A few times a year, my friend, Betsy provides an opportunity for me to express my inner lumberjack by inviting me to come out to her acreage to split wood. Yesterday was one of those opportunities! I’m always happy to participate because the work is so satisfying. And, for a few hours work, I haul home enough wood to have a winter filled with cozy evening fires.
Speaking of fires, Betsy had a pile of brush that needed burning, so we took care of that, yesterday, too. On some "lumberjack" days, we cut fallen trees into 18 - 24 inch lengths and stack them to be cut into fireplace-sized pieces later. Mark runs the chain saw and we move and stack the logs. Some days, like yesterday, we run the splitter and either haul wood to the barn for storage or load up the trucks with wood for each family. Typically, there are four of us (Betsy’s sister and brother-in-law are the other two regulars) but Mark was traveling, so it was just the three women yesterday. Betsy figures we split and hauled two cords. Hear us roar?! (Mark and Sue had split the logs into manageable pieces earlier in September so we could get them on to the splitter more easily.) Typically, we work in the morning and end with a hearty “sloppy joe” lunch. Yesterday, we started in the afternoon and ended with pizza and black bean nachos. Yum. Today, I’ll unload the wood—making sure to fill the bin on the porch before stacking the rest in the garage. It may even be cool enough tonight to have the inaugural fire!
2 comments:
Boy oh boy could we ever use you and your gang at our house! (wanna come visit?!) We split about 9 cords each year for our regular heating and it's generally more work than fun. :)
Marguerite; Wow! Nine cords is a LOT of wood. Do you do it all in one day? The families I work with do heat with wood, too. But, we don't do it all in one day. We always include food. It's something to look forward to at the end of our hard work! (And, having several people helping makes it easier, too.)
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