A Year of Living Dangerously: Day Seventy four
OK...so here's the deal. You'll no doubt heave a sigh of relief to discover that I'm including images in this post but the bad news is that they might be termed extraordinarily *boring* photos for people not inclined to be interested in woodsheds or cats. I figured that after all this yapping that I've been doing about the wood collection scene hereabouts I'd try to paint a more concrete picture of what exactly it is that I've been up to (it's funny but using the term 'concrete' reminds me of the repair that i have to perform on that big hole in the floor which might be a good task for projected rainy Saturday). Anyhow...what with the weather maintaining it's sunny disposition I thought I'd drag the camera out and shoot those piles of wood. The truth is that I was hoping to find something more exciting to snap then the aforementioned but I got so focused on what I was doing that I just didn't take the time to go wandering just for the hell of it. Thus, whatcha get is whatcha get.
Interior work eventually gave way to exterior work...largely because my pants were finally dry enough to wear to do outside work not to mention that I may have had enough vacuuming for the day. Sure sure it's nice to have a less dust enriched environment on the second and third floor but that's the kind of thing some neat freak would say. Anyway...with the drying of my grubby jeans I was out of excuses for not going outside and proceeded to the woodshed annex and the great heaps of wood that have become stacks and the smaller piles of wood that still need to be converted into stacks. Looking at the pictures reminds me of the level of delirium I must have been experiencing when I still felt like I needed *more*. Of course it doesn't hurt that we're rapidly coming up on half way through November and our usage has been a mere pittance.
So up first we have a shot of the South face of the old woodshed with the 'truth door' currently showing you exactly how full things are again. You can see that there are quite a few 'rounds' being the result of hacking up all those dead elm bits. Because they are quite dry they burn like crazy but what this seems to mean is that I can simply turn down the damper on the fireplace quite early and get results similar to 'normal' wood. I've had a few overnights with this deadwood and still have coals functioning in the AM which is all I really need for satisfactory function.
This shot of the southern exposure of the annex shows the mess of wood that's in there not to mention the 'mess'. The pile of rounds to the left of the image used to be two rows deep but with her pitching in yesterday we're only a couple of chunks away from a single row.
If we cosy up to that pile of rounds we can look past it and have a gander at the piles of deadwood that have been stacked up in the last two weeks under the big west facing windows. I added these windows to the *design* of the shed with the idea that all year long the sun could shine on the wood inside right through the evening. The stuff immediately under the window (and projecting out from it) is deadwood that looks like it'll serve to keep us from the shed until December. The taller pile at the back of the shed is stuff I'm projecting to be ready for use next year. At the bottom of the picture you can see our manual splitter, bright red cylinder awaiting it's next client to experience ten tons of splitting goodness.
Panning to the right we see the big honking stacks of wood that have been created from the two trees donated by our friends. So far it's probably about a cord and a half not including the extra tall stacks over on the west side of the annex. It'll just sit there getting good and dry until next winter. In front of it is a random stack of small rounds that it didn't make sense to split made up of both maple and deadwood elm. Those will all be used as starter bits (according to my plan that is). The two pump handles for the splitter complete the relevant visual information in this shot.
After I'd decided that I'd had enough of the splitting and stacking game and was getting ready to head back into the house I notice a *glow* in the middle distance. I walked over to see a typical sight in our yard. Our little sun god charging up on golden rays. I should point out that the rough hewn bench that he's snoozing on was something a friend banged together years and years ago from scrap wood we had lying around and although it isn't used all that often by the local bipeds it is a big favourite of Mssr. Tete du Poop. That is one seriously sunshiny cat.
When I got inside and showed off the image of his highness *she* pointed out that a certain shadowy boy was being reasonably cute while he worked on being stoned and so she nabbed the camera to snap a shot. As you can see Cicero seems relaxed enough although the flash has lent his eyes a preternatural glow. Just looking at this shot I have a minor urge to *obey*. It turns out this is something I must not do if we are to have a cat who actually locomotes in a fashion that doesn't include rolling or oozing. Cicero von Jellybelly shall not be granted powers of hypnotic suggestion on my watch (much to his chagrin).
So that's that. Wood, cats and cleaning. Just don't tell Sean Cullen.
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