Firewood and Preparation

We have noticed that most homes here in Forks are winter-heated with wood-burning stoves. Maybe it's because wood is so plentiful on the Olympic Peninsula. You cannot walk 20 feet from any highway and not be among gorgeous and enormous trees. In a ward welfare committee meeting here, I learned that wood burners who would keep warm throughout the winter need to have enough wood cut, split and stacked to last from October through March.

The wood should have been cut, split and stacked in the late Spring. Green wood doesn't burn very well.

Furthermore, the wood should be protected from the rains. Wet wood doesn't burn very well, either.

There seems to me to be a profound lesson in this wood-storing story. Good preparation is not a last-minute activity. It requires knowledge of our circumstances, advance planning and diligence.