Well, today brought a southerly wind, that will begin warming us up over the next few days, with a chance of some rain on Thursday of this week.
The big thing with this warm weather is that my wood use in the wood stove is reduced considerably, almost to the point I could fill it once a day. Which is nice, as I will be cutting more wood sometime this winter, at least a couple of loads, and if the snow goes down a bunch, I can get back into the woods sooner.
I cut most of my wood on our property this year, across the little red bridge that crosses the creek which feeds into Coffee Lake. I try to only cut trees that are showing signs of disease, like birch blight or oak wilt, or really mature Poplar trees. By taking this down before they start to fall apart, I can salvage some good solid wood, that provides a lot of heat.
I also clean up anything that is blown over in wind storms or that heavy snows take down. The biggest thing is getting close to it, so I can haul it out without carrying it to far. I split my larger wood by hand, before I load it, much easier on my back. I also have used my truck and father-in-law's skid steer, when I can get it, to skid the logs or parts of the trees to an easier spot for cutting, splitting and loading. The picture above was taken the after the 2nd weekend in November.
I also clean up anything that is blown over in wind storms or that heavy snows take down. The biggest thing is getting close to it, so I can haul it out without carrying it to far. I split my larger wood by hand, before I load it, much easier on my back. I also have used my truck and father-in-law's skid steer, when I can get it, to skid the logs or parts of the trees to an easier spot for cutting, splitting and loading. The picture above was taken the after the 2nd weekend in November.
I also had to fetch a new round bale of hay tonight, after getting home from work, for the animals. The last bale last 10 days,another side effect of milder weather, so they are good to go for another 9-10 days!
