark stacking the wood that had been dumped in the driveway *behind the car* that I needed to drive the next morning.
We finally blasted through it last winter, four years later...
Posted by: Betsy | October 15, 2003 12:09 PM
i feel so much better knowing i'm not the only one! and how much have you ordered for this year, knowing what you do now?
Posted by: julie | October 15, 2003 12:12 PM
i did laugh out loud when I saw the picture
Posted by: auntb | October 15, 2003 05:33 PM
well, you won't be laughing now.
(thanks, reader!)
Posted by: julie | October 16, 2003 07:25 AM
Eli gets a quarter for every wheelbarrowload he moves from the pile to the shed and stacks. He needs help pushing the wheelbarrow, but he's a good stacker. Shall I put him on a bus and send him your way?
Posted by: lisa | October 17, 2003 07:49 AM
thanks, but i don't think i can afford him after buying an entire freakin' cord of wood.
Posted by: julie | October 17, 2003 09:04 AM