He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

Benjamin Franklin

In four hours I will run out of firewood. The snow is already way deeper than predicted.

So I am going to have my coffee maybe even sharpen the chainsaw before I go out. Because it just doesn’t matter. Hunt for wood in deep snow or hunt for wood in deeper snow.

Swept those panels off now went from making 6w to 19w

Did you ask about the laundry out there? It will be snow-fresh. As for me the water I had saved on the woodstove to wash my hair with. A look down at the cat’s dishes ended that dream. I filled their dishes and knew I could get more with all the snow that was coming down.

It is afternoon now the snow has stopped, for now, the sun is out. The next storm is due to arrive tomorrow. This storm dropped about six inches of fresh snow. Tomorrow’s storm would triple that or more. My choices were to shovel by hand use all my energy, bring out the snowblower and use all my energy or just plow through and use my energy to retrieve wood.

I sharpened my chain just now. I did it the old-fashioned way with a file, no guides or gadgets. I really suck at sharpening, Today it all seemed right and seemed to go well. We will see when I get out to the woodpile. That was after digging, sweeping and poking the snow with a crowbar to find the wood. The bad part was all the wood was close to the ground, hit the ground instant dull chain. I needed to cut enough to get me through a couple of days. The snow would be too deep tomorrow to get wood. That would be the day to use the snowblower.

I still had not got the chains put on. They seemed too small. A project for summer when I do the much-needed service on the machines.

I am sure I am writing to stall, so I don’t have to do wood right away. It was going to be a tough job no matter how I did it. I won’t know what is possible until I go out there. It all depended on how deep the snow was, how lucky I was at finding wood in deep snow, and how long my body and chainsaw chain would hold out. I was running out of cold coffee and excuses. I would find out soon.

Well, I need to gear up and head out.

I could tell you that was easy or fun, but I won’t. I barely managed enough logs for the night if I rationed. The ice was almost impossible to overcome.
Up the driveway and to the chopping block with only one rest stop. Then onto gathering snow for melt. I forgot on the way out the chickadees got fed, so you know I am not neglecting them. BTW the chain held out, body not so much.

Chopping would happen later. And it did.

All I could do with the solid ice

Chopped. Now I hurt.