Good things come in small packages!

With the onset of this wintry-like weather, my son, Michael, and I are busy every day stocking up the wood bins.  Not only do the bins inside the house need refilling several times a day but the wood rack outside becomes depleted rather quickly.  Regardless of the chill, rain or wind in the air, this is a must-do chore.  Probably if we were not so picky about how we get the firewood, this would not be a daily task.  He and I refuse to cut just "any" tree.  If the thing is not dead or diseased, we refuse to cut it.  We found a fallen hickory tree last month that needed to be used so while Mark was home, the chainsaw was brought into action.  He cut the thing into lengths to fit the stoves so now we just have to split it when we need hard wood.  Still, I need smaller limbs to stoke the fire.  Without kindling from fat knots or twigs found in the yard, those hickory chunks do not want to burn.  The two of us set out today to do a bit of trimming on the trees in the yard.  During summer, we found numerous trees that had limbs draping down low to the ground.  These made it difficult to use the lawnmowers without getting smacked in the head!  Those had to be trimmed along with saplings that came up at the base of some of the larger trees.  The only tools needed were a hatchet, snips and pruning saw.  This was my kind of cutting!  I enjoy trimming up things in the yard.  It makes that spring cleanup a lot easier!

After about two hours of cutting, we loaded our "wood" into the wheelbarrow and headed back up the hillside.  Two barrows full of tiny wood was added to the wood rack and a third was parked by the front door.  Here it would be easy to retrieve during the evening hours.

I like the tiny twigs.  Contrary to most folk's idea, these things can really put out the heat!  Since I do not have a regular fireplace in use, the twigs are perfect.  The woodstoves both can be chocked full of the twigs to produce a hot fire.  Once these burn down and become coals, the stoves each maintain the heat for some time.  A well-timed chunk of hickory can burn for hours!  I love to see the stove get full of those red-hot embers!  Yep, bring on the cold!  We are ready with our twiggy firewood!