firewood

The truth about wood stoves:

They gobble up a lot of firewood.

We have had a hard time keeping up with its demands and have already gone through all of the humongous stash we'd accumulated in the carport, along with several "refills."

So we decided it was finally time to purchase our own chain saw for serious cutting action.

Gabriel's carpool buddy, Mark, generously offered us felled trees on his property, and since it was his first go-around with the new chain saw, Gabriel wanted Liam and I to tag along just in case.

It was a balmy 34 degrees here on Saturday, so Liam and I bundled up, packed some extra blankets and hot cocoa, grabbed some books to read, and went to watch Gabe reduce a tree to manageable rounds.

He did great with the chain saw, except he is still learning how to make the cuts without getting the saw pinched. It happened numerous times, leading to the most muttered cursings I have ever heard escape from his mouth...

Liam thought the day was a wonderful adventure. He climbed on the rounds, played with sticks, met the farm dogs, and saw cows in the neighboring pasture. But whenever the chain saw was going, he stayed glued to my legs. The sound was pretty scary.

Going at a big trunk:
Success!

Time for a little exploring.

Happy boy.