Firewood Update for February 2017

Ah, another day, another snow storm. Actually, I think lower New England and New York are getting it worse than us. They’re supposed to get well over a foot while we in western Maine are stuck at around eight inches. No matter, we just accumulated about three inches yesterday and are supposed to see around sixteen more throughout the week. It’s turning into a very active February. That makes my heart sing. It’s certainly better than last year’s lazy winter.

I thought I’d head out to the garage with my camera for a quick firewood update. I know how much everyone loves these types of posts.

So far, I’d say we burned about a cord and a half of firewood this season. That’s not bad. The strange thing is, we actually burn the most in March and April during my syrup making endeavors. That’s a real chore because I have to open all the windows in my room here so I don’t sweat too bad. I sweat, but the cooler air helps – that’s for sure.

I wanted to quickly show you my firewood carrying bag. I don’t think I ever posted a picture of this.

This one is called a Cougar and it’s the biggest one I could find. I had last year’s wood cut at eighteen inches and it was plenty big for that. This year, I went with sixteen, so things are just dandy. Bringing wood inside from the garage is made so much easier when I use this tote. Back in the early days, I only had my arms. That got old very fast.

Here’s a photo of one side of the garage. This is where I stacked this year’s wood. I have three cord on the other side drying for next season.

Don’t be fooled by these piles. The two on the right were small to begin with. After I filled up the other side of the garage and even the center, I still had more wood. I decided to temporarily stack it in these two piles and then just recently figured I’d go ahead and burn it. It’s the two piles on the left that matter. Each of those two long piles holds about a cord and a half, so with half of them gone, that’s about a cord and a half burned.

After I took some photos of the garage and the wood, I figured I’d walk around a bit for some more. Here’s one of the front of our house during today’s snow storm.

It’s so cool. Laura and I are planning a short ride in the truck in about an hour or so. I’m going to get her to drive me up the road and back. I like to watch her drive the truck because, deep down, she gets a kick out of it. I’m not sure how someone couldn’t. We throw it in 4-wheel drive and drive over anything we want. Talk about fun.

I took a few shots of our stream that runs along the property line. It’s totally frozen. No action there. I did, however, like the look of the bridge that crosses it in the snow. Things look very short.

Here’s a closer view.

Here are a few nature shots for you. The first one is of a birch tree that’s got some pretty snow on it and the second one is of a few small hemlock trees. Both photos were taken at the side of the frozen stream.

I do love those hemlocks. I wish our property was covered with them.

Finally, here’s a photo of our Christmas tree. We took this down about a week ago and I stuck it in the snow out back near the bird feeders. Now, the little birds sit on the branches and eat the food after they’ve stolen it. Fun times.

Now that I think about it, it would have been sorta cool if we left the lights on it. We could have lit it up at night. Perhaps next year.