My Beautiful Girlfriend and I bought a\nhome here in Bear Swamp back in 1982. In those days, for the\nexorbitant price of $36,900 we were able to purchase a 1940 vintage\nhome with 5 acres of land. We probably could have done a little more\nresearch before buying. For example, as I mentioned, we live in a\nquaint area known to the old timers as Bear Swamp. We bought the\nplace in the summer, when the two creeks that traverse the property\nwere flowing nicely, the grass was nice and green, and the basement\nwas dry. \u201cDid you ever get water in the basement?\u201d we asked the\nsellers. \u201cNo, no\u201d they replied, \u201cno problems.\u201d The\nfollowing spring brought lots of snow melt that made the creek REALLY\nwide. And something strange happened: water in the basement. Just\nenough to let us know we live in a… um… swamp. And these folks\ndidn’t even bother with a sump pump!! We fixed that of course…\nstill get a little water that comes up through the cracks in the\nconcrete, but not nearly as much as before the sump pump was\ninstalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking back I also remember asking,\n\u201cheater works well?\u201d we queried. \u201cOh yeah, keeps us nice and\nwarm in the winter.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well that’s nice. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Winter came, and our \u00bd tankful of fuel\noil was gone rather quickly. No biggie… didn’t really know what to\nexpect. We filled the tank, and it was gone again in less than a\nmonth. Not so good!! Fortunately, the chimney was originally built\nfor a coal furnace, so I knew it would be OK for firewood. Got us a\ncheapie wood stove and started burning wood. Lots more work, but\nsaved us a bunch of cash. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since I work for a living, I don’t want\nto spend all my free time cutting wood; so we buy most of it. Lots\nof folks out there who want to sell us firewood. Some are better\nthan others. Now my Dad kept me and my brother very busy with\nfirewood when we were kids; so I know a little bit about this wood\nheating stuff. One of the cardinal rules: seasoned (dry) wood works\nthe best. Sounds like a no-brainer right? And lots of folks say\nthey have seasoned wood for sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With wood suppliers, we’ve had good\nluck and we’ve had bad luck. Good luck is when we get nicely\nseasoned wood, predominantly oak; nice clean load of logs. That’s\nthe kind of luck we’ve had for the last couple years; but this past\ntime we got about 40 % oak and 60% beech. Oh, and we also got at\nleast 2 cubic yards of soil that I don’t recall ordering. Apparently\nthe front end loader they used to scoop up my wood went just a smidge\ntoo deep. I was not very happy when I literally had to use a shovel\nto get some of the logs out of the pile. And when I bring the logs\nin the house for the fireplace (actually a furnace with glass doors\nand fake bricks for pretty), it’s pretty dirty and leaves a nice\nlittle mess. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Really bad luck<\/strong><\/em>\nis one of those \u201clearning the hard way\u201d experiences. We ran out\nof wood a couple of winters ago, so I found a guy who said he had\nsome nice, seasoned oak. Well the wood was green, and about 10% of\nthe logs were full of ants. Can’t really bring logs full of ants in\nthe house… they crawl around while wondering what the heck happened\nto their home (poor kids…). Well guess what? After exhausting\nall the logs from the dirt pile, I answered a Craig’s List ad for\nseasoned oak. Called the guy and he knew who I was!! Then he told\nme who he<\/em><\/strong>\nwas, and I was apprehensive. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo…\nyour ad says this is seasoned oak? Ready to burn?\u201d I asked. \n\u201cYep!\u201d he assured me. So I went ahead and bought two cords. He\ndelivered it after dark, so I didn’t get a good look at it. I did\nnotice it was a bit heavy; and the following day I realized why. \nGreen wood. And just like last time, about 10% of the logs were full\nof ants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So\nthis year our wood stove started out eating dirt logs; and when the\ndirt logs were gone I started roasting ants. I know it sounds cruel\nto burn the ants. Seriously, my spirit hurts when I embark upon the\nselfish journey of heating my home with ant infested logs. I keep\nthe logs just outside the door and bring them in only when they can\ngo straight into the fire. And I say a little prayer for the ants. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Needless to say, two of our local firewood suppliers have lost my business. I bet they don’t even know the log driver’s waltz!<\/p>\n\n\n\n