Wood Cutting

     I have been cutting firewood for most of my adult life.  I cut wood for a living when I lived in Ashland for several years.  These days it is more of a hobby.  I cut for people in need around here who can't seem to get it together and do it themselves.  I do have ready access for permits to cut over timber sales that most people can't match.
     I use one neighbor's Tundra pickup and another neighbor's trailer for my wood cutting operation.  My F 150 has a canopy and lacks a heavy duty trailer hitch.  I've been pretty successful at securing permits close to home so I don't have to drive a lot.  With the price of gasoline what it is, this is important.  It now costs what it used to to fill a car in order to fill my saw gas jug with no alcohol Hi Test gasoline.
     I leave piles of cut wood behind the Grange and the Lodge Hall in the little town where I live.  Douglas fir is the most common wood to be had but I take maple and alder too.  I find piles of dense ringed fir poles along the road where the Cut To Length machine has decked them.  Sometimes I find a down old growth fir log up to four feet in diameter to cut on.  I like to load up unsplit rounds and let the recipient worry about breaking them up.  Sometimes, I set a round on end behind the trailer and tip another on top of it and roll it on board.  Unloading is a snap.  The two to three hundred pound rounds roll off the back like old time depth charges.
     Sometimes I have help with the wood, sometimes not.  I use my collection of Husqvarna chainsaws compiled over the years.  The local volunteer fire department splits and stacks the wood I deliver if the recipient can't.  Joe, one of the VFD members used to handle the wood for the people in need but I guess I inherited his job.  He might have been getting to old for the sport. 
     I plan to retire soon and may not have access to the gravy wood permits that I take for granted now.  I guess we will just have to wait and see how this plays out.