Thanks to old and new friends

Of all the tools I use around our property, the one that works the hardest is the wood splitter (aka blockbuster). We’ve owned our splitter for over twenty years. The photograph shows it’s the worse for wear. (I know the feeling.) And of course it’s been deteriorating over time: week by week, month by month, year by year. But I’ve been reluctant to do anything about it. It’s remained able to split wood. And it’s been a good friend. But our house guest Dieter, is less emotionally enmeshed with the dear splitter. Or, if you will, more hard-hearted. Or maybe safety’s his primary concern. Whichever, he convinced me the beloved splitter needed a new handle. And to drive home his view, he offered to fit the new handle. To segue on from yesterday’s Farmdoc’s Blog post, ‘And so it came to pass’: Last Monday in Deloraine we bought the handle, and later that afternoon Dieter replaced the old handle with the new one. Obsessionally. And expertly. To test his handiwork, yesterday morning he spent a couple of hours up on our roadway splitting rounds of timber from the trees that fell during the 16 September windstorm [1]. As well, Dieter also replaced our axe handle that had been broken since 2002! So now we’re set with good-as-new splitter and axe. Many thanks to Dieter. He’s sure a big help around here.

P.S. For more photographs, click here [2].

farmdoc's blog post number 376

Here in Mole Creek I rely on firewood for cooking and hot water. So it’s unsurprising today’s is the sixth Farmdoc’s Blog post mentioning firewood. And also the sixth mentioning windfall trees. No trees have fallen lately, but sawing up the fallen ones is a seemingly perpetual job. The two best times for doing it are autumn and spring – because summer’s snake season, and chainsawing in winter’s foolish due to the slippery ground and timber. So now, with autumn exactly two-thirds gone, I’m trying to get on with it. I generally clean up the fallen trees in the order they fell (I have a list, naturally). But firewood quality and accessibility to my ATV and trailer also influence the order. Speaking of order, I neatly stack the larger pieces – from trunks and big branches – either inside the woodshed (if the wood’s seasoned) or along the shed wall exposed to the weather (if it’s not). Because the small branches, sticks and twigs can’t be obsessively stacked, I mostly take them direct from the trailer into the house, as needed. I call this ‘free wood’. I can’t explain why, because all my wood is free – in the sense of gratis. Maybe it’s free in the sense of free-form, i.e. not neatly stacked. Anyway just as the Inuit have several words for snow, so I have several words for firewood. Whatever I call their wood, trees that the wind blows down are for me a windfall – in both senses of the word.