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Friday Favorite: Being Warm & Toasty

January 16th, 2014

We definitely stay warm & toasty all winter long thanks to all the work we put in cutting & splitting firewood. It’s that time of the year to start working on the wood we’ll be using this coming winter. Mr Chiots has been out the past few weekends cutting down a few trees close to the house that are half dead and have been dropping large branches when it’s windy.  Some of them are pine trees which we won’t be using for firewood, but one was a nice big cherry tree.  Most of it will heat our home, but there’s one nice piece that he’s going to mill into lumber for further furniture.
firwood 1
firwood 2
Harvesting your own firewood is a lot of work, but it’s satisfying work. Mr Chiots usually cuts down all the trees and when the splitter comes out I step in and help out. It’s a great chore because it makes you get outside in the winter when you might not otherwise. We always enjoy the days we spend splitting & stacking, usually we try to pick a beautiful sunny winter day if possible.
splitting wood 4
Every year we hope to get a little extra wood put up to get a year or two ahead. That way, should injury or some unforeseen circumstance prevent us from doing it we’d still have enough wood on hand for the winter.
firwood 3
Last year we stacked some of our wood in holz hausens and really loved the look and technique. We’ll be stacking all of our wood in these as we cut this winter.

Do you or have you ever helped with cutting/splitting/stacking of firewood?

10 Comments to “Friday Favorite: Being Warm & Toasty”
  1. kristin @ going country on January 16, 2014 at 6:52 am

    I used to be the truck loader and stacker. My current participation is limited to keeping the children from getting crushed or dismembered. Equally important.

    My husband does all of it now, but he does like to have company while he works. The kids love to go into the woods anyway, so it’s no hardship to them. It’s important to indoctrinate them into the Ways of the Wood early. In a few years, we’ll have two new truck loaders and stackers. Bonus.

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  2. daisy on January 16, 2014 at 7:03 am

    No wood stacking going on here! The woodpile is lovely and I’m sure it will keep you warm and toasty for a good, long while.

    Reply to daisy's comment

  3. Joan on January 16, 2014 at 7:52 am

    I’ve been helping with firewood since I was probably five years old, and have done it ever since with a few years off for college and living in the ‘burbs. Now it’s an enjoyable part of our daily life – splitting, stacking, moving, bringing in, burning… We’re a year ahead on our wood but need to get going on some more soon. We’ve been scoping out where we want to cut next – we have lots of old fields that we are trying to expand out to the old stone walls that were the original field boundaries so we never have a shortage of options!

    You’ll be glad to be a year or two ahead – my husband has had a couple of injuries over the years and we were so glad to be able to take a year off from cutting and not have to buy wood. Of course, we needed to cut extra the next year to make up for it.

    Reply to Joan's comment

  4. misti on January 16, 2014 at 10:07 am

    Growing up moving firewood was one of the chores I was never fond of. We had a typical suburban lot but our house had a fireplace so my dad often bought wood from people who’d chopped a tree down or from other places.

    We don’t have a fireplace at our house now so any wood from trees that are felled are usually burned in the fire pit outside. We’re keeping some now for a hugelkulture bed.

    Reply to misti's comment

  5. Nebraska Dave on January 16, 2014 at 10:24 am

    Susy, I’ve never lived in a house with wood heat. It’s not that we don’t have trees here in Nebraska but those that we do have are mostly planted for wind breaks around the home buildings in the rural areas. It wouldn’t take too many years to use up most of the trees on a farm here. I’ve heard stories about the pioneers using dried buffalo dung to burn during the winter months. Most of the heating done here is with propane. Before propane, it was either fuel oil or coal. Here in the urban city heating is almost 100% natural gas with a few houses that are electric. The only stove I remember being in the living room for house heat was at my grand parents house and it was a pot belly coal burning stove. I have some really good memories from that farm.

    Have a great wood heating day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  6. Annie on January 16, 2014 at 12:57 pm

    I heat almost solely with wood but we have an abundance here and when I cleared for the house and power lines there were a great many trees downed. A friend helped me section them up but I had to move and split them all by hand after that. Fortunately I had grown up splitting firewood, so I was used to it. In fact, I enjoy it to a point. lol! However, when I got married I was not reluctant to give up that chore to him and a mechanical splitter. He enjoys it and is good exercise. We only use trees downed by storms, or dying or have to be taken out for construction. So far, we have plenty by just grooming our woods that way.

    Reply to Annie's comment

  7. Lauren on January 16, 2014 at 10:11 pm

    We heat pretty much exclusively with wood. We have a small electric space heater in the bathroom for those early mornings before the house heats back up. In the past due to time constraints we purchased wood from a local guy who was willing to deliver for and extra $10. This year as we try and cut out unnecessary expenses we have been cutting and stacking our own wood. This past Saturday was spent cutting up down trees and taking out a few trees that were shading future garden spots. We have 40 acres of woods so trees are a plenty.

    Reply to Lauren's comment

  8. Colleen on January 17, 2014 at 12:42 pm

    We harvest at least one or two large trees each year for firewood. Like you, I help when the splitter rolls out. I like your concept of getting ahead for the next year, just incase, because you never know. Why did you decide your new stacking method was the way to go? To look at it seems a little complicated, but very unique. Im happy when I get the wood stacked semi straight.

    Reply to Colleen's comment

  9. Robin on January 18, 2014 at 8:19 am

    I grew up with wood heat. I remember a pile of cut and split wood appearing outside the Bilco door. We threw it in and stacked it up. The wood stove was in the basement so I didn’t know cold floors until I moved into my first apartment.

    We (I mean Steve) will be felling some older trees for firewood before the sap starts to run.

    Reply to Robin's comment

  10. Nigel Abery on November 19, 2017 at 3:20 am

    I have been helping my dad cut, split and stack wood since I can remember. It is a great way to get warm, once when you chop, split and stack it and then again when you burn it. I actually enjoy it and it help keep me fit.

    Reply to Nigel Abery's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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