Wood, Wood Everywhere!

I'm trying to be better at updating the blog. I was lax because I figured people wouldn't want to hear the same stories every year- new cows, gardening, baling hay, splitting wood. But I was told that yes, in fact, people do want me to tell the same stories every year. So here we go!

 

December was a beautiful month. The warm-ish temperatures combined with the sheer number of un-split logs we had around the farm was a perfect opportunity to finally try and make a dent in it. It was getting difficult moving around Art's shop because of all the wood. At night when he would walk to the house he knocked his shins and knees more times than he could count running into logs (because God forbid he use a flashlight). He couldn't drive around the corncrib because that part of the driveway was blocked with an ever-growing pile of logs. We started splitting and stacking; we filled one side of the corncrib 8 feet high and two rows deep of wood for next year (the other side of the crib is filled with dry wood for this year). When we ran out of space in the corncrib I found a really neat, easy to build storage cradle on Pinterest. Three pallets screwed/nailed together and he put old cedar fence posts under each side, forming a cradle of sorts.  So we split some more and filled one cradle, 6 feet high and three deep:

 

 Then he had to build another one because we had so much more wood to stack:

 

 We haven't filled it yet because it's gotten too cold for me. When we are splitting wood my job is to sit on the tractor and move the lever back and forth running the splitter. If it's above freezing and not windy, I will split wood. If it's below freezing or really windy I won't because it's too cold to just sit on an open tractor seat moving a lever.

 

Last night Art brought home another load of wood. He has many more pallets in the barn so he'll have to get busy building more cradles!

 

To give you some idea- each section of log on this trailer weighs around 200 pounds

 

All of the wood Art brings home isn't just for our wood stove in the house. This year he bought an outdoor wood stove and hooked it up to the in-floor heating system in his shop. His shop is usually anywhere from 65-74 degrees, whereas last year it was only ever in the 20's. What's nice is that when we split wood for Art's stove we only have to split it into manageable pieces, not smaller sized pieces for the house stove.

 

I wish I had before pictures to show you! This entire area used to be filled with logs.

 

 

As did this part of our yard:

 

And this part of the yard:

Art has three more trees to pick up and bring home. I suppose it's a good thing we have split as much wood as we have as we now have room to put all the logs!