Today is a "big ugly day". Not the weather... the wood. Winter finally is cold enough to burn the "big ugly's". The end of my firewood row is stacked with large crotches and knotty wood which I was not inspired to hand split. Each piece comes out and is measured for fitting into the furnace door, 13"x 9". Some get downsized with only a few taps of the sledge using a narrow wedge on these COLD days and some go directly in to the furnace. So far today, I have only burned "big ugly's" since it was -11 deg F this morning and still below zero. Mostly sugar maple with knots but also some white ash and bitternut hickory. An odd winter with the sudden switch from brown to all white after two 7+" snow storms and now the cold. Switching from no snow piles to huge piles and now wondering where to put the next storm snow. I put the first snow piles in the wrong spot, not far enough back, because brown was the new normal and so had to move them when the next storm track was moved our way. Anyway, I am very happy to get the "big ugly's" out of the way as well...
We used to call those big ugly chunks baby makers. They burned so long, you didn't have to get out of bed to fire up.
Nice that you can leave them bug 'n ugly. If i end up with any they get split and/or sawed into chunks and into the nugget bin they go.
