Perhaps not what you musicians had in mind — but whether it’s making a violin or viola or something a lot more physical, like cutting up a hickory or oak tree for the wood-stove I enjoy working with wood. I cut up windfalls or heavily damaged trees on our property (with lots of help from my wife) and use them to produce about 90% of the heat for our house.

The old saw is “firewood heats you two ways: processing it and burning it,” but you can break it down a lot more than that. Cutting up a tree into firewood length rounds is a lot of hard work. Getting it to your woodshed is more hard work. Splitting it up (my wife can handle a splitting maul too) and then stacking it in then shed is a lot more sweat equity too.

All that work is very worth it come a chilly NC mountain winter. Super cozy by the fire and nice in cool in the bedrooms — just right for sleeping well

A cord of wood is a volume 4 feet wide and tall and 8 feet long. Our shed holds about a cord and a half and we are about 1/6th of the way into it this winter. I think we are looking good as we have never burned more than that in a heating season. Gotta go empty the ashes!