How Much Wood…

Mar 312011
 

We’re giving those woodchucks some stiff competition.

As I have complained enough about, it has been a long winter.

And soon I will stop complaining about it because the sun will be shining nice and warm, the flowers will be poking their heads out of the ground, and the snow will be gone.

*Happy Dance*

But until then, we still have to contend with the everpresent chance of the “S” word.  (That is snow, for the less-informed.)

Also note that as of April 1, the “S” word is no longer allowed in anyone’s vocabulary while they are in my presence until December 1st.  This is an unbreakable rule that is well known and respected.  Violators are subjected to the evil glare that has made big, burly men back away in terror.

You have been forewarned.

We now continue with our regular programming.

Because of said long winter, we have gone through quite a bit of wood heating the house.  We were hoping that the large supply that we acquired last summer would suffice for 2 years and give us a break this summer from splitting and stacking.

Eh… we were wrong.

See all that wood?  No?  Me neither, because we went through the 3 rows that were there, along with 2 others, and will be starting on the one on the left side of the picture in a couple days.

So as not to put off the inevitable, Rick had a truckload of oak dumped off last night, and will have another 5 coming over the next few weeks.

And after a long day at work, Rick came home and started splitting it down to fit in the woodburner.

He bought this handy dandy log splitter last year, and it has been a huge blessing when it comes to splitting massive amounts of wood.

Added bonus:  no aching back from using the axe. We used to go through quite a few axe handles before we got this baby.  Rick will still used the axe when he wants to cut up a few logs, but most of the time it is enjoying a well-deserved retirement.

This gadget gets the job done nice and quick.

Heck, even I could use it if I wanted to.  But I generally take the grunt work of loading the wagon and stacking the wood.

Except for last night, because it was a little too chilly for my liking.  Not cold , just chilly.

And besides, somebody had to feed the dust-belching woodburner.

Here’s Your Sign

Mar 302011
 

My official proclamation  of having winter be over is now being made.

I’m sick of the snow and the cold, but there is one thing this time of year that I am even more tired of .

Dust.

Since the street we live on is not paved, we will always have to contend with some amount of dust in the house.  But in the wintertime, it escalates to phenomenal proportions.

And here is the culprit.

We installed this fireplace insert 3 years ago because the original fireplace, although functional, was not quite efficient as an overall heat source for the house.

And I love this woodburner, really I do.  It is our primary source of heat in the winter and has saved us a buttload on heating fuel.

But it is the biggest dust factory in the world!

Heck, if I were to try and keep the dust down to a minimum in this house, I’d have to buy stock in Swiffer just to try and recoup my expense.

I wave my white flag.  I surrender.  I cannot win.

Dust, you have been a valiant foe and you have defeated me.

So to all those that enter our humble abode, please pay homage to the victor of this fight.

Just don’t write in it, OK?

Weekend Project

Mar 292011
 

Rick & I have been planning to put up a new ceiling in the kitchen for quite a while, and decided that it would be this year’s remodeling project.  We wanted to have it done this winter, and I guess with the snowstorm that we received last week, we can technically call it “winter” even though the calendar says spring.

Either way, the project was tackled this past weekend.

It all begins with this.  Exciting, no?

There is always prep work to be done before any project.  First we had to split some boards into strips to be used as the frame for the ceiling board to go on.  My job was to help guide these 16 foot boards through the tablesaw.

Even though you can’t tell, I really am helping.

Rick took a picture to prove it.  Too bad I don’t have it to show you.

I like to think of this ceiling installation as a giant puzzle that we are putting together.  First you assemble all the pieces that will be the “frame,” or the outside of the puzzle (those board strips that we did earlier), and put them together.

At least that is how I put a puzzle together.

Side note:  Notice the cool light coming out of the cordless drill?  A must-have for any carpenter… trust me.

These cross boards will become the “puzzle mat” that you lay the pieces on.

With me so far?

Now those puzzle pieces still have to be cut to fit in the frame.

Now the fun begins!  First piece put up.

Isn’t this exciting?

And you keep adding more pieces and locking them into place, hence the puzzle reference.

If you don’t run into too many troubles (which we didn’t), it starts to come together pretty quick.  This much took us about 3 hours or so, but we still had a lot of ceiling to cover.

By the end of day 2, we were 1/2 way done.

Rick likes to sit back and study his handiwork (which is quite awesome, IMO).

Actually, I helped too.  Yep, I even used the nail gun a couple times (cue the Tim the Toolman Taylor grunt).

Kinda gives you a visual feel of what the finished project will look like.

Which will occur next weekend.

The Memory Game

Mar 282011
 

We all have those moments.

You know the ones, where you are relating something to someone and all of a sudden the next word goes “poof”, right out of your head.  It’s right on the tip of your tongue, but you just can’t remember what you were going to say.

I REALLY hate when that happen.

And how embarrassing is it when you are telling the funniest joke in the world and you either a) completely mess up the punch line, or b) forget it completely in a nanosecond.

I think my memory cells started packing their bags when I gave birth to my first child.  Raising children requires lists:  Doctor appointments, school concerts, Girl Scouts, and on and on and on. When I had my second child, they said “oh, so you didn’t take the hint the first time, eh?  Hope you have good note-taking skills, ’cause you’re gonna need em!”.

And ever since I have had to make a note or list if I had any hope of remembering things.

I’ll write on post-it’s, scrap paper, calendars, even the margins of a newspaper if that is the only blank space around to jot down what I needed to remember.

Now routines are a whole different subject.  I like routines, because I don’t need a list.  These are things that I do so often and in the same order that I don’t even have to think about them, I just do it.  Unfortunately, there are times when routines will get interrupted and then the train comes off the tracks in a heaping ball of smoke.

It isn’t pretty when that happens, and then you have to actually “think” about what the next part of the routine was supposed to be.  Running down that mental list of each step that is in the routine.  This kinda defeats the “no list” rule.

Now I know that there are many ways to “rejuvenate” those brain cells like taking Ginko Biloba or doing crossword puzzles.  And believe me, I’ve done them and they do seem to help.  But somehow they have fallen to the wayside.

I guess somewhere along the line I forgot to add them to my list.

The Covered Bridge

Mar 272011
 

When you play tourist in your hometown, you get a chance to revisit your childhood.

You see things in a whole new light… through fresh eyes.

You also get to relive memories, whether good of bad.

This covered bridge is located in a small town not far from where I grew up.  It is located in a park that I would go to when I really wanted to get away.

It spans the Zumbro River and in the summertime has geese that frequent the little island that it leads to.

It is a foot bridge, and one of the few covered bridges left in the area.  In fact, I can’t recall seeing more than one or two of its kind my whole life.

There aren’t many places like this any more.  I like to think of it as “small town charm.”

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