Working Weekend--Lumberjack Style!

Two weeks ago, Monkey1 spotted an advertisement in the local classifieds.    "Free firewood.  Must take it all.  First come, gets it all."  Well, not being one to turn down free firewood, we drove out that same evening to see how much there was, and whether we actually wanted it.  The wood was two loads worth in the truck, and not horribly rotted out, so we agreed to take it.  The landowner was prepping his home for sale, and we happened to spot that he had an hydraulic splitter in back.  Casual conversation ensued concerning said splitter, and it was found to be in pretty good running condition, starting up readily.  A price was negotiated, and a payment date agreed upon.

Meet my new Best Friend!

A Huskee hydraulic log splitter, either 22 or 22 ton, we're not sure which.  It could stand new wheel bearings, but the motor and ram are in fine condition, so the wheels can wait.

This weekend was planned to be a working weekend, splitting and cutting  and restacking our existing wood pile.  Much of what we had previously cut and split is too long for our new wood burning fireplace insert.  We are standardizing on 16" logs to make them more manageable in the insert.  This will be our heat source in the coming winter/cold seasons.

This was the initial pile to split.  I was going to run the splitter, with Monkeyboy managing the logs.  Once split, it would be carted over to the main storage pile and stacked neatly...something that needed done with the entire split pile if truth be told.

DH was going to run the chainsaw, shortening logs to 16".  This is his work area.  Monkey3 would be helping him.  Their working stack of logs is shown below (2nd picture).  The splits you see are ones that need to be cut down to 16", and possibly resplit to a more manageable size.

After about two hours running non stop, the pile of logs needing to be cut down looked like this.  We made quite a dent in it!

We also got quite a lot of it split and stacked.  You can see the change in the woodpile by comparing the two photos below.

Original woodpile.

The pile with the newly split wood added.

There remains quite a lot of work yet to do, but we did make a lot of progress today.  And, neither DH nor I feel like we got beat to death doing the work.  That alone makes the investment in the log splitter WELL worth the expense.  And to be honest, we paid less than 25% of the cost of a new one.  Some folks might call it "cheating", but I'd call it "working smarter!"

Learning to let go

It happens, seemingly in the blink of an eye.  They just grow up so fast...

It's all part of growing up, I guess, learning to let go.  Being an at-home parent has meant I had control of who/what/where/when, for all our kids.  I am the one, learning to let go now.

Our oldest Monkey, is getting a wonderful gift from my sister.  My sister is flying our Monkey to her home, and then taking her (and all my sister's extended family) on a vacation to the Carolinas.  This will be a two week trip, Monkey's first extended trip without us.  Most of the people she will be with, she will meet for the first time.  This will push her a bit out of her comfort zone.

She is excited to go.  It's been in the planning and waiting stages for months now.  Her siblings, Monkeys 2 & 3, are excited too...that they get two weeks without their big sister!  Little do they realize, they will have to do HER share of the chores, in addition to their own work loads!

I'm actually doing fine with the concept.  Mostly... mostly it is the realization that she is nearly a 'legal' adult now.  Only a couple more years to go, and she will be able to vote.   And enlist.  And drive.  But NO dating until she is 47!  HA!

Loaded out, and pulling away from the terminal, there was a prayer or two uttered.  As a mom, it just comes with the territory.  I know she will have fun.  And it wasn't that hard, putting her on the plane.  

So I watched, as the jet rumbled down the long runway at Love Field, slowly gaining speed and pulling up, breaking free of the grip of gravity and the Earth, taking with it, our eldest child, on her big adventure.  

Canis familiaris (coucherii)

Hillary Step?

There have been conflicting stories in the EuroNews this week as to the potential demise of an iconic mountain climbing obstacle, Everest's Hillary Step.  Some stories are saying the Step collapsed due to a 2015 earthquake.  Now,  I'm no paid photoanalyst, but I do have some experience at it.  To me and my eye, the only difference is the snow pack in the current 2017 photo.

I have added reference marks to the photos below.  You decide.

2016 photo

Above is the Hillary Step on Everest in a 2016 photo I found online.  I have marked it up in red, some key features to look at.  They are big rocks on a steep slope.

And here is the 2017 photo, reportedly taken last week.  The angle is slightly different, but all the same points marked above, are still there...but there IS a lot more snow.  Must be that global warming and all, don't ya know?

May 2017 photo

It depends on your definition of normal...

Last week my ortho doc cleared me to resume all normal activities with my busted finger.  Doc P. did stress how lucky I was that it healed with no discernable problems, ie: it healed straight, with full range of motion, to the point that looking at it from across the room, he wasn't sure which finger was the broken one.  He said it should've required surgery.  Normally it would've, but by now, he knows I'm just not normal.

For those who know I lift regularly, I am going light on heavy carries/deadlifts for now, as the hand is still a bit tender.  I don't want to do too much heavy carry work until the fractures have some more time to solidify and fill in.

He also mentioned that he'd lost he own wedding band again.  Said he lost it in his pond when it was cold out.  I offered DH's and my services to go wading in the pond to recover it.  We have metal detectors, that while not fully submersible, are capable of shallow water hunting.  I told him I was wearing a Ti ring that DH had found a couple years back with his detector.  It's big enough (too big really) to fit over the finger that broke, and after 18yrs of wearing my wedding band almost 24/7/365, it felt really weird not to have a ring on.

I've taken a liking to the light weight of the Ti metal, so since Doc P. said it would be "months" before my finger returned to a normal size, I have been looking for a suitable temporary wedding band to wear.  Fortunately, Ti is inexpensive yet highly durable.  This time next year I will look into resizing my original band.  If that proves too costly or impossible to duplicate the patterning on it, DH and I will look at a replacement gold band.  Sadly, the small artisan shop where we purchased our rings way back when, has gone out of business.