"Stuff is eaten by dogs, broken by family and friends, sanded down by the wind, frozen by the mountains, lost by the prairie, burnt off by the sun, washed away by the rain. So you are left with dogs, family, friends, sun, rain, wind, prairie and mountains. What more do you want?"
Federico Calboli
Friday, October 19, 2012
Firewood
A good load of wood (thanks Tyler Chavez!) and a new roof (for the first time in over five years, no leaks-- thanks Simon and Della Armijo!) make for at least a sense of modest security-- and wood makes a better photo.
steve, photos can deceive but i'm wondering what type of firewood you have there? looks like mesquite (dark center) and perhaps some alamo (cottonwood?). i would imagine at your elevation you have juniper. how good is my guess?
Ah, you two too? We did the new roof thing last December, when we could no longer ignore the water pouring into the living room. Waited too long, had to take down the whole ceiling due to rot. This will be our first rainy season in 15 years without buckets indoors. I still begrudge what it cost. M.
WE are too far north and high up top have mesquite nearby. Cottonwood is not great for burning but we are taking down the big crooked dead one in the background piece by piece (need to get someone with a cherry picker to saw off the big limb before it crushes the fence) and so have some big logs at the right end of the pile.
There is a bit of oak available here and there and we have a few limbs that died in the great freeze last year on one of our apples but the vast majority of firewood in our country is pinon (or pinyon) pine, the nut- bearer, and two junipers, alligator, known locally as "juniper" and what I would call simply juniper, known as "cedar". This last often has a vivid red center.
All these are hard and when dry burn more like eastern hardwoods than pine. Good book on these and others: Trees of California by Ron Lanner-- nice old illos he found, too.
I like the division of labour ! - but I suppose someone had to take the pic!!
Seriously , though I like to have a stable full of dry hardwood every autumn- it gives comfort for whatever the winter throws at you , you are self reliant for heat at least !
My bonus, is that currently , all I have to do is cut and haul it from a local wood, which is part of the shooting land I rent.
Things would be different if we had to buy it - so many in UK are burning wood, the price is almost the same as oil in many non rural areas!
steve, photos can deceive but i'm wondering what type of firewood you have there? looks like mesquite (dark center) and perhaps some alamo (cottonwood?). i would imagine at your elevation you have juniper. how good is my guess?
ReplyDeleteAh, you two too? We did the new roof thing last December, when we could no longer ignore the water pouring into the living room. Waited too long, had to take down the whole ceiling due to rot. This will be our first rainy season in 15 years without buckets indoors. I still begrudge what it cost. M.
ReplyDeleteWE are too far north and high up top have mesquite nearby. Cottonwood is not great for burning but we are taking down the big crooked dead one in the background piece by piece (need to get someone with a cherry picker to saw off the big limb before it crushes the fence) and so have some big logs at the right end of the pile.
ReplyDeleteThere is a bit of oak available here and there and we have a few limbs that died in the great freeze last year on one of our apples but the vast majority of firewood in our country is pinon (or pinyon) pine, the nut- bearer, and two junipers, alligator, known locally as "juniper" and what I would call simply juniper, known as "cedar". This last often has a vivid red center.
All these are hard and when dry burn more like eastern hardwoods than pine. Good book on these and others: Trees of California by Ron Lanner-- nice old illos he found, too.
Hi Steve
ReplyDeleteI like the division of labour ! - but I suppose someone had to take the pic!!
Seriously , though I like to have a stable full of dry hardwood every autumn- it gives comfort for whatever the winter throws at you , you are self reliant for heat at least !
My bonus, is that currently , all I have to do is cut and haul it from a local wood, which is part of the shooting land I rent.
Things would be different if we had to buy it - so many in UK are burning wood, the price is almost the same as oil in many non rural areas!
JohnnyUK