Other Hands

We took off the last two weeks from delivering firewood so we could immerse ourselves with all the hub-bub of activity around here but that did not mean we did not work on firewood completely.

My goal over the last two weeks were to eek out at least a fraction of time each day to cut, split, stack, move and/or wrap bundles of wood. Some days I could barely get a few minutes of time to spend on any of it. I have found that if I begin to set up the morning chores in my barn and have all the cow critters locked in their areas for portion control and the barn cats all separated so that nobody can torture anyone else, I can get between 20 and 30 minutes of time to wrap bundles and stack them on a pallet. An hour a day is not enough to make more than 20 bundles but that little bit each day adds to the inventory of completed product.

Right after the morning feeding across the river, Mike and I can load the saw and make a trip to the back of the six acre field to clean up the fallen cherry trees beneath the power lines. This wood still needs several months of curing and drying before it is ready to be shipped to customers. With me marking the logs, Mike is able to cut enough rounds to fill the Gator. Then a quick trip back to the barn for splitting and stacking before it is time to head to the house for lunch break.

All the little bits of time focused on the inventory bundles, green wood getting split and stacked for the drying process we have enough currently for a delivery or two with a backup supply started for summertime deliveries. On one hand I feel that we have gotten ahead of the curve of supply and demand while on the other hand I would have liked to see a larger supply before we get busy with the next round of tree planting that should begin next week. There are many, many other hands needed to keep up with the repairs and remodels going on so we will continue to etch out segments of time to get at least some of the work completed.