Lost and found firewood
I
figure we lose about 10% of our firewood post-cutting and
pre-burning. The scenario generally goes like this --- a tree
falls across the driveway (or I need a tree out of the way for gardening
purposes) and it absolutely has to get cut today. I beg Mark to
come cut it for me, and he kindly breaks it down into
stove-lengths. We stack the wood, or leave it where it lies,
planning to come back with a motorized vehicle to haul it home as soon
as driveway conditions permit...then something happens and we forget
about it. Six months later, the firewood is so punky from sitting
on the ground that it's not burnable.
The wood is, however, still perfect for use in the garden. This week, I took the yellow wagon
down to the bend in the driveway to collect one of these caches of lost
and found firewood, then tugged the cart home to perk up the figs and
dwarf apples. Two and a half trips later, I could almost feel the
garden letting out a contented sigh. Too bad most of these piles
of punky wood aren't close enough for wagon-work!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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I didn't notice your method of Fig freeze protection until this post. I saw you have the tarp against the base of the trunk. From what I've read on frost protection (which may be different for winter freeze protection?) the base should allow the earth to radiate heat up into the tarp area. There is an image in the following blog post.
http://blogs.extension.org/gardenprofessors/2013/04/08/protecting-plants-from-frost/
It will be interesting to see the results in the spring especially with the added factor of the mulch and wood potentially radiating heat as it decomposes.
Would you mind telling us about your experience with inoculating logs with mushrooms. Would you say it was worth the effort, did you find a way that seems the best for getting it to work and after you harvest them-will they return like perennials? Thank you John
John --- I'll bet most of your questions are answered in our mushroom posts. Take a browse through and see if you still don't understand our mushroom operation.