After a warm fall, firewood suppliers in Tarrant County say they are grateful for January’s arctic blasts.
RICHLAND HILLS, Texas — As an arctic blast chills Dallas-Fort Worth for the second time this January, firewood suppliers are busy.
The cold weather is welcome to those who depend on it.
“This year was a little slow because we were still running 80-90 degree temperatures in November,” GI-Mow owner Curtis Kinsey told WFAA. “When that first cold spell hit, though, like it did here in December time, we finally started pushing through some of this wood. We were really getting piled up back here.”
Kinsey, a veteran, opened GI-Mow nine years ago. The business’s name makes a not-so-subtle reference to military action figure G.I. Joe.
Customers can pick up firewood at the store’s Richland Hills location at a discounted price or have the wood delivered and stacked.
Kinsey said firewood sales allow him to keep landscaping staff on payroll year-round, even after grass stops growing.
“Thank God for these colder days like this,” Kinsey said.
The logs GI-Mow offers are tree trimmings collected earlier in the year. Most of the wood is pecan or oak and seasoned for at least five months, though the wood’s age may vary as supply wanes.
Customers typically purchase firewood in bulk near the beginning of each year, Kinsey said. Further cold snaps draw more people to the lot.
“I’ll always have a fireplace for natural wood,” Mark Chapman said as a GI-Mow crew loaded wood into his truck bed. “It’s just so relaxing, you know? It’s kind of captivating – just to sit in front of it and kind of get lost in it.”
Chapman has made multiple trips to GI-Mow this month.
“I thought, ‘I’ll get a little more because I ran through it pretty quick,'” Chapman said.
The cold will ease slightly after a frigid Tuesday, with a gradual warming trend expected later this week. Expect ‘firewood weather’ through the beginning of February.
