The last of the split wood in Wood Pile One. (Fig 1.)Empty bins need to be filled next. (Fig 2.)
It only took a combined 19 hours but I have completed all of the useable wood in all three mounds found in Wood Pile One. The rest is bark shards, and waste wood that can get tipped into the tree line at the back of the property. I can’t do anything with rotten any ridden wood rounds. If the arborists that dumped it here in the first place had left some room to manoeuvre then all this wood could have been stacked on its side so as to not become water logged and rotted out from the bottom up. No matter. We have more than in necessary for Mae syrup and to heat both the stone cottage and the farm house for a couple of years. I haven’t even touched Pile Three at the back of the barn yet.
Next week I can start to clean up the weeds and stack some bins with wood. I have some cut rounds from the spring which I can start on back there too. I can see myself finishing out the year back there. I’ll definitely be needing my chainsaws though because a lot of what’s there isn’t sized to be very useful. I need to cut bits down to no thicker than 14 inches. I’ll blast through my pre-cut stuff and can reassess afterwards. As the temperature begins to drop I’ll be happier about being in the full sun behind the barn. Also bring closer to the house means the dog might get out and wander a little more to get some additional exercise.
I wonder if any new wood will turn up this year? Might have to save some for next year if nothing new arrives in the fall or over the winter. Or maybe the tides will turn on the business end of things and I’ll be too busy working to spend my mornings at the farm splitting wood. Who knows.
I am a little sad that the front stuff if all done now. The last bit was kinda rotten and wasn’t all that fun to break down.va but anti climactic if you ask me. Maybe I need to put my focus on the furniture stuff instead? I just might have to. Keeps me at home and nearer to the office that’s for sure. We’ll see how things play out over the next week or two.
The third mound over here looking a little taste. (Fig 1.)Where I left off after another 90 minutes of splitting today. (Fig 2.)
Before you know it I’m going to need to take a few test swings in mound three of Wood Pile One. I’m sort of afraid either way. One, if it splits that’s a good amount of thick and fairly wide bits to have to break down. Two, it hurts my hands, wrists, arms, elbows, shoulders and back taking a couple good natured full force wacks at it only to bounce off and feel as though I have shattered many bones, sinews, and tendons in my upper body. Honestly I hope it splits, but I’m not afraid to move down to the barn. I can take a day off from splitting to go pull weeds and run my gas trimmer to make it a nicer spot to work in. Full sun exposure in October and November aren’t a bad thing, especially if the mornings start at or near zero degrees Celsius. A little bit of blue skies sunshine can go a long way towards making a cold chore slightly less horrendous.
You know I have to get my beauty shots in whilst I work. I think they work better without me in them. It really sets the scene! (Fig 3.)
Today makes five hours this week, plus the three and a half from last week means I’ve just about completed one whole work day down on the farm, spread out over six or so days. I don’t move terribly fast, but the job gets done. Good thing I’m doing this all for free then eh? Hard to complain about my pace of play when I’m just helping out. Putting a body and a dog on the property so it doesn’t appear vacant. We do our walk about looking at stuff, then I smack the shit out of some cut up logs. Win-win in my book. Both the dog & I get exercise, an ungodly amount of wood gets split after years of it just sitting there. Plus should the world end we’ve got firewood to keep us warm for the first winter at least. Plus we can cook on it too. I think that works out marvelously.
I stay occupied with an easy yet monotonous task at hand, thereby focusing my efforts on productive things, instead of shopping, eating, or room scrolling on this phone. I sleep better at night because of the physical activity. The dog is less of a pain because he has time to explore and wander at his leisure. The farm hands are happy because they don’t have to swing an axe to split all this wood, not only that but they get firewood to warm up the house with or to do their own maple syrup operation.
My one gripe would be that the mosquitoes are still bad, and the wasps in the walnut tree are coming closer to me as the season progresses. I liked being out of the full sun when the days temps still climb above twenty degrees celsius. I sweat so damn much. I wore a headband today and whilst I looked a fool, it stopped my eyes from stinging. So that’s going to continue for a while anyway. I could ad a wrist band too for wiping sweat off my cheeks etc… stop me lifting my shirt to do so. Fat belly and all.
The Rstwing 4lbs mallet has come in very handy. I like that it was gorged as one piece. No neck wobble whatsoever. Short, compact and packs a wallop! The nine inch long wedge has proven itself useful. Moreso than the Fiskars wedge which is maybe four and a half to five inches long I’d guess? I’ve buried that one in a mushy logs more than once and had to struggle to retrieve it. Works well in companion to the much larger Rstwing wedge, and not instead of it. A great side kick, but not the whole show.
At some point I’m going to have to stack some of this wood in those green wire bins. I’m just waiting to hear if any are heading north to get stacked at the cottage and returned to the farm empty. That will alter my plan of attack, otherwise I need to find a wall or some trees I can stack this stuff between to stop it from rotting on the ground over the winter. That’s late October, early November Me’s problem. I’ll not either on it now. I will let the ideas percolate in my mind though while I work.
I could do with running the front end loader to go dump all the waste wood and bark piles that have built up since last year. No point keeping those around to kill the grass. That can go into the treeline to breakdown there. Give some little animals shelter and a place to hide. The bugs inside could feed birds and rodents and such. It’ll do the forest good to have the carbon and wood fibers go rot there. Maybe get some mushrooms, moss or lichen to sprout from out of it all.
I’ve turned in some paid work, now I’ll read and have breakfast. Welcome to Friday. Hope you have a lovely weekend.
You must be logged in to post a comment.