We use a lot of wood here on the homestead. We host campers year round and we enjoy a good fire most nights as well, even in the summer time. Because we go through a lot of wood, we need to gather a lot of wood. Thankfully, there is a lot of desert behind us that we can forage through for the wood we use.

 

When we forage for wood. We only take wood that is already down. We do not cut trees down. As you see in the picture above, the tree there is dead and on the ground. We will go in and cut it down a bit smaller so it will fit in the car. Once we find a good size tree on the ground, Aarron will take the axe and cut it into smaller pieces that we can stack in the back of the Highlander.

We do this several times for several different trees that we find on the ground. Once we have a car load, we head back home for the real fun to start.

 

Some of this wood will be broken down for our fires and that of our guests while camping. Some of this wood will be cut into bigger chunks for the charcoal. It will all be burned though. We are working toward self-sufficiency and this is one of the ways we are doing this because the only thing we have to pay for in doing it this way is gas and our time.

I think I enjoy the fires at the end of the day more than any other part of foraging for wood, but it’s something that we have to do if we want to continue having our fires at the end of the night. Either way, it makes for a good way to end the day and relax before bed.

Have a great day!

Renee