Firewood
Although it seems of late that summer will never end--how many years can you comfortably wear shorts on Oct. 23--it inevitably will. Cold weather will follow, and it will be time to light the first fire in the fireplace.
I got a half-cord of split, seasoned oak delivered yesterday by Charlie Barlow. I've been buying from him for years. He lives in the backwoods of Perry County, and every couple of years I give him a call and he brings a load of wood down to my home in Shipoke. He and I unload the wood onto the sidewalk in front of my house, and then I get to lug it back four pieces at a time to the wood rack under the porch in the back of the house.
Charlie is a rarity--a Democrat in Perry County, where Republican registrations outnumber Democratic ones by 5-1. We talked about Hillary Clinton's chances. He thinks she's going to go all the way, but confesses to worries about what the other side will try to do to her. I agree that it's a worry, but note that she's been through 15 years of this and survived.
He nods and chuckles. "She's a tough old broad," he said.
Charlies has been in the firewood business all his life, as his father was before him. His own son is now into it, too. During the Depression, his father's sawmill kept local men working for $2 a day, enough to get by back then. During our visits, Charlie always mentions the development and population pressures in Perry County, both in terms of new houses and subdivisions built by "millionaires" and a much greater number of deer hunters in the fall. The backwoods is not so backwoods anymore.
"The more people you get, the more taxes go up," he said. "For schools."
Mexican immigrants concern him. There are more in Juniata County with its big poultry processing plants, he said, but Perry County gets its share. Their driving habits concern him the most. A friend's wife died in a collision with one of them, and there was no insurance, no license, no nothing. Just a junker car and a bad driver.
We finished unloading the truck and he was on his way back to Perry County. A couple of hours later, I had most of the wood stacked, having resold about a third of it to my neighbor, Bob Mummert. A full stack of firewood gives you a nice, secure feeling. I am ready for the cold winter nights when a blazing fire will feel comforting. I wonder if it was wise to buy so much firewood. What if I changes jobs and move in a few months? But I rationalize that whoever buys the house will be happy that it comes with free firewood. And in the meantime, we will enjoy the fire's warmth.