Fire in Fernley

[kevin_standlee]

Now that I've got your attention....

We had the chimney in Fernley House cleaned this past weekend. The plumbing contractor does chimney sweeping on the side and did it last Sunday afternoon, and for a very reasonable cost. He also re-insulated around the fireplace insert and put everything into place, pronouncing the fireplace as fit for purpose. All we needed was some wood.

Lisa tells me that there was a small amount of burnable wood about the property, which she gathered up and used to kindle a fire. The timing is good because this week is the first cold spell since we've moved it. We've actually been quite lucky so far, with unseasonable warm temperatures until this week, but it's going down below freezing at night now and not warming up as much as it had been. According to Lisa, the fireplace and its associated fan heats the living room and front portion of the house quite nicely.

Now we have to figure out something about getting in some firewood for the winter. I wish we somehow could have transported all of that wood that I split in Mehama (see icon), but aside from the cost (time and money) to transport it, there is the matter that we'd have to go by way of Idaho significantly out of the way rather than via the direct route that cuts through the northwestern corner of California because of California's agriculture rules. (They specifically quiz you about firewood at the passport & customs Ag inspection stations.) We've identified a place that would probably make for a good wood-storage area, but we need a wood rack for it, as I'd rather not store it directly on the ground.

Update, 11:30: Although it's still a bit of round-the-houses, see comment below about a route that doesn't touch Idaho.

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

And possibly their rules about importing firewood make sense, and shouldn't be evaded? I dunno, I know neither the rules nor the situations they're facing in any detail. Around here, similar rules (draining and cleaning boats between lakes, for example, and not moving firewood far) DO seem to make sense for the challenges we're facing.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Oh, the rules probably make sense for California; it's just that they won't even let you transport it through California. I suppose if there are pests in the firewood, they might get out into the forests during the time the wood is transiting the states.

Anyway, we'll probably end up buying firewood, and it will probably cost less than getting the wood from Mehama to Fernley would have cost.

[galtine1.livejournal.com]

http://summitcountyvoice.com/2011/09/03/firewood-transport-spreads-deadly-oak-infestation/

http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/2011-06-22/News/Transportation_of_firewood_spreads_damaging_pests.html

http://www.ucsusa.org/action/alerts/tell-me-more/firewood.html

THe biggest concern I heard about while in San Diego Co. was in regards to saving the scrub oak.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Good points. As a Child of the Forest Service, I should be more sensitive to this sort of thing. I just hate seeing resources going to waste, and I suspect that's what's going to happen to all of that wood that I chopped. It wasn't finished, and I expect they're going to leave it to rot where it lies.

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Now THAT is annoying! Wasting perfectly good firewood - when you or -they- could get a heap of warm fires out of it during the colder months - is just a shame. ... and if not personally used, it can be sold for a decent price, too [having paid for a quarter cord of wood in the past as few times].

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I just couldn't resist figuring this out. How about US 20 to Or. 78 to US 95? That goes through neither California nor Idaho.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Ah, you're right; I missed the cut-off at Burns when I did a quick scan of the maps. (OR-78 isn't visible at the higher levels of Google Maps.) And that turns out to only be about 40 miles longer than the "direct" route, so it's less infeasible). But there are other good reasons not to move the wood anyway.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

Why do they quiz you about firewood?

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Because California has agricultural quarantines in force. You can't transport backyard produce, wood, or other agricultural products into the state. You've probably never noticed it if you've only traveled to California by air, not by highway. (And I think they inspect coming back from Hawaii, too, although I've never flown between Hawaii and California.)

[rono-60103.livejournal.com]

At least in 1981, the USDA did pest inspections on everything being shipped from Hawaii. Nothing was done when we arrived in California since the USDA had already checked.

As we were packing the stuff we shipped ourselves from my Grandpa's house at The Volcano to Albuquerque, each box had to be taken to the Hilo airport for an ag inspection before we could seal the box and take it over to the docks where Matson would ship it to the mainland and someone would carry it to Albuquerque. Since the truck my brother and dad were driving couldn't take everything in one trip, I think they did two or three round trips from The Volcano to Hilo (about 60 miles each way IIRC) that day.

We also had to have all of our luggage inspected and a sticker put on before we could board the plane in Hilo. Fortunately, the stickers kept us from having to get another inspection in Honolulu before boarding the red-eye back to LA. That didn't stop security from having to look at the ice chest with frozen guava juice and Scottish bangers each of the three times my brother took it through security.

I presume that the moving company that handled the furniture, and Matson when they shipped the car, had inspections done as well.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

One of my childhood memories involves going through the checkpoints on I-5; we'd get down to the border and the adults would remind the kids to eat up all the dried apricots, we needed them all gone by the time we got to the quarantine station...