Sunday, August 30, 2009

Lumberjack Progress

It's slow going. Mostly because I'm lazy. I cut wood for an hour or less each day, and not every day. But, like they say, petit à petit, l'oiseau fait son nid (little by little, the bird builds its nest). Here's the progress on wood piles; the first photo is from when I started cutting, around August 8. The second photo is from yesterday, August 29:

The big logs. My goal is to cut the row on the right for this winter.

I'm almost done with the pile on the right. The rest is for 2010.

There was a small amount of wood left over from last winter. A very small amount. Before I got started with the serious cutting, I cut up a big pile of grape trunks that we've had for a couple of years. They're too big for the stove, but the new chevalet (saw horse) made it very easy to cut them in half. Each of the big logs is meter long, and they get cut into thirds.

Here is where the cut wood is stored. Again, the first picture is from August 8, the second is from August 29:

The storage area. The cut grape vines and fallen wood are on the right.

The big pile in the back is three logs deep so far.

I'll finish this up in a few more days. That should give us enough for the winter. My next task, to complete in September and October, is the hedge trimming. I want to finish that before my trip back to New York.

10 comments:

  1. Walt,
    I'm really impressed with the progress on the wood chopping. After meeting you earlier this year I had the impression that you were a bit of a "couch potato" watching life go by and enjoying it in a relaxing manner.
    Like you, I tend to get motivated and exceed Sue's expectations of me (sometimes).
    Looking forward to reading of your New York trip. I've visited the west coast but yet to get to the East. Sue's relatives from Virginia will be visiting later this year.

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  2. Sometimes, organizing or cleaning up one section at a time is easier rather than tackling the whole closet or cabinets for hours... As long as the job gets done, who cares. But what satisfaction when it is all done!

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  3. Walt

    Impressive. That's a neat storage area btw .

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  4. Leon and Sue, I'm laughing at you thinking of Walt as a couch potato! Certainly after reading about the constant busy-ness of Walt and Ken, I think of Walt as constantly needing to be working on something, until the end of the day, when he'll finally settle back with some wine to help him take the edge off :))

    Great job on all that wood, Walt!

    Judy

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  5. Lawdy, you should have enough wood for years.

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  6. I'll be back to wood cutting and splitting next weekend. We're having our annual Labor Day Work and Play Weekend when the the boys come to stay for a couple of days of labor and revelry. This year we attack a 200 year old sugar maple that came down in an ice storm last winter.

    Your stacks look wonderful--what do you have to burn the wood in?

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  7. you butch thing you; any photos of you in a flannel shirt and cap?

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  8. Pictures will be posted on the blog, Michael.

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  9. HOLY MOLY, Batman!! That's a very large pile of wood ya got there!!!! Keep ya warm this winta!!!!

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  10. leon, I really am a bit of a "patate du canapé," but when there's work to be done, well, I usually just put it off. My motivation for the wood is that I don't want to be cutting wood when it's 5º and raining.

    nadege, my sentiments, exactly.

    beaver, that's a carport that the previous owners built.

    judy, except, for me, the end of the day is around lunch time! ;)

    starman, only two years. Then we need more wood.

    will, sounds like a great way to get things done. We have a wood stove that we had installed inside our large-but-doesn't-draw-worth-a-damn fireplace.

    urspo, I've got a cap photo coming up later this week, but I'm not wearing any flannel in that one. Will fleece do?

    leesa, so much work just to burn it all up. But it does keep us warm!

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