To Strike A Cord

Tree falling, site prep, free workouts...

Cord, unit of volume for measuring stacked firewood. A cord is generally equivalent to a stack 4 × 4 × 8 feet (128 cubic feet) The cord was originally devised in order to measure firewood and was so named because a line, string, or cord was used to tie the wood into a bundle. A tree with a usable height of 40 feet and a circumference of 6.25 feet will contain about one cord of wood.

We submitted our permit applications on April 1st, 2019, and what a joke that turned out to be, as our permits were not approved until March 13th, 2020. (I am sure there will be a permit post at some point but I prefer not to relive that right now).

On March 24th, 2020 I learned exactly what a cord of wood was, and not just by definition. The day prior, we had thirteen trees taken down on our 1.84 acre lot. Please join me in a moment of silence as 7 of these were old growth maples near 100 feet tall....

Thank you.

I suppose most people end up clearing their lot with heavy machinery, or hiring people to do so, the latter of which Brian and I were opposed. If we can save a buck, AND get a free workout, why would we hire someone or pay our future excavator top dollar to do such a thing? The same people would probably tell Brian and I that we are either A.) Stubborn B.) Crazy C.) Amish D.) All of the above

Little did I know, exactly how moving 1 cord of wood by hand actually felt like. You see, one of the challenges we faced is that our lot is quite sloped, with a “Wetland” at the bottom of the property. (“Wetland” is in quotes because it is more of a soggy puddle that accumulates once a year and then dries up. However, heaven forbid you build within 40 feet of the skunk cabbage that occasionally sprouts up, according to Snohomish county. Can you tell that caused us a little permitting grief?) The said “Wetland” causes a patch of land to become muddy, to the point of which most vehicles cannot drive through it without becoming stuck. Additionally, the only place feasible to stack the wood was about 200 hilly yards away from the site. No problem, we said. It will be an endurance and strength workout, we said.

We proceeded to bust out the chainsaws and called on our chainsaw-owning reinforcements (Dan, Matt, Dad Brian) who for some reason, wanted to volunteer days of their time sawing up all the downed trees for fun. (All reinforcements were sore for days after this.) Next came the splitting of the gigantic sawed trunk rounds. Another form of superb exercise. Then, came the deadlifting of smaller (not light at all) rounds and only the universe knows how many countless pieces of split limbs and various timber into the wheelbarrow.

Swipe left to see our lot progression:

The wheelbarrow effort lasted 2 runs up the aforementioned extremely uneven terrain, at which point I officially stated, “Well, f$¢k this,” and proceeded to retrieve the White Knight from Dad Brian; the only vehicle that had a fighting chance combatting mud-slop slope. After surviving the 15 minute slightly terrifying jaunt on the highway (loose steering, possible bad slave cylinder, old brakes, and the stuck seat making it to where I have to sit suspended on the edge of what’s left of the seat cushion to reach the gas and the clutch with my big toe while sitting on a phonebook for height to see over the steering wheel) the ’84 Toyota pickup with his sweet 5 inch lift and 33 inch tires was ready to play. Can I emphasize that I am so thankful my Dad bought this toy somewhat against my mom’s wishes when I was a kid instead of a commuter car?

Repeat the splitting and hauling daily for about 2 weeks (before and after work and 10+ hours a day on weekends), add some beers, and voila! You have yourself about 13 cords of wood moved and some notable #gains. Baby goats Rocky and Sundance of course stood by for moral support, and even chipped in by eating away a surprising amount of the debris.

The splitting of hauled wood continues to this day, as a matter of fact. As a tribute to the near old growth maples that we had to fall, we are saving a number of logs to mill with the goal of repurposing it throughout our house; think fireplace mantles, beams, hand-made furniture, other random DIY wood decor projects I shamelessly find on Pinterest, etc. It is quite expensive to haul off the property to a proper mill, so we will post how our newly purchased chainsaw mill does at a later date!