25 February 2013

Firewood

We are half way through Winter and a warm wood stove helps relieve the chill of  the cold days of February. Not only is February a good time to use a wood stove, it is also a good time stock up on fire wood for next year.

With the ground frozen solid we are able to haul logs out of our woods without doing too much damage to the ground. A photo of Mary driving our tractor to the pipeline right-of-way on our property where trees cleared for the pipeline are stacked.



We used the front-end loader on the tractor to load logs on a flatbed trailer and haul the logs to our barn, about a mile and a half drive. With the trailer parked next to the barn the logs were cut into blocks.



Another load of logs ready to be cut into blocks.



Large blocks ready to be split. Many of the logs were over 24 inches across.



Once the blocks are split into firewood it is loaded onto pallets and moved to a storage area using my old John Deere tractor.



The firewood is temporarily stored in our barn to keep the snow off it.



More firewood stored in the barn. This firewood will be moved closer to our house and allowed to season (dry out) for next year's heating season.



08 February 2013

Signs of Early Spring

Was "Punxsutawney Phil" correct with this year's prediction of an early Spring? I found these daffodils sprouting next to our barn.


(Please Note: The National Weather Service has issued the following:
...WINTER STORM WARNING NOW IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 7 AM EST SATURDAY... )