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| Homestead of Igor Vateha in Slovakia |
A friend living in Slovakia (the country of my birth and childhood) recently sent us a video in which he processes firewood, using strictly hand tools. It demonstrates his personal twist to what was once traditional in many regions of Europe, but uncommon in North America.
Before you view the actual video, I feel compelled to insert a bit of a profile on the man himself:
Among the people I've come to know well enough to form a solid view of, Igor Vateha is one of the 'pearls'. Glaringly unassuming and humble, the somewhat 'realistic' of the Daniel Quinn fans would likely consider similarly-living individuals as 'leavers'. From what I observe, the majority of them, for the most part, dream and TALK about how good it would be to leave the 'takers' path… while -- within the context of possibilities available to him -- Igor simply does it.
Along with his wife Katka and three children, they maintain a small homestead where electricity or engine-driven gadgets are not needed. When he occasionally visits the nearest village he rides a horse. There isn't a day, he once told me, that he is without an ax in his hands.
What you see him demonstrate, he does on a daily basis. Before the winter sets in, their shed is supplied with 1m to 1.5m long dry logs (mostly dead trees to begin with) from which he prepares enough fuel for their two masonry stoves. The heater takes 50cm pieces and the cookstove 30cm. After years of experimenting with firewood processing variations, the method demonstrated in the video is what he has settled on.
To North Americans it may seem odd. One reason is that the considerations of how one man, with hand tools only, takes care of his family's firewood needs are several generations in the past. Before the age of chainsaws, the standard was a gasoline engine-powered circular saw for the bucking of logs into stove length billets. Before then horse-powered drag saws did the same. But suppose that one man has none of these aids. Yes, large round logs can be bucked up into stove-length pieces with a one-man crosscut or a frame/'swede' saw, and only then split by hand -- the way we do it in North America. Well, Igor has tried that too, but thinks that what he demonstrates is a less energy-expanding method. I think he has a point.
Now, a bit of food for thought: do you, dear folks, imagine that chainsaws will hum forever? I do not. As for Igor, he simply does what a man of his convictions does --- walks his unassuming talk…
[Photos and video by Igor Vateha]
Peter,
ReplyDeleteWonderful peek into a different (and quintessential) method, and more broadly a wonderful topic in my opinion.
The greatest merit illuminated here, I think, is just how simple a system can be given a little bit of "sticktoitiveness". Which I believe is, or ought to be, the driving factor behind a whole slew of simple methods, and to look at the whole picture and realize it's nature as being integrally more of a closed loop (the fact that the loop is still open withstanding and acknowledged).
I've been lapping up every bit of wisdom and every example set on this subject that I have been fortunate enough to come across. This in particular was fantastic because of the inherent simplicity. I think that is something that needs to be integrated into every single approach in attempting to be oil sober in each facet (chainsaw, splitter, vehicles to transport, etc) of the process.
The reason I think it's so important as a subtext for anything more built upon it, is because its flexible in itself by way of requiring fewer tools, utilizing dead standing wood that spares long periods of time for seasoning, and the flexibility that affords the wood cutter insofar as "sparing them" and offering a real short term alternative to "firing up the chainsaw" to make up for a little laxity.
That said (and please take into account I am at best a very amateur saw filer and axeman), in my experience, no matter what I try to do differently, green wood (and I mean GREEN, not wet) has always been easier, often to a revelatory degree, to cut. So I think the traditional North American method, adapted to suit the tools and wood cutter as ideally as possible, makes up a bulk of the "ideal" method of addressing this need. The method illustrated here, even if it makes up a smaller portion of the work in my hypothetical ideal method, does play a really important role-- facilitating the flexibility required to make handcutting firewood really work as a voluntary and convivial measure-- an attainable vision, if you will.
That's a very smart method. You only have to move around one or two large pieces of wood, instead of many smaller ones. Also certainly makes more sense if you're using a hand saw.
ReplyDeleteI do not lead a 100% off-the-grid lifestyle but I aspire to on weekends. I have soft, computer-geek hands and will never be a wood processing beast. What I have found that works for me is gathering all the fallen limbs and branches that are up to about 2.5" thick. Generally, one can even pilfer the remains of a logging slash pile. They pile it up for you conveniently. I pile them up on a tarp and then simply use loppers so they fit my small Jotul. I gather the ends of the tarp and drag them inside or stuff them through the little wooden door which I cut into the side of my cabin right next to the stove.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Andrew Lukban
Northwest Connecticut
Hello, Vido family! I just saw you on the Internet. Are you still making blog entries and videos? And do you still live in the country chopping wood and cutting grass like ninjas?
ReplyDeleteWe're still around, cutting grass and chopping wood, but not making blog entries or posting many videos these days. We've taken a bit of a computer hiatus these past couple years to catch up on our farm work that was being neglected while we were making blog entries and posting videos!
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