Fuel Your Life with Wood Heat
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One of the cheapest forms of fuel is firewood. To get a winter wood supply of fuel legally you need to apply for a firewood cutting permit from the Forest Service. This is really easy to do at the Forest Service office. If there isn’t an office in your town, just phone the nearest office and apply over the telephone. They just require that you live in the area and have a telephone contact number, plus your mailing and residential address.
When you receive your firewood cutting permit, it has an information sheet explaining what trees you can cut down and where you can legally cut those trees. Basically you can cut dead trees, not valuable for commercial use, on land that is not privately owned, or leased out as tree farm or wood lot to other people. Tree farm land must have signs posted plainly identifying it as such.
We are assuming here that you have some knowledge of how to use a chainsaw safely, to cut down trees. You should also have training or experience in the correct method used in cutting down trees. You don’t get a second chance here. If something goes wrong, while the tree is being cut down, it becomes deadly serious.
To go get your fuel for winter, you take a drive in a rural area, usually on gravel, Forest Service roads, far away from privately owned property. The area you will cut in will not display signs indicating it is leased from the Forest Service, as a wood lot, or tree farm. You look as you drive slowly along for areas which contain dead trees. Trees which look discolored, with brown needles near the top or all the way down are a good indicator of this. When you find a promising area get out and take a walk through the woods, with your saw. If you are in hilly terrain be sure to find dead trees up hill from your vehicle, so you move the cut wood down hill to your vehicle. Make the work as easy as possible for yourself. Try to find dead trees as close to the road as possible.
When you find a dead tree you want, take a good look at it first. Check to see if it looks rotten. Give it a kick. Does it look sturdy? Does the tree move at all? Does it look like any branches are loose above you, that could fall down on you while you are working beneath the tree? Look up in the direction you want to fall the tree to. Is there a clear path for the tree to fall through, to hit the ground, without hitting any other nearby trees? You can save yourself a lot of time and work, planning the direction the tree will fall, so it goes down hill toward your vehicle, without hitting any other trees, and getting stuck in their branches.
When you have done all the planning, fell the tree carefully. If needed, use a falling wedge and axe. When the tree is down on the ground safely, cut off all the branches. Next cut the trunk into 3 to 4 ft lengths. This will depend on how big and heavy it is. You will be flipping these lengths of wood toward your vehicle. When you have all the wood close to your vehicle cut it into the size pieces your heater will handle.
Load up your vehicle. Be careful not to overload it. Drive carefully back home, keeping an eye out for other vehicles. Your vehicle will react slower when loaded.
Before piling the wood in a woodshed or wood pile, split each piece in half, so it will dry faster. Keep the wood sheltered from rain and snow. If not piled in a woodshed, cover the wood pile with plastic sheeting, which can be obtained from a hardware store.
There is nothing finer than a wood fire, to heat your home. It gives off a dry, rosy, comforting sort of heat. Another great advantage to using wood is that it is low priced, compared to other types of fuels, especially if you go get it yourself.
Deep Fryer - Pieces of Wisdom
We all know how to deep fry food in a domestic situation but deep frying commercially is a different matter. The process is described here as are the Deep Fryer cook’s safety tips.
For a time I worked in a convenience store as a clerk and cook and I used a deep fryer quite a bit for cooking battered chicken and French fried potatoes.
Of course the chicken doesn’t start out battered. It comes delivered frozen in big cardboard boxes. Before the chicken is ready for the cooking part it must be prepared and time to thaw out. Each piece of chicken is rinsed in cold water, then put in a vat of tenderising, salty water to soak for several hours in a refrigerated area. It is again rinsed and kept cold, until needed for cooking.
When needed for cooking the chicken is breaded in a special spicy flour mix, dipped in spice water, and breaded with mix again. Each piece is than carefully placed in the boiling oil in the deep fryer; starting with the large, meaty pieces, and finishing with the thin bony pieces. This gives the thick meaty pieces more time to cook. They get the hottest oil in the pot to start off the cooking process. The deep fryer is on a timer and part way through the cooking process the timer sets off an alarm which notifies you that it’s time to stir the chicken, so it gets all sides cooked evenly, even the sides touching when first put in the fryer. After stirring the chicken it cooks until the end of cooking cycle alarm goes off. Then the pot elevator will automatically lift the cooking basket out of the hot oil, allowing the chicken to drip off the excess oil.
The deep fryer also cooks French fried potatoes. After cutting the potatoes into the elongated cube shape in a cutter, the fries are battered, dipped and battered again. They then can be gently lowered in hands full, into the boiling oil. The cooking is again controlled by a timer, which sounds when the cooking cycle has completed. After 4 cooks the oil in the fryer needs to be filtered to clean it for future cooking cycles. Another alarm indicates when oil filtering needs to occur.
The heat on the oil is turned off, so the oil can cool down enough to work with. The cooking basket is raised and removed from the fryer. A valve is turned to allow the oil to drain down into the filtering drawer. When the oil has drained the empty oil reservoir is brushed, including the heating coil element, to remove anything sticking to their surfaces. A pump is turned on which circulates the oil repeatedly through the filter. The filtering can take place for 10 or 15 minutes, depending how dark the oil appears in color. When the oil has become lighter in color it is pumped back up to the oil reservoir, after the valve at the bottom of the pot has been closed. The heating element is turned on and the oil is brought back up to cooking temperature. The unpleasant part is scooping out the sludge at the bottom of the filter drawer. Then the cleaned filter is dusted with a special powder, put back in its place under the fryer pot, and all is ready to go again.
Yes the fryer does most of the cooking for you but watch out for the hot oil when loading the food into the cooking basket. Even wearing rubber gloves won’t stop the oil from burning you, should it splash on your hands as the food drops into the hot oil. The secret is to be brave and gutsy. Get the food close to the oil before you drop it in. That way the splash is really small, and doesn’t jump up to fry your wrist.
Happy cooking. Cook, but don’t be cooked.
About the Author
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Fuel
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