Heating with wood burners/fire places only?

sumi

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Beekissed, that sounds sooooo good right now.

rhoda-bruce, I've already offloaded as much as I could. I'm determined to get us sorted and more organised as soon as the surgery is out of the way and I'm physically able again. The diagnosis, first surgery in December and everything else that went along with that caught me out badly. Things happened so fast, I didn't have time to think before I was under the knife and then I had to find another house to move to almost immediately when the owner of the one I was in, needed it back unexpectedly. This was an emergency landing spot where I could catch my breath and recover just about...
 

Beekissed

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We've left our wood gathering late this year due to a hitch in our summer season causing us to play catch up all fall. Finally got the first pile split yesterday of dead, dry pine...Mom loves pine for a hot fire, so we mix it in with our hardwoods for a good, steady, hot burn.

Tomorrow we haul the splitter to my uncle's house where he had two large oak trees go down in storms this past spring. He cut them up for us, which is really nice, but we need to go split it and haul it. He had a large oak cut up for us this past year too and it really helped fill in our wood shed.

This year my middle son is living out here and has the time to help us with the wood, which is really nice! I let him use the splitter sometimes but I love running it, so I hog it most of the time. I'll see how it goes tomorrow but I'll likely let him split some to give my shoulders a break.

Eli on the splitter...

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Beekissed

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Returned from Uncle Jim's house with two truck loads and a trailer load, but that big pile of stumps at his house barely notched! That's a good thing, in case you were wondering.

One bad thing, after rolling and carrying those big oak logs up to the splitter for awhile, coupled with doing the same with pine the day before, my tricky back went out on me and I was down for the rest of the day. Hugely frustrating, as this is my favorite fall seasonal chore....LOVE working that splitter and rendering logs into neatly stacked wood piles. :barnie

One good thing, Eli is here to fill in the gap left by my inability to even stand from a seated position without yelling out. He has really pitched in and taken a good hold on helping us this year and I praise God for it~He sends help just in time!

So, mixed oak and dry pine on the porch for bad snow days when one can't get a cart from the woodshed and up the ramp onto the porch~check! Porch is loaded! :weee

Rows starting to fill in the wood shed? Check! :celebrate

Enough oak at Jim's and pine here to fill that wood shed and part of the extra hoop structure beside it? Check! :ya

God is so very good!!! :bow
 

NH Homesteader

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So... You LIKE doing firewood?? I have never met anyone who likes doing firewood. I loathe it, we don't use wood now but I did as a kid and I hated nothing more than stacking wood. It is a lovely feeling to have it done though!
 

Beekissed

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So... You LIKE doing firewood?? I have never met anyone who likes doing firewood. I loathe it, we don't use wood now but I did as a kid and I hated nothing more than stacking wood. It is a lovely feeling to have it done though!

Hated it as a kid too. Dad always picked the worst time in the world for getting in firewood~August. The most biting insects, the most briars, the hottest weather, etc. And he always got two years worth of wood (just in case), which is admirable, but to a kid, it's just needlessly extra work. What kid naturally loves to do ANY hard work? Not many, I'd wager.

Nowadays I LOVE getting in the wood, as Mom and I can control WHEN we get it and where. Spring or fall only and we aren't crawling through briars and ticks.

I love it when God provides good wood supplies for us in easy places~like bringing down cherry trees right here in the yard. Same with these pines. Last year He brought down a giant aspen that could have went the other way and smashed my coop but it didn't....those logs were a delight to split! Coulda made wood shingles out of that stuff it split so easily.

I love using the splitter...it's quite therapeutic to hear that groan and then CRACK! when it splits a log, especially if it splits it neatly. I love when it splits the logs neatly like that...easier to stack. I love driving by neatly stacked firewood~Mom and I are always drooling those kinds of places...the neatness and fullness of it all is like seeing fully stocked cellar shelves. Just satisfying!

I love trying to fit the split wood into a row neatly so as to wedge them tightly and compactly into that space~ the neatness of it all thrills me. I love knowing that all of that wood keeps us warm all winter long, so it's work that is worthy of doing.

When my back can take it, I even love using the chainsaw...another satisfying feeling, to cut through the wood so easily to get firewood. Imagine if we had to use saws and axes like they used to do!? We'd have to work all year round to get our wood like that.

Yep...I LOVE fall firewood time. All work is more fun to do when you WANT to do it instead of when you HAVE to do it. :love
 

baymule

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Sorry about your back giving out on you, that hurts. What a blessing your son was there to pick up the slack for you. Children are a blessing.
 

sumi

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I hope your back is getting better and will allow you to do what you'd like to do soon. In the meantime it's wonderful that you have your son around to help you!

I love doing firewood. And just for the record, I own neither a chain saw or a log splitter!
 

frustratedearthmother

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There are a lot of outside chores I like to do - but I can't imagine chopping/cutting/stacking firewood would be one of them. I might like having that chore complete - but the actual doing - not so much!

However, try to get me off of the tractor or the mower and we might fight, lol!
 
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