Wood: ‘All is Safely Gathered in…..

…. ere the winter storms begin’*.  Farmers round these parts worry about getting the harvest in at this time of year.  Malcolm and I worry about getting wood for winter,  for the log burner.  So we ordered some and it came this week.

From this, three large bags of it ….

to this … in two long, sweaty and back-breaking shifts, warming us every bit as much as a blazing winter fire does. Unpack the bags, and neatly stack every single log in tidy tall rows in the shed.

You’re meant to be impressed at our hard work.

We’ve got ash, valued for its steady heat output and bright flame: and oak, a dense, long-burning wood with a small flame.  We’ve stacked them so we can access either.  Can you spot the difference?

Ash.
Oak.
Ash – oak. Oak – ash. Which is which?

* This is a mis-quote from the English Christian harvest-time hymn ‘Come ye thankful people come’.

My offering for Six Word Saturday.

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and living in North Yorkshire, where I walk as often as I can, write, volunteer, and travel as often as I can.

44 thoughts on “Wood: ‘All is Safely Gathered in…..”

  2. One of the many things we failed to achieve in A-V last week, and the week before! In our defence I think the man was on holiday.

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  5. This has me almost looking forward to winter! Although we don’t have a wood stove in the house . . . but we do burn wood outside, all autumn, in a fire pit and I’ll settle for that! You two did good work!

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  7. First – I AM VERY impressed!
    Second – that’s easy, the white one is Ash, the warm looking one is Oak
    Third – Nothing, but really nothing beats a fire in winter. We have beautifully deorated iron radiators (1920). They warm just fine and I don’t have to plague my worn out back at all….
    Wishing you a fab weekend. It seems you very much deserve it 🙂

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    1. I think we do thanks. And we have a late-summer heatwave. No fire necessary. But like you, we do appreciate one when the time comes. Love the sound of your radiators.

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  8. Why is it a misprint? I thought ‘all is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin’ were the actual words. And I too am impressed, both by your hard work and the neatness and beauty of the stacks. Lovely to look at.

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    1. You’re right of course, Ros, it’s not a misprint. Well spotted. However, the allusion is changed. You’d be well advised not to come and stay during log-stacking season. You’d be pressed into service, willing or not.

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  9. We order 3 bags from the same company! I agree it is hard work – we always say that the wood feels a whole lot heavier in the 2nd and 3rd bags! x

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  11. There’s something about stacking logs. The first time I did it, at our previous house, I loved everything about it including the hard work. (Admittedly I think your stacks look a touch larger than this one was.) Since we moved here I have been prevented from helping with the task. B insists on doing it all himself. Maybe he secretly loves it too: that sense of satisfaction at a job well done, the aching muscles and the knowledge of the many fires to come in the months ahead. Sadly, I think it’s more to do with him wantung the logs stacked ‘exactly right’. I fear I was not up to the mark. Perhaps next time I’ll insist on helping …

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    1. If someone’s going to get all precious about how the logs are stacked, they can definitely do it! Luckily, both Malcolm and I are at about the same level of good-but-not-too-fussy.

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  12. Funnily enough, a neighbour had a delivery of logs yesterday, and I thought to myself ‘in this heat?’. Isn’t foresight a wonderful thing? 🙂 🙂

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  14. Well I suppose you could have made it harder by chopping it yourself but I’ll give you full credit for the stacking which is exhausting work! Last year my 3 year old nephew took it upon himself to help his dad, my brother, stack the wood. I think he carried 2 logs before giving up LOL. Great choice for a wood challenge – you can rest easy knowing you’re ready for nature’s worst!

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    1. I hope so. We don’t do chopping, but we do some sawing (well, Malcolm does – I’m hopeless), as we forage wood too when we can. All helps to keep us warm!

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  16. I am 100% jealous! Yes, really! I have loads and loads of wood, in fact about 3 years worth that is a mix of all types. It is delivered as logs and it is up to me to cut and then split them and of course stack my labours. So far I have spent about a week and feel that I have only touched the surface. I would LOVE your nice neat split wood. Of course it will be worth it when the wood burner is blazing in the depths of winter. 🙂

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  18. Hard work but satisfying – and the satisfaction lives on with each winter fire too 🙂 Wood stacks are so photogenic. We have had such a mild winter we hardly used our wood burner this season and our stacked wood still looks quite orderly. However, we still have a stash of uncut wood that needs cutting and adding to the stack. We do a little at a time – just need to do it a bit more often.

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      3. Yes I get it :). Here, sometimes friends cut down or prune trees in their gardens and offer us the wood, and we live near a commercial plantation and after clear-cutting trees every few years the foresters dump mismatched bits and pieces they don’t want in piles to later burn. Before they burn it some secret foragers sometimes turn up …

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  19. Oh, I love the look of those piles of wood! It informs me that the seasons will soon be changing, and with it our activities…and our wardrobes. I am ready, bring on autumn…well, because it is my favorite.

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  20. Last year I sold my house that I had lived in for many years. Selling it meant I had to leave my wood burning heater (fireplace) – it made the house so cozy. Your post has reminded me of the wonderful smell of different woods burning. I really miss it now. The people that purchased my house removed the fireplace! I don’t know why. Seemed crazy to me!

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      1. Oh I so agree, Margaret. My burner was also a newer convection model that burnt almost 90% of the wood so little residue and carbon was emitted to the atmosphere. Burning ash and oak seems a little decadent to me though s those timbers are quite rare here. We burn pine and hardwood.

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