Splitting & Stacking

I darkened this shot so that the wood I chopped by hand and
stacked is highlighted. I chopped several bucked rounds of
wood to get the stack that you see here.

This is the rest of the bucked rounds split by Dave and I yesterday.

Aren't these ferns looking resplendent?

I was up and at gardening at 7:00 am on Thursday. It’s lovely and fresh in the mornings and I wanted to soak all my gardens and go into the village for some groceries before Dave arrived with the splitter. I knew the day was going to be a demanding one, so I wanted to get all my other chores over with before we started splitting. I knew that it was going to be a long, long day.

We started at 9:30, we took a break at 10:30 and we stopped for lunch at 11:30 because we were both so exhausted. But what progress we had made by lunchtime. It was great to see how quickly our work progressed. And what fine wood it is!! I am going to have great fires this Fall and Winter. 

We finished at 1:30. I was ready to die. I came in, napped and then slipped into the spa. It felt so, so incredibly good to treat my aching body with the heat of soothing bubbling water. Once dry and dressed, I was good for little, but we went for a walk before settling in for the balance of the day in my wonderful cool log home. I have ceiling fans in every room. Yay!

Then, oh such wonder …. sleep.

And today will be the same. More splitting, aches and pains, exhaustion and satisfaction. But today it is David’s wood that we split and the pieces he has are of a much smaller circumference than were my bucked sections. They won’t be as heavy to lift. I think of all the calories that I’m burning.

And speaking of calories, I am watching a fabulous BBC series on the brain. It is so much more interesting and respectful of the viewer than American medical documentaries. The host is, herself, an accomplished neurologist, and the shows are wonderfully educational. One thing that was mentioned in the episode I watched last night, they mentioned in we older folks, our brain uses 15%-20% of the calories we consume daily. But children’s brains consume 60% of the calories they consume. With newborns, almost all their calories go to the brain.

This series is really educating me. I have a vastly more comfortable understanding of human consciousness and perception.

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Well, we started splitting Dave’s wood at 9:00 yesterday, and we were finished by 11:30. He had less wood to chop, it was already stacked all around where we stationed the splitter, and Thursday’s work taught us how to work efficiently. Ursula helped us as well. 

I came home for lunch and then got started on stacking the wood. Oh, the memories of wood stacking past! This is my 6^thyear of my annual stacking chore. In the past, it was delivered split, but it was often nasty, dirty, pitchy, wood. This wood is seasoned and clean. I had to split it, but it’s wonderful wood. I immediately revived an old habit: I do five wheelbarrow loads and then I rest. 

By 3:00, I’d dome 16 barrow loads and I was a walking wreck of a man. I could hardly wait to take some Ibuprofen and slip into the spa. Then Her Highness and I walked and when I got home, there was an email from Susan saying that she, her son, and his partner were coming to Gabriola on Monday, hoping we can meet. I was ecstatic!

I met Susan when I was four. She lived down the block and we became instant friends. We went through school together from grade es one to twelve, and we’ve stayed friends ever since. She married her high school sweetheart and raised two kids. She still lives in the house where I met her in 1952. Sadly, her husband developed Alzheimer’s and is in care.

I’m so excited about seeing them. I have only met Ian, her son, once. He is a lovely man and he’s gay, so that adds to my excitement about being with them all on Monday. I can hardly wait.

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Today will be busy. I will stack wood much of the day, but I’ll be quitting early to prepare for dinner together here with Dave and Ursula tonight. We’re going to have a barbeque in the garden.