September 14, 2011



One of the grouse in our yard



Dinga and the wood



After picking up Larry's trailer on Monday, we took all the wood up to Rose Camp in two trips. Stacked it by the splitter for Tuesday. We are going to keep his trailer for a few more days to gather downed wood along the road and help my brother take some large pallet wood one of our neighbors let him have. He will probably use it for his outhouse. For the past 20 years his outhouse has simply been a large box with a toilet shaped seat in it over a large hole overlooking a small canyon. Great view. Not too much privacy.


It feels so good not to have to rush out and work on the deck each morning. Now my list of things to do has shrunk to:
    Thoroughly clean and reseal the wood stove
    Clean the chimney (as soon as I receive the brush I ordered)
    Finish finding, cutting and splitting winter wood
    Build up winter supplies

Tuesday JB had a dentist appointment Down There, so he left early for that and to run some errands, one of which was to price the hardware for the sliding door to his shop. It will slide back and forth like a barn door. Building that is on his list of things to do, along with getting MAX ready for winter.

While he was gone, I split seven wheel barrow loads of the Douglas Fir from Seattle. It is green, but it split much more easily than I had anticipated. Then I realized it had been sitting out for almost two weeks in abnormally warm weather before we picked it up. I was able to get 32 pieces out of one of the larger rounds. The smaller pieces are pretty standard to split. Just split it in half, then split each half into two or three pieces depending upon the size. The large rounds are more interesting. Split it in quarters, and then the fun begins. Much more of a challenge, especially when there are big knots in the wood. Our splitter is hydraulic and has a force of up to 22 tons, but a large knot can cause it to stop. You just have to coax the wedge through the wood. I love it!

One of JB's tomato plants had a nice sized ripe tomato when we returned on Sunday. It was the first one. We ate it on Monday and it was so good. There are several green ones that should be ripening soon.

We heard some noise in the shop during the night on Monday and discovered that the critter (probably a pack rat) had knocked down the plastic jar of poison and tried to chew into it. The poison that JB put out is gone already. Maybe we should just leave the jar open.

There is a great article in the October issue of "Outside" magazine entitled "Pan-seared Hama Hama, Sea Rocket Topped with Toothwort Roots and Aged Lichen" by Richard Conniff about foraging for food. Incredibly written. Fascinating subject. This magazine always has such intriguing articles.

Larry and Elsie told us that for a couple days last week they found no eggs in the chicken coup. Turns out they had a weasel that was getting in and taking them. One of their cats quickly dispatched it and left the proof by the back door. Hmmm. Maybe we should get a cat. . .  Or not.