Town Diary - April 2003

Firewood for next winter.

During the cold months of the year many Barkhamsted residents burn firewood as either a primary source of heat or to augment more conventional heat sources such as fuel oil or electricity.  Putting in a large supply of firewood can be a lot of work, and the process sometimes starts in the winter even before the wood for the current heating season is used up.  Bill Adams on Center Hill Road (Route 181) in Barkhamsted burns a lot of firewood each year and he likes to get an early jump on preparing next years supply.  It is only April and already Bill has put up a very impressive woodpile in his back yard.

Photo above- Bill Adams splitting firewood-- the pile grows longer!

Photo above- Bill Adams and the long wood pile he works up every year.  With the long
southern exposure and in a single pile, the wood seasons fairly quickly.

The pile stretches over 100 feet and faces south to take maximum advantage of  the drying power of the sun.  Bill normally buys about six cords of tree length wood in the late fall and, with help from two sons, cuts it up into pieces about 18 inches long.  Most of these cut pieces are still large in diameter so they are run through a hydraulic wood splitter.  The split pieces are now small enough for the wood stove and also will dry more quickly.  The cut and split wood has more than eight months to season before next winter.  The wood is piled up to further encourage drying.  Later Bill will move much of the wood inside.  This past winter was colder than normal and Bill actually burned all his seasoned wood and even started burning some of next years supply.  To make up for this he got another six cord load to cut and split.  He appreciates the ability to heat the house during extended power outages in the winter.  He does not mind the hard work involved with laying in a large supply of firewood.  As the old saying goes, "you get warm twice from burning wood".        
  
Photo above- splitting next year's wood with a hydraulic splitter.  


Photo above- The wood pile (to the right of the house) is still growing.  Altogether, Bill will
cut and split about 13 cords.