Turning misfortune to Fortune…
Firewood from Hurricane Irma. After Hurricane Irma came through over the weekend of September 9th and 10th, numerous trees were downed throughout the area. I have never seen this many trees uprooted since living up here. Streets were blocked roads were cluttered with branches and our driveway was blocked by a 115′ fallen pine.
I needed to cut this pine so we could have access to the outside of our property. Without electricity our electric chainsaw was useless, so I got out the bow saw and began cutting. Once I had cleared enough for us to exit the property, I took a drive to witness the widespread damage.
Next year’s firewood!
As I drove around I saw a great opportunity for next year’s firewood! This first ‘recon’ helped me locate the most devastated places where trees had been downed. By this time work crews and homeowners began cutting the large trees into smaller pieces for pickup. I was fortunate enough to have located a home in Melrose, about 17 miles North of us, that had cut and stacked several large oak trees.
I made several trips to this location with my Ford Ranger and loaded it as full as I could, stacking the wood along the fence. By the fourth trip, I was beaten and figured I had enough wood to last 2 seasons! I couldn’t use this initial load this winter due to it being too fresh and knew it had to season for at least a year.
Fortunately, one of my paddling friends gave me a call and said his neighbor had several trees that were down and needed them hauled away. I went on over.
I was in luck on this trip! The trees that were downed by the hurricane were already dead trees. My friend cut them up and we hauled them over to Tranquilla Cove in the truck, providing us with ready-to-use firewood for this winter!
Our main heating source for the house is a Vermont Castings Encore 1450 wood stove. We usually have mild winters with around 5 freezes and burn a chord of wood each season, so this was perfect!
