January 1 2020 Daily life

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.'”

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Always exciting when you get to write the date with a new year. 6 AM New Years Day 2020.

In the end, the date doesn’t matter, my injuries or fatigue doesn’t either. This isn’t a bond movie, there is no hero, saving the day at the last moment. There is just me swinging a chainsaw, taking a break, collecting the woodblocks, taking another break, taking them to be split and then hauled inside to produce heat. After that maybe collecting some snow to melt for drinking water and cook some food for dinner.

First things: I needed to do maintenance on the saw, running a file through the teeth to make them a little sharper. I needed to mix gas and oil for the saw. Then it was time to fill chain oil. Put some earplugs in, goggles and hearing protection on top of the earplugs. I was thinking about getting the job done so much, I forgot my chainsaw chaps I would need to be extra careful out here. A nicked artery means a certain death.

A few hard pulls on the starter rope and the saw sputtered to life. Soon I was pushing the chain through the logs, that I would turn into blocks ready for hauling and splitting. I would last only about a half-hour, my body was screaming to quit.

I snap a few quick pictures and make the long shuffle back inside. Gravity was extremely cruel on the way down the driveway to the house. A hundred feet seemed a thousand. Shoulders, wrists, knees and ankles swearing at me in languages I didn’t understand but could feel.

Once back inside I contemplated making coffee, when I reached my cup it was half full of my 6 am coffee. I don’t waste so I drank that.

I am here typing these words now. I will have to go out soon and load the old rusty but trusty wheelbarrow full of too much wood and take them inside to be unloaded ready to split.

After I transfer fuel to smaller cans I can haul that up to the generator and add fuel. Haul it outside and start it up.

Then back down to the electric splitter. This is the first year I have used that since my marriage breakup in 2011. Except for that time I fell on the ice and broke three ribs. I used the splitter for a few weeks then. That was winter 2012 I think. There is something bad in my joints so swinging a 12-pound splitting maul is not in the cards, maybe never again.

After the wood is split and loaded into the wheelbarrow again. I haul that to the side door up the ramp and into the fire room.

Now it’s time to collect snow, I fill two stainless bowls and a stainless pot with as much snow as I can, and place those on the woodstove for melting. After they are melted I pour that into the stage one filter to get rid of debris. That is collected in a 5 gallon water container and poured into the stage two berkey filters, what comes out the other side is pure water no chemicals. The process is slow a gallon every twenty-four hours. But worth the trouble.

UPDATE: Just finished splitting the wood hauling inside and filling the snow bowls. I split log fell off the wheelbarrow and knock over the cat’s water, one more trip outside and I fill their steel bowl with clean snow and make room for that on top of the stove. It was all good but the walk back to the garage to lock up, gravity was even more unkind, now all the T-spine and L-spine vertebrae and surrounding muscles were painful. Not much else would be accomplished today.

Maybe not even cooking, oh well got a bag of pitted dates beside the laptop, that might have to do Still got a little cold coffee left in my cup.

After all that I get to collapse. Squashed into my chair by the forces that gave Newton, Einstein and Hawking nightmares.

The reason for doing this hasn’t changed, it needs doing. Well, that’s it for today. Take care and be safe.