Handy firewood holder with a history

Published: January 12, 2022

Cattleman’s Corner, FarmLife

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Here on our ranch, we’ve always stacked a little extra firewood on our porch for easy grabbing. This makes it a lot closer than trudging across the driveway and carrying some in from the woodpile, especially if the weather is cold and snowy.

However, this year we made it even better. We created a really handy wood holder that can sit on the porch, and be removed during summer when we don’t need firewood.

We have a lot of old things around the ranch (which was homesteaded in 1884), including some freight wagons that were used during the 1920s and later parked here as their final resting place. These wagons were pulled by teams of horses or mules to haul ore down the mountain from a copper mine at the head of our creek. The ore was hauled down the steep, winding primitive road and past our ranch to the railroad at the mouth of the creek. The railroad was an old narrow=gauge track that had a spur line into our valley at that time, but it no longer exists.

On the ranch we also have several miscellaneous wagon wheels and some iron rims from wheels that have long since had the wooden parts rotted away. We realized that these big iron rims could make a perfect firewood holder. We found a couple of big ones of matching size, welded some spacing bars between them to create the wood holder, and made a stand for the bottom using old leaf springs from a Model T car that was also sitting out in the bushes below our house. This base, welded onto the bottom of the double rings, stabilizes the rims and keeps the wood-holder from rolling.

This double hoop can be stuffed with firewood and holds a couple days’ worth for the old stove that heats our old ranch house, which is added onto the original homestead cabin built in 1885. Or it can hold many days’ worth of dry wood for starting fires on a cold morning. The hoop firewood holder makes a lot neater storage spot than the old messy pile we used to have on the porch and can be easily removed and set somewhere else for summer.

This is a great way to make a pleasing-looking firewood holder, using materials of historical interest that can live on with recycled usefulness as well as being a good conversation starter! Curious friends and visitors often learn more about the history of our area when they ask about this “antique” wood holder.

I am amazed on how each summer differs in Manitoba. Two summers ago, we had severe drought, last summer was…

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