We burn wood for heat. Come about now, when the heat is enough to make Sterling question why on earth we’re cutting wood for heat, we start cutting for next winter. So when Blaine read a CraigsList ad from a family who had a bunch of trees that need to come down, we started on our quest. Saturday, Blaine cut the first tree down, changed a flat trailer tire, and we brought a trailer load of wood home. He fixed the tire when we got home.
Tonight, we were headed back to get the rest of the tree. With the new to us (but most definitely not new-new) trailer behind my big van and Blaine in the pickup, with plans to get the rest of the tree, we headed out. I made it less that 1/4 of a mile before the other (not recently fixed) trailer tire made a tell-tale hiss that spoke volumes about it’s incapability to serve. Shredded. Sighing at the inevitable hiccups a new apparatus is bound to have, Blaine dragged the trailer home and we went with Plan B. Or Plan ZR257, or whichever plan we’re currently trying out.
I took the van, he took the pickup, and we figured that at least I can help load the truck so he’d be done sooner. He still had the whole tree trunk to cut up, so this was a long process.
He made it all the way to town before his pickup’s tailpipe fell off the pickup at both ends, attached only by the wire he’d put on it when he’d noticed it’s low status on Saturday.
Oh yes. Did I mention his tailpipe fell off? Liberty was laughing at the irony of his pickup bumper sticker, “I have a Leatherman. I can help.” I thought it might be good to get one that says something to the uses of duct tape on the other side of the bumper.
Blaine removed the tailpipe in the Pizza Inn parking lot, and we headed out again. The pickup was loaded to weight capacity and all but groaning at the weight of it in the pickup’s old age. When I realized we were six tree trunk logs away from getting the whole tree, I cringed.
“Fine. Put them in my van.”
And so, my trusty 1-ton 12 passenger van hauled a good portion of a tree and seven passengers home tonight. Tomorrow, it’s getting a good vacuum and scrub job. Poor thing.
Don’t you just hate when something tears up when you are trying so hard to get finished with what you are doing? BLESS YOU!!!!
Ugh. Trees in the van are a mess! Been there, done that. It’s almost as bad as straw bales.
I’ve thought about heating our house at least partially with wood. We have more wood from downed trees than we can ever burn in campfires.
Charlotte,
It seems like things always go south when we’re crunched for time trying to finish the project. Deep breath… it’ll be okay. Usually. 🙂
In the Coop,
Wow. You are the only other person I know who can say that. We haven’t done straw, but have done hay. They seem equally awful. We heat only with wood – our backup source is broken and we like the wood heat so much we’ve never bothered to fix it. The amount we save on heat has to be huge.