OurBrownCounty 14March-April | Page 58

FINDING FIREWOOD continued from 56

load it, I’ d say $ 35. I can get you better quality oak on Wednesday.”

So you want the regular old stuff now, or wait a couple of days for, you know, the good stuff?

Connoisseurs disagree about what the absolute best firewood is. Some say ash holds the fire longer, gives off more heat, and makes better coals. Most people are perfectly happy with a good, straight-grained red oak. But well-seasoned hickory is the hottest burning commonly used firewood. Hedge apple, commonly called Osage orange, is held in high esteem by is firewood freaks.

There’ s no heat like wood heat, everyone agrees. It warms the bones.

There are drawbacks— it tends to dry you out and it’ s messy. And then there is the actual physical challenge of wrestling with it, the hauling, carrying, stacking, splitting, and burning. Figure in the chainsawing before and the ash-hauling at the end and it all adds up to quite of bit of physical labor.

Low back pain is the ever-present occupational hazard of the wood-burning set. You begin the season all full of vim and vigor, woodpile neatly stacked,

kindling box full to overflowing; axe, maul, and wedges standing at the ready.

And for those first few crisp autumn days, getting the wood is actually kind of fun— you enjoy the little sessions of physical activity in the afternoon sun. But as the wood-getting season wears on through the holidays and then plunges into the depths of soulcrunching cold, the carrying, chopping, fetching, the cleaning up after, and the keeping the fire going all start to take their toll.

As we get on in years, and are perhaps not as fit and toned as we once were, we find ourselves more susceptible to life’ s little aches and pains. Sometimes one day of overdoing can lead to a month of debilitating low-back pain.

So I texted my new wood connection,“ Could you deliver a load for me instead of me coming to get it since I tweaked my back a little bit?”“ Sure,” he returned,“ but not today. Have to go see the chiropractor.”

And so, we limp on toward spring, huddled around our cast-iron idols, feeding them slavishly, sending fragrant plumes of the finest hardwoods heavenward from our log cabin chimneys.

One rick more, maybe two, and then, surely, warm weather will arrive. •

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58 Our Brown County • March / April 2014

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