Winter heat for the Farmhouse and Workshop

	Firewood is cut in wintertime for the following winter. We estimate our "woodlot" at 3 to 5 acres, about half of which is on this hillside. The other half consists of long hedgerows along hayfield and pasture edges, and also the edges of swamp land.
Our 1963 Ford tractor and its new trailer haul in green wood for stacking near the farmhouse. As seasoned wood is burned, green wood replaces it, so that the long stack of wood always remains in the same place.
	Hedge rows need continual attention to keep young trees and large shrubs from extending into the open fields. Cutting and stacking the wood on the spot is the best way to begin drying it immediately. It does not get overlooked and forgotten on the ground, either, when it's at a remote location.
The farmland has a good natural diversity of tree species. The most common are Red Maple, White Ash, Swamp White Oak and Sugar Maple. We also cut occasional Black Birches, Black Cherries, Shagbark and Pignut Hickories, Red Oaks and Buckthorns. A deliberate firewood planting of over 100 Green Ash trees will become available to us in another couple of decades.
	We use an 18-inch chain saw to fell trees, to trim off low sagging branches, and to clean up occasional windfall trees. All of our wood is hand split with a splitting maul, axe or heavy hatchet. The wood is both cut and split paying attention to the dimensions of our various stoves.
In late winter and during the month of March, the wood is stacked near the farmhouse in a way that can be easily measured. The firewood averages 16 inches in length, and the stack is 4 feet high. 24 running feet of this stack equals 128 cubic feet, or one cord. We cut and stack 3½ to 4 cords for the following winter. The zig-zag stack to the right contains about 3 cords. Every day from October into April, two to four woodstoves are kept burning warmly.

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