Musings

Firewood Season

 

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Though it has been delayed by the circumstances of my own bipedal limitations, it is now full firewood season in the mountains.  For the past couple of weeks we have been moving the surplus in the lower barn from last winter, the worst on record for these parts, to the wood shed next to the front porch.  Two stacks that were already in the area were left alone.  Together this inventory will get us to about Christmas.  We hope.

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Thursday morning was the appointed time for my friend Bob to come and fell some more trees (about 15) for me to cut, split, and stack for heat on the back end of winter.   About half of the trees were behind the pond, the others behind the barn up the hill.  This second grouping is in part due to the need to thin the trees between the barn and the late afternoon winter sun, so that I can have light a little longer in the barn as otherwise in December and January I lose direct sun by about 3PM.

I must say that having my hip and leg recuperated adequately for working in the shop is not the same thing as being ready for traipsing up and down hills in my lumberjack’s boots while carrying a chain saw, fuel can and chain lube jug.  When I stopped for the night my leg was a-howlin’.  Two days later it is still pretty unhappy.

I’ll let you know how things went once I get done processing all this wood.  The locals are promising a mild winter, and I would not object to that being the case.