Having lived in South Florida for over twenty years, heat was not a big deal to me. I was warned before buying an old concrete block home that the crawl space underneath would mean hot summers and chilly winters and indeed it did. On a cold winter’s day, I could walk into my backyard and warm up in the sun. We’d bundle up and use little electric space heaters at night and lots of blankets. The cold usually only lasted a few weeks, so it was not a big deal. In my last year there, I invested in a central air system that included heat and made the house far more comfy. I’d have done it sooner, but every project on that house was $10,000 and I did it in the end with resale value in mind.
Welcome to Missouri. We’d moved up in mid-November 2020. Our temporary rental home was heated by propane, which seems to be the favored heat source up here. Propane businesses are common on the main streets of these little towns; silhouettes of the tanks dot the landscape like so many cattle, low to the ground, large and quiet. The next source of heat, in terms of popularity, is wood burning stoves. We’re cabin owners, so even though our land is thick with trees, we like living in the woods and that can’t be done if it’s all cut down for firewood.
When we were purchasing the cabin, the land came with some little sheds/outbuildings, a few of which were filled with firewood. We asked for the wood to be included as a condition of sale, not knowing where to turn for wood in a small town, while purchasing in December. That was an important step. Based on this year’s wood shopping experience, it wasn’t a matter of hunting around and overpaying for firewood midwinter, I’m not sure if we would have found any.
Since we just moved into starting fires in the stove last year, the correct pre-winter maintenance this year was to sweep the chimney and stove pipe. It was messy, but not bad. We did learn that there are multiple sizes of chimney brushes. I also learned what that little door on the bottom of the chimney is for, scooping out ashes that fall over the course of a season of fires.
One of the new skills I needed for this hunt was shopping on Facebook. I barely dabbled in posting nature pictures and only ever joined the social media monopoly as friends switched their party invitations to Facebook only. Now I needed to learn a new way of shopping. I learned how to limit my searches to our local area (I didn’t want to pay to have firewood shipped from four states away, but that option exists).
Most sellers were so casual and self-assured, offering few details other than the town they were in and that they had wood. This was the country. Could we get our trailer to where the wood was? Definitions of what a road is vary from person to person and vehicle to vehicle. And there’s a whole language around wood: rick, rank and cord also vary from person to person. Until it’s split and stacked in our shed, it would be hard to be sure if we had a good deal. The most one could do if it didn’t work out well is not use that seller again.
“Is the wood seasoned?,” seemed like a straight forward enough question to me, but that is also negotiable. What I meant was, “Can we put it in the stove tonight and have heat without a great deal of coaxing or smoke?” Wood can take a year or longer to season. There were so many variables. My favorite exchange was with someone who posted an ad that read, “Firewood for sale.” It was accompanied by a photo of a large tree by a lake. I messaged them. They explained they were looking for firewood, they already got it and I should do the same?!?!?!
When learning, it’s helpful to look for patterns. It doesn’t matter that a rank is roughly equivalent to a cord. If someone is selling a “rank” for the same price as several other people’s ricks, they are not up on their lumber vocabulary. Some people won’t answer an inquiry for weeks, others never. One woman messaged back to call the number on the ad. There was not a number. After eliminating all of the communication challenges, and people that are taking orders for two months into the future, we had a few good leads.
Our first adventure was positive, which was a set up for the future. A nice couple spent hours helping us load the wood and chatted. They were friendly, gave us insights into their little town, not too far from our own and they had nice, wide roads. Not all of the wood was split, so we rented a wood splitter. I did not have to worry about missing my workout that day. And, I was talked into trying it out, I still have all of my limbs and it wasn’t as scary as I thought.
Another firewood seller delivered a rick, approximately a third of a cord; the max that would fit in the bed of their small pickup truck. We were looking for two cords. We took it to see if it was good with the option to order more, but it was too damp to use this year, so it got stacked for the future.
Our most recent dealings were so strong on communication skills and courtesy, I was hoping for potential business opportunities with them aside from the wood. We headed out and came to a one lane dirt road. We called before we headed down the “road” with no street sign to make sure it was correct and that we’d be able to turn around. We were assured it would be fine. It was rough even for a dirt road. These were a sturdy, off-grid people, friendly as could be and ready to load us up. Their neighbors flew by, inches from our trailer, used to straddling a ditch to get home if someone was parked on the road. Alas, the nice folks who got an A in communication provided us with the quantity and quality of wood that we wanted.
We ran the heater on the wall unit A/C to take the chill off the cabin in the mornings when days were still warm. As nights became even cooler, it was time to fire up the stove for the season. I forgot how cozy it makes the cabin and how quickly it heats it. I filled the big pot with water to put on the stove to keep the air from getting too dry. This cozy, close to nature, semi-living off the land feeling was pretty amazing for us former city folk.
