Hot work for winter heat

Although temperatures outside may be nearing 100 degrees, James Sawyers can be found working on a chore that most save for fall and winter weather.

Sawyers operates a firewood business near his home on Hwy. 1590, and is on-site most days, cutting and splitting firewood that he sells throughout the year.

In addition to the financial rewards, Sawyers says the work itself gives him some good exercise with a total-body workout.

Sawyers estimated that he split 232 rick of wood last year, noting that not only does he enjoy the hard labor aspect of the work, but it keeps him active and healthy.

This week, temperatures are expected to be extremely hot and very dry with heat indexes well over 100 degrees.

Working outside for some people may be not be an option, but for James Sawyers it provides a good workout and puts a little money in his pocket.

The rare part about Sawyers summertime work is that he is spending these 100 degree days, keeping people warm in the winter weather.

Sawyers spends most of these hot days, cutting and splitting firewood.

Last year I think I split 232 ricks of wood, Sawyers said. The enjoyment is about all I get out of it to speak of … you dont really make any money.

Sawyers has been splitting wood since 1994 and during that time, he has only taken one year off.

I make some or I wouldnt be doing it. If you dont like what you are doing you just as well not fool with it, Sawyers said. A lot of what I sell is to camp fire people who come around from the lake. Most of them have cabins and they get them a little wood to use over the weekend and some of them have a stove and use it for that.

Working outside in the heat during the summer can be hard on some, but for Sawyers, who is now 77 years old, it provides a good workout and keeps him busy.

Its like lifting weights. It keeps the upper part of your body and your legs too, in pretty good shape, Sawyers said. When I split, there is a lot of pulling them apart, so it works across your shoulders. You cant sit down. When you sit down you just dry up. Ive just been lucky to have good health. A lot of people come back from Indiana and they get them a place and say all they are going to do is fish and they dont do anything … they give up that factory work and in three or four years they aint worth nothing.

Most of the wood Sawyers sells is hardwoods, maple, white oak and some hickory.

I get most of my wood from the log yard down there below the old cheese plant. I get the ends off of their stuff, Sawyers said.

Before Sawyers began splitting wood for a living, he said he did a lot of farming. Doing it himself was better at the time because there wasnt enough money in farming to hire someone and pay them a good wage.

People have to have a good wage and the way we farm down here, there isnt enough money to pay somebody to do it, Sawyers said. Farming is unpredictable. I can remember when I came out of the army in 1955, we had a few feeder cattle and over the years we accumulated some and sold them for 18 or 19 cents per pound. Now, its like $1.40 per pound, but fertilizer was $42 per ton … the scale is so much bigger now.

Sawyer explained the difference in the two most common terms used for measuring an amount of cut firewood – a rick and a cord of wood.

A rick of wood, consists of split wood eight feet long by four feet tall, while a cord is a specific amount – 128 cubic feet of wood, which is normally stacked as a unit four feet wide, four feet tall and eight feet long.

A cord is four foot long wood stacked the same way, Sawyers said. Old timers talk about cords. Nobody talks about cords anymore. Sometimes people will call a rick a cord, but a cord is so many cubic feet of wood. A rick is just how ever long it is by four feet tall and eight feet long.

Sawyers said the length of the individual stick of wood is not really considered in the dimensions of a rick but most of what he sells is 18 to 19 inches in length.

If the wood is below 18 inches then I cut it down to 14 inches and the rest of it I just throw in the short pile and make blocks out of it, Sawyers said.

Sawyers not only splits wood in the summer. He said it usually keeps him busy all year long.

I just try to keep busy, Sawyers said. Wood is easier to get in the summer time. Nobody wants to fool with wood in the summer time. Its too hot … they wont fool with it, but when cold weather comes, I will go get me a load and when I leave to bring it back there will be somebody else there getting wood. A lot of times there will be a line of people there getting wood.

Sawyers said he has to get to the lumber yard early to insure he gets the amount of wood he needs to haul back and split for customers.

I had some competition a few years ago. Some people would come in with a big long trailer and if they got there before I did then I couldnt get any wood, Sawyers said with a chuckle. A lot of times when I got there first we would trade out. I would get one block and they would get the next one. They were real nice and it worked out good.

At the end of last week, Thursday and Friday, Sawyers picked up four loads of wood. He said he was done loading for the week, but now it was time to split what he had loaded over the past two days.

Ive got so much other stuff I need to do. I have a lot of mowing Ive got to get done, so I will fool with that a little, Sawyers said. Ive got to get some of that wood up out of the way because its getting in my way.

Other than splitting wood, Sawyers tends to his land with mowing and keeping the weeds down, but with the excess rain Clinton County has had this spring, Sawyers said its been hard to keep up.

Ive been trying to keep the weeds down. Charlie Brown takes care of my hay, but he cant get up real close to the fence rows, so I try to keep them sprayed. Last year I messed around with that wood and never got it sprayed and its getting bigger. Im going to have to do something. I guess Im going to take off a little while and spray my fence rows. I noticed them big old horse weeds or something down there are more than eight feet tall.

With temperatures reaching the upper 90s this week, Sawyers may have to take some time off from splitting wood and catch up on some other chores he has around his farm.

If I aint got something I need to do, then I do this everyday, Sawyers said. Somebody asked me once why I did this and I tell them, well I use to get up at four oclock every morning and get my wood and meet Judge Lovelace and Darrell Claywell walking out by the hospital for exercise … working in that wood is a pretty good workout.

Sawyers sells his firewood three miles outside of Albany on Ky. Hwy 1590. He said he usually gets about $50 per rick.

I sell all I can cut, Sawyers said. Its all good oak with straight grain and they like it.