Dwelling with Firewood
Firewood
Firewood dumped again in a pile. It always amazes me when a pile of wood is dropped here for the next heating season. It is different these past, more recent years here regarding firewood - or cord wood as it is usually referred to for those of us that heat only with wood. Dwelling with firewood is a rhythm that marks the year for a good many months. Long ago we used to find and gather our firewood. It often came from a neighbor that cut a tree down. Or it was gathered from a downed tree by the side of the road. This took us a really long time to get it together. It was not very efficient either. Such is life when you are young and have more energy than money.
How do you decide to dwell in your young life? We had decided to make due with just about everything. This included our heating story. There is a furnace here - unused for all the time we have lived here. It just became a habit to use only cordwood. A habit born out of necessity and frugality. It isn’t always a very easy lifestyle choice. It does allow one to have some small amount of independence from heating in ways that often depend on others. We like that. If the power is going to go out - we can at least stay warm. We do not live off grid so we are still hooked up to power. That is another story for another day.
I think firewood is beautiful. When a pile of it arrives here it feels a bit like a sigh of relief with a warm sense of safety. It even seems to hold a bit of fire magic. We have had the same wood guy for a long time. He is always fair and consistent. If you need to be warm, you want your wood guy to be fair. It is serious business finding a wood person. You want to keep him and also to keep him going for the community. It is something that you always keep in the back of your mind - what if? So, we keep going with the cordwood that is delivered - which is really only the beginning if you heat your home with wood.
In the beginning of the season it feels cozy and warm. It feels plentiful and unrushed. You know - a nice fire going in the woodstove to sit back and enjoy. As the season turns colder - the hauling it inside - stuffing it in the stove - waking up at night to load the stove - all of that begins to factor in to the joy and contentment you feel. As the days grow dark and shorter with longer nights - the fire is always on your mind. The colder days make hauling it a hurried affair. It’s hauled across the house to the wood storage spot and dumped with a heavy let-go of the log carrier. I am grateful for the warmth.
When you heat with only wood - there are things to consider. For instance - generally I always have a scarf on all winter long. I can wear a hat as well when it’s below 0 fahrenheit. There always seems to be some sort of chill in the air coming from somewhere. Always more work to do in fixing that old house that you live in that you heat with wood. Sometimes you get splinters or bruises from loading the stove in a hurry. If your arms hurt or your back is soar - well, that isn’t something much to consider as you still need to load the stove to stay warm. It is pretty to watch while at the same time being a nuisance sometimes.
Living a life that includes heating with cordwood has it’s own kind of rhythm. It is a tempo that you need to always be aware of. It is maybe a bit like having a story your living while heating in that season of wood. There are maybe only three months out of the year that the wood stove is not going - although not at full capacity through all of that time. The story is a remembering - hauling - stacking - pulling - dumping and finally loading. Memory may become muscle - and you still need to remember. You cannot forget about the wood or the woodstove ever. What is it doing? When does it need to be fed again? Is it clean? Do we need more firewood called in? Come to thing of it - it is like caring for a being. It is the Wood Stove Being that needs forever tending. In the tending of that beast in your home - you tend yourself and see your own thoughts in the mirror of the stove.
As I look into the stove day after day - night after night - it is me and my being meshing with the being of the hearth stove. We are one. I am grateful for the woodstove - grateful for the warmth. Moreover - I am glad to have a focus that grounds me in a simple act that humanity has been dancing with for eternity. The fireside enchantment of heating with wood allows me to be in connection with all of my ancestors. The effort of heating your home with wood is the heart and hearth connection with humanity that needs warmth in the cold to survive another year. A loud thud of wood dropped from a big ‘old dump truck is a contract with the fire gods that this ember is going to keep going for another year.