The Quest for Fire

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My name is Kevin. I am an addict. I hoard wood.

It may sound strange but it's true. I think it began last summer. My sister Lianne started having small campfires in our portable backyard fire pit. I began by picking up discarded wood for her fires. After discovering the seasonal outdoor-dockside bar at Earl's Marina on the Causeway she gave up the fire pit.

Since there was quite a bit of wood left over I started tending the fires myself.
While driving down Sconticut Neck road on Mondays I would see wood scraps piled for the trash men and scoop them up. The occasional pallet was a big score. They burn nicely.
At the end of last summer my friend from Balsam street, Scott Hartman, finished his new house and demolished the small cottage he and his family had lived in before they built the new home. Scott works for Comcast, but I don't hold that against him. The walls of the cottage were strategically sawed through leaving the structure standing and then was knocked down with a Bobcat. A whole house is a lot of wood!

Scott filled a dumpster with whatever would fit in it and posted a "Free wood" sign on the remaining debris.

I made several trips to his house and filled the trunk of my Taurus (Babe,The Blue Ox) with an amazing amount of wood each time. This lumber still had the trim and wiring attached. I burned it all.

It became an obsession. Once all of Scott's house was burned up I began scouting for more wood and I found a steady supply of building scraps from Jaime, who was building a new house on Fir street. Again, I loaded up the trunk of the Blue Ox with wood, using plywood scraps to allow the trunk to be filled as high as possible. It was all brand new pine and of course, it burned nicely. I had so much wood from Jaime's house that I built a wall 8 feet high and 12 feet long out of OSB (oriented strand board) and 2x4's that I used as a wind break during the Fall months. Due to the fickle nature of New England weather I needed to put wheels on the "Wall" so it could be moved easily. When it nearly fell on me one night I dismantled it. It was like a massacre. There was OSB all over the yard.

After the new lumber supply dried up I happened upon a new source. My neighbor, Howe, on Dogwood street had recently remodeled his house and had a stash of wood in the backyard that he wanted to get rid of. It was again demolition scraps. This wood was Fir. I didn't realize it but Fir seems to have a lot of creosote in it. When burned the creosote turns into black soot. That is the exact reason pine and fir should not be burned in a fireplace. The creosote builds up in the chimney and catches fire.

After I dismantled the Wall I moved the fire pit near the doors of my aluminum shed. By leaving the doors open and burning in the fire pit the shed stayed warm, even during one of the coldest winters we have had in years. But an odd thing happened. I noticed the white interior of the shed started turning black. Very black. It seems that I was also breathing the creosote because after a fall in the shed January 2nd what I thought was a common cold developed into pneumonia. The fall had caused a torn rotator cuff and was very painful. I had trouble sleeping and spent much time laying on the couch, probably helping my lungs fill with fluid.

Word soon spread of my need for firewood and I would get tips about a good supply here and there. Stacy and Sid were always on the lookout for me and would let me in on a new source of wood. After one of her tips I actually showed up before the homeowner had his scrap fence poles on the curb. He even cut it to manageable lengths for me. I learned the guy's name was John and we talked about his beautiful baby blue 1958 Kaiser sitting in the driveway.

Even during the pneumonia I managed to get out to the shed and found a new source of green oak from my neighbor Robbie. The severe winter had also felled trees and branches along the Island roads and I wrangled them with a rope then dragged them home with the trusty 'Babe'. Some of the trees and limbs were 20 to 30 feet long. As you can imagine I got some funny looks from people who saw me 'logging' with the Taurus.

While driving over the Causeway I noticed some large logs that had washed up on the beach. Further inspection of them revealed they were beautiful pieces of driftwood. Each was nearly 4 feet long and were once one piece of wood. The trunk of a tree had split in half, down the center and had managed to wash up on the same shore, just feet apart. The two pieces fit together perfectly. They now stand, much like bookends on the sides of our front stairs.
Somewhere between the time I found the driftwoods and finding some deck planks washed up on the opposite side of the causeway (the planks and a pallet from the local Snap On Tool guy were used to make a garbage can corral to keep out raccoons) I realized that I had an obsession with gathering wood.

I wonder if it's something primal in me or just some kind of Yankee thrift. I have been able to line the walls of my shed with OSB and replaced the aging aluminum doors with some very nice vintage doors so not all the wood has been used for fire. I saw oil filled electric radiator heaters for $19 at Walmart. An electric heater would be more convenient. But will the electric heat be as good as a crackling fire? Probably not but I wouldn't be breathing creosote any more either. It just might be too hard for me to pass by a good pile of wood without snagging a trunk full.