Spring has Sprung!
The grass is rizz.
I wonder where the wood truck is?
I heard it before I saw it, air breaks huffing and sighing as the familiar white truck rolled in from the highway. John, from John's Firewood has the routine down pat. In one fluid movement he backs his rig in from the road, lines it up with the woodshed, stopping in the perfect spot.
Then he tips the bucket. With a might roar 3 bush cords of split hardwood tumble out. He pulls the rig forward, gives the bucket a good thump or three to shake any last bits out and pulls back onto the driveway. Job Done in under three minutes!
Every wondered what 384 cubic feet of firewood looks like?
It will take my love and I twenty hours or more to stack it. Ten days of fair weather at 2 hours per day - because we do have other things to do!
"Why?" I can hear you asking. Why go to all this effort every year when we could just use the gas furnace more? Fair question.
Because we've always done it? Actually in our pioneer days when we first lived here, we got full length logs which we then cut to length, split and stacked.
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| 1985 with Sheba, the first of our furry pawed kids |
We shift 5+ tons of wood every year because it's something we do together, like travelling... ?
Okay, so that might be a bit of a stretch, but we do enjoy working together on a task, as long as it doesn't involve wallpaper.
We do it because we both have a passion for making order out of chaos? There is a certain satisfaction to be found in neatly stacked firewood, a great sense of accomplishment.
(For the record: we are not heating off the avails of a forest clear cutting operation. Of this we are sure.)
We do it because we love a good fire (in it's proper place of course!) when all outside is howling with snow and cold. Seriously, one can't really cosy up to the gas furnace like one can a wood stove, hands outstretched to receive the gift of warmth.
But wait - it's Spring, not winter, and Spring has sprung.
The wood truck has come and gone.
The frost is out of the ground and the birds are singing.
And the Kentucky Derby is this weekend!
Let's get out there!
©2015 April Hoeller
