This morning - and in fact, for the last couple of months, every morning - I woke up with no wood.
This was distressing to me, and I have to say my wife has not been happy, either. Over the years, we've both come to depend on me having wood to help us both fight off the chilly winter nights. But last year, when the time came to measure my wood, I came up short.
I get cranky when I can't get wood - I'm not used to it. So the last few months have been hard, hard, hard.
But all that's over today, because this afternoon a really nice guy came to the house and slipped me all the wood I can handle.
He was great - he drove up in a truck and knocked on the door. He was a rugged looking fellow, as you'd expect, but he sure knew his wood. When I showed him the tight space he'd have to fit his wood in, he didn't hesitate for a second.
"I can do that," he said, and sure enough, he came around back and slipped it in easily. It's no nice when they can do that without damaging the whole area.
And I mean ... this wasn't just a stick. This was a whole lot of wood, folks. It was cut. Nice girth. Perfect length. All of it Hard. I've never seen its equal.
Well, of course, it's one thing for me to have someone slip me some wood - quite another to know what to do with it. And boy, I have learned over the years how to handle wood. Of course, I'm gonna spend the next while all bent over and I may walk funny, but I can tell you, it's worth it.
I love getting wood, and if I could, I'd share it with you. Maybe later I'll post a picture.
Wait ... did I say something ...? What?
************* UPDATE ***************
I often get asked if I could share pictures of my wood, so here are a couple :
Now, I grant you, in these pictures my wood is not very impressive. But this is early on in the process, right after delivering one load. Maybe once the other five have been delivered, you'll have a little more respect.
One of the problems with getting wood, of course, it the number of times you have to handle it. Any time you get wood, you can look forward to hours and hours of work, and I have to say after a while that gets hard on the back. Sometimes my wife will help me, but she gets sore pretty quickly and certainly isn't much good after the first load or two.
So, basically I find when I get wood, I have to deal with it myself. It's OK. I'm used to it. And I've figured out a few things that make life a little easier. For years when I was handling wood I never wore gloves. My hands would get all chafed and red and sore. So now I use some thick work gloves.
Laura also points out an issue, that being getting wood wet. Of course, a little moisture is good for wood - prevents cracking, for one thing. But you don't want to get it too wet, so I cover it with a tarp (basically, because when you have as much wood as I have, nothing else is big enough).
I will say there have been some cryptic comments - not sure where you guys are taking this simple, straightforward discussion of a common event in rural life. But let me just say that if you're looking for wood innuendo, Laura, I'm your man.
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