I know, I know! It’s Winter and we should already have Firewood

So the unthinkable has happened! We have sorta, kinda run outta fire wood! We had such good intentions last Summer/Fall! But there was the fact that you know, all of BC was on Fire! And we were in the smokey Fraser Valley for 3 weeks. Then we got back and Luke’s parents arrived and there were other things on the agenda and they were here for THREE weeks … it even snowed while they were here! And you know, then in October we had to go to the Fraser Valley for another week because our Bear had major surgery at the specialist in Aldergrove so in the end, where the heck was the time to cut firewood??? I mean we tried! I think we felled a dozen trees but it wasn’t nearly enough! Anyway, the lack of preparation in the Summer/Fall meant that we had to cut some firewood today…this weekend. Thank the Weather gods for giving us sunny, clear skies!!! And no wind!!!

It has been rather cold of late with the temps dipping down to -28C over night and then hovering around -6C during the day so the snow base had a chance to freeze, leaving the new snow fall to drift about in the heavy winds. Those of us that weigh 65 kilos or less can sorta walk on top of the snow, most of the time, but then, you know, you just randomly sink up to your eye balls from time to time!  Makes for interesting walking.

Now if all you’re doing is walking, you know, going for a leisurely stroll, it’s all good. But come on, we have work to do today! The unsure footing made it….challenging…not impossible, just …challenging. Tell you what? The Brittany Lake wild life are being exposed to some pretty salty language. Funny, I didn’t actually count how many Steps from the wood pile to the top of the lil hill but I will tell you that it is 1pm and I am not hopping on a cardio machine today! That’s how many times I had to truck up and down that hill. Slipping, sliding, falling over, dragging a make shift sled, tripping over … Jackson Jone’s Craters… what I call Luke’s gigantic tracks; not only are they huge, he has, like, a metre-long stride!  It’s okay, me and my lil feet took our lil steps and we got the job done…where did you say that hot bath was, Luke??

So it’s my job to dig a trail through the snow to the tree. Luke gets in there and gets the tree down, cuts it into lengths then I get to cart the suckers down to the shed. Bear and Sam were somewhat helpful in breaking trails to the trees but really and truly, mostly they just got under foot but they DID enjoy being outside!  Luke reckons I should have hooked up our make-shift sled to Bear and got him to do the hauling! Ah, the father of invention….of course we don’t have a sled…well, a toddler sled for lil Benny… so Luke fashioned one out of a small pallet, a piece of lino that he was continually slipping on nearly killing himself on  and a bit of rope. It worked, for the most part; well, tell you what, I would not have been CARRYING those lengths of tree down the hill! I carried a couple of the skinnier ones and that was … challenging enough!

Anyway, a few hours of hard work and now I get to shamelessly sit in front of a warm fire knowing I did my bit to help my husband collect the wood that makes it possible to have a fire. Sammy will love us for it!

Happy Saturday, folks!

We can just make out my Chev 1300 over there in the trees

2 thoughts on “I know, I know! It’s Winter and we should already have Firewood

    1. We have been smoked out a couple of times but not from the wood it has more to do if air draws in due to a vacuum in the house when first starting the fire, this usually happens in the shoulder season and there is rapid change in conditions outside. Opening up the house a little helps. The place is so well insulated that it can work against you sometimes but having said that, it is only a few days of the year.

      As for this wood, it has been dead standing for years, it burns great! =)

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