Wood, Wood, More Wood

Wood is sexy. Ir'a great when it's growing; it's great when it's dead. Dead wood is best when you're cutting firewood for the winter months. You can't burn wet wood.

so I was cutting firewood in the woods again today, and I'd found an old stand of Red Oak dead hardwood where the shale rock had welled up and thinned the soil making the trees susceptible to wind and storm. And so the trees fell. And so I was cutting the dead wood for the winter.

While cutting wood, I heard some voices and then I saw these three people walking toward me from down the hill below the property. It was this old guy I knew walking through the woods with his two sons whom I also knew slightly. They were scouting out places to hunt and wanted to know where I'd be posted. I pointed to the big pine with the stovepipe arms and I nodded toward the spot on the uphill horizon where the shale rock had split and surged upward to create a jagged rise.

One of the man's sons had worked for a tree surgeon's company and knew a lot about chain saws and trees. I had osme questions about chains. He pointed out that one of my Stihl saws had a "chipper chain," meaning that it had a squarish cutting tooth. That was good. Now I know what to look for. It has a good bite and cuts down effortlessly.

I had the wood cut into sixteen inch logs and stacked them upright in the little drailer I drew with the John Deere 445. They looked at the wood. Nice wood, they said. I knew about the Red Oak but I was wondering if the other wood was White Oak or Ash. The bark was old and peeled and you couldn't tell, not the way the bark had come apart. One of the guys boys said it was Ash but I wasn't so sure. The Cherry wood looked like the Red Oak when it was red except that the outer rings were red to the bark.