The Wood is Stacked

 thursday

Thursday morning, we walked together, and I felt that using my two puffers beforehand made walking easier, but when we went to Rollo in the afternoon to play weight-shedding fetch with Her Highness, I used both puffers and felt absolutely no benefit. Sigh. But as I wrote yesterday, I don’t care. I’m going to be fine and have lots of fun even though breathing is a lot harder.

In Canada, 250 Canadians die of asthma each year. In the USA, 3,550 die each year. I’m glad I’m Canadian for many, many reasons. I've had an easy ride of living with asthma until now. Now it's going to be tough.

I did no work Wednesday, but I arranged for two friends, and their wheelbarrows, to come to help me stack for an hour on Friday. I’ve also hired a guy to work as long as he’s willing to get the job done. Three cords of wood: it’s an awful lot of work to stack!

Early Wednesday afternoon, the wind came up and the sky cleared. It was gently windy and brilliantly bright all afternoon, and so begins a week of fine weather, ideal for wood stacking. When went to play fetch at Rollo Park, we were both very happy—she, because we were playing ball, me because it was so wonderfully warm, and the scent of Spring filled the air.

Wednesday night I watched the incredible The Book of Dust on the National Theatre at Home streaming service. What a herculean effort was made to bring this incredible story of people and demons to the stage. It’ an extraordinary achievement and I loved every thrilling minute of it.

friday

We began our day walking with our friends, and then I came home to do some prep work before the arrival of Jean François who responded to my ad for help with stacking wood. Dave, my neighbour, said he would work for $30/hr. too, so I may ask him to help me on the weekend if he’s available. I haven’t heard from Grayson for a week.

It was a lovely day to be working. Nice and sunny, but cool enough that I didn’t overheat loading up the wheelbarrow. I got started at 11:00. Meryl arrived at 11:45 and she and I did a lot. I loaded up the wheelbarrows and she toted the wood to the shed and stacked it. Jean François arrived at 12:15 and he is a madman. He works very hard and he’s quick. He’s fabulous. Dave joined us at 1:00, and Meryl left. Dave is also a hard worker. When he started working, I took a break.  I knew I was in for some serious and very painful cramps later in the day.

I’m really chuffed by all we were able to do, but I was burned out completely by 2:30. After that, all I did was pick up the small pieces that I use for kindling and I piled them separately. Jean François was, at times, running with the full wheelbarrow. The guy is an insane worker. He and Dave did a magnificent job, and good ol’ Meryl and I did our fair share.

And Henri was here in the afternoon, working on the gardens. He and Lise are moving back to Québec at the end of the month. I will need a new gardener when he is gone. But what an amazing amount of work got done at Pinecone Park yesterday! Jean François and Dave finished toting and stacking all the wood. I did not think it all would be done in one day. I’ve still work to do. All the small pieces must be put into the shed, and the tarps need cleaning and folding, but I have all weekend to do that.

Dave left once all the wood was stacked, but Jean François stayed to schlep all the crud, and there were many, many barrows full of it. He took it all to the organic dump behind my back fence. And when he and Henri were gone, all I wanted to do was lie down and not move until today. I’m very glad I met Jean François; if I ever need labour done again, he’s a great guy to know.

saturday

I went to bed at 8:00 pm last night, and I slept soundly all through the night until 5:00 this morning. Once up, I fed the brood, lit the fire and thanked God that I did not have to do anything with wood today. And no workers will be here, either. The brood and I have Pinecone Park all to ourselves on a stunning day. 

In fact, I do have some wood to move, but not much. And I must put away the tarps.  It’s going to be a lovely day of rest for us all.