Because the weather has been so good - maybe even a little on the hot side for OR - we've been taking most of our meals on the deck.We've made very good use of the time, filling up each day from early morning until evening when I fall into bed exhausted from so much physical labor.
When we discussed what projects we should focus on the answer was "anything that can be done better by 4 or 6 hands than by 2 arthritic hands. The answer was firewood and drywall.
I'm in the midst of dealing with the State of Oregon regarding the dead and dying fir trees I wrote about in an earlier post. More on the important recent developments on that issue in a bit.
The south edge of our property is bordered by a private gravel road that eventually leads to three very large lots up the hill. The creek/marsh that bisects our lot runs under that private road via a culvert, and along our side of that stretch of the road were five dead trees, four alder and a fir. (It looks to me like they're still alive when this Google Earth pic was taken.)
We cut down those five trees, cut the dead limbs from each, cut them into rounds, split 'em, and stacked them in the outside bay of the woodshed.
That one sentence covers hours and hours and hours of very physical labor, and there's NO WAY I could have pulled it off without Josh & Aubri's help.
OK, let's be honest. My monster son can do the work of two normal people and I did my best to keep up with him. Aubri is a hard core worker, too.
I don't have any pics of cutting the wood because we were working too steadily to stop for that. The goal was to get all five trees down and into rounds the same day. We didn't quite make that goal because the fir tree was too tall, at about 50', for us to drop. So I called Todd up the street who dropped it exactly where it needed to go in about 10 minutes. Yeah, he's a pro.
Then we cut the trees into rounds, loaded them into Josh's pickup, and took them back to the open space in front of MoHo. Still no pics, for the same reason.
The plan was to rent a log splitter after they leave for the camping part of their trip, and I found a place in Eugene that rents one at $45 for 24 hours. Josh and I decided to attack a couple of the rounds with my splitting maul just to see how hard or easy the wood split, and the answer was, "not bad at all." And it's a free workout, or better than free if you count the $45 I'm saving. So we took turns. I'd split four rounds and he'd split eight. Then I'd split four rounds and he'd split 12. Then I quit and he kept splitting.
Because these were all dead trees most of the pieces split with one swing. Some had knots or a place where a branch came off and were more of a challenge. I tried to make sure Josh got those.
After an afternoon's work we had a pile of wood, already dried and ready for burning when the weather changes this fall.
This morning we got all of that stacked in the left bay of the woodshed to discover that along with the little bit left over from last winter we have one and a half cords of wood, enough to get us through next winter.
I also don't have pics of the drywall Josh and I installed in Fred's loft. He helped me get five full sheets up into the loft and hung along the walls, which are really the interior side of the roof. That puts them at a fairly steep angle so it's half wall and half ceiling, and that requires one person to hold the sheet and the other person to drive the screws. That took four sheets and we got 90% of that part covered. The rest of the pieces are all either small or vertical, so I can get them installed by myself.
While all of this work was going on I was dealing with OR officials, but that's a story for another post. Right now it's the end of another day of stacking wood and hanging drywall.
I know this post is disjointed and poorly written, but I've been talking with J & A as I write this, and again, that takes priority. So deal with it.
Tomorrow night's post should make more sense. It will include an update on the dying trees and that state of OR.
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