Getting ready for winter.............

[enjoy the ride]

Today I unloaded the second cord of firewood. I think every muscle in my body is screaming. And my nose is swollen from the piece that flipped back at me when I threw another piece on top of it.
This is actually next years wood. I have one more cord to get next Saturday and I will be finished.
I also brought my first load of this years wood up to the house as it has turned rather cold. I'm just too tired to get a fire going tonight but towmorrow I will spend the evening in front of a toasty wood stove.

Fall is like that- it motivates me to prepare. All I really have to do now is get the apples in and packed up before the bears decide they are ripe enough to raid.

Three weeks ago it was almost 100 degrees- now it's a high of about 60. Soon to be in the 30's.

 

[Farmfresh]

Poor nose.

You say winter coming motivates you. IMO it just makes me panic!

 

[Beekissed]

Though there is always some urgency associated with getting ready for winter, I like doing it! It feels good to "feather the nest"....it sort of makes me feel like I am more in tune with the natural rhythms of living. Sort of like the pioneers.

Just like gardening time....imagine how many people down through history broke ground, tilled the earth, planted the seed and hoped for that harvest. It makes me feel more connected, I guess.

When I stack up the firewood, the cellar is full, the cracks are sealed and the animals all tucked into warm shelters, I feel great!

Sorry about your nose, ETR! I've got the firewood ministry coming up this Friday and I just know I will have bruised shins, splinters and very sore muscles as we work like bees for two days, sunup to sundown.

 

[FarmerChick]

OUCH on the nose! Even small accidents can get ya hurt...pitching wood on a pile and dodging the backlash! lol----hope you feel better!

Bears---the bears are after your apples? Do you have them come into your yard?

yea our weather is turning chilly too. no fire needed here yet for a while. glad about that.....not ready to be worrying about heat. Good thing for my weather we do have fall and can easily go without heating for a while yet....but I do feel that winter prep work hitting the blood. Hay in the barns is my most important task usually that makes me feel good when those barns are loaded. Knowing I can feed thru the winter easily.

I know ya'll who have wood burners are very happy when that wood is stacked and ready near the home to be heat!

(but for me, I love the propane truck to drive up and fill my tank for my little propane fireplace....lol...kinda isn't like work..HA HA)

 

[punkin]

We don't have to gather wood, either. We have a natural gas fireplace. If the power goes out, we'll still be warm.

I do miss the smell of a log burning fireplace or stove, though. We had one when I was growing up. I always liked to punch the wood a bit just to see the sparks.

Hope your nose is better.

 

[Dace]

Sounds like you have been working hard! Too tired for a cozy fire? Now that is tired!

I really don't have much in the way of winter preps...I am not really there yet. I love reading about everyone else's though

 

[Farmfresh]

I have to do some re-stacking this week. I have a new cord being delivered on Thurs and half a cord of old stuff that I need to move up to the porch for first use.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

we are in the thick of it... somewhere between wearing shorts during the day and having to wear sweats to go out and get everyone fed! and we were hot hot hot not too long ago - i guess all this wishing for cool came back to bite me
;-)

we stacked a while ago but we need the big truck to come on out and fill up the tank too. but we have a lot more stacking and splitting to go.

i spent yesterday ripping out what is left of the garden and re-fencing the turkeys so they can have a winter area.

today its rake up all the leaves and start mulchin'....and then do a million other things!

 

[rebecca100]

Okay you guys are really depressing me now. Since my dh and I got married 10 years ago we have had wood heat. The whole cutting, splitting, hauling -all of it. I learned to love the smell of a wood heater. I split wood pregnant with all three kids. It is comforting especially in the deep winter. Now that we lost our old place in the tornado and moved into my dad's old mobile home we have central heat. Now when the electricity goes out we are prepared with a generator and power inverter and batteries to run the furnace(propane). But I still am missing the wood heat and hope eventually we will be able to have it again before I get spoiled to the lazy life. I feel like I need to prepare, but can't. I know we need to get emergency supplies ready, but I am afraid that will be about the extent of our preparations.

 

[FarmerChick]

WOW that is horrible you lost your house in a tornado!

Are you going to rebuild or anything?

Now that is a tragedy---something I never experienced to that level!
Thank goodness there is a roof over your head.



LOL-LOL on the splitting wood pregnant.

I remember being 9 mos. preggo and hauling big hay bales to feed.
Nothing stops us farmer gals does it? My hubby said only one time, should you be doing that?--I said sure, I feel fine. And I worked up to the day when she was born that night...LOL