The BLM is cutting a "new" fire break through an area not far from here, which includes acres of foothill chaparral including manzanita. It took a while to get a hold of the right person, but I got a permit to gather a cord (four ¼ cord tickets) for $10. The manzanita is already bucked and cut; I just need to make sure I maintain the integrity of the piles as I remove the wood. Some of the manzanita is on the order of a hundred years old, much of the rest 'mere decades'. It's also been seasoning off the dirt for at least a year so it's practically usable now (and it's no slouch on the BTU charts either).
The manzanita trunk to the left of the stump is ~80 years old, for example.
The manzanita trunk to the left of the stump is ~80 years old, for example.