Although we have a very good heat pump, we choose to heat the house with a wood stove. Electricity is expensive, and firewood is free as long as you don't mind the work.
Since we have 3 1/2 acres of woods, there is plenty of firewood for the stove, but it is in no condition to be burned.
When we got here, there was about a cord of firewood, aged and in the woodshed. (For you city slickers a cord is a stack of wood 4' X 4' x 8')
There were a couple of downed firs laying around, so I got a chainsaw and turned them into stovewood.
That was all dead stuff, and there were a couple of dead snags, so I also turned them into firewood. We ended up with about four cords of firewood in the woodshed. We are now down to about a cord and a half, which should work out about right, since the worst of winter is over.
So now is the time to start working on next years firewood, since it needs to dry and age for most of a year before it is seasoned properly.
I am working in an area to the northwest of the garage, which had a couple of downed trees, which have been processed, That pretty much opened up an area about40 feet in diameter, which is covered mostly in ferns and salal.
I decided it should be turned into a meadow. I felled a small maple and a fir that was about to fall down. When I get finished with them, I am going to go in and clear out the brush. Then for the good part.
I have gotten a bunch of wildflower seed mix, called "Meadow in a Can" which I will sprinkle throughout the area. It has like fifty varieties of flowers, so it ought to be beautiful. I just need to get out there and do the work to clear the brush and stumps out.
It will be a LOT of hard work, but if it lives up to my vision, it will be awesome.
