Thursday, June 22, 2017

Sawdust in My Shoes

We're into serious "putting up wood" mode around here these days.


Papa Pea put in many, many hours with his chainsaw cutting the remaining stack of 16' long lengths of hard maple wood into these chunks ready for splitting.  All the wood was solid and heavy with a capital "H."  What a job!

Our yearly goal is to have our heating wood cut, split and stacked in the shed by the end of April.  That may be slightly unrealistic as our wood working area is at the foot of a portion of our land that rises at a pretty good angle behind us and therefore remains damp (if not downright wet) sometimes well into spring. 

At any rate, we're late in getting the job done this year, but if we push along now and get the wood split and under cover, it will still be dried and in good shape for this coming heating season.

We won't know for certain until we work through all of this huge pile, but we're fairly confident it will amount to a lot more than we'll have to burn this coming winter.  And it's always a good feeling to be ahead of the game when it comes to wood put by.

17 comments:

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

We have loads of down trees to cut up. We are waiting for a cooler day. It will be a high of 91 degrees here today. Looks like you have ample wood supply.

Mama Pea said...

Kristina - Omigosh, we'd be dying if we had your temps. Right now we have 65, a little foggy/hazy with a breeze blowing. Delightful for wood working, but we sure could use some sunshine on the garden!

MrsDuncanMahogany said...

That is hard work for sure! Looks like you will be set for the season!

Susan said...

Thank goodness for the breeze! I am tied to my bug netting unless there's a good breeze. Been way too hot, too early here but we're enjoying the brief respite between monsoons today. The nice thing about firewood is that it keeps you warm twice - cutting it and burning it! :)

Mama Pea said...

MrsDM - Hard work, but good for both of us physically!

Mama Pea said...

Susan - Yep, the no-see'ums have been awful here this year. Bug shirts are a must when we go out to close up at night. Also first thing in the morning. And some times during the day. Ain't it grand?

Michelle said...

Firewood has been an ongoing task here as well. Glad we don't have no-see'ums!

gld said...

Very impressive. How many cord do you think? and how many do you burn a season. We used to figure 4 cord would safely get us through down here in So. Mo. No wood for us anymore due to DH's lung issues.

Goatldi said...

Geoffrey has been working on the wood since early June. But still combining weed eatering with it. Soon it will become wood exclusively. I always smile when I hear a collective chorus of chain saws in the area at day break means winter is coming :-)

Mama Pea said...

Michelle - Yes, count your lucky stars for the lack of!

Now go get out on that wood pile! ;o) Hubby says our time out there today begins at 10 a.m. so I need to get things squared away inside here before then.

Mama Pea said...

Glenda - I am so bad at looking at a pile of wood and guesstimating how many cords it represents! I do know we burn between 7 and 10 cords a year (it's our only heat) depending on the severity of the winter. We've got two wood sheds and one "temporary" area we can fill. The big shed holds 9 cords, the small one 7 cords and the "temp" almost 5 so if we have all three areas filled, we're in good shape.

Mama Pea said...

Goatldi - Papa Pea is so happy this year as one of his most unfavoritest (!) jobs is sharpening chainsaw chains. With the amount of wood he cuts, that's no small task. But, our daughter's partner is an "expert" sharpener of the chains and has slipped into that role for us as we share some of our wood with them. A win-win situation!

Rain said...

I think it's great that you both have the stamina to cut and stack your own wood. I get tired after stacking one cord of DELIVERED wood lol...I think that down the line if we decide on doing the same thing, we'll need some better tools.

Sandy Livesay said...

Mama Pea,

Being ahead of the game is the best thing to do when dealing with cutting wood. I think I need to borrow you and your husband. We have all kinds of wood that needs chopping and stacking.

Mama Pea said...

Rain - You'll get there, you and Alex! Once you have your own place things will start to gather steam and it all will come!

Mama Pea said...

Sandy - We got rained out again yesterday when wood working. Mother Nature wants us to rest more, I guess. We'll rest in winter before an open fire once we get all this wood under cover!

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