If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Cold, Snow and a Big Red Oak

Damn it!
Click.  Click.  Click, click, click.  Cock sucker face!  A little snow and the shit frazzled internet dish thing won't work.  It's Friday morning and I'm supposed to be suckin' down hot coffee and cruising the net. 
I guess I'll wait till tomorrow, maybe then the darn thing will work ........................................................................................................................................................

Click.  Click.  Oh you have got to be kidding me.  No internet for two days?  WTF?  Check connectivity, check protocol, check LAN, check every gol dang thing that I can click on and nothing.  Unplug stuff. 
.........................................................................
That didn't work.  It is 7 am on a Saturday.  It's still dark.  It's 19 degrees.  It's snowing.
Hey I got an idea.  I don my sweat pants and a heavy t-shirt (it's 19 degrees after all), footie socks and my knee high rubber boots.  Head to the garage and grab the ladder.  (yes I am crazy)  Haul ladder to upper deck.  open ladder (6 foot rickety wooden ladder)  Begin ascent.  Reach gutter.  Grab hold (death grip)
belly crawl up on to roof.  Roof is covered with 6 inches of snow and a glaze of ice underneath.  Stand up and begin drunken like shuffle to opposite end of roof.  Slip.  (now seriously wondering if this was a bad idea)  Sluff off previous thought.  (too far to turn back now)  Reach satellite dish. (don't look over edge, oops too late) brush 1 inch of snow off dish and wipe transponder (or whatever you call the eye part).
Scrape ice with fingernail ( I forgot my Ron Popeil satellite dish scraper)  Shake head in defeat (this is surely not the cause of my internet failure).  Drunken shuffle back to point of summit.(now I'm screwed) Lay down on belly, grab gutter (snow in my belly button) and blindly feel for top step of ladder with foot.  (The same one that states "do not use as step").  Descent complete, heart rate headed back to normal.
Rush inside (leaving trail of snow and wet clothes).
Click, click.  Hell yeah bitches!

So what have you been up to?
I've been lost in a winter wonderland for two days.  I love it.  We finally got some snow.  Cold too. 
So what did I do with the beautiful weather?  Cut wood of course.
I gave the saw a tune up and a new chain and have been dying to get back in the woods.
Friday while the "storm" was blowing I stacked wood from last weekend's haul.  I lined up 4 pallets behind the garage and while the snow was falling I stacked it.  Two "T" post pounded into the ground with a pallet backer makes it easy to stack and no falling over.
This was most of the wood from last weekend.  There was some that was dry enough to burn now and in fact, I just put some on the fire.
Today it was snowing again pretty heavy so I stayed put for awhile (not hard enough to keep me off the roof though) around noon I headed out for some wood cutting.  I just love it and with the snow everything is so pretty out in the woods.  I found this big red oak and made short work of one of its limbs.  That was enough to fill the truck.  There is probably 3 more loads left in just one tree.

There is still a big limb and the whole trunk left.  Plus some stuff you can't see.
This is what I need.  Oak!  Good and hot when the temps dip.  I have a ton of ash but I burn so much of it to get the heat I need to keep the house warm.  The difference in wood is amazing.  I could burn 1/3 of what I use in ash if it were oak.  So by 3 pm I was home and splitting.  Now that it is cold and snowy I can drive across the back yard so I was able to split the wood right at the pile.

I evened out the rows and threw some plywood on top to keep the snow off for now.

I plan on heading back tomorrow for another load.  I need to get it now because it takes a year to dry out enough to make good firewood.  This wood will be burned 12 moths from now. 

Good news is I lost a few pounds so far.  Normally this time of year it would be opposite.  I'm pretty happy about that.  In fact I'm pretty happy in general.
I love cutting wood.  It saves money on the propane tank, it gives me something to do, it tries to keep me in shape (other than round) and mostly it gives me purpose.  Purpose is worth its weight in gold. 
I can't wait until I can do it again.  A fad?  Maybe....but I'll take advantage of it regardless.
You can probably tell just by my blog that I have found something that interests me other than writing.
If it bores you I understand.  However if you doubt the power of hard work, the outdoors and a bit of fresh air then I beg you to try it.  Exhilarating at its worst.
Take care and breathe deep, the magic is in the air!
-Bushman


3 comments:

  1. A lot of people-crazy people-are bemoaning the fact that southeast Pennsylvania hasn't had any snow this year (well, except for apocalyptic snowstorm on Halloween). After reading your post, I'm really okay with that fact.

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  2. I'm happy you are happy! That's what matters in life. You can keep the cold and snow though...!

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  3. Looks like finally getting your own home with lots of woods is paying off. You seem to be working hard and feeling good about it. Way to go!

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