stacks of wood

stacks, piles, cords, whatever you call them, they have one thing in common. They are a lot. of. work.

Hubs and my Dad have spent the better part of at least three Saturdays getting this to happen. And this wall of wood is just the tip of the iceberg (or should I say woodberg?)

This is the other wall o' wood (and Hubs, being uncharacteristically hammy. I'll bet he's not a fan of this photo, but he should know, if I take a picture, I'm probably going to blog it. Fair warning) and this is when it was only part ways done. Its stacked in our garage, and reaches almost to two thirds of the way to the top of the garage door opening. 

All this has come to pass because its gotten colder, and our home, though well heated, gets a little cold in the upstairs living room/my sewing area/my studio/the computer room. Basically, where the kids and I spend the bulk of our days, and I spend all of my evenings. So its nice to have a little fire goin' on up there, but of course, a fire requires wood, and lots of it. 

So Hubs has been out with the chainsaw, and then, for a couple of weekends now my Dad has been bringing over his log splitter (hooked up the the tractor of course) and they've been splitting and hauling and stacking. The Little Dude and I even took a turn at the sitting in the tractor during The Baby's nap time the other day, pulling the levers that make the log splitter go into action (don't ask me how it works, I just pull the lever and Hubs puts a log on the splitter and voila, log is split into manageable pieces) which was fun while it lasted, and makes us feel like we've all contributed to that wood pile, at least in some small way.  L.D. even chipped in and helped stack a few logs. 

One of my favourite things about this wood pile in the garage (besides not having to go outside to get firewood) is the amazing smell. Wood smells SO GOOD. I kind of love having to walk out into the garage these days. This time of year is all about smells. That woody smell in the garage, and then, when you open the door to the kitchen, the warm whoosh of whatever you've been cooking most recently (last night, boerenkool met worst, {recipe here if you are interested, though it not quite the same as my family recipe, but you get the gist} the ultimate smell of winter food in my mind). And then as you walk up to the fireplace with your arms full of wood, the soft smokey smell of the fire itself. 

It was a lot of work, all this wood cutting/chopping/hauling/piling, but well worth it in the early morning.... ...when this little Baby and I rake up the coals left over from the night before and stoke up a nice warm fire that crackles and blazes and creates the cozy glow that makes 6:45 am not feel quite as bad as it could. 

p.s. just for all you worriers out there, we have a protective fence that goes around the hearth so that the Baby normally can't get up on the edge of it like this. I'd just removed it to put a bunch of logs on the fire in this instance. And I was only inches away from him when I took this picture and he was perfectly safe. I'm very, VERY careful with the Baby around the fire. Safety first! So no need to be concerned.

Comments

[Marcia Van Drunen]

I LOVE STACKS OF WOOD! We only have an outdoor pit although we talk about and long for a wood stove. I grew up with one and loved it dearly. Glad you and the wee ones have such a homey way of staying warm in the bits of house you use the most. Oh, and today I had a CRAVING out of the blue for boerenkool! Assembled the bits but then had to go to bed and Mark cooked them. Tomorrow I will assemble the cooked bits and eat them with great satisfaction. Happy Winter food!