A couple years ago, there was an ad in the local “Marketplace” for firewood end cuts. When wood processors cut logs to a specific size like 12”, 16” or 24” there is often a small chunk of the log that is left over. Sometimes these smaller pieces of wood are discarded into a pile of random lengths which are perfectly good, just not ideally fitted to a specific length. Many times, these piles of “nubbins” sit around for a long time doing nothing but drying and being in the way. Frequently, to clean up and make room for more logs, these piles of discarded shorts are available for sale, often at a very reasonable price.

The chunks don’t stack as well as fitted wood does, but because they have been around a wood lot for some time, they are quite dry, which as many of us wood burners know, is a very important characteristic. You don’t want to burn green wood or wood that is not properly seasoned!

We burn a lot of wood. I can pick up plenty of good dry wood from our property, but generally it requires further work to cut and split. One of the benefits of end cuts is that they can be burned without any further cutting or splitting. Sometimes you may need to ax pop a round piece just right and it will split out easily to fit into the stove where it snuggles in with other chunks nicely utilizing the firebox space more completely. The lovely glowing coals from an efficiently filled stove is a beautiful thing and a good heat producer.

I mention my appreciation for end cuts because, recently, with the arrival of colder temperatures, we have been pushing more wood through our stove. As the photo I share this week indicates, sustained low temperatures have arrived. When you see significant ice slabs in saltwater coves, you know that the December 50s are long gone.

This photo was made at Love Cove on Southport. It’s pretty obvious that the tides have been working the ice flows, breaking things up, causing ice to push up along the shores. When I see ice like this, I am reminded of stories our dear old friend, now deceased, George Reed, used to tell us about how the ice in Boothbay Harbor used to freeze so completely that teams of horses were able to cross to Squirrel Island. That would require some major sustained cold and more than a moderate supply of end cut wood to keep the home fires burning. Hard to imagine that kind of cold. In our 50 or so years here, we have never seen cold like that, and I doubt that we ever will. In fact, I hope that we never will. We have little need to cross over the Harbor to Squirrel in January. Hard enough to get there in summer! 

So, the next time you catch a glimpse of a pile of end cuts stacked in somebody’s door yard, along with stacks of beautifully fitted wood, you might inquire. Or you could let me know.

Stay warm everyone. Alternatively, ice skating on the ponds requires no wood at all and the warmth comes from within!