Spent the last 3 weeks camping/exploring the northern woods of the Great Lakes area in Lower and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, northern Wisconsin and arrowhead of Minnesota. When I travel I always take note of how many homes, particularly in rural areas, have firewood piles. I know a lot of the FHC members are from these states and I would have guessed there would be a lot of wood burners. Not so according to my observations, very few in fact. The forest resource sure is there, so not sure why. However, particularly in Lower Michigan there are bundles of campfire wood and larger quantities for sale on little roadside stands EVERYWHERE!! Beautiful country, and hit it just right for foliage colors. Awesome part of the USA.
It's a beautiful area of the country. I'm in Wisconsin, and we burn about 4 cords a year. Away from the cities, you'll be more wood burners, as you can expect, and a lot of these homes are not visible from the main roads.
I remember back in the mid 70's when dozens of folks were installing wood stoves. Sadly, when the gas crunch eased most of them stopped burning. But in farm country there were a lot of fence rows and creek banks got cleared of unwanted trees.
I live in a fairly mild climate but having plenty of wood on hand is a huge peace of mind for me. If I lived in the upper Midwest I’d probably have even more than I do now. You never know when you might need it. Even if it’s only half a face cord, that’s still enough to keep the pipes in the house from freezing for a few days.
Not sure where you live exactly, but when we got down in central MI where there is more farm country, there seemed to be more firewood stacks at homes then in northern MI and the UP.
We used to live in the arrowhead. A lot of people in our circle heated with wood, especially on the Indian Reservation where I worked, and the immediate surrounding area. Our friends tend to be outdoorsmen and women who are comfortable getting a lot of their sustenance from the land, including harvesting firewood, gardening, berry picking, ricing, hunting, and fishing. I don’t’ think it is as common to see a big wood pile in the yard nowadays. I drove home this morning from the area. Driving along Lake Superior I smelled woodsmoke from the same people still heating with wood. Several of these homes are inhabited by loggers, or their family members. Now we live in the suburbs of Mpls. In our neighborhood, I am the only one for miles with a woodpile and a good wood burner. Many homes have fireplaces, but most people never use them.
Yes, that is true. I'm not sure where you were in Central MI but you may have been close. Too bad we didn't meet.
Society in general is lazy IMO. It's easier to turn up a thermostat and write a check for HHO, propane etc. Its safe to say a lot of us FHCers were born into firewood burning/making families so it kinda became a way of life for us. I kinda do the same in my travels JDU. Every now and then I'll pass an obvious burner with some nice stacks and I'll slow up to admire them. I should take pics of them when I do.
Agree- quite a few Hybrid Hoarders near the lake are firewood stand in the front for the vacationers, and Deep Stacks in the back. Although I would agree that there are robably less than back in the day, a lot of newer houses with gas fireplaces etc.
