Making Wood--Again

With the snow piles ever taller and the wood pile ever shorter, it was time, as Pa would say, to “shoulder our axes and head to the woods for more fire wood.” We’d hitch the team to the bobsled, and plow through the snow in search of a dead oak tree or two. It was a bit difficult for me to tell the difference between those trees alive and those dead . To me, they all looked the same in winter. But Pa could tell the difference.

Soon I was on the other end of a crosscut saw—Pa had first notched the tree with an ax. There were no fancy gasoline chain saws in those days. Cutting down a tree was hard work, but on the positive side, it kept one warm on a chilly, winter morning.

With the tree down, the next step was chopping off the smaller branches with an ax, and sawing the larger limbs with the saw. Limbs of any size we loaded on the bobsled, and hauled them and the trunk to a place near where the mostly diminished wood pile stood. After three or four loads, Pa would announce, “That ought hold us until Spring.”
He then got on the party-line phone to the neighbors and invited them over for a wood sawing bee. They used a circle saw, much like the one pictured above. It was a loud, dangerous operation especially for those working closest to the saw, as there were no safety guards.

After a few hours of wood sawing, the wood pile had once more reached a respectable size. After an early supper, the neighbors returned home, and we were left with the job of splitting the larger pieces into manageable hunks. Not the worst job on a cold, late winter day.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Keeping warm meant making wood, lots of wood.

ANNOUNCEMENT:
In April—my newest book available: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Wisconsin: Nature’s Army at Work. Wisconsin Historical Society Press. (A History of the CCC in Wisconsin.)

UPCOMING EVENTS:

March 25, 6:00 p.m. Johnson Public Library, Darlington, WI, 131 East Catherine St., Darlington, WI. Never Curse the Rain.
PURCHASING BOOKS AND DVDs:

Order your signed Apps books and DVDs from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org

Books for Thinking About Spring

Roshara Journal (Our Town of Rose Farm through the Seasons)

Garden Wisdom (Time to begin planning for the upcoming garden season)

Old Farm Country Cookbook (Try some of yesterday’s recipes)

Cold as Thunder (A look into the future)

The Civilian Conservation Corps in Wisconsin: Nature’s Army at Work. (Preorder: www.jerryapps.com)