Indoor Firewood and Outdoor Firewood: Never Confuse One for the Other

Turkeys, we're surrounded by wild turkeys. This weekend at Tangent Lodge we finally saw some wild life. Sadly it was after my sister wrapped up her visit and left. Sunday morning, an hour or so after sunrise, about 15-20 turkeys of all sizes were strolling around in the small clearing just beyond our driveway.

My attempts to get a picture were thwarted as they quickly ambled away upon hearing the squeaky hinge of the front door.

All was not lost though when a half hour later a couple more strolled into the other side of the yard. This time I was able to snap their picture through the front picture window.

My experiment from last weekend proved to some extent wildlife does inhabit our domain. I left some table scraps, including a few pork bones, just past the edge of the yard into the pine trees. A week later and all that remained was one lonely bone picked absolutely clean.

To date, other than turkeys, the only critters we've seen are squirrels, blue jays, and chickadees.

On a more productive note, work continued on the interior of the cabin. A bit of sanding, a bit of joint taping and filling, but more importantly a bit of preparation for colder weather. The new log splitter was put to work. Three large trees came down on the perimeter of our property earlier this summer. Two blocking the trail that provides ATV access from the road. It was time to make some firewood.

There are two kinds of firewood. Outdoor firewood, which amounts to dry half rotten junk wood that is used for bonfires in the fire pit. Cut, split, and nicely stacked wood is considered indoor firewood because it's designated purpose is to heat the cabin.

The most important rule of firewood is "Never confuse indoor firewood for outdoor firewood". Mary made the mistake of picking up a few pieces of indoor firewood for her bonfire outdoors. Indoor firewood heats a body a number of times. Once when you cut the tree into stove lengths, again when you load the sections into the trailer for the trip to the splitter, again when you split and stack the firewood in the drying shelter. It still heats you again when you bring armfuls into the house and finally as it's consumed by the wood stove it heats the whole house.

With all that labor involved wasting it on an outdoor bonfire is sacrilegious. Bonfire wood is laying all over the forest waiting to be picked up and carried to the pit.

The secret to maintaining an appropriate supply of firewood for the wood stove is always cut and split more than you used over the weekend. I already had about 3 weekends supply stacked alongside the wood stove. After spending a couple hours processing 2/3 of just one of those down trees, I now have enough wood on hand for 5 more weekends. Since we only go to the cabin on weekends, by the time I get all three trees processed likely I will have enough firewood to take us beyond Christmas.

The fall colors really popped out this past week. What was all green a week ago is a blaze in deep reds and bright yellows. The tamarack trees in the low lands looked golden and shiny in the setting sun. It seemed strange to see short needled trees turned from green to such a bright yellow.

It won't be long before the leaves all fall to the ground and the landscape takes on a desolate barren look. That won't be the case at Tangent Lodge where the Norway pines surround our little cabin. We'll always have full trees to look at, the only difference will be the snow that will be covering them a month or so from now.