"A king shall warm his slippers by"

All the ash we cut on Saturday is now 200 feet closer to home. Here's the pile after two hours of moving this morning.

Why so much work for a relatively small amount of firewood? Because white ash performs magic in the stove, as the last verse of a classic firewood poem notes, "Poplar gives a bitter smoke, Fills your eyes and makes you choke, Apple wood will scent your room Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom Oaken logs, if dry and old keep away the winter's cold But ash wet or ash dry a king shall warm his slippers by."