A Cord

We've learned a lot since we've been in Alaska. There are many things that, as a Californian, you'd never come-across in your daily routine. Today's latest "lecture" is about firewood.

First, let me say that burning firewood can drastically increase the heat in a cold house, and severely cut down on the high costs of fuel oil. But, how do you get wood? Where do you get wood? Everyone here on the island has STACKS of wood piled up outside their houses...where did they get it???

Chris and I have been on the "hunt" for wood for about a month or two. Wal-Mart sells small bundles of wood for $8.00, and one of those bundles will last you about 2-4 hours. Often times Wal-Mart will be sold out of wood, so we're left to rely on our small electric space heaters for those cold nights.

There is one company on the island that sells large quantities of wood -- They're called "cords" of wood. A cord of wood will cover the space of a pallet, stacked about 8 feet high...it's A LOT of wood. So, this ONE company on the island (Yes, there is only one company that sells wood) that actually sells cords of wood only sells "green wood." This has been another learning lesson.

What is "green wood"? Well...green wood hasn't been dried and is freshly cut from the tree. This matters because green wood doesn't burn well in a fireplace; it does, however, do really well in wood-burning stoves. We have a fireplace. This company was going to sell us a cord-and-a-half of green wood, which may or may not burn in our fireplace. (Wood-burning stoves get hotter than a regular fireplace, which is why green wood will burn in a stove and not in a fireplace.)

We kept looking for wood, and we were able to find a local man who sells "seasoned" wood. Seasoned wood is another word for "dried" wood. It has been dried for 7 months and is ideal for fireplace burning.

Over the weekend we got our cord delivery of seasoned wood. It took a few hours, but Chris, and a friend of his from work, stacked our new found heat-source against the house to prepare us for the winter. Gosh, I just hope this stack will last us through the season.

PS - That stack in the picture is about 6 feet high and 10-12 feet across.