Yesterday was a chore day… first up was dusting and cleaning floors. I don’t do these things on any kind of schedule…I dust when the sun shines at such an angle that it forces me to notice that I can write my name in the dust on shelves, etc. Although I vacuum the floor nearly daily, because it is wood, I am fairly sure that all I accomplish with the vacuum is blowing the dust, hair and dirt to the edges and under things where it forms gigantic dust bunnies. They hide until someone visits and then they skitter out to betray my “only when things get desperate” style of housekeeping.

I noticed that in the last several days the floor was feeling a bit gritty – that is my signal that it is time to get serious. In the living room, I picked up the pet bed and put it on the back of a chair while I worked in there.

“Where my bed goes, I goes”…

Next up on the chore list was firewood. I have about 1/3 of a cord of small larch pine that was cut to length for my stove 2 years ago. I had cut several small live trees that were in the way of the motorhome spot and they are now nice and dry – easy to split and ready for a nice crackly fire – the larch “spits excessively” – snap, crackle, pop in the stove.

My method of splitting I call aerobic splitting…

I like to set 3 or 4 logs in a semicircle and take a whack at them in succession. I use a splitting maul vs a hammer and wedge. Splitting wood is more about letting the tool and momentum do the work vs strength, but it does take some effort to swing the maul with accuracy and to coordinate motion so that body and maul weight is doing most of the work. I find that the rhythm of doing several at once works for me.

Karl supervises….from a distance.

They all split on first whack – but some I split again. I’m splitting these small larch fairly small to use as fire starter and small fire fuel. I have a stock of larger fir and pine for larger, longer stove use.

Wheelbarrow full from 7 smallish rounds.

Karl and I had taken a walk before the wood splitting commenced. The walk was partially my “warm up”. I hadn’t done any hand splitting for 2 years. The fall I moved into the house I bought 4 cords of wood and the handyman that worked for me at the time had a splitter which we used. And while feeding the splitter and then stacking is still work, it was much faster and easier. I have nearly 3 cords of dry wood leftover from the logging done in early 2007. I am doing a wonderful trade with my friends Kris and her husband, Hal. Some of my computer/photography expertise for Hal cutting the wood to length, as well as taking down several dying trees and downfall that can dry for next year. I will rent a splitter for that project, but until then I enjoy hand-splitting a bit now and then.

I split 14 rounds – 2 wheelbarrows full – 1/4 of the little 1/3 cord…enough for me for the day!

Karl thought it was enough also.

We played “Karl’s rules soccer-football”….

“You get it, Mom”

Done for the day.