Firewood delivery helps power Hoosiers through rough winters

Winter finally came last week, and if you’ve got a fireplace, odds are you’ve been talking with your firewood guy or gal.

Dustin Brown is one of those guys. He studied marketing at Indiana University in the early aughts, got in early on the local craft beer craze, brewing beers for Bloomington Beer Company, Cutters and Danny Boy.

But, after 15 years of making beer, Brown switched gears to work at a Haulstr, a buddy’s landscaping operation.

Haulstr is a local company that does things like patio installs and mulch hauling, but as that business dries up in the cold months, the firewood rounds start. The company donates a bit of every sale to a variety of local charities the customer specifies.

Brown and his crew don’t cut the wood. They buy local hardwood from a local sawmill, and they’ll dump a pile in your driveway, or stack it for an extra fee.

“I don’t like snow. I don’t like being cold, but I like being outside,” Brown said, as he navigated a wood-laden truck and trailer around tight neighborhood streets.

On one recent day in the mid 30s, Brown and helper Henry Lopez made runs to Zionsville and the northeast tip of Indianapolis. The first delivery was to southern California transplant Christian Belloso, who grew up where fires were in the forest or at a beach bonfire. Not part of home heating.

On another trip, Brown couldn’t reach the owner, so he and Henry stacked their rick of wood — a pile four feet tall and eight feel long — on the outside of their fence. On the other side of the fence, four very curious bulldogs lobbied for head scratches, furiously sniffing the new pile of hardwood being neatly stacked.