Of Wood

It is seven steps from tree to hearth: select, fell, trim, cut, split, stack, build. Each step invites what Hugh Kenner once called “the full critical act”—knowledge, comparison, love. There will be room for only the first few words on only one of these steps. Today it is Stacking. I may get around to the others, later; or I may not.

The way a man stacks wood tells you a lot about him. Some men just dump the logs on the ground every which way and burn them when they need them. Some make a stab at a proper stack but use an ignoble stratagem: They find a couple of trees 15 or twenty feet apart and use them as you’d use bookends for a bunch of books that want to come tumbling down. It works, but I think it scars the living tree, and it certainly advertises the woodman’s satisfaction with a half-measure. Your hard-core wood stacker creates his stack. I’m hardcore.

WR

About the Author

William F. Rickenbacker

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It is seven steps from tree to hearth: select, fell, trim, cut, split, stack, build. Each step invites what Hugh Kenner once called “the full critical act”—knowledge, comparison, love. There will be room for only the first few words on only one of these steps. Today it is Stacking. I may get around to the others, later; or I may not.

The way a man stacks wood tells you a lot about him. Some men just dump the logs on the ground every which way and burn them when they need them. Some make a stab at a proper stack but use an ignoble stratagem: They find a couple of trees 15 or twenty feet apart and use them as you’d use bookends for a bunch of books that want to come tumbling down. It works, but I think it scars the living tree, and it certainly advertises the woodman’s satisfaction with a half-measure. Your hard-core wood stacker creates his stack. I’m hardcore.