Fire killed pine is also great for making pine tar.

What a cute lizzahd, yes sir !

About eight years back, the adjoining Forest Service lightly logged the land adjacent to my place. A neighbor down the road 1/2 mile objected vehemently . A hunter, who should know better, how opening up a tight forest makes for great elk and deer habitat, he actually confronted the guy with the big tree cutter machine , and his crew . Being Natl. Forest land, it was their call to log the area. I approached them later and they told me how concerned they were in parking their heavy equipment and trucks at night for the several days they planned to be there.

I told them, when they're done for each day just drive those big yellow Tonka Toys onto my property and park them in the open meadow in back of my cabin.

Very relieved, they did so. What a feeling through the ground, as each evening they rumbled into that meadow and lined up their rigs, side by side, in a row.

They logged the area with skill and care, leaving me a good barrier treeline along the road for privacy maintained. The cutter they had snipped trees right at ground level, and another stripped the boughs from each trunk in seconds. They took care of the leftovers so everything was clean. They selectively logged, there was plenty of trees left to grow bigger and attract deer and elk.

The last day , when they left, I was gone.

When I returned, why there was a pile of beautiful logs of Tamarack, cedar, red and white fir, and some hemlock , all for firewood. About 13 cords worth.

Here is a shot of it as I stacked it into my woodshed. The prettiest lot of wood I think I ever had. I later had the shed fixed up to look better , as this was years ago, and pretty rustic .


Jack, love your outbuildings. You can nevah have enough wood.

13 cords! I'm jealous !!

Well, after they explained what the cost would be for every time someone cuts hydraulic lines on all that heavy equipment, the safety I provided for their rigs was worth the kind gift for me . Evidently they deal with vandalism like that, and it costs them much time and money.

With a tight insulted cabin, that much wood lasts a long time ...the trees in the north-west here, are great for firewood !

Nice woodshed, Sharon.

Thanks run, wood in the shed always looks good ! That was only half full by then.

Sharon -

Did you see the GHO eyes in the stacked wood in the shed?

I saw the eyes, Jack.

This morning.

Yes sir I sure did ! I wondered at first if it was just by chance !

You are an artist even in stacking wood !

When you get to that level in usage, make one eye closed

Well done !

When you are making the big bucks from book sales it leaves a lot of leisure time to stack wood in creative ways.

Absolutely Ken. In the past month, I've actually cleared $13.44. Now only about $3986.56 in the hole. I'm in the tall cotton now, baby! Goin' out to stack more wood.

Tall cotton....that's a southern sayin' !

Keeping with the firewood theme;

An oak that was leaning towards the location of a new shed. Got about three cords out of this one tree.



Maple log bucked, dragged to a clearing and blocked.



Maple logs bucked, dragged to a clearing and blocked for camp firewood.



Goofing with a buddy.



A winter's supply for camp.

Went hunting with my bow tonight.

2 Moose in this photo, best I could get with camera.

QBD, Sharon, and Lugnut -

I agree with JMorse, in that images of stacked firewood all put up for the winter provides me with a warm, fuzzy feeling. In many ways its akin to looking at put up fur hanging in the shed ready for the buyer to come and inspect, shell out those big dollars ($50 for twelve coyotes, 16 foxes and 432 coons), and watch him take them away. I drool over those photos of Lug with the winter's supply of hardwood. A thing of absolute beauty!

Jack