… if the wood is cut, split, and stacked by Easter, it should be ready to use for heating the next fall and winter.
of someone who doesn’ t want to mess with it, the owner calls somebody like Johnson. He comes and cleans it up free of charge, hauling away the wood to be used at his house or sold to others. Both sides benefit, and the community grows by word of mouth. Meanwhile, Johnson benefits from the physical exercise. Jerry Fleetwood of Fleetwood Excavating also uses Johnson to remove trees as part of his jobs.
A rule of thumb, he said, is if the wood is cut, split, and stacked by Easter, it should be ready to use for heating the next fall and winter. Most of Johnson’ s woodcutting is done in the winter, and scraps from his woodworking shop provide kindling for starting fires.
He sells about 12 ricks of firewood to neighbors each year, and Johnson said the going rate for dried firewood is about $ 50 a rick.
Johnson’ s wood heating bible is Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way, by Lars Mytting, which emphasizes stacking techniques that promote air circulation and plenty of sunshine. The book outlines all facets of firewood preparation, and Johnson said the book outlines“ a way of life” for using wood as a heat source.
Johnson’ s chainsaw of choice is a Stihl, mainly because Bear Hardware in Nashville is a dealer for the saws
and a reliable source of repair. And he’ s careful to wear the proper safety equipment: Gloves, boots, eye and ear protection, and chainsaw-resistant chaps. The chaps became a necessity after Johnson had an accident and cut his leg with a chainsaw. Now he jokes about it:“ I bought me a new pair of chaps. They were kind of expensive, but at least they didn’ t cost me an arm and a leg.”
The U. S. Energy Information Administration says about 2.5 million households use wood as the main fuel for home heating, and about 9 million more use it as a secondary heating fuel. That’ s about 10 percent of the households nationally. But a higher percent use wood in rural areas than in cities and that percentage increases even more in heavily wooded areas, like Brown County. According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, high-density wood burns longer and has a higher heating value, while low-density wood burns
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Jan./ Feb. 2020 • Our Brown County 17