Meddlesome Me

i heat with wood. believe it or not, burning wood for heat is fucking expensive, particularly when you live in the economic toilet of ontario - i am totally not kidding:

Haliburton County's economy is dominated by tourism, due to the regions many lakes and rivers. The ratio of properties occupied in the summer months, to properties occupied year-round is 3 to 1.^[4] Employment primarily caters to the needs of this seasonal population, including residential construction, resorts, services and retail.^[5] The region is unique in the sense that there is no resource, industrial, or agricultural base^{[citation needed]}. Because of the nature of the economy, the unemployment rate of the area is 8.4%, exceeding the provincial average. This grows to 35% in the winter months.^[5] Consequently, Haliburton County is the poorest jurisdiction in the Province of Ontario, with per capita earnings of $32 709 in 2005.^[4]

up by North Bay, it's about $150 a cord - a "cord" of firewood measures, by law, 4ft by 4ft by 8ft. here? try $85 a face cord - a "face cord" is 4ft high and 8ft long but can be any depth at all; it's not a legal term but the socially accepted convention anywhere else in the country is three face cords to one bush cord, or, in other words, the pieces are about 16" long, give or take. here? too many have tried to tell me that it's actually four face cords to a bush cord! in other words, they're trying to rake in about $400 a bush cord!

anyway, i don't get garbage collection so i have to take the garbage to the dump. what do i see when i get there? the first thing my eyes set on is a gigantic burning pit - it's used to burn.... wait for it....

WOOD!

trees, shrubs, old wood siding, construction débris - all going up in smoke when it could be heating up my house instead!

i contacted the town about setting that wood aside and selling it to low-income households for heat but the guy couldn't have sounded more disinterested if he'd tried. of course, he didn't just SAY "sorry, not interested". instead, i got the full treatment of how he'd LOVE to make it work BUT the ministry of the environment this and legal liability that and scavenging laws the other and blah, blah until i wanted to puke.

so instead i went to a non-profit organization in another town that runs a program providing heat to low-income families and i pointed them in the direction of a government program that funds community projects that benefit the environment and, with any luck, i'll be able to get some help next winter!