The past month has been a season of tree trimming; my next door neighbor and
myself are no exceptions. What has interested me, however, is that while the tree trimmers haul away the brushy stuff, usable logs are stashed by the roadside. Free to all comers, I presume. They certainly disappear fast.
Like people in other mountain towns, many Prescott folks heat with wood burning stoves; others simply like the warmth of a fireplace. I would guess that the only problem with this found wood is that it seriously lacks seasoning. Especially those leafy trees cut down by APS to protect their lines.
This wood has been drying out for a couple of years on one resident's front porch.
An unfortunate huge old cottonwood that couldn't be kept alive any longer is the source for this load. It may be destined for sale some day in the future.
Not all dropped trees wind up in the stove. I kinda like this use of wood cut-offs for landscaping.
The past month has been a season of tree trimming; my next door neighbor and myself are no exceptions. What has interested me, however, is that while the tree trimmers haul away the brushy stuff, usable logs are stashed by the roadside. Free to all comers, I presume. They certainly disappear fast.
Like people in other mountain towns, many Prescott folks heat with wood burning stoves; others simply like the warmth of a fireplace. I would guess that the only problem with this found wood is that it seriously lacks seasoning. Especially those leafy trees cut down by APS to protect their lines.
This wood has been drying out for a couple of years on one resident's front porch.
An unfortunate huge old cottonwood that couldn't be kept alive any longer is the source for this load. It may be destined for sale some day in the future.
Not all dropped trees wind up in the stove. I kinda like this use of wood cut-offs for landscaping.
Posts
4 comments:
We would love to have a fire place. You would think that the landlord would have put one in when the house was built. In Germany they do burn wood for heat, but it's in an enclosed type oven, usually in the living room.
I have a beautiful fireplace but also a beautiful Ponderosa pine, with limbs that overhang the chimney -- so it really doesn't get used. The only place I saw those enclosed type wood burners was in a couple of the castles I visited -- but then on my trips to Europe I was almost always (unfortunately) in a tour group and did not visit any homes.
I have mixed feelings about tree cutting. I guess I'm a serious tree-huggin' liberal...but actually, I just mourn when I see a really old beauty that is still solid, that has been cut down in the name of progress or I-wanna-grow-sum-grass. Actually, this morning on the way to work, I turned my headlights on (like I do for passing funeral prosessions)in honor of an old oak beauty on a truck...looked about 75 years old. I just hang on to a belief that their spirits move into another younger version of themselves... I've been watching Pocahontas too often, I guess.
Most of the tree cutting around here involves either 1) electric or telephone line interference, 2) pines or junipers that have been done in by the killer beetles or
3) very, very old cottonwoods or other native deciduous trees that are at the end of their days.
Most people hereabouts tend to treat trees with respect -- perhaps too much respect in those doghair thickets in the forest that should be thinned before the fire god does it.
Post a Comment