Making a Holzhausen Woodpile

Tom's been busy getting our wood cut and split for next winter. We are being efficient, which is how we do things here at the Nickel and Dime Ranch--not.

Normally we just wander around the place,  look for dead trees and downed branches, cut them up and that's it. The wood is dry and we're ready to go. This stuff is still resinous, smells like the wonderful pine it is, and will need to set awhile to be ready for next year.

We could have just pitched the split wood into a pile like this. It would have dried nicely just as it is since our humidity is sometimes as low as 6 percent. Here's an example of how dry it is here: Sometimes the wind blows so hard it sounds like an airport or like ocean waves on a crazy day. Miss Bonnie the cat must have had a traumatic weather incident and didn't want to use her litter box on the enclosed porch, so we recently found six small desiccated cat poops behind the closet door. No odor, hard as rocks. That's how dry it is here.

Anyway, my job is to stack this wood, and someone suggested a round woodpile. I did a little research and found several videos and articles about holzhausen, a German-style woodpile that looked pretty cool. So, why not?

The pile is about 8 feet across and I started with some wood to mark the circle.

Then I started going round the circle.

This reminds me of something prehistoric man would make. The center gets filled with wood, too, helping to stabilize the outer wood.

Here I am throwing wood into the center of the woodpile. It's good exercise, kind of like my own CrossFit gym.

As I build up the wall on the outside,  I add more wood to the middle.

It's kind of pretty, don't you think?

Ms. Pearl has had a day, so she needs to rest after all that supervision.  Next month will be her 13th birthday!

I suspect we have enough wood for more than one holzhausen, but we will see how this one goes before I commit to another one.

Wood is Wealth

A while back I wrote about wood and how important it is in Northern New Mexico. To Tom, Wood Equals Wealth. He says Chuck and Rick, his old friends, would understand. Even at our old Corona place we burned wood for heat and when we recently read of a ban on fireplace burning in the Corona area, Tom said, "We would have frozen if that happened while we were living there." Well, we wouldn't have frozen, but it would have been as cold as a well digger's butt in our little Temescal Canyon stone house.

There's no ban on burning here, which is good since many people rely totally on wood for their heat and it's a lot colder here in the winter than in SoCal.

 I don't know why we need such a stockpile, but I guess if we have room, why the heck not?

The first year we were here we applied for a forest cutting permit, but never used it since we had plenty of down and dead wood on our place.

Our place when we first moved in, pre wood piles

The trees that look dead here aren't really, it's just winter time and they are dormant.

Still, we've found plenty of dead trees that need cutting up and since Tom is up to the task, he cuts them up, hauls them home and we have free heating. You can't beat that.

Last year Tom and Z cut down this tree because it was diseased. When Z came for this year's Thanksgiving visit, they planned to cut it up, but the chainsaw was out of commission so Z dodged the wood cutting bullet.

The chainsaw is back in action now, so here's Tom doing his logger duties. When he cuts wood, Ms. P and I go along, too, in case events were to go terribly wrong. The helmet keeps his face safe from flying bits and has built in ear protectors.  I like his woodcutter chaps, don't you?

Ms. Pearl and I aren't totally useless, though. I helped lift those logs into the Ranger.

Off in the distance look closely and there are The Lazy Boyz, Roman and Buffalo, soaking up the sun, well fed and content.

Tomorrow, something quilty!