“Observations from the Woodpile”

Jeff Yocum

Prologue

Observations from the Woodpile” is a collection of essays bundled together and given as a birthday present for my wife, Nancy, in 1997. Twenty-seven years have passed since the collection was given. The two main subjects of the essays, my sons Justus and Jacob, have grown into men with families of their own.

Next Winter’s Wood

We moved into our house the day after Thanksgiving in 1991. The house did not have a heating system except for four fireplaces and one wood stove. There was not a stick of firewood on the property . Fortunately, some friends gave us a half cord of firewood as a housewarming gift. The first construction project we did was to install electric heaters throughout the house. As I recall, I spent many nights buried under a pile of blankets doubting the wisdom of our home investment.

We bumped along that winter scavenging wood wherever we could wi thout having to break up the furniture. The following fall we had enough wood for the upcoming winter. By spring, the woodshed was nearly empty. The wood was adequate although it hissed a lot as it burned, and it took con siderable effort to get a cold stove started. The wood had not seasoned properly.

By the next fall, the woodshed was full, and I ordered another truckload. One of the boys, I can’t remember which one, noticed we had a full woodshed, and we were getting ready to cut another load as well. He didn’t quite understand why we needed all that wood for the winter.

Looking a year or two into the future is a long way for a littl e kid. I explained to him the wood we were about to cut was for the following winter. We would burn it more than a year from then. In the spring, we would put it in the woodshed and the hot summer air would dry it. By next winter it would be the best quality firewood.

Since that time, we’ve installed a second woodstove in the family room. We use more wood, but the power bill is less than half. We’ve also gotten even more ahead of our wood consumption. By the time winter starts now , we have about one and a half winter’s worth of wood.

There’s a certain satisfaction in knowing you’re ahead. Having a little reserve instills confidence. I’ve tried to teach the kids to always have a little reserve in everything they do. A little extra money, some extra food in the house, a little extra love and grace in a relationship. You never know when you’ll have to draw on it. Maybe never, but it’s good to know it’s there.