The Fuel of Heat

Ahhh... the fuel of a hot fire. The thing which makes everyone feel wanted and comforted. Wood. Don't you love the way it just kind of flares up, sizzles, sparks, and then lowers to a gentle roar? Especially when you're feeling really cold.
At our house, we have enough wood stacked along the fence to last at least three years. We've been collecting it as far back as I can remember. If a tree falls in the neighborhood, my dad will be there to make sure he gets some, if not all, of it. Then he gets his wood-splitter from whoever has it currently, parks it by the side of the house, and starts cutting the wood up. Every now and then he will hire someone to split wood, but usually he'll spend weekends outside for three hours just splitting away, split, split, split. Then he has to stack it along our fence. I guess when wood is scarce, the neighbors know who to come to.
Just recently we were at Home Depot looking for wood to renovate our stairs, and my dad sees this circular metal thing that holds wood. Lots of wood. How useful would that be on our back porch for holding wood waiting to be thrown in the fire? I didn't approve of him getting it at first, but now I see it's quite useful.
Isn't it amazing that there's lots of wood around everywhere, but people use GAS fires? First, that's a waste of natural resources. Second, does that honestly produce as much warmth as wood? Maybe someday people will suck it up and learn that nothing artifical replaces the natural things of the world.