Saturday, July 25, 2009

I Did It, I Did It, I Did It!

When we built our first wood shed on this property, we made a special little section 4 ft. wide, 4-1/2 ft. deep and 6 ft. high to hold split kindling to be used when starting fires in the wood stove. That was twelve years ago.



In that time we've managed to go into the fall heating season with the kindling crib full to the brim . . . uh, just once. Oh, there was always ('cept for a couple of times when we ran completely out in the early spring, but we won't go into that) some kindling in there. Then by each fall, I'd have it partially filled; sometimes half full, sometimes three-quarters full but only that once did I have it filled to the top.





Until yesterday . . . ta-dah! I did it. I had vowed that I would have it stuffed full by the end of this summer, and I got it done yesterday . . . a month or so earlier than I had given myself to complete the job.



Hooray, now I no longer have to write "Split Kindling" on each and every blasted day's To Do List. I'm so proud of me. (Do I get some kind of special reward now? Huh, huh, huh?)



8 comments:

Claire said...

Wow! That is a LOT of kindling! Strong work, Mama Pea!

Mama Pea said...

Thanks, Claire! And I now have well-developed muscles . . . but only in my right arm.

Melissa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Melissa said...

I realized I can't type well after posting last so here's another go:

What type of wood do you use for kindling? That's great that you have a bunch ready to go!

Mama Pea said...

Hi, Melissa - We have a huge pile of cedar slabwood that we started collecting years ago thinking we might use it for fencing. Now that we've scratched that idea, we have all of it to use for kindling. It's dry as a bone and in about 8' lengths so all we have to do is load it into our wood cutting cradle and cut it into 12-14" lengths and it's ready to be split into kindling. We're guesstimating we have several years supply there . . . which isn't a bad thing to have!

Melissa said...

Mama Pea,
That's what we use too-old fencing that was going to be burned in a pile, but has now become our many years supply of kindling. It's really the best, isn't it?! Talk about recycling...

fiona@fionacampbell.ca said...

Wow -- great work!!! Do you do home visits? We could really use some help getting our wood/kindling pile into shape. Wait a minute -- we don't have a wood pile yet. But we've got time. It's only July... the end of July. Crap.

Mama Pea said...

I'd love to do a home visit and make up some kindling for you . . . I'll even bring my own little hatchet. Just to illustrate how warped I am, now that I don't have to put "Split Kindling" on my list everyday, I miss it.

I don't think anybody is ever "on top" of their wood supply. We've been working on ours since early spring and we're just now getting to the point where one of our wood sheds is full. One whole one (the big one, of course) to go.