Measuring a stack of firewood

For all my “I can do it myself, thank you” attitude, I have to admit there are quite a few things that are best not done yourself. Sometimes you have to lean on friends. Sometimes being a part of a community is the more sensible way to go.
Getting a couple cords of firewood for your winter supply is one of those times.
Last week, a couple family friends of ours volunteered to go to the woods a ways out of town to get us firewood for the season. There is no way I could have done this myself. This is what it took to get the wood:
Two trucks. One without a canopy—which could hold roughly a half cord of wood—and one with a canopy—which could hold about a full cord.

Truck without canopy = roughly half cord

Truck with canopy = about a full cord

What are the dimensions of a cord of firewood, you ask? Well, a full cord is a stack four feet deep (about three rows of 16″ logs) by four feet tall by eight feet wide (128 cubic feet). A face cord only measures the height (four feet) by width (eight feet). If someone only sells you wood by the face cord, you have to hope the depth is more than six inches.
It also took: two chainsaws, enough gasoline to operate the chainsaws for three hours, enough chainsaw oil to last the same, and a metal file to sharpen the chainsaws every few minutes (rule of thumb:

Stacking firewood

if you’re getting a lot of sawdust when you’re using a chainsaw, that means the blades are dull and you need to file them sharp again).
Now, I could have stacked all the wood in the trucks myself, but it was way more fun doing it with a best friend and a couple rambunctious boys.

And I could have chopped all the wood myself, and I could have stacked it in the shed if I didn’t need it until five years from now. But, alas, I want a warm winter this winter.
So thank you so much, dear friends, for giving of yourselves in such generous measure.