{"id":23165,"date":"2016-08-24T08:01:49","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T15:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/woodshed-kings-the-logistics-of-getting-firewood-to-your-house\/"},"modified":"2016-08-24T08:01:49","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T15:01:49","slug":"woodshed-kings-the-logistics-of-getting-firewood-to-your-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/life\/woodshed-kings-the-logistics-of-getting-firewood-to-your-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Woodshed Kings: The logistics of getting firewood to your house"},"content":{"rendered":"

FIRST THING \u2014 WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO PUT IT?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A pile of rounds and chunks that you plan to split later always takes longer to knock down than you think it will. It\u2019s convenient to drop the wood as close as possible to where you\u2019ll eventually stack it but it\u2019s more important not to block the sun from the garden and be in everybody\u2019s way until you get around to it. You\u2019ll want a tarp big enough to keep rain off.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WOOD WAGON <\/strong><\/p>\n

A lot of people don\u2019t do wood because they don\u2019t have a truck to get it home. Trucklessness shouldn\u2019t be an obstacle because you probably know somebody who has one. You can barter. Share wood with the owner, help them split a cord, bring them a loaf of bread, smoked fish, a bottle of wine or whatever. It\u2019s good form to at least fill their gas tank. An old beater truck of your own is handy for wood, except that old trucks, like old dogs and people, get to a point where they\u2019re using up all the family resources to chug the last few miles. If you\u2019re spending a thousand a year for repairs it\u2019s more cost-effective to just rent one. A second-hand wood trailer made from a truck bed is good for doubling the load but it\u2019s a lousy lawn ornament for the rest of the year. Even if you own a truck, when there\u2019s a big slug of wood to be had, say a couple cords with large diameter rounds, it may be worth renting a big one for a hundred dollars, since they come with ramps. When loading rounds into a truck lay the rows closest to the tailgate flat so they can\u2019t roll out if the tail gate pops open going up a hill. Drivers behind you appreciate that and you won\u2019t become a \u2018Can you believe that idiot?\u2019 story people tell in town for the next twenty years. If the truck is loaded above the sides, tarp the wood so pieces don\u2019t fall out when you go around a corner. Finally, don\u2019t overload the truck or family car. It\u2019s easy to look at that small handful of rounds left on the lot and say, \u201cHmmmm, I could fit those in.\u201d You could fit them in, but it\u2019s a weight thing, not a volume thing, so be strong. Resist that urge.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WOOD LOT ETIQUETTE<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you get a line on wood, say someone puts an ad on Craigslist: \u201cFree Firewood!\u201d, contact the owner, preferably by telephone in case they\u2019re getting lots of texts, and make sure of what kind of wood it is, how much there is, where it is and how accessible it is. Sometimes you can drive right up to it, other times it may be a long carry through brush or maybe you\u2019d have to lug it up a steep slope. If it\u2019s going down hill to the truck a runaway round could smash a house or person. If you feel it\u2019s a go, ask if the owner wants all the wood gone or is keeping some. Ideally, you can meet them there to be sure.<\/p>\n

Usually the trees were taken down by a storm or by an owner who wants to build on the lot. Free wood doesn\u2019t last long. You want to get there early and work fast. If you\u2019ve got three people one can be cutting, one can bust up rounds, one can load. Cut rounds and load them into the truck at whatever weight you can conveniently lift. Split them to stove size later. Don\u2019t be greedy. You can\u2019t expect to cut the whole lot before you start filling your truck and hauling wood if other people also want the wood. Sometimes an owner who is motivated to clear the property will have the rounds already cut to length. If that\u2019s not the case and you show up where other people have been working, don\u2019t take rounds they\u2019ve cut and stacked.<\/p>\n

Once the truck is loaded and you\u2019re ready to bring it home, leave one person at the lot to keep working and keep an eye on wood you\u2019ve cut. It would be unusual for someone to take cut\/stacked rounds but it\u2019s happened. If you\u2019re by yourself you can stack your excess rounds and mark them with surveyors tape. They\u2019ll probably still be there when you get back.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

GROUP EFFORT<\/strong><\/p>\n

My friend Steve invited me to help buck up a massive, ancient spruce. He\u2019d counted 550 rings on the stump. Someone with a plan had cut that fine tree down, plus half a dozen smaller trees, then changed plans. With no sawmill in town and, with the giant located in the woods a quarter mile up a hill, there wasn\u2019t a practical way to get the lumber out of it. The tree had just laid there for a few years and was going to rot. Enter the Woodshed Kings.<\/p>\n

It was a short, rough stretch to an easy path leading down the hill. At first we carried split wood on pack boards. That was good cardio but slow and a lot of carrying. Next we got a wheelbarrow which could haul three times as much as a pack board. That was faster and easier but we still had to break up the rounds, carry them to the wheelbarrow at the top of the trail, then run the wheelbarrow back up after we dropped the wood at the bottom. This was going to take a long time. I began to ask myself, \u201cWhat would the Romans do?\u201d The answer of course was, a Roman would roll those babies and have slaves do the work.<\/p>\n

As luck would have it, my birthday was coming up and my twenty-something sons asked me,<\/p>\n

\u201cHey Dad, what do you want for your birthday?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell fellahs, since you ask….\u201d<\/p>\n

In one sunny morning they rolled a few dozen rounds out of the woods, right down the hill and up the ramp into a rented box truck. When we got to the house it was a simple matter of backing the truck in, setting up a ramp and rolling the rounds across the yard to where they were going to be split. The boys said, \u201cNext year you\u2019re getting guitar picks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Dick Callahan is a Juneau writer. In April 2016, he won first place in the Alaska Press Club Awards for best outdoors and sports column in the state.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FIRST THING \u2014 WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO PUT IT? A pile of rounds and chunks that you plan to split later always takes longer to knock down than you think it will. It\u2019s convenient to drop the wood as close as possible to where you\u2019ll eventually stack it but it\u2019s more important not to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23165"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}