This photo of snow-covered birch trees was taken on the mountain slope across the road. Birches are my favorite deciduous tree. I have always found their characteristic white bark attractive and have for decades appreciated the heat that birch firewood has provided to us. Once we had gotten a wood stove, I quickly learned of the advantages of birch firewood.
Birch wood splits cleanly and easily (unless it contains branches) with a splitting maul, an axe-like tool with a wedge-shaped head. It usually takes only one good swing of the maul to split new birch in two. Birch bark contains oils that catch fire quickly and burn vigorously, so I always start my fires with newspaper, topped with a piece of birch bark, that has kindling lying above it. The birch wood burns slowly and hot, and I save birch firewood to use on those really cold days.
I grew up in southern Indiana, and surprisingly, we had a birch tree (looking more like a tall birch bush) that my father had gotten somewhere and planted in our back yard. Birch trees weren’t native to southern Indiana, but that tree did continue to grow, but it never really thrived in our back yard. Birches, like all plants, grow best in the conditions that they need. Here in the Robson Valley they thrive in areas that have cooler aspects and moist soil.
These birch across the street, do well because of the moisture beneath the ground that flows down the mountain slope.
View my paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca
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