Thursday This n That

I've been working in the woods these past few days.  It feels good to be back at it again.  Two years of not doing it means there is a LOT to clean up down in there.  Unfortunately, we lost several dogwood trees.  We have no clue what killed them.  Especially since there are live dogwood trees right near the dead ones.  Anyway, with all this deadfall, our firewood hoard is growing.  When we eventually get a woodstove, we're going to be golden.  Until then, though, it's just really good exercise.

Yes, I am sore from all the wood hauling - Hubs has been doing the cutting - but I'd rather be sore than turn into Jabba the Hut.  

I'm trying to make marketing images this morning, but the internet is killing me.

Mmm, cheese.

Right now, I'm reading a compendium of HG Wells' stories.  It starts off with War of the Worlds.  I'd read that once years ago and not since, so it's pretty interesting.  Nothing at all like the movie (the old one... I refuse to acknowledge that weird thing Tom Cruise did).  This whole volume could take me the rest of the year, but I think after WotW, I'll read an ebook or two before forging on.

I think I made a pretty good graphic this morning.  It might be too creepy, though.  What do you think?

Hey!  Blogger let my graphic load!  Yay!

Okay, I've gotta go get life started this morning.  Have a great day.

Thursday This n That

I'm thinking about changing the cover for Song of Storm and Shroud.  I mean, I worked really hard on that one.  You have no idea how hard it is to make a dragon, especially when you're cobbling one together out of photos and using this part from that critter and that part from another critter.  Cobbled together so it doesn't LOOK cobbled together.  I think I did a really good job, but... Oh, I don't know.  I would think that one would have more sales.  Eh, at least you can look at it and know for certain it wasn't made using AI. lol

Yesterday, while Hubs and I were trying once more to saw that friggin' elm trunk in half, a couple young guys from the tree crew stopped and asked if they could help.  We let them.  It took them less than five minutes to not only cut the thing in half, but to cut it into logs fit for splitting and burning.  Of course, they had a chainsaw.  Yeah, yeah, we know we should get us one of them there fancy doodads.  It's on the list.  Hey, on the upside, sawing logs by hand is awesome exercise.

Mom and I were talking just now and the conversation got around to people we knew and whatever happened to so and so.  I searched a name and her obit came up.  In the obit, I saw where her sister had also passed away.  I mean, these gals were in their 80s., so not that big a shock.  Still, it's sad knowing all  of these old friends of the family are passing away.  Those gals were close to us at one point in time and, as sometimes happens, we all drifted apart.  I really loved their parents when I was child, but those two have been gone for a long time.  

I bought rainbow sherbet.  It sounded good.  And now I remember why I don't buy rainbow sherbet.  I hate lime flavored stuff.  Actual lime?  I have no problem with that.  Lime flavored stuff tastes like soap to me.  

The other day I was trying to come up with something interesting to do with ground pork and came up with something like fried rice that tastes pretty darn good.  I used part of a seasoning packet from pork ramen noodles, ground ginger, onion powder all sprinkled over ground pork that had been browned with finely diced carrots and celery.  Mixed in some rice.  Yummers.  I have leftovers, so that's what I'm having for lunch today.  

If you haven't watched the new show High Potential, I highly recommend it.  Of course, the silly gits had to put the damn show on at 9pm, so now I have to stay up late on Tuesdays.  Oh well.  It's not like I have to get up for work or anything.

Okay, I should probably get to doing something constructive.  These books won't sell themselves and I still have two days left of my Blink of an I giveaway.  

Have a great day!

Busy Little Beavers

 

Yeah, we've been busy little beavers.  In a figuratively literal way.  Hey, it's wood and we're chopping it.

We started on October 7th with the tippy cedar tree and one pallet.  (Now the center pallet.)  Then we got the bug and started dragging things up out of the forest to chop up.  Hubs added a second pallet for 'other wood'.  Once those two started to fill up, he added a third pallet.  We have one more pallet available and just enough room to put it.  We'll see.

Those pics were taken yesterday afternoon.  We've got it all underneath the sun porch, where it can stay nice and dry.  If you look at the top pic, you can really see the difference between the cedar and the 'other wood'.

Here's where the magic happens:

That's the stump from the tippy cedar tree we pulled down and chopped up.  We use it and the cinder block as saw horses.  The wood laying around is what we dragged up to saw.  When we get the urge, we'll cut it into lengths and throw it under the house.  Just two old folks and a limb saw.

Some of the wood we now have waiting to be chopped came from our oldest pile, where we've been throwing deadfall for 8 years now.  The pile was pretty tall and wide.  7 foot high by 10 ft wide by 15 ft deep.  It's now about half that and moved from between two trees to a more open spot.  We have three more deadfall piles as you go down the hill from the house.  We'll get to those eventually.  I don't look forward to dragging wood up from the bottom of the hill, lemme tell ya, but we'll do it.  

For the record, we are not taking down anything alive, except for tippy tree but he had to go.  And we're only working on land we own.  (Although I am starting to covet the deadfall on the neighbor's property.  When we finish with our wood, I'll ask him if he wants us to take care of his dead stuff, too.)

Anyway, like I've said, it's good exercise.  And it's an excellent way to leave the world behind for a while.

Are you finding ways to leave the world behind?  These days it's kinda necessary.

How Much Wood Could Two Old People Chuck?

 Okay, so a while back I said I thought Hubs said we had about 3/4 of a cord.  Boy, was I ever wrong.  He never said that and my estimation was totally off.  Turns out a cord of wood is a frickin' lot of wood.  4 foot wide by 4 foot high by 8 foot long.  Umm, yeah, we have a lot of wood chopped up, but it wasn't even close to that when I said it.  NOW we probably have 2/3 to 3/4 of a cord.  (A neat article about firewood can be read here.)

I think the reason I assumed it was a cord was because over the span of my life, I've seen people selling 'cords' of wood that weren't true cords.  'Face cords' and 'stove cords' and sometimes they say 'cord' when they're just trying to sell the pile of wood in the back of their pickup truck.  But it's not a cord unless it fits the above dimensions, so if you're out there buying wood, beware.

We had these old pallets under the house.  They came with the load of paving blocks we bought back in 2015.  He dragged two out and set them under the sun porch (so they're out of the elements) on cinder blocks (for better airflow) and we started stacking.  One pallet was initially for the big cedar that fell over and we chopped up, but now it has all the other cedar limbs/trunks we've found and chunked.  The other pallet was put into place to hold all the other types of wood.  

As those start to fill, he dragged out another one and set it beside the first two.  

I really need to take pics of these things.  

Anyway, the two initial pallets are stacked in three rows about 4 ft deep.  The two closest to the wall are probably 3.5 feet high.  The ones farthest from the wall are only about 2 ft high and contain the smallest in diameter limbs.  The third pallet is a staging area right now, but we're starting to slop over onto it.  

We're cutting the limbs into roughly 14" pieces.  And the cut wood ranges from about 1" to around 9" in diameter.  We haven't split any of it.  We need something called a maul or a wedge or something to do this.  Right now, it's just a bunch of 14" logs.  

Now, you might be thinking we're being all advanced and using a chainsaw for all this work.  We're not.  We started out with a bow saw and a hand saw.  When the old bow saw and the old hand saw started to get tired, I went out and bought another bow saw.  Then I got another one so we could both be sawing at the same time.  We aren't but we could be.  The reason we aren't is because it's way easier to saw when one person is sawing and the other is holding the limb steady.  (I'm usually the holder.)

You might also be thinking we have some way to burn all this wood.  We don't.  Not yet.  We're in the research phase.  Wood stove?  Fireplace?  Wood burning furnace?  And which one would fit our needs and our budget?  :get distracted looking at furnaces:  Sorry about that.  

Anyway, like I said before, it's good exercise for these two old people.  And it's cleaning up the copious amounts of wood we have laying all over the property.  We'll burn it later.  And eventually buy a chainsaw, too, for the really big tree that fell down in there.  For now, it is what it is.

Do you have a woodstove or a fireplace?  How's that working out for you?