How Much Wood...? (you know the rest)

The never-ending job of firewood acquisition continues...

Last month Troy and Isaac cut down some trees that were blocking the sun from Troy's west garden. You may be able to see the stumps on the far right:

The west garden just seems to get bigger and bigger...

The walnut tree also gives off something that stunts anything growing around it. Obviously that's not good for the garden either. So out it came. They cut it all up and Isaac got just about all of it split and stacked with Peggy and Warren's help.

They filled up the second rack and got a good start on the third (the untarped sections):

As usual at the end of the winter, we have two full from last season (at the far end), and we've gone through almost three racks though the winter.

Since then, Troy cut down a few more trees that he thought were crowding out the garden. (On the left in the first picture.) I've been working on getting that wood either on the racks to dry or stacked to split. Just a little more to move:

I also cleaned up the area at the end of the driveway where a lot of the cutting and all of the splitting happens. The wood was starting to spread all over that part of the lawn. (I assume every time they got a chainsaw out, they moved the wood further out to have a safe "clean" area to work in.) So I sorted out the crap and cleaned up with a rake and made it so I could run a mower over what grass is still growing.

I then stacked all the wood there that needed yet to be split. I like to keep a work area relatively organized and I like it better when I'm splitting if I can pull from a stack rather than from a "dumping ground." It also helps me feel like I'm making progress.

Today we went and collected even more wood from a friend's neighbour who had a tree taken down. All the branches and "little stuff" was cleaned up and we just had to pick up the trunk pieces. Can't get any easier than that! We had a full load in the pickup.

I stacked up this new wood with the old and this is what the area looks like now:

Yes, yours truly stacked all those big hunks. Yee haw!

But it's a little deceptive from that view. Let me show you another:

There are two rows of wood stacked in the back and five and half more in the front. That's a lot of wood to split!

In other news, my crab apple tree is blooming for the first time:

Very exciting!

Many Hands Make Quick Work...2

A lot has been accomplished this week thanks to the three extra pair of willing hands. They finished laying out the two layers of insulation and re-bar, and Isaac and Peggy have tied more than 2,000 wire ties to hold the re-bar in place; they have a few more to do and should finish them tomorrow. Troy wants to add more reinforcements to the forms and he’s hoping to call the inspector on Monday. If things get done on time, we’ll be pouring cement on Saturday. (Ready, troops?)

When most of that work was wrapped up (we ran out of ties over the holiday so work on the shop was halted), we started on firewood. Last winter we “filled” our five racks and burned through about 3.5. So we have 1.5 racks of dried wood to start us off this year. But of course we still wanted to fill the 5 racks again to be prepared. Troy and I got a start on it about the middle of June, but only managed to fill half a rack. Warren started splitting the stump pieces Troy had already hacked off and finished off that rack on Tuesday. Then when the shop work was held up, Troy and Isaac got serious about making wood to split.

First they tackled the debris of the walnut tree and did about half of the wood there. Then they moved on to a hickory tree that had split during a storm. Several loads with the tractor (bucket in front and trailer behind) and Troy thinks he has removed maybe half of the side limbs and branches. That’s not including any of the wood from the main trunk that fell that he hasn’t touched. Warren split it and Peggy stacked it and today we filled the fourth rack. And this time I mean fill and not “fill.” In other words, the height of the piles this year is much higher than last year. We are going to have a lot more wood. We started filling the fifth rack this afternoon but Troy has had trouble keeping up with the efficient Warren/Peggy splitting/stacking machine. Sorry, no pictures of our wonderful stacked wood (and you know I love pictures of cut and stacked wood) because we got them tarped up pronto (and pictures of tarps are not so lovely).

This is all for now because I have to go to bed and try to sleep. Try to sleep though the neighbours are loudly celebrating the Fifth of July. Someone should send them a calendar.

-christina

Socks and Gloves Share a Problem

I think I can assume you all know about single sock syndrome. (The mystery of how only one sock of a previously matched pair comes out of the laundry.) (Ok, so I couldn’t let myself assume it. Sorry.) I have to admit this is not a frequent occurrence when I do laundry (maybe because I don’t do laundry frequently?), but I throw the lonely sock into a special drawer, and often when I’m throwing it in there I see that its mate is already there. Reunion! Delight! (I love matching things. Although, somehow, my single friends have always been safe.)

But gloves are much more devious. This very evening I went to find my bringing-wood-in gloves. Incidentally, I have gloves for everything. Gardening: digging gloves, planting gloves, shoveling gloves, pruning gloves, rose pruning gloves (with the nice long leather sleeves), etc, etc. And I have working with wood gloves (that’s firewood, not fine furniture), and putting wood in the stove gloves. I have cold weather gloves and really cold weather gloves. (The current pair makes a maple leaf when you put the two singles together—LOVE IT!) I have driving gloves, some for long trips, some for quick trips. And gloves just for looking good, elbow-length, wrist-length, and fur-trimmed. You get the idea. Having a mother-in-law that works in a glove–packing and –making factory only feeds my obsession. She’s very generous and seems to always find the right size for my long fingers.

I’m getting a little sidetracked. (Too excited about all my gloves…) Let me try to focus: so I was reaching for my bringing-wood-in gloves and…they’re not there. How can that be? I, of course, turn immediately to Troy and accuse him of using my gloves. (They’re in a pile of communal gloves, but I naturally think of them of mine. I know: I have a lot of issues to get over.) He admits to it, so I start the search for the next best bringing-wood-in gloves. So many things to consider. Leather, synthetic, insulated, size, how dirty are they, how dirty are the insides (because I want to be able to eat popcorn that Troy is making for me as I bring in wood), etc, etc. The first few I pick up all turn out to be left gloves. This is where I finally am relating gloves back to the socks. I actually try on two left gloves, but I need to pick the wood up with my right hand and the left glove is just a little too awkward. So I settle for the next least-bad gloves for bringing in wood, reach for what looks like a pair and they are two RIGHT gloves matching none of the left ones. AAHH! But at least I had a solution. I wore two mismatched gloves, got the wood in, and am now going to enjoy my popcorn. It is my consolation for a world that just not right. (Or, just TWO right! hee hee)

And if you’ve seen some vacationing gloves that seem to be missing their mates, please send them back. They’re needed at home!

-christina