Stacking Firewood UP

Stacking Firewood

As promised, here is my regurgitation about stacking firewood; a topic of vital importance for us North Woods men, as will become apparent from even a casual perusal of the following.

As you must know, stacking firewood is the last step in a lengthy process in acquiring a supply of that which is a treasured accompaniment to cocktails or wine during winter evenings spent indoors with a good friend. Of course, I’m talking about sitting next to a cheery fire that helps one forget that snow is piling up outdoors.

The process for a dedicated woodsman begins by selecting trees, cutting them down, sawing the logs, splitting the chunks into a size suitable for the wood stove, transporting the wood to the rick and finally, stacking the finished product for drying and subsequent use. It is an up and down process.

The trees are cut DOWN, logs are sawed UP, the sawed pieces are split DOWN to firewood size, gathered UP, sorted and transported, then finally stacked in the rick with the trust that in a year or two the firewood will be ready to burn. A foul UP on any step of the process can ruin the entire effort, resulting in poor quality fires and ruined friendships during winter evenings with beer instead of wine by the fire. A single example of a sorry foul-UP will suffice.

An unnamed North Woods man of my acquaintance decided to acquire his firewood using the process that I described above. He had a large supply of dead and dying trees in his part of the north woods and a suitable wood rick, but little else in the way of qualifications for the project. He went to the store to buy a chainsaw. The salesman had a large inventory of saws. The salesman told my friend that he recommended the top-of-the line saw, saying that the saw would save time and money since he could saw UP ten cords of firewood in one day by using the top-of-the line saw. My friend was convinced. He purchased the top-of-the-line chainsaw. He took the saw home and, anxious to begin his project, began cutting DOWN trees that very afternoon. He worked hard, but by dinner time, he estimated that he had sawed UP only a single cord of firewood.

He decided that he needed to start early the following day to achieve the ten-cord result the salesman promised. He began work the following morning at nine AM sharp. [Like me, he is retired]. He worded steadily all day long until nap time followed by cocktail hour. [Like me, he is retired and approximately my age]. After cocktails, he went outdoors to survey his work results. He was no-where close to the ten-cord result promised by the salesman. He decided to return the chainsaw to the store and ask about his disappointing results thus far.

The following day he left home early and arrived at the chainsaw store about 10AM [like me, he is retired]. The salesman seemed surprised at his inferred complaint about the result of his work. “Let me see the saw,” he asked. My friend handed him the elaborate carrying case that came with the expensive chainsaw. “It looks like new,” the salesman said as he pulled the cord to operate the engine.

“What is that noise?” my friend asked as the engine fired UP.

So, back to stacking firewood.

Rule #1. Stack the firewood so it doesn’t fall down. That means having all the stacked pieces about the same size and laid in such a way that the pieces can nestle together. I can’t describe what this means but you’ll know it when you see it. (See also Rule # 2)

Rule #2. Stack the wood with plenty of air space to allow the wood to dry before use. Make the void around each layer of wood large enough so a mouse can pass thru the stack but small enough so the cat chasing after him is unable

Rule # 3. Don’t stack pieces that are too heavy on the top. (Also see rule #4)

Rule #4 [The most important of all the rules] Don’t stack the firewood higher than the wife can reach. Explain that you’ll pour the wine while she keeps the wood bin filled. Offer to help her with her coat while she treks outdoors to the wood rick.

    

Bill's Wood Rick

For those of you unskilled in the ways of the North Woods, a wood rick is a storage shed for firewood. Ricks are required, of course, for those of us who think sitting in front of a wood stove in the winter is suitable entertainment for weekends while snow builds up to impossible depths in winter. My old rick had become an embarrassment. It was too small, leaning precariously, and most shameful of all, it allowed snow and rain to occasionally contaminate my supply of firewood. And so, it was thus I found myself this spring, with my supply of firewood reduced, and the shameful condition of my old rick, virtually forced to construct a new rick if I wanted to continue calling myself a North Woods Man.

As winter’s snow began to diminish, I began to plan construction of a new rick. But the new rick would be different than my old one. I would build it larger, (big enough to accommodate a year’s supply of firewood), and straighter, (maybe I would even use a level to begin construction). And so, as winter’s snow began to diminish in mid-March, I began building my brand-new rick, [using old lumber that I salvaged from my old rick, of course], but with a plan this time, involving use of a level, concrete blocks and, wonder of wonders, plywood and shingles to keep out snow and rain instead of the more customary blue plastic tarps.

Here I am in the final stages of construction.

Surprisingly, the rick was strong enough to support my weight on the roof. The job of shingling the roof was temporarily interrupted by a snowfall that lasted two weeks into April. As the calendar plodded onward, I finally finished the building the rick and began the job of filling it with a new supply of firewood. Here I am with the rick about 1/3 full of oak firewood for next winter.

Stay tuned for my next blog as I explain about the critical nature of stacking firewood for retrieval next winter.

Saving Snow

So, here’s a quiz to test your knowledge of carbon dioxide emissions. See the answers at the end of this piece.

1.       What is the carbon footprint of the average American?

a.       10,000 pounds per year

b.       25,000 ppy

c.       50,000 ppy

d.       100,000 ppy

2.       By comparision, the footprint of an average world citizen is:

a.       40,000 ppy

b.       36,000 ppy

c.       20,000 ppy

d.       8,000 ppy

3.       Eating one vegetarian meal per week would save an amount of carbon emissions equivalent to driving the following number of miles in your vehicle.

a.       1,160

b.       1,050

c.       870

d.       750

4.       Washing your clothes on the ‘cold’ cycle of your machine can save the following pounds of carbon emissions.

a.       ½ to 5

b.       1 to 14

c.       3 to 18

d.       10 to 20

5.       Many Italians have fewer carbon emissions on wash day by hanging clothing outside to dry. How many Italians own clothes dryers?

a.       50%

b.       25%

c.       5%

d.       1%

Saving Snow

What does any of this have to do with saving snow? Plenty. Scientists around the world are convinced that the piddling amounts of snow that has fallen in recent years results from our practice of using the atmosphere as a colossal junk yard for man-made emissions.

But, you may say, what about the debate on this issue? In fact, there is no debate. Ninety seven percent of scientists who study such matters reported their agreement in a 2013 study of 12,000  papers on climate science published since 1990. The only faint echo of a debate comes from politicians who receive bribes, (make that campaign contributions) from energy industry companies or their lobbyists.

I watched a documentary last night about this topic. The film showed the struggles of American cities located in northern areas where snow is a large part of their economies due to downhill skiing, Nordic skiing and other activities that depend upon on snow. The film reported on the projects undertaken by several U.S. communities that seek to limit hydrocarbon emissions. Most are showing favorable results and many believe they can become energy independent within the next two decades, despite the current political climate. It was an encouraging report provided by the Roscommon Chapter of the Citizens Climate Lobby. Their message seems to be that if we work together, even with small changes like those hinted at by the test, we can make big improvements. It makes sense to me. Write your congressman if you want to see improvements in our air quality.

Test answers: 1.) 50,000 pounds  2.) 8,000 pounds  3.)1,160 miles  4,) 1 to 14 pounds  5.) 5%

Celebrating Michigan’s Conservation Roots

Celebrating Michigan’s Conservation Roots

DNR makes plans to commemorate 115th anniversary of state’s first tree nursery, 85th anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps

The following is my condensation of a Michigan Department of Natural Resources publication written by DNR employee Tobi Voigt. I found the publication so compelling that I wanted to share it with you.

In 1903, a team of workers under the direction of newly appointed State Forest Warden Filibert Roth came to Roscommon County. Roth and his men looked over a barren area; the north shore of one of Michigan’s premier body’s of water known as Higgins Lake, named for one of the state’s early surveyors. The land had been cut over by lumbermen and there was little remaining beyond tree stumps of a forest that covered the sandy soil in the northern edge of Roscommon County. Roth and his men were assigned the job of replanting the forest. Within a year, Roth and his workers had planted 43 pounds of seed, representing 12 different pine species.

It was a difficult job with uneven progress. Roth wrote in his first official report, “Considerable damage was done to the seed beds by birds but far more by the ordinary striped gopher which proved quite a pest, and in spite of a shotgun, (he) completely destroyed all seeds of nut and sugar pine and much of white pine,”

Nonetheless, more than 600,000 seedlings were thriving in 1904 and, by 1906, Roth’s team had successfully cultivated 27 species of trees. Twenty years later, the nursery was shipping 22 million seedlings across the state and nation every year, and the new forest was growing.

Reforestation was hard, manual labor in those days, and in 1933, a new labor force arrived on the scene – the Civilian Conservation Corps. A New Deal program created during the Great Depression by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the CCC employed young men in many public-works projects, including “the prevention of forest fires, floods, soil erosion, plant, pest and disease control.”

By July 1, of 1933, the CCC initiative had put 274,375 young men, aged 17 to 25, to work in more than 1,300 camps across the nation, improving state and national forests. Eventually, there would be 2,650 camps scattered all over the country.

In Michigan, thousands of recruits planted trees and fought forest fires across the northern Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula. In 1933, those stationed at the Higgins Lake CCC Camp began working at the tree nursery, which was not far from the camp.

During 1933, about 10 million trees, chiefly pine and spruce, were planted on 17,656 acres of cutover state land in Michigan. State officials said enough miles of truck trails were built during the initial year or so of the CCC program in Michigan to reach from Lansing to Jacksonville, Florida, and back.

In 2013, the 80th anniversary of the CCC, Marquette author Larry Chabot told The Mining Journal the boys enrolled learned self-discipline, and how to work and live in groups and gained confidence with increasing skills and training.

“Parents were often stunned when the boys came home. One woman told me that when her brother came home from camp, they didn't recognize him,” Chabot said. “Over and over, the CCC boys were heard to say, ‘This was the best time of my life’ or ‘This was the best thing that ever happened to me.’”

By 1942, when the CCC program ended, Michigan workers had planted 484 million trees, more than twice the amount of any other state.

From the ashes of devastating fires and the cutover pine days, Michigan’s seeds of a sustained regenerative forestry campaign were sown in the northern Lower Peninsula at North Higgins Lake, first with the early efforts of the Michigan Forestry Commission and a generation later with the help of Roosevelt’s Tree Army.

Today, Michigan has 20 million acres of forest lands, with the state ranking first in the nation in pine acreage, third in hardwood. Almost 6 million acres of Michigan forests are certified as sustainably managed.

The DNR continues to plant over 5 million pine seedlings each year.

“Michigan’s forests, the diverse forest products industry, and the natural resources that sustain it are among the best in the nation,” said DNR Forest Resources Division Chief Debbie Begalle. “In addition to supplying the wood for the products people rely on, Michigan’s forest land provides important wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, and plays a critical role in supporting the state’s regional and rural economic health for thousands of residents.”

Doughnuts

Doughnuts

I like doughnuts. I think they are best with coffee. Especially in the morning. But late morning is also good. When I have to drive long distances, there is nothing I like to do better than to stop early in the trip and purchase coffee and doughnuts ‘to go.’ It makes the trip a whole lot shorter to munch on doughnuts while watching the miles slide by.

The other times I like doughnuts are just before bedtime. My digestive system seems to need something to help me go to sleep at night; nothing does quite so well in sending me off to dreamland than a glass of milk, accompanied, of course, with a doughnut.

Actually, I think just about anytime is a good time for a doughnut. Today, for example, our power went off early in the morning. We wandered around the house for awhile, trying to grope our way to the bathroom and other essential places in the dark. Then one of us, I can’t remember if it was me or my favorite live-in companion, suggested making a trip to town to see if anyone in business had power. So, we did. Nearly all the shops were closed because of no power. To our surprise, our local purveyor of doughnuts was open, ready to sell us each a doughnut, which we couldn’t resist. Just so you don’t think I am fixated exclusively on doughnuts, I should tell you that we also ended up purchasing two fritters that we promised each other not to eat until tomorrow.

So, what is my beef that prompts me to write about doughnuts? My problem is spelling. As a wordsmith, I am obliged to warn that many people and businesses are polluting our language by no longer calling them by their rightful name, doughnuts, a perfectly appropriate name since they are made mostly from dough and sugar. Instead, our hurry-up society has found a shortcut; donuts. I think this name became popular when one of my favorite purveyors “Dunkin Donuts” began making signs all across the country that listed their products as ‘donuts.’ I believe the word doughnuts was too big for their signs.

The problem with donut is that it sounds too close to ‘don’t (eat) nuts.’ This is an anathema to me since one of my favorites is a nutty doughnut, although I like just about every kind of doughnut.

Sadly, doughnuts have a bad press. I think the medical profession in America is responsible. They seem to think that a product loaded with fat and sugar is bad for us. Especially for one of advanced age like me. I think it has more to do with the upbringing that most doctors were subjected to. My theory is that all doctors had demanding mothers who told them at least a thousand times, ‘don’t eat that, its not good for you.’ Not eating doughnuts must have been high on their list of things to avoid since they are difficult to make at home.

You probably don’t know what the Hippocratic Oath is: You know, that oath that all doctors have to swear that they will always tell their patients about. I don’t know what it is either, but I believe it has something to do with fat and sugar and doughnuts and arteries, and it says something like they heard from their mothers “If you eat this, you will begin to look like a hippopotamus.” At least, that’s my theory and I’m sticking with it.

Last Campout

Camping (Driving) Downstate

“I’m gonna retire up north and drive slow” – an old, but popular                        bumper sticker on cars from south-eastern Michigan

We used to live in Oakland County, Michigan. We lived in and around Pontiac and then Clarkston, Michigan, both suburbs in the automotive-dominated area of Oakland County. The County was populous when we lived there, and it seems to have grown further since my retirement. Since much of our family lives there, we occasionally camp at Pontiac Lake Recreation Area. We camped there last weekend and made two trips by car from the campsite to visit our family. On both trips, the traffic was extraordinarily heavy, and people drove too fast for my taste.

We enjoyed the wonderful fall weather during this, our last campout for the season. The only negative to our trip was the required driving to and from the campground. The traffic was horrendous. On each of the trips I made by car, I had two impatient drivers blow their horns at me because I was driving too slowly to suit them. This, in spite of the fact that the traffic was so heavy none of us could make much headway. I soon learned that to drive in Oakland County is to take your life in your hands. The traffic was so heavy I was forced to merge into traffic in a space approximately one inch larger than my truck. My strategy was to turn on my blinker, start to move to the next lane and then close my eyes. I learned this technique from other drivers doing the same. After returning to the campground, I met a man and asked him about changing lanes. He said he didn’t know as he had never been able to change lanes in normal daytime traffic. He said he once drove for two days straight because he couldn’t change lanes to get to an exit.

Not satisfied with his answer, I asked another camper for his advice in changing lanes. His advice was equally disconcerting. He said the only thing that worked for him was to buy the car in the next lane.

On my second trip from the campground, I decided that the appropriate driving technique was to ‘floor’ the accelerator after each stop, and also wherever the stop light turned green, no matter what my speed was. This strategy, of course, requires one to slam on the brakes whenever a red light flashes. The strategy seemed to work; other drivers quit blowing their horns at me, but my neck got tired from snapping back and forth with the brakes and accelerator.

After our campout, I was happy to get home to my part of the world where driving is much easier. We have less traffic and more patient drivers. In fact, our drivers sometimes stop in the middle of the road if they need to. Nobody cares.

I checked the internet to learn if others feel as I do about driving in congested areas. I learned that I am not alone. One man said that you can sit on congested highways forever. In fact, he said, some places have exit ramps where you can pull over and make a car payment. Another man said that congested highways have become insane asylums with turn signals. That seems about right to me.

Now that I have finished this piece, I think I’ll go for a drive and park on the road somewhere.

Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering

I have never been particularly outspoken concerning my politics. It has seemed to me that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, me included, no matter how screwy those opinions may be. Unfortunately, some folks become annoyed when your opinions differ from theirs. Accordingly, I generally keep my own counsel in discussions of politics (unless, of course, I happen to know that a brilliant conversationalist like you agrees with me).

It may thus surprise you that I have agreed to assist a “political” project aimed at revising the Michigan Constitution. The project is an effort to put language on the next state-wide ballot that will prohibit gerrymandering. Don’t know what gerrymandering is? That’s no surprise. Our politicians hope that you don’t know. It’s another egregious example of politicians finding ways to take advantage of voters. Here is a quick review.

Elections are handled by states, that is, the rules and laws covering elections are established by state legislatures. Let’s say that in Michigan a new party wins an election by a slim majority. Since this new political party has captured the most seats in their legislature, they are able to set the boundaries of voting districts that define local political races. They simply propose and then approve a new state law that defines those boundaries. Of course, the new boundaries are beneficial to their party and injurious to the old party that just lost the election. What the new party does is establish new boundaries that have nothing to do with geography but everything to do with how many voters from each party live in a particular area. Their object is to insure that in the next election, their party will have a majority of voters in as many districts as possible. Nowadays, politicians have powerful computer programs that can predict voting trends everywhere in an entire state. With this knowledge, it’s a simple matter to define new boundaries for each voting district to their advantage. It’s like politicians choosing their voters instead of voters choosing their politicians.

That, in a nutshell, is gerrymandering. It has become a political force that can turn the tide of elections. Once a party becomes dominant in a state, it is very difficult to dislodge them. Of course, your local party headquarters doesn’t talk about such things. If you would like to learn more, consult the following web page; votersnotpoliticians.com/ Michigan.

One of my friends told me about the Michigan effort to defeat gerrymandering. I was hooked after reading the web page and so now I am a Circulator, promoting a petition to outlaw gerrymandering by changing Michigan’s Constitution. I see it as our chance to teach the politicians a lesson.