When is a Woodpile like a Needle in a Haystack?

Larry's carefully stacked woodpile

Recently. Larry has been working on a jewelry commission- a beautiful silver and gold ring set with a green stone. While he was out this morning, I decided to photograph it in many different settings; in a flower, on a leaf and in a bowl of water. (Hey, I’m experimenting).

  

Then I glanced over at Larry’s beautifully stacked woodpile and carefully placed the ring on top of his stacked logs. Can you guess where this, or rather the ring, is going?

All the elements were present

Well, let’s just say that it took a tumble and when I carefully removed the top two rows of logs to pick it up, it slid some more and then disappeared. I began to excavate the pile, row by row, which is easier said than done, because stacked wood likes to roll back down onto the ground. At first I flung the pieces to the back of the stacks, but after I had emptied the first row, without success, I began to panic and imagined that the ring had caught in a piece of log that I had hurled.

I was working up a double sweat here….from handling wood and from anticipating the huge disappointment, frustration and annoyance that Larry would be feeling. I had coveted the ring….had I subconsciously ‘lost’ it? Would the ring melt if it landed in the furnace?

We’ll leave me for the time being dismantling the second row of logs as the threatened thunderstorm approaches, both figuratively and metaphorically.

Lately Larry and I are talking to people about heating systems because we want to install an economical and efficient system in our next house. Wood pellets vs. wood vs. geothermal.  We had a little gathering in the studio last week and the two BIG topics were a) heating systems and b) gardening.  

Although Larry and I both grew up with belching coal furnaces and then with converted coal-to-oil furnaces, it is a rare house in rural Nova Scotia that doesn’t have some source of wood heat. The house we are living in has two furnaces; one for oil and one for wood. When the wood furnace drops below the set temperature,  the oil furnace clicks on. It’s a pretty sensible system, but it still depends on electricity to circulate the hot air.

Rob's woodpile

People tell us here that electricity blackouts lasting 3 days are a regular winter occurrence, though we didn’t experience that last winter. That’s why so many people have high efficiency wood stoves in the main room of their houses. Also, wood is currently 1/4 of the cost of oil. I hope you haven’t fallen asleep at all these details, but let’s face it, Shelter is right up there in Mazlow’s heirarchy of human needs.

Don's woodpile

Larry and I have differing views about the perfect heating system and he’s leaning towards a wood pellet stove. According to the literature, you just dump a bag of pellets into the stove every 5 days and it feeds itself and regulates the heat too. To me they look like large rabbit droppings and there’s the noise factor of a continously blowing fan that bothers me.

Larry"s woodpile (yesterday)

Up until this morning, I have thought of wood heat as the ideal system. I think the fragrance of the burning wood, the crackle of the flames, the glowing coals and the colour of the light add up to a true sensual experience. That was before I lost a ring in the stack and spent 1/2 an hour moving wood around. Man, those logs are HEAVY! HARD! …TIRING. After 1/2 an hour, I thought of the many hours Larry has spent stacking wood outside to dry and how many more hours it will require to stack it in the basement to feed the hungry furnace. Why I almost had myself talked back into oil heating, when what did I glimpse on the ground, but a silver flash!

Can you see the silver glint on the ground?

I still had time to take one last photo of Larry’s creation before he got home. And what the heck; I think I’m going to volunteer to help him stack wood in the cellar.

Anniversary Ring, by Larry Knox, Studio Three http://studiothree.wordpress.com