Wood Water Soul- Wood

From Tree to Table

We heat our home mostly with a wood-burning fireplace. Our home is made entirely of redwood, and we don’t get a lot of sun during the winter months. We keep the thermostat at 61 during the day, and we conserve as much as we can, but in the winter, we use our fireplace almost daily. It’s well-maintained, and we keep it that way. Finding responsible firewood dealers is difficult in this area. I found a new source, ordered it, and had a half of a cord of Madrone firewood delivered. Steve, who brought it, was great. This Madrone was harvested this year, 2025. This wood came from the fires in the Santa Cruz Mountains in August 2020. Some of the pieces had burn scars.

This was our air quality from Monterey looking at Santa Cruz, the #’s were in the high 400’s.

The fellow that I bought the wood from was a really unique person. He’d been trimming and harvesting trees for over 50 years. I felt like a kid next to him as I saw some of his movements and how his body was twisted after so many years in the woods. But I was proud to have met him, and we had a wonderful conversation while we unloaded the wood as it was getting dark. He had spent the day loading the truck and then driving it down from the mountains for me. I felt honored to have this local hardwood that would help sustain me. We even had mutual friends. In 1985, he had a sawmill in the Santa Cruz Mountains and he had quarter-sawn wood for the Santa Cruz Guitar Company while they were in their infancy. They had a saw with 100 teeth per inch and a blade speed of 1720 revolutions. It was a Very Big saw, which was required for accurate work. He had even sawn wood for the C.F. Martin Guitar Company. He told me that he had found some birdseye redwood way back in the woods, which would look like the scan of two pieces joined together. It is shocking to see in person. I knew that Larry Fuller would go crazy to find it if I told him about it, and I will next time I see him.

As I was stacking, I began reflecting on how we must be better stewards of the forests and coastal areas we cherish. I’m thinking about the unimaginable tragedy occurring in Southern California this month as well. The Palisades home we lived in is no more. We haven’t had rain in Southern California in a while, and it was only waiting to happen. I began to think about what our coastal redwoods have endured in their 2000 years of life. How many fires had they seen? How the world totally changed around them, and yet they continue to share their beauty and majesty.

Let’s leave something of these forests for those that come after us. If you’d like to support this project, Addicted to Joy, I’d ask you to make a donation to the American Red Cross for Southern California fire relief. If you like to help feed people, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.

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