Your Woodpile Won't Make It to April. Here's the October Chalk Mark That Proves It Tonight.

You walked past the rank this morning and something behind your eyes said that ought to do it. That voice has been wrong in this house, and the bill comes due the second week of February, when there is no dry wood left in the county. In 1971 my grandfather Enoch walked out to the woodshed on the first Saturday of October with a stick of carpenter's chalk and drew one line on the inside wall, level with the top of the wood. I asked him that night what it was for. He said, "It is for February." I'm Harlan Sawyer. Forty-two years in the timber, 1969 to 2011. That shed is still standing and there are fifty-some lines on that wall. Five steps, twenty minutes, no money: measure what you have (height x length x depth, divided by 128) - the chalk mark today and another in exactly fourteen days, which is your house telling you the truth - why October is not January, and the free public number that gives you the ratio between the months - the subtraction, said out loud in the kitchen - and what to do with a short number, which only works in October, because in January the same cord costs half again and comes wetter. Plus what is written under the two lines from March of 1978, eleven feet apart, in my grandfather's hand. Tell me your state, the size of your house, and how many cords you think you burn. Then come back in two weeks and tell me what the chalk said. Stack it dry, friend. It keeps. Notes: a cord is 128 cubic feet stacked (4x4x8), the unit recognized in nearly every state. Heating degree days are published free by the National Weather Service for every region and month; you only need the ratio between months, not the math. The month weighting here is a woodshed rule of thumb, not an engineering study, and it shifts with altitude, insulation and whether a furnace is picking up the shoulder months. First winter in a house: take your number and add a cord. #firewood #woodstove #woodheat #homestead #oldways