The Kiwi Gazette
Page 3
A Barn Full of Firewood
This
year Jim and I wanted to finish getting next winter's firewood cut and
stacked before it got too hot, plus give it plenty of time to dry. With
December 1st marking the first day of summer, we knew we had to get
moving.
We actually started our firewood project back in late October. At that time, Jim felled several large pine trees that had partially blown down after a big storm blew through early in the year. Manuka is the other type wood we burn and there are many dead trees on our property, so we cut some of them down too. Then it was a matter of sawing them into manageable chunks and hauling them to the barn to cut into stove-sized pieces.
For the bigger pieces we rented a wood splitter... otherwise, splitting all of that wood by axe would probably have finished Jim off! It wouldn't even be worth the effort for me to try to swing it. So that's what we did one night, early in December.
It was about 5 o'clock in the afternoon when we got the splitter going. In about a half an hour we went through a stack of the largest pine pieces we had and felt really good about ourselves. We moved inside the barn where the rest of the wood awaited. As it turned out, there was a lot more waiting than either of us thought!
We worked for about another hour and a half, then stopped for a dinner break. Then, back to work. We felt rejuvenated from the food, but the novelty had worn off the use of the splitter, so we got down to quiet, steady work. Both of the dogs, JR and Scarlet, stayed nearby, alternately playing and checking on what we were doing. But they eventually got bored with the action and sort of kept to themselves after a few hours of listening to the monotonous drone of the wood splitter.
Just as the sun was setting and it was getting dark outside, along came our goat, Willie, in from his day of grazing out in the paddock. He was obviously surprised to find a noisy machine in his barn, cutting up his much loved wood pile. He immediately set about checking the new piles of split wood, climbing up to the top to look down at the goings on below. He even went so far as to jump up on the splitter - while it was running! That was too much for Jim. He pointed to the sign that read "To Be Operated By One Person" and made Willie get down!
Willie's arrival on the wood-splitting scene changed the whole atmosphere. Jim and I laughed at his antics, the dogs wanted to play with him - the barn became a better place to be!
Those three animals, along with occasional visits from Possum Cat, stayed with us until the bitter end at 1am. The dogs fell asleep around midnight, and though Willie dozed for a few minutes, he pretty much kept our spirits up until we finished. Ultimately, he got comfortable on the seat of the 4-wheeler and watched our progress.
And progress we made. At the end of the night we had a barn full of firewood and were as tired as we'd been in a very long time. Morning came early, though, and Jim hauled the splitter up to our neighbors' house and helped him finish what wood he had left to split.
We have quite a bit more firewood cut than we did at the start of last winter, so we should be good to go. When it starts turning cool around April or May - we'll be ready!
(Click on photos to enlarge.)
Our little woodpile.
Willie inspects the
firewood.
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