Roger was on a tear during our approximate two-week “staycation.” Okay, we did actually sit at our computers most work week days, though we did pop into Concord a couple of times.
The weekends were totally given over to constructing two holz hausen to catch us up in prepping of our winter heating next year. This year’s heating will be serviced by last year’s wooden teepees. They amazingly sturdy despite having one topple over during the learning phase last summer.
Stacked this way, the promise is dry and seasoned wood in as little as three months.
Since taking on the forest management/mastery project last year, there has been no shortage of things to do. Much of this falls to Roger. I can lift and heft a good bunch, but the chainsaw is all his and I simply can’t lift some the wooden beasts that have been deposited with a great thundering thud.
Now I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t agree, but I think the building of the holz hausen for drying split wood is an artistic pursuit. It requires careful consideration of how the pieces fit together and overall consideration for proportion and form.
I tried my hand at it last year, but soon threw in the hatchet. I’m a bit short to go the distance in stacking to seven feet. I also mightily sucked at it. I’m much better at fetching icy cold beer (safe for this part of the heft and hew) and offering encouragement and compliments. Perhaps not much of a contribution, but I sure appreciate the effort on his part.
Since these photos were taken, there is a new mountain of wood I’m in the middle of splitting. The pile will provide enough wood for the better part of a third holz hausen, and we can rest easy that we’re all set for next winter. Our goal is to get at least two winters ahead.
Not bad for neophytes. Roger does get pretty beat up, but it keeps us close to our surroundings and appreciative that we have the choice to heat this way. And you can’t help but be “in” the seasons as well as watching them pass.
As we transform our surroundings—making choices about what to remove, what to keep and what to add to our environmental mix—I am reminded that choosing is powerful and brings tremendous responsiblity. Not to say you can’t change your mind, but human lives and trees acquire evidence of their experience in the rings (body and trunk). Go easy, go slow, take care.
Three years ago, my mother sold her lake house on Lake Winnipesaukee. I had spent a chunk of every summer there for 35 years, and I took the loss hard. Perfect sunsets opposite our front door, wailing loons, the slosh slosh of a big lake’s water, grilling easy meals and making other or “parts” — simplicity and peace I counted on every year.
While I mourned and wallowed in memories of what had been lost, I failed to realize that just a mile up Gleason Falls Road I had a sweet little body of water named Loon Pond at my disposal. A visit from a… 
We disembarked from the ship about a mile and half off from where Roger and I thought we remembered we’d seen cruise ships two and half years ago. That made for a total of three miles he pushed his mother Mary’s wheelchair into downtown Cozumel. Oops.
We toodled about the main square visiting with locals. With Mary on wheels, we were able to give her a quick overview of the place and to have lunch at La Choza, one…
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