While it would be nice to be lazing at the beach, such a luxury does not exist for me.

I’m not complaining about the work being done, but being honest. The work in question is getting more wood for our wood stove.

Owning a wood stove is great, but it’s a lot of work. Sure, you could buy your wood from someone else who has cut, chopped and dried it. But doing so would mean paying as much yearly as you would for regular heating methods.

Another option is to cut wood on your property, if you have a lot of trees growing on your property. My friend in Canada does that because he has lots of trees, it helps keep the forest thinned properly and it’s convenient for getting the wood. I don’t have that option.

When I find wood I take it and today was a good day. The big pieces in the front are robinia pseudoacacia or black locust wood. It cuts well, it chops easily and it burns well. Those are great characteristics in a wood.

The majority of the wood is oak. It’s heavy and burns great. But oak can be tough to chop so I try to get smaller pieces. Also, heavy wood burns nice but it’s not good in early fall or late spring because it burns so hot. In early fall/late spring we need a fire to get rid of the chill and not burn for hours, so a lighter wood is better.

Three hours work this morning resulted in this good pile of wood. This will be for next winter so I’m thankful to start preparing already. If I can get 2 or 3 more loads like this, I’ll be good for next winter and I won’t have to think about it all summer.

And speaking of summer, that’s when I’ll hopefully be hitting the beach. In Japan!