Popular Post Rick K - First Member Posted December 27, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted December 27, 2020 Enjoying a fire in our fireplace. Thanks to the sun. The dead desert wood we burn is lovely fuel - sparkless, smokeless - if you know how to tend it - and to us - free, as long as I am willing to gather it from the surrounding desert (especially under power lines, where the utilities cut down all the trees which might grow tall enough to touch the lines). As I sit here on Boxing Day evening, enjoying the glow, I am thinking of what is really happening. The sun burns about 5 million tons of hydrogen fuel per second...that makes our planet alive. That is what produced the desert wood I gather and burn. Without that - nothing. The return of the sun - steadily rising in the sky after the Winter Solstice is an event so vital that it is no wonder that almost every human society throughout history has celebrated it with joy and feasting. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delnorter Posted December 27, 2020 Share Posted December 27, 2020 Nice little write up Rick. I’m burning some bone dry oak right now. It really is nice. The winter solstice, always an encouragement. What kind of wood do you mostly gather in the desert? Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick K - First Member Posted December 27, 2020 Author Share Posted December 27, 2020 The most common is Palo Verde. The hottest is Mesquite. My personal favorite is Desert Ironwood. Way too tough to be any fun cutting, but it lasts nearly forever after it dies and the desert is full of dead ironwood trees from decades or longer ago. The really aged ones are slowly termite ridden and gathered can be broken over a sharp edge of a desert stone. Caveman wood. Lights like cardboard and burns quick and hot. Never a spark and no smoke if you manage it. Or course you need wheelbarrow loads of it a day because it’s all eaten up by the termites, but lord - what a beautiful and easy to manage fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike(swWash) Posted December 27, 2020 Share Posted December 27, 2020 I'm sitting here watching my gas fireplace and not having to deal with the ash and such....life is good my friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oneguy Posted December 27, 2020 Share Posted December 27, 2020 Heat 100% with doug fir and lodgepole pine. Got sawdust in my blood from logging most my life so making sawdust cutting firewood is just something I have to do? Love to do it but the body needs a few more breaks...lol The shack with a puff of smoke out the chimney with wood stacked nice and dry behind the shack. Doesn't get any better than that imo. Keep on going till the wheels fall off...!!!!!!! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delnorter Posted December 28, 2020 Share Posted December 28, 2020 Some really nice Douglas Fir that had to be cleared off the highway here in the Siskiyou mountains of Northern California. The hardwoods we like are Tan Oak and Madrone. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim_Alaska Posted December 28, 2020 Share Posted December 28, 2020 It just looks like a whole lot of work to me Mike. My wood cutting days have passed, thankfully. I really like setting the thermostat at a certain temperature and my oil heater holds it right there. Make no mistake, I cut wood for all the 37 years I lived in Alaska, so I have been there. I'll leave it to the younger generation now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UtahRich Posted December 28, 2020 Share Posted December 28, 2020 Rick, Some nice thoughts there. My wife and I are sitting here with a fire going in the wood burning stove. Makes for a cozy evening when the temps drop. It's 19* (F) outside at the moment and moving lower. Certainly not as cold as our friends further North, but cool enough to chill the bones. The ice fisherman have been out on the lake for a few weeks now. Plenty of 'free' firewood around as well as that available with an inexpensive permit from the Forest Service. Rich - 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oneguy Posted December 28, 2020 Share Posted December 28, 2020 Delnorter... In '74 I fell redwood down there for a short time, guy got killed and boss shut us down while the Osha did their thing, came back home. I'd cut tan oak and madrone on Fridays after work for drinking dough on the side. NICE Doug you got there!!!! Jim... Spent one season falling timber ('84) on Chicagof Is. up there...wet and miserable but some big assed Spruce up there!!! Keep on going till the wheels fall off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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