The Warm Glow

Writing the Starry Night article reminded me of the old wood stove I heated the house with at that time. After a few nights of burning wood I found I could calculate how long the wood that I had under cover would last. There was only enough to last until mid-January.

I went out the following day and purchased a new chain saw with a 20 inch bar, and started working on the slash piles left behind by the previous owner who had logged a couple acres. Trees that were leaning or rubbing against another tree on the upper wooded acreage were fair game as well. I wouldn’t cut anything that was healthy.

There were some nice hunks of alder in the slash piles which I cut, and trailered down the hill. Once there I split and stacked the wood. Eventually it made it into the house for burning.

It is said that the difference between good alder and rotten alder is about 15 minutes. Though the alder was still good, the quick change became evident to me one night. I had a nice stack of wood in a corner by the wood stove, and one night I woke up to go to the bathroom, and that was a good time to check the fire as well. However when I looked down into the dark living room I saw the strangest sight. The wood pile was glowing. It was pretty creepy; the damn pile of wood was glowing like it was radioactive or something.

I turned the light on to see what the hell was going on, and the glow stopped. I turned the light off and it glowed again. I picked up a sample of the wood to examine it closer, and there seemed to be a yellowish tint to some parts of the wood. Turn the light off and the yellow part glowed.

The following day I asked someone about it and they told me it was phosphorescent mold, and it isn’t all that uncommon here. In fact if you get stuck fishing the Lewis and Clark River in the canyons above the 400 line in the dark you will often see the forest floor glowing when you leave.

What a strange and wonderful place.