Logs and Leaves

A wood stove is a wonderful heat generating tool--provided you have wood to put in it. :o) We definitely have a ready supply of wood, but unfortunately the trees don't seem to understand how to fall to the ground in a burnable format (neatly stacked would be a bonus as well.) :o) So we enjoyed a beautiful Saturday outside last week turning some fallen trees into usable firewood.

Chris and Dad manned the splitter, rented from a local shop:

The kids watched for a while, but then they decided it was more interesting to help Mommy who was divesting the driveway and some of the yard of its blanket of leaves.

This is the one picture I got of our leaf raking efforts, although it's actually not particularly representative. Yes, Peter definitely helped, but

1. He does NOT like using the little rake. He wants to use the BIG rake (think wide open arms spread as far as he can reach and the frequent exclamation of "Daddy!" since it's the rake Daddy gives him and similar to the rake Daddy uses.) Thankfully we do have a "big" rake on the smaller side of things which is really too small to be effective for an adult, but it makes our enthusiastic two-year-old quite content.
2. If the leaf blower is blowing (Mommy's preferred method of leaf removal, particularly for the driveway), Peter IS helping Mommy use it. May I say that I'll be glad when he's big enough to use it on his own? It is much more difficult to use a leaf blower when you have a small person just over waist-height who insists on keeping a very firm grip on the handle, even when the cord gets twisted around his ankles and he's not completely certain of which direction you're trying to blow. But I wouldn't trade my "help" for the world! :o)

We did discover this past weekend though that Hannah is actually quite adept at using the leaf blower. While Daddy was re-digging the trench, she occupied herself with the leaf blower and effectively removed all of the leaves from the "lawn" in front of the house! Good job, Pumpkin!

Of course there was plenty of pile jumping going on as well. :o)

Just before lunch Chris and I stacked the woodpiles while G&G returned the splitter and picked up pizza. :o) It was a blessing to have both of the kids diligently working hard to help us with that as well. :o)

Stacking the wood reminded me of a very vivid memory from childhood--Grandma and Grandpa L. used a wood stove in the winter, and Grandpa would haul fallen trees from the woods each year to split for firewood. Riding on the tractor or in the wagon was definitely a highlight of each visit. After coming back from the woods one morning, Grandpa set up the splitter, and I stacked the split logs on the wood piles. (He had many more and much larger piles than us and the closest pile was about 8-10 feet from the splitter.) I was about ten, and I think we spent most of the afternoon doing that. I just enjoyed being with Grandpa and had fun trying to keep up with him. The best part, though, was at dinner when Grandpa bragged to Grandma that I had stacked four cords of wood that day. :o) It's funny how I didn't even think of it as work. :o)

Here's our initial supply--since we haven't done this before, we really don't know how long it will last. I guess we'll find out. :o) But, the two cubbies under the awning are each about 4 ft deep and 4 ft high, so we do have more wood than it might appear at first glance.

After lunch, the kids and I napped while Chris and Dad picked up the leaf piles we had generated in the morning. (I haven't been sick hardly at all with the little one I'm carrying, but my physical stamina is about half of what I'm accustomed to. I'm still adjusting to that one. This particular day my body basically just shut down on me--I'm glad Mom was there to be with the kids, because I out-slept both of them!) :o)

Weren't they creative?!? I surely wish we had thought of this technique back in the spring when Janie and I were hauling five years worth of leaves!!

It was such a beautiful day to enjoy being outside and we surely did! :o)