Wood Keeps the Home Fires Burning

Family’s toil ensured a wood pile that would stand up to fierce winter weather.

By Clell G. Ballard
Published on September 27, 2021
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by Clell G. Ballard
In areas like ours, where deep winter snow is common, a wood heat back-up is essential.

Much more than urban dwellers, farm folks make an effort to be self-sufficient. There are two good reasons for that. First is the fact that the basics of life are dealt with on a day-by-day basis. After all, agriculture and what it produces is the basis of all life.

Second, living some distance from modern conveniences, farmers are responsible for those things themselves at least part of the time. If you are totally dependent on electrical service, disruptions in power supply – a regular part of life in rural areas – can be devastating.

The tried-and-true method of making sure one’s home has a heat source independent of the power grid is to have a wood-burning stove. No matter what happens with the weather – extreme cold, high winds or ice storms that take down power lines, or deep snow that isolates a person from outside help – a stack of firewood close at hand means adequate comfort, protection from frozen water pipes and ability to prepare food.

In isolated places, like the home where we lived when raising our family, we decided that, even though our log home was equipped to burn stove oil for heat, we would use wood exclusively. A person can, for a reasonable fee, purchase a permit to cut firewood in the Sawtooth National Forest that is close enough that we can travel there, cut a truckload of wood and get back home in one day. We always took our World War II U.S. Army trucks because they have 4-wheel drive and shrug off any damage that modern vehicles would experience when having to go through heavy brush to reach available wood to cut.

Operating with a built-in workforce

No matter what an activity is, in our country people have strongly held beliefs as to which of two choices is best. When it comes to firewood, in our area some swear that fir is the best for heat. Since we don’t have hardwood forests, it usually comes down to that or the more common pine. Since fir trees are much less available for harvest and pine trees are more easily accessed, we always cut and burned pine.

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