Oct 22nd - More Wood Work

We split and stacked wood today. Kathy used the tractor to haul the wood down from the splitter area to the shed by the wood furnace/boiler. This was the first time she had driven it. She even took it up to the mailbox to get the mail. She kept asking me how to make it go faster. I kept telling her she didn't need to go faster. Actually she only had the throttle about half open. Once I showed that to her she was satisfied, even without shifting into high range.

 This is one of the chunks of oak that we split. This one was probably 19" in diameter and 21" long. These babies are HEAVY for this old man to wrestle around. Some of the smaller chunks of hedge that we split were as heavy as the larger pieces of oak. The oak split easier. I've seen tables that claim that oak is heavier than hedge, but the hedge I'm cutting and splitting here is significantly heavier than oak.

 We finished the 4th row of wood, two in the shed and two out of it. This wood is in addition to the 4.25 cords I have in the building out back.

I think that when we finish splitting and stacking the wood I have cut we will have enough to add a 5th row. Today we split about two thirds of the wood that was in the photo in yesterday's blog post.

Early tomorrow morning I need to go into Jefferson City and pick up supplies for my CPAP machine. Hopefully after I get back I will have the time/energy to finish splitting and stacking the remaining wood that I have cut. Once that is done I'm done with wood cutting/splitting for the year.

It was warm here today, 82 with a heat index of 85. It is supposed to be even warmer tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the cooler weather coming later this week. The low for Saturday night is forecast to be 33. We thought we were going to get some rain this afternoon. We quit when it started sprinkling and then it never did rain. It made a good excuse, I was pooped.

I sent John, at Messiah's Ranch in Bryan, Texas; an email yesterday to see if we were still on track for me to show up either Oct 30th or 31st. He called me this morning and sounded excited about my coming to help. They are finishing a two story dormitory and I will probably be helping with flooring and trim work, along with other things as needed.

One downside of going to Texas is that it is still hot there. It was 88 there today. The extended forecast looks like it will also start cooling down there on Saturday. The "normal" temperatures are highs of 77 and lows of 56 for the end of October. By the end of November the average high/low has dropped to 66/45. The lowest average daily temperatures occur in late Dec and early Jan. Then they are 60/40.

Good night to all. May God bless you and yours.