Sal and I got the logs up and stacked over the last two days.  That job is not so hard.  Not for me, anyway.  My part is to run the top winch to get the log up the 120′ hill, take the log off the block and taykle, wrap up the ropes and chokes and then send it all back down the highline for Sal to receive.  Then I roll the logs at the top over to the temporary stacking area. She, in turn, pulls out the now-lowered block and taykle full-stretch to reach the next log down at her end of the highline, attaches the hook to a choke that she had previously wrapped around the log and then hauls like hell on the rope to pull the 400-500 pound log up into the air – well, one end is in the air. Sometimes it is Sal in the air if the log is too heavy.  That’s always fun. (What’s really fun is that she never gives up.  She’ll bounce and pull and yell even tho she is clearly outweighed and no amount of bouncing is gonna do it. Sometimes it is just hilarious.)  The other end of the log drags it’s butt up the hill as the winch winds it all up again.  Repeat. Sixty times for a full shed but we rarely need more than 30.  We did 25 this time.  Maybe 26.

Her job is harder than mine.  NOT because of the actual work although ‘hauling’ it up in the air is pretty hard for a 120 pounder on a 4:1 block and taykle lifting 400 to 500 pounds. Sometimes I have to go down with the chainsaw and cut a few of the bigger ones in half (after watching some bouncing and yelling first, of course).  But the hardest part is the footing.  There just isn’t any.  The rocky cliff is at a 35 degree slope right to the water’s edge so Sal is mountain-goating around the shoreline doing what she has to do.  And the logs are always higgly piggly.  THAT can get tiresome.

When all the logs are up in the temporary staging area, we then drag them 50 or so feet along the yard to the proper stacking area where they are – as you’d expect – stacked. When they are all stacked nicely, my next chore is to buck ’em into rounds with the chainsaw and wheelbarrow ten or so rounds down to the splitter.  That’s another 50 feet or so.  Then we split ’em, stack ’em and, later, put everything away.  It’s not a week’s chore for 30 year-olds.  But we take a week.  Sometimes longer.  Today a meeting got in the way.  Another day, it might be a guest, or laundry or a town day or a sinking boat or quilting…………..it never seems to stop around here.  Busy, busy, busy.

Still, it is our winter heat, it is a free resource (kinda) and it is good for ya.  Getting in the winter’s wood is a regular chore that always seems like a burden until it is done and then it feels like a job well done.

Speaking of which: I was not gonna write the blog this time.  This time was gonna be another guest blog.  Good ol’ Sal was going to put pinkies to the keyboard and write something on quilting.  I am on the edge of my seat. But, things got in the way.  She’ll do the next one, tho.  More pics, too.