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'.