Wood Week

Some people have been wondering what is going on because the blog posts have been few and far between. Well the reason is, that it is 'wood week' in the Mango household. What is 'wood week'?
Let me show you...

Job #1 is to restack the wood from last year so that it gets used first. This was a bigger job than it should have been, as the initial QC (quality control) was poor. The first stack fell down when it was about 65% complete. The pile was not straight, it looked like a drunk trying to walk a straight line. No wonder it toppled. We tried again with a bit more success.


Then on to the new wood. We had the logs from three big trees stacked in our driveway and side yard. We started on Monday with the splitting. We were glad to have Mr. Boots home. The girls had to work all week, how convenient for them, and so it was mom and the boys who attacked the pile.

Some of the pieces of oak were very large. Over 36" in diameter. It is also very green. The whole tree fell over in a storm, so it wasn't rotten at all. We did that last so that it would be stacked in the last used part of the wood pile. Dallas loved having people outside all day to hang out with.

Mr. Boots and T-Bob did a lot of the stacking the first couple days until the pile was well defined. Then the jobs got shifted around.

Thomas was the wheelbarrow transporter and part-time stacker.

In the evening, when Michelle came home, she spent some time helping to split.

We had a guest helper this week. My SIL Mary dropped in for a few days unexpectedly and was a great help with the project. She worked primarily loading the wheel barrow. By the third day my right arm was giving out and so I really appreciated her help.

T-Bob was under the tutelage of Mr. Boots. His QC did improve through out the week. He likes the feeling of building his muscles while he works. That oak is heavy!!

Wood week is a great opportunity for family bonding. We all work together.

'The family that sweats together stays together'. Cause nobody else could stand being near us. ;-)

We aer not quite done splitting the oak. The pile currently stands at ~8' high, 12' deep and about 14' wide. It will easily get us through the winter burning 2 wood stoves pretty much 24/7. We were real blessed to have these trees given to us. We shouldn't have to use our boiler at all. We may get to save the oak and other green wood for next year. We may have one more tree to split still.
Now on to finishing up all the homeschooling plans for the fall.

~Mom
Someone told me the following joke....

A woman had a tramp come to the door asking for a meal. She directed him to a large wood pile out back that needed to be split. She told him that if he split the wood, she would be happy to feed him. Every time she looked out the window he was just sitting there talking to himself. An hour later he came in and told her that it was all done. She went with him to inspect the job. All but one piece was done. The rest was lying in a haphazard manner on the ground. She asked him how he had managed to split the wood while just sitting there. He explained that he had just told the wood jokes until it 'cracked up'. They did wonder why the one piece hadn't split, and discovered that it was English Walnut.

Ha Ha, Do you get it?

I do wish that I could just tell jokes and have the wood 'crack up'.

Signs of Spring?

The sun is shining and the snow is melting! Can spring be far behind? That beautiful bright orb in the sky has been absent for months it seems. We have really missed it's brilliance.

I am always fascinated by the way the snow binds together and overhangs roof lines. The snow shaped by the wind, Seeming to defy gravity. It stays there for a long time when the weather is cold. One flake binding to the one beside it, holding on. Not too long after I took this picture, the snow let go and fell with a gentle 'whumph' to the ground below.

Another sign of spring, is the reappearance of the gardening beds from beneath the snow. It won't be long and we will be starting the lettuce and the peas. We have a little cold frame that we can attach.

The giant pile of firewood has shrunk considerably. We may burn off and on over the next 6-8 weeks, but it is no longer the constant burning of winter. It is good to see that we still have wood left. Also, if you could see the other side of the yard, you would see that once again we are collecting large logs to begin the process all over again. We thank God for His faithfulness in providing all our needs. DH has had steady work all winter. That has been a real blessing.

~Mom

Wood Working

If you thought this post was going to be about fancy cabinet making or show a beautiful workshop you must be sadly disappointed. This post is about the work involved in keeping a house warm in the winter if you burn with woodstoves. (We have two.)

The wood pile that we worked so hard to split and stack must now be taken to the stove to burn. That is a challenge when the woodstove is in the family room, up over the garage, and you DON'T want to haul wood through the house. It makes too much mess. We have a balcony outside the back of the family room and that is where we stack it in preparation to coming in the house. The project is getting it up there.

One person climbs up the woodpile and hands it up to the person stacking on the balcony. Here JoAn is handing it up to Thomas. You want to have a good supply so that you are not looking for wood at 10 O'Clock at night when you want to get a fire ready to go for the night. (Not that that has ever happened in this house.) You want it as close to the door as possible so you don't have to stand in the snow for too long in your bare feet when you want the wood. (Not that we've ever done that either. :-) ) We would never sacrifice the beauty of our balcony by knocking out some spindles in the railing just to make getting the firewood up easier. That would be tacky and make us look lazy. Plus, it wouldn't be safe for the children in the summer.

-this picture is blurry because the camera was distracted by the falling snow.

Once the wood is hauled up and stacked then the pile is covered by a lovely brown tarp again to keep the snow off it for the next round of restacking and hauling. This is not the children's favorite chore, but we all like to be warm so we do it.

We also hope that whoever stacked the woodpile did a good job and that it is stable as we climb all over it. This job definitely gets harder the further we go into winter and the piles get shorter and further from the house. Then the fun begins as one person tries to toss it to the next one without it dropping to the ground or hitting something and breaking it. Winter is so much fun.

~Mom

Hot House

The red stove in the basement has exceeded its statue of limitations. We have spent the last three months waiting for different parts to arrive. The stove will work fine when the parts arrive, that's why we have patiently frozen in the house for the last 3 months. We had a different wood stove in the garage just sitting there unused, but the thought of switching stoves was rather unpleasant. They weigh about 600# and they have to go to the basement. DH and Mr. Boots combined weight is about 270 #. They have to be smarter rather than work harder. Here's how they did it.....

DH put his work planks on the stairs. Then they moved the stove via a dolly over by the stairs onto a 3/4" piece of plywood. They slid the piece of wood and stove onto the planks and using ropes they pulled it down. I thought it might just slide easily down a ramp this steep, but the heavy weight of it made it that the stove required a lot of force to get it to move down. It cleared the ceiling by about an 1/8". They moved a heavy set of drawers for the planks and then the stove to set on. It is something that my hubby built for the garage.

I was late getting my camera out and didn't get any pictures until the stove was at the bottom. I couldn't convince the guys to do a re-enactment. Wonder why....

This is a cast iron stove which is why it is so heavy. They took of all the parts they could to make it as light as possible. Here it is on its platform. Needless to say OSHA was not a party to this project.

They turned it around on its piece of plywood and started the big slide to where it belonged.

They had to make sure that it first sat on some 6x6" beams so they could reattach the legs without having to lift and hold it.

A lot of thought went into planning this step by step so it didn't get stuck or injure anyone.

This was a good manly man project. It required more brains than brawn. They got the legs back on.

Then JoAn came along and helped Mr. Boots put all the pieces and parts back on the stove.

Success was obtained. We had a hot fire on the hearth. The basement was soon toasty and gradually the first floor has warmed as well. We can no longer store the milk on the kitchen counter and not have it go sour. I can't see my breath any more in the living room and the snow has melted off the Christmas tree. I am seeing sweaters lying around and I think T-Bob is only wearing 5 or 6 layers instead of 8 or 9. Guests no longer have to step outside to warm up. It's a beautiful thing.
~Mom

Manly Men Prepare for Winter

The old white farm house is heated by TWO hungry woodstoves. This requires us to have about six or seven full cords of wood ready to burn. It is NO fun to run out. We had that happen two years ago. Burning fresh cut wood is painful. First, it is too wet too burn and then it doesn't seem to yield much heat. This year we aim to be prepared. Mr. Boots is the project director. He has the biggest muscles and is able to move the big unsplit pieces over to the splitter that we borrowed.

Michelle put some time in on the splitter as well. We all know that wood heats you twice. The day you cut and split it and the day you burn it. It was a comfortable day for splitting. Not too hot and a little breeze. Note all the big logs in the background. We didn't just split 'girly' wood. (That's wood that is less than two feet in diameter). They split Manly logs!

Thomas also preferred the splitting to the stacking. He likes working in solitude.

Mr. Boots and T-Bob did the majority of the wood moving and stacking. The wood has to be transported to the other side of the yard. The boys delighted in seeing how full they could make it and still be able to move it. Mr. Boots is a lot stronger this year. It came close to being a 'fool's load' a couple times. ( Do you know what that is?)

This is the woodpile about 2/3 through the process of stacking. The little white play house is where we store our kindling. IT was stacked to the full height all the way to the back of the little house. It is now covered and drying. We are fortunate that we still had about two cords left from last winter. That wood is dry and ready to burn. The wood we have for this year has been cut for awhile and should be seasoned by the time we need it. Another big job done.

~Mom

The Busiest Saturday of the Year

This Saturday was our big Food Production Saturday. I had wanted to get food put away for winter earlier in the summer, but all our busyness and a couple unmentioned circumstances prevented it. I was really feeling discouraged about that. Friday night, after a busy day in Amish country, I stopped at the Amish produce auction on the way home. The children and I spent about 3 hours there and we were able to get a lot of the things I wanted to put away at a really good price. It was my first experience at bidding at a live auction. I had fun. I overpaid on one batch of tomatoes, but did great on everything else.

JoAn is our kitchen organizer on these big cooking days. She is a champ!

Saturday morning found us looking at 10 bags of 5 dozen ears of corn. That's more than we usually do, but that was the size of the lot I bought. ($4/bag).

The children all helped with the husking. We opted to do it in the kitchen rather than outside because the yellow jackets come so quickly and start annoying us. Elizabeth took the husked corn and put it in coolers and boxes for us.

T-Bob helped with our inside and outside work. The corn was beautiful and not starchy.

Michelle was our inside and outside helper girl.

My friend Kathy M. came over and helped me cut it off the cob. This is a huge job, especially when you have 600 ears to do! JoAn blanched and iced the corn before we started cutting. It took 3.5 hours to get it all cut off. I even had to ask The Boss for help on the last 50 or so, my hands and arms were just too tired.

While the inside crew was putting food away for the winter, the rest were busy stacking firewood. This is the pile after more than half had been stacked. Mr. Boots and T-Bob had stayed home on Friday to split it all. We still have about the same amount of wood needing to be split and stacked. We need about 7 full cords to last through the winter with our two wood stoves going almost constantly.

Mr. Boots was the chief stacker. Others brought the wood over in the wheel barrow. T-Bob and Michelle did help a little with the stacking. If you look close at the picture you can figure out where 'Mr. Boots' got his nickname. This is his normal outfit.

It was good to see the brothers working together.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen the three+ bushels of tomatoes were cut up and cooked along with onions, garlic, celery and bay leaves. Mom did the cutting and JoAn kept the process moving along. We run the cooked up mixture through our Champion Juicer. The broth we can and use as soup stock.

The sauce is cooked down in my Mom's electric roaster. Then we can that as well. That is Baba Ghannoush sitting beside the roaster. Michelle mixed that up for our supper.

At the auction we got 5 bushel of broccoli. It was only $1.50 a bushel. I gave one to my friend Kathy and the rest we washed, cut up, blanched, chilled and froze. Mr. Boots did a lot of the cutting for us. By the time we started doing up the broccoli, it was dark outside. We had the outside helpers come back in the kitchen and help. We needed the help with the broccoli and the clean-up.

After it was blanched and chilled, Michelle and Thomas bagged it up.

I didn't get done in the kitchen until after 11. The boss came in and did the big push on clean-up. The rest of us were too tired to finish it up. It was a 14 hour day and very exhausting. It feels so good to have it all done. We still have some zucchini and eggplant to get done. I also need to get a couple bushel of beets in the freezer.

It was a family project and a job well done. A big thank-you to all my children and my dear hubby for helping so willingly.

~Mom