An old Athabaskan friend use to call that feeling “burning daylight”. He meant that if you weren’t making the most of the day while the sun was up you would begin to worry that you were wasting it. He would be sitting having tea with us and all of a sudden would jump up and say “Gotta go. Burning daylight.” Will doesn’t like to burn daylight either so off he went with the chain saw to get more wood.
Earlier in the winter we had arranged with the young trapper who lives up the creek to bring in our wood. Wood is our winter fuel and the best way to manage it is to bring in a year's worth of supply all at one time, cut it, split it and stack it. That gives it a chance to sit for a good six months or more drying out, making it better fuel. Green wood does not burn well and tends to build creosote in the chimney flue which can cause fires. An old cabin dweller we knew who lived a few miles down the river and never got his wood in early would end up pouring kerosene or some other fuel on it to get it to burn. This often had exciting consequences like the few times the fuel exploded and sent his stove pipe flying through the roof. Wayne never mastered the art of living in the woods. He never had his wood in early and ended up having to cut trees when he needed them. All around his old cabin old trees stumps stand like poles left from when Wayne cut them in the deep snow at four to six foot heights. It makes for a weird kind of forest
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| Will supplying wood |
We use to find getting in the wood a very satisfying chore to do ourselves until we started getting old and achy. That was just about the time Will got old enough to rescue us from this yearly chore. That was before he went off to college.
The young trapper we hired cut, hauled and split about ten trees and when it was all stacked neatly in the shed it didn’t quite make four full face cords. Not that we need four face cords, we just find it more satisfying seeing the wood sitting there all summer with the cords neatly evened off.
When Will’s contribution gets split and stacked we'll have a nice complete supply. Will had time to bring it in and cut it up but the splitting and the stacking will have to wait. We have discovered over the years that in addition to exploring the world around the cabin, most visitors like to take a stab at splitting wood. Gives them that old pioneer feeling.
Dan is always happy to oblige.