One of the volunteers who helped so much last autumn, Loran (on right) contacted me late in January wanting to know if there was any outside job I needed done. I said Yes! Getting wood into the shed!
So she organized a woodbee for February 14th. At first I thought it being Valentine’s Day, it might not work out. But as it drew closer, I came to realize being distracted on that day would be a very good thing.
Her husband Max took over the running of the splitter, after much pulling to get it started. He and my intern Arissa did much of the splitting.
My brothers had left a giant pile of cut to size logs for the woodbee. It was a good thing, as the only one good with a chainsaw was Tom, my intern’s dad. He managed to cut up part of 2 more logs, but without the tractor, it was hard to get at them.
No one was comfortable driving the tractor and I was afraid to try to get the truck into the area. If it got stuck, I’d have no plow truck. So we had to figure out another way of getting the wood to the shed.
Wiley, my intern’s brother
I have a large fleet of boat sleds I use for all kinds of things. I dragged them out and they worked perfectly. Not too heavy loaded to get up the hill, and enough of them to keep everyone working. Loran said there were 12 people coming!
There were all ages that showed up, from about age 9 to some women older than myself.
Loran and Becky took over the stacking in the shed. They did a great job! And they were able to keep up with the fleet of sleds coming and dumping every few minutes.
Becky
The fleet of sleds waiting loaded
I’m in the red hat. Other people took turns at running the splitter, while Max kept it loaded, and he loaded each sled.
Max taking a turn at the splitter
Arissa runs it
The hill
I had worried with the mild temps the sleds would make the hill slick and dangerous, but it didn’t get too bad.
Loran had made and brought lots of hot chocolate and Valentines cookies. The afternoon was lovely, mild and pleasant. There had been early forecasts of snow or ice but they had moved away to Tuesday.
The time was from 2 – 4 PM and everyone showed up on time and just at 4 PM we finished splitting the last piece and moved the last sledful into the shed. Picking up was easy and done quickly.
So there are 2 more rows of wood in the shed making that side half full. My brother was to come on Monday and cut some more but the ice storm would have been starting for his drive home to CT so he decided to come on Wednesday instead.
So one way or another, it looks like I might have enough wood to get to spring, especially if we can get the house tightened up over the next few weeks.
I have been so grateful to all the volunteers who have helped me through this very difficult time. I so appreciate their thoughtfulness and support.