Firewood and 7 years of bad luck

A full cord of wood is dumped in our yard

Last winter, which was quite mild, we really enjoyed our fireplace and ended up going through almost 2 face cords of wood. We moved in late enough last year so that were too late in the season for most wood sellers but I did find a place up off Robinson Hill Rd in Johnson City that had wood for sale, but you had to pick it up. So twice last I borrowed First Brother In Law Randy's pickup truck and loaded, then unloaded wood. This year, although I waited a bit too long again, I contacted the logger and tree remover that lives across the street from my dad and he managed to scrape together a full cord, which is about 3 times as much wood as a face cord. With what we had leftover from last year, I'm hoping it will be enough to get us through the season.

Cindy helping. Her back is still sore. SORRY HONEY!

The finished stack. Mind the glass please. 

The fire wood was dumped in the backyard and once again Cindy was a good sport and helped me move and stack the wood in the garage. I considered purchasing a steel cart to transport the wood, but in the end the distance of about 15 feet didn't make it worth loading the cart, then unloading to stack. So, Cindy and I hand carried every piece into the garage where I stacked. I first pulled last years wood out to stack the new logs on the bottom. Then, it was just a matter of staying at thejob. After about three hours we were done. I had thought that we would  have to stack some outdoors in the alleyway, but I managed to get it all in the garage, although I'm not real happy about how high it is, or that I blocked the lower part of the window. Going to have to be real careful not to knock wood into the glass.

Firewood warms you at least twice, When you burn it, of course, but also when you move it, stack it. or split it. While I wouldn't mind getting my lumberjack on and going after some of this with a wedge and maul, the logs are pretty much in perfect size to burn. We are actually looking forward to some cold and snowy days,

A large mirror after being
hit with a hammer. Several
times.

Speaking of glass, the previous owner of our home really liked mirrors. In fact, there were four large, plate glass style mirrors in the house, the biggest mounted over the fireplace. Other mirrors included one in the basement, another mounted in the bathroom, and one in the upstairs hallway. The mirror in the hallway remains there, the other three were moved to the garage where they were taking up too much room. The only way to get rid of them is to break them (Yikes!), put them in boxes, and bring them to the landfill. So, I first laid down a canvas drop cloth, then a plastic drop cloth, then the mirror, I made sure my glasses were on, put on an old pair of heavy fire gloves, and smacked the mirror with a ball peen hammer. Nothing. I hit it harder. Still nothing. I then closed my eyes tight and smacked it really hard. Smash. I was impressed how hard I had to hit it. Several more smacks and the mirror was in manageable pieces and I loaded them into a box. I did this for two more mirrors and ended up with a remarkably heavy load of broken glass, and hopefully not 21 years of bad luck. Actually, each one of them already had a small crack or break so I'm banking on that releasing me from being the original breaker, and not the bearer of the curse.

That's it for this time around. Coming up in future blogs will be additional tub leak battles, making the newly painted porch less slippery, and trying to get some new storm windows before the cold weather really hits.