60 posts 60 days: Day 2

I should be counting down, instead of up. I realized this mistake after posting yesterday, but am way too lazy to change it now.

Today was our last firewood trip for the season! September 8! I guess what makes it so exciting to me is that we were getting our last truckload for last year on November 22nd. And this year there is even a nice little stacking shed under our carport to keep it dry and tidy.

We went up a new drainage, one that doesn't see as much action as Mann Creek. Like favorite hunting or fishing spots, I'm leaving it unnamed. The fall colors are starting to come out and it was quite beautiful. Mike (he took the day off) found a dead-down tree about 75 yards above the road. A nice, dry old-growth douglas fir. He cut a few rounds and rolled them down the hill to see what would happen. They FLEW down the mountain, bounded across the road, and immediately disappeared over the other side.

Now, I've been on the receiving end of many a round of wood ripping its way down a mountain and I'm happy to say, pregnant or not, there was NO WAY I was getting in front of those to try to stop them. I looked over the edge and they were about ten feet below the road, tangled in some brush. After a quick discussion, Mike and I decided he would cut some more and we would hope for the best. I climbed over the edge to retrieve them and immediately wished I had not. Steep. Slippery. Grass. Probably in a not so wise fashion, I carefully maneuvered them back up the hill without killing myself in the process. Clare and I then gathered every branch, rock, and large piece of bark we could find and built a "retaining wall" for the remaining pieces of firewood that would soon be hurtling down the hill.

Retaining wall! Hahahaha!!! The first piece that hit our little wall not only barreled through with the force of a freight train but also took one of those difficult to retrieve pieces of wood with it. There was some swearing. Then, piece after piece followed suit. But there was still no way I was going to sacrifice myself to try and stop them. They were that big and that fast. In the end, we had one and a half pieces still on the road and a few stuck in the brush below. The rest are somewhere half a mile down the hillside. Yes. Still there.

Mike cut a couple smaller trees near the road and rolled them in sections about six feet long. I ended up chasing a few which had to look pretty silly since I'm rapidly losing the ability to bend over but I caught them all. Except for the piece that bounced over a smaller round, then rolled down the front of my shin and landed on my foot (pure genius on my part for not GETTING OUT OF THE WAY). But it stayed on the road, so in all fairness it was probably worth the loss of a large section of epidermis.

So, the woodshed is full. On the 8th day of September. Now on to the eight hundred fifty seven other projects that need to be completed before the first snows come!