I have probably bored my readers to death with tales and mentions of cutting down trees and stacking firewood - so either ignore the following or endure my foolishness.

The following are lessons I have learned as I have stacked firewood; and when I say stacking firewood - I mean from dropping the tree to covering the finished product (this past weekend included two “marathon” sessions after a week of two or three half-marathon sessions of cleaning up a 120 or so year old white oak that I downed early this year). By the way the lessons are not going to be explicitly applied - glean whatever you glean - this is all about “reader response.”

1. a splitter will reveal any weak points in a log… pressure has a way of pointing out flaws

2. when falling a tree foresight and forward thinking are not optional

3. stacking firewood is not a solo sport

4. good firewood that makes for efficient fuel is often not easy to split

5. if at all possible… read the grain and go with it

6. every piece of wood has a story to tell… a tale of age and location; a tale of hardship and visitors - it is worth taking the time every once in a while to stop and listen

7. from tree standing to firewood stacked - it takes a lot of individual handling!! (more than I care to actually count - sometimes mystery or ignorance really is best)

8. from my wife - don’t short circuit all the handling by carrying multiple pieces - the carrying of each individual log multiple times from place to place helps remove the foreign matter

9. finding a logs niche in the pile is both serendipity and art

any other wood stackers out there? any other lessons learned?