This month’s feature: FAST FACTS ABOUT FIREWOOD WITH JULIE
Julie is a grade ten student at Cowichan Valley Alternate School (CVAS). Julie is a huge animal lover, and envisions a future for herself in the military working with canines in the bomb detection squad. During the past nine months, Julie has been learning all about the processing and selling of firewood. Here Julie shares ten “fast facts” about firewood:
* Firewood is extremely hard to split! 
* The firewood the students at CVAS process are maple, oak and cedar (Julie states that cedar burns very fast).
* The students harvest the firewood from both Maple Mountain and Richards Mountain (near Crofton).
* Wood needs to be “seasoned” – that means that Julie and the CVAS crew harvest wood that is no longer green. They take the driest wood on the mountain and further season it on Cowichan Valley Open Learning (CVOLC) property.
* The CVAS firewood crew will deliver firewood throughout the Cowichan Valley! The price is $200 for a cord of wood
* Julie says that a cord of wood fills two entire truck beds, and one of the CVAS trucks has a very large truck bed…that means that purchasers of the CVAS wood are actually getting a little extra than what they paid for! (a cord of wood typically costs between $200-400).
* The cost of delivery includes gas, bar chain oil, and mauls…..
* What are mauls, you ask?? Julie explains that mauls are used for splitting firewood, whereas axes are used for cutting down trees.
* Tree bark is generally used for kindling.
* Julie’s tip for starting a fire: make sure there are adequate air pockets around the stacking of the wood, paper, and kindling. Do not use a lot of paper crumpled together if using as a fire-starter; it will not successfully light. Wood shavings can act as a great fire-starter!
