Bringin' In The Wood!

Well, I am sorry there will be no pictures for this post. But that's life I guess, I just couldn't bring myself to spend a minute to get the camera during this trial, er event. Wind probably would have blown it out of my hand anyway!

Last Thursday we awoke to a breezy day. Sun was out, and there was a storm predicted to be upon us. I thought that the weather man had missed the call a tad, which he had, and then wondered if I could get the cord and a half of split dried firewood from the end of my drive into the woodshed before I had to leave for my Rotary meeting. Kim and I had split this wood three weeks previous. (That's another story) I had thought about moving it under cover, but with our schedule, it didn't look like it would be possible before the storm hit. Now with the delayed arrival of the predicted snow, perhaps we had a chance. We decided to go for it!

When I walked outside I was amazed at the velocity of the wind! It was howling out of the South, bending over our trees, and stripping them of their remaining dried leaves. The sky was full of dust from hay fields freshly plowed in preparation for some precipitation, but none was in sight. No clouds, only screaming wind! I nervously eyed our trampoline, as a few years ago it had made a short flight across the yard, ricocheting off the corner of the house and landing down wind in our field in many pieces. We were lucky it hadn't hit me ( I was trying to tie down the hot tub cover at the time) or gone through one of our glass patio doors or windows. I decided to get a rope and secure the tramp before heading for the wood pile.

Kim and I then hooked up the flatbed trailer as the wind ripped dust and gravel up off the drive and into our faces. It was pretty chilly, and I was wearing a knit cap to keep my ears warm. The wind kept trying to pluck it off my head. We backed the trailer up to the windward side of the pile of wood, and started tossing pieces on. According to my guess, the wind was blowing about 40 mph and gusting to 50 mph occasionally. It was actually hard to stand and walk. Some pieces of wood were actually blown back towards us as we tossed them at the trailer. I finally go the hang of tossing the wood with just enough force that the wind would slow it down just enough so it would land gently on the rest of the pieces accumulating on the flatbed.

I squinted hard to minimize the exposure of my eyeballs to the wind, constantly blinking the dust to the corners  of my eyes. It was miserable. My ears filled with dust and grit. I finally got a pair of firefighting goggles for Kim to wear, as she could not keep her glasses on her face the wind was so strong.

We got about half the wood loaded, and turned the trailer around and backed it in next to the woodshed. It was a little calmer in the shelter of the house and the shed, but still miserable. Back we went for the second and final load. No let up in the wind as it continued to howl.

I noticed quite a bit of smoke coming over the ridge to our Southwest. There had been some prescribed burning going on over there the previous week, and it looked like the wind had blown some new life into it. I was a little worried, as the smoke was building, blowing our direction, and with the strength of the wind where I was there would be no stopping a fire.

It turned out that the fire was about 50 acres, and I think the wind was not quite as strong as I was experiencing. The Forest Service managed to pick it up by evening, and that night we did get about 4 inches of new snow. However, it is always a bummer when a prescribed fire turns into a wildfire! Bad PR! At least it wasn't Sierraville District. The Plumas had been the one doing the burning. Really not their fault, as this wind was not predicted.

So, back to the wood. We got the last sticks loaded and moved the trailer to the shed once again. We decided that we had to finish this job as we were now totally committed. So, we stacked all the wood, and with around 1/4 cord that was left over from last year, we measured nearly two cords stacked. I have probably 3 cords cut and waiting to be split, back out at the end of the driveway (under 4 inches of snow), so I should be looking good here in a bit. The wood splitter is reserved for the week after our Rotary Training in Palm Springs. Hopefully we'll have the woodshed filled before Thanksgiving. I am sure Maggie and Lucy are hoping for that too!

That's All!!