A Bad Day in the Northwoods

It wasn't really a bad day but not what I planned.  We have run out of firewood...again.  There is an explanation.  We burn propane gas from one of those big silver tanks to heat the house, water, clothes dryer, and oven/stove.  Since we were not full time residents until October, we couldn't lock in a good rate so we have been paying top dollar for propane.  To continue to explain...if we keep the wood stove going (with wood - hence, the name), then the propane heat for the house doesn't go on.  Our mantra is "save the propane." Last summer saw us working hard to sell our Mt. Prospect house.  Because we came to Wisconsin so little, we didn't have time to cut dead trees to store up for the winter. Now back to...we are out of firewood again.  The first time we looked in the newspaper and bought a pickup full of wood  for $70.  We were happy.  However, we have burned all of that wood, and we don't think it was oak as advertised.  We asked around and found a lumber manufacturer about an hour away.  They make pallets from local lumber and have "ends" leftover that they sell for $65 a pile.  The ends are a perfect size for the wood stove.  We pulled up, paid, and loaded by hand.  When the truck was full, the pile was still quite large, so...we drove the hour home, unloaded by hand, drove back to the lumber place and loaded the remaining amount.  Thankfully, the rest of the wood fit in the truck.  We drove home again with our noses in the air because the weight of the wood caused the truck to be at quite an angle, but also perturbed that we previously paid $70 for one load instead of $65 for two.  We unloaded and took Aleve.  Next year we are locking in the price of propane and cutting down many dead trees before winter.