It's hard to put into words the feeling of cutting up wood for winter heat. It's hard work, but it's satisfying. You are out in the fresh air, and putting some of your assets to good use. You're saving yourself a pretty good chunk of money, but it's more than that.
Say there are five months of the year that require heat. That's about 3,600 hours, 216,000 minutes. We burn roughly 15 pieces of wood a day during the cold season. That means we need about 2,250 pieces to get us through. These calculations, believe it or not, are usually in the back of your mind when you are out cutting. You feel like you are somehow accounting for future warmth every time you saw off a log; here's 15 minutes, there's an hour's worth. Driving down from the woodlot with a truck full of maple, the thought goes through your head; how much did I get this time, a week's worth maybe? I've never felt the tangible presence of time as much as I do when sawing up wood for winter.
My friend Dharman, who's now a Zen priest, used to cut his own wood. He said there are many activities in life where the goal or purpose is uncertain. When he was cutting up his wood supply, however, there was never any doubt about why he was doing it.
I have to say, I really enjoyed this post. A lot of thought went into it, not to mention some number crunching and a picture upload! It's nice to make some use out of some trees that would have otherwise be slowly rotting in the woods eventually.
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