Who needs a workout when you're splitting wood?

Henry David Thoreau wrote of heating his cabin with old stumps he'd found in his field, using an axe nobody wanted. "As my driver prophesied when I was plowing, they warmed me twice, once while I was splitting them, and again when they were on the fire, so that no fuel could give out more heat. " It's one thing to say how nice it would be to heat the house with a little wood stove. It's another to do it. That sends the sweat pouring down your face, even when it's 15 degrees outside. This morning I spent two hours sawing some long split logs into the size that fits our small wood stove. We got these logs from a friend who parts with a bit of his giant wood supply in exchange for some bread. Now I'm trying to work with this wood. Here I am, someone who makes a point of "exercising" every morning, walking five miles or up a mountain or going to a class, and I find that sawing logs to the right size for my stove is the hardest thing I've ever done. I don't have a sawhorse. I'm making do with a bit of old rug on top of a scavenged chest sitting outside my husband's shed. The arm trying to steady the piece I'm sawing is trembling. The saw keeps catching. I can't seem to saw in a straight line. The rug slips, and the wood flies off onto the snow. Chapter 5 of my book deals with wood heat. I think that this is one of the most promising heat methods for those who live near trees. This morning I reminded myself that it is not for everyone -- but that it could replace the whole exercise movement. Aren't I a little bit of a rat on a wheel when I go for a jog? But to cut our fuel goes beyond working out the heart. It's not just the warming myself, either. It's knowing the fuel source. I stagger around in holey gloves with a saw I barely can hold, cursing numb fingers -- but finishing the task. I never felt so great as I did watching the saw cut through to the other side and the wood fall away to the ground. For those of us still able to stagger through this task, it's a privilege to have the space (our small woods) and the time (I'm self-employed, so I can decide when I cut wood) to use this fuel. Wood heat is going to come back to a lot of houses, I predict. The new stoves filter out particulates quite well, and there is a lot of surplus wood that can't be made into logs and furniture, foresters tell me. My arms and shoulders ache. It feels great.