Splitting Firewood for Winter at Our Remote Alaska Cabin

When we first arrived at our cabin in August, we hurried to put up our winter firewood — but we quickly learned a hard lesson. The wood we cut that late in the season was still wet, and keeping the cabin warm was much harder than we expected. After that first year, we changed everything. We began cutting firewood in late winter, especially during February and March, when there was still snow on the ground, and we could reach the trees by snowmachine. Mostly, we burned birch, since it was plentiful in our area. In those early years, we split every piece by hand, but after Shon’s plane crash, we finally bought a wood splitter, which made the job go much faster. We typically used six to seven cords of wood each year, so we tried to cut more than that and stay a full year ahead. It was serious work, but there was a deep comfort in seeing the woodshed slowly fill, knowing we would be warm when winter settled in. Anytime we walked past that woodshed,

I would look at Shon and ask, “You know what kind of wood that is?” and he would always grin and answer, “That is good wood.” We were proud of that woodpile.

Running the wood splitter was a lot faster than the early years when we split every piece by hand.

Winter was actually the best time to haul firewood. The snowmachine let us reach trees we couldn’t get to in summer.

A full woodshed meant peace of mind. By freeze-up, this wood would be dry and ready for winter.