Anyone of Norwegian descent might be able to relate to this article.
"...There are hundreds of websites on how to stack wood — so many it seems that stacking wood is surpassed in frequency on social media only by the tribulations of the Kardashians. For aficionados, wood-stacking incorporates both science and art, and details matter.
There are debates in the wood-stacking community, for example, about stacking "bark-up" or "bark-down" — which, to me, seems barking mad...
...The Norwegians famously stack their wood in huge circular piles that resemble silos. They are breathtaking to behold, in their own weirdly fastidious way. But then, Norwegians are weirdly fastidious about wood-stacking. When the national broadcaster, NRK, aired a 12-hour show on the subject*** — yes, 12 hours — 20 per cent of the population tuned in to watch.
The show consisted entirely of people stacking wood, then burning it in a wood stove for eight hours. It precipitated a flood of angry emails to the show's producers, and split the country along the bark-up bark-down divide. Hundreds more phoned in to complain about how the fire was being tended...
..It was a Norwegian, Lars Mytting, who wrote the surprise international bestseller Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way. Among the practicalities of wood-stacking, Mytting related how American women in the 19th century measured up a man as husband material by the shape of his woodpile. An upright and solid man would have an upright and solid woodpile. A tall woodpile spoke of a man with big ambitions but who was prone to collapse and disaster. A lazy man left his pile unfinished, while the man who put away a lot of wood for the winter promised to be loyal and industrious...
"...There are hundreds of websites on how to stack wood — so many it seems that stacking wood is surpassed in frequency on social media only by the tribulations of the Kardashians. For aficionados, wood-stacking incorporates both science and art, and details matter.
There are debates in the wood-stacking community, for example, about stacking "bark-up" or "bark-down" — which, to me, seems barking mad...
...The Norwegians famously stack their wood in huge circular piles that resemble silos. They are breathtaking to behold, in their own weirdly fastidious way. But then, Norwegians are weirdly fastidious about wood-stacking. When the national broadcaster, NRK, aired a 12-hour show on the subject*** — yes, 12 hours — 20 per cent of the population tuned in to watch.
The show consisted entirely of people stacking wood, then burning it in a wood stove for eight hours. It precipitated a flood of angry emails to the show's producers, and split the country along the bark-up bark-down divide. Hundreds more phoned in to complain about how the fire was being tended...
..It was a Norwegian, Lars Mytting, who wrote the surprise international bestseller Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way. Among the practicalities of wood-stacking, Mytting related how American women in the 19th century measured up a man as husband material by the shape of his woodpile. An upright and solid man would have an upright and solid woodpile. A tall woodpile spoke of a man with big ambitions but who was prone to collapse and disaster. A lazy man left his pile unfinished, while the man who put away a lot of wood for the winter promised to be loyal and industrious...
***BBC link from 2013 here
The head of programming at NRK, Rune Moeklebust, described it as "slow but noble television".
"We'll talk about the very nerdy subjects like burning, slicing and stacking the wood, but we'll also have cultural segments with music and poems," he said...
The head of programming at NRK, Rune Moeklebust, described it as "slow but noble television".
"We'll talk about the very nerdy subjects like burning, slicing and stacking the wood, but we'll also have cultural segments with music and poems," he said...
Larry
