Timber!!!! Where does firewood come from?

It's Wednesday!  

Where does firewood come from? 

Let's start off with Paul Bunyan.  According to Wikipedia, Paul Bunyan is an American and Canadian folk legend who is a giant lumberjack. He is usually accompanied by his companion, Babe the blue ox, who is also gigantic. His exploits revolve around his enormous size and his expertise as a logger.

(Image by Ron Borresen.)

Well here at Tennessee Mountain Farm we don't have a blue ox and our crew aren't giants but they all do the work like one. 

Where does one start to find our firewood origin. Our firewood begins in the forest of the Cumberland Plateau, high on top of the mountains among us.  We start by selecting the best hardwoods from forests we log.  The trees are select cut of red oak, white oak, chestnut oak, hickory, cherry and occasional poplar.  Those trees are trimmed and cut into 12, 14 or 16ft logs.  Each log is graded on quality.  The better the quality and species, the better they are to make lumber, staves for barrels and tie logs (crossties,switch ties or bridge ties). Depending on diameter, each quality log heads to a designated mill to make things we use everyday.  The tops of those trees become firewood. The tree top logs are trimmed and stacked for long periods of time.  They are then moved to where we process them with a firewood processor that cuts and splits each log.  Whew!  Seems like a lot, doesn't it?  Now you know how our Paul Bunyan's work....HARD!  No blue ox needed.   

(Non-copyright image from pexels)

You may ask....Does this hurt the forest?  Good question.  Our 30+year experienced logger only does select cutting which means he picks and choses the trees to cut leaving all the other trees surrounding.  What this does is allow sunlight to the forest floor, helps the existing trees grow and reduces crowding.  This also enhances the wildlife habitat and lowers the risk for forest fire.  

Meet our hard working woodsmen, Pop, Danny, Ricky and Keith.  We are missing a few key players and we have to mention them also, Seth X 2, Hailey, Gary, Brandon, Gavin, Ethan, Tanner, Tammy, Kensley and Tonya.  All of these wonderful people are mostly family helping family.  Even some that aren't truly related are still our farm family.  These outstanding hardworking people make everything run smoothly to make sure you have a great experience with us and you recieve your firewood in a timely manner. 

The work never ends as we try to make sure all of our wonderful fireplace burners, boiler burners, campfire gazers, firepit users, cooking wood restaurants and campgrounds get all of the firewood and cooking wood they need to keep warm and make wonderful food.

You can check us out at www.tnfirewood.com and see what our options are.  We always here to help and answer any questions or concerns.  You can also email us at tennesseemountainfarm@gmail.com or give us a call at 931-265-8846.  

See you next week!