firewood rant

"Phone doodle on laptop - 2010 - work in progress" Gesso, Spraypaint, India Ink, Pencil.

I thought firewood down here would be cheaper than in the Yukon, because there's so many damned trees. The problem is that there's way more people (and money) in proportion to those trees. So you get shit wood at high prices.

I paid $170 for a truckload of 15" rounds of fir today. Just a normal pickup truckload - like what, 2/3rds of a cord at most? (A cord is 4' x 4' x 8' of wood). It was supposed to be $200 / truckload but I wanted rounds so I can handsplit them myself. (Rounds are a slice of tree, like 15" chunks of stump - i.e. not cut into pie shapes. I way prefer that, because splitting wood with an axe is one of my top 10 things to do in life.)

At least 10% of the wood is funky (rotten inside) and another 10% isn't seasoned (i.e. it was cut this year, so it's full of moisture, which means it doesn't burn easy, and puts out a lot of creosote, which is not healthy to inhale and clogs up your chimney.) Balls! Balls Balls Balls!

Another guy on this island offered me $200 for a cord of fir that was cut this year, i.e. not seasoned. He said, "Yeah, we just cut it,but let it sit out in the sun for a month and it'll be good." What?! Do people fall for that? How dishonest!

This all makes me miss the Yukon.

Ooooohh, give me a place where we're all talkin' wood,
prices are good,

woodsmoke in the air
dog barks at a bear

the mornings are crisp
and its early august...

...

At least I get to swing an axe this winter.