Friday, July 28, 2023

Sticks, no stones

Back when the tops of our birch trees fell and the landscape guy took what was left down, I asked him to save me the bigger branches and trunks so I could cut them into firewood. He left more than I asked for, including the smaller branches with their leaves attached. He piled them all up under our dying Himalayan cedar tree. It was a mess. Since then, I didn't do much about them. I could say I was seasoning the wood, but I just had other things to do. The leaves dried up and faded away and the pile was quickly invaded and totally covered by thorny brambles. Yuck.

What's left of the original pile is in the center. To the left are the larger branches, to the right are the smaller branches and kindling. It doesn't look like much in the photo but, trust me, it is. The metal thing on the far right is the sawhorse.

So now I'm cleaning that up. With a pair of heavy gloves and a garden pruner, I attacked the brambles and removed most of them. I'm dividing the wood into piles of kindling, small logs, and larger logs. The latter will need to be cut up with the chainsaw as we move into fall. So far, I've spent about three or four hours on it. Another three or four hours should do it. Now the question is where will I store it all?

5 comments:

  1. Can you store all that, artsy neighbor‘s style, on site?

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  2. That’s a huge job. Ah, the peace and tranquility of a house in the country. Just a thought: The brambles would have attacked me.

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  3. Such work! But it is worth it this winter to feel the glow and heat of the fire, yes?

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  4. chm, I can, but I have to move it. The big cedar tree is likely coming down this fall or winter, so I can't have firewood stored under it.

    mitch, the brambles got me a few times, but in the end I prevailed.

    michael, yes!

    judy, there's always a big chore (or a whole lot of little ones) to tackle.

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