Yesterday I raked up all the leaves that dropped from that 100 degree weekend we had a week ago. It felt very fall, but well, ya know, all the other leaves on the trees are green, so there won’t be any more raking for a month. We also started our weekly trips to the crazy wood guy in Oregon City. Thats right, as urban farmers we heat our house with wood, and that means a whole heck of a lot of trips out to get firewood for the winter.
We’ve lived here at the Vortex (thats our name for the house, since nothing is really at a straight 90 degree angle here) for three winters. And each Winter we make the wood pile bigger. The first year’s wood shack (as it was then called) was tiny. I mean teeny-tiny. And we managed to make that tiny pile last from October to January 1st somehow. I think it was the tiny fires we built, and the fact that neither one of us worked from home much. So we survived. In January we had to restock our pile, which we did with wet wood from Sauvie’s Island. It is hard to heat a house with wet wood! But we learned alot that first winter.
The second winter we increased the size of the wood shack into the now named wood shanty (since it grew it started looking kinda like it belonged in a shantytown). It was now three times the size it had been that first year. And we filled it to the brim. And somehow, it still only lasted until January! To be fair however, I had started working mostly from home, and we built fires to last all night now, so that we weren’t quite so cold in the morning. That January is when we met our crazy wood guy.
He is awesome, I love going out there and getting the firewood. We drive out in Gus, our thirty year old toyota pickup, and drive into this guy’s woods, where he literally cuts trees down before our eyes, chops them up into little chunks, and then we load them into the truck. I guess it is less amazing when you realize that the trees are dead six inch douglas firs, but it is still pretty cool. And the whole time you are out there he is carrying on a sort of one-sided mumbled conversation with you. You don’t really have to reply, because he doesn’t really seem to need more than a smile or grunt in response from you. And he keeps trying to fill your truck, even after you say its holding all it can! And in order to leave you have to jump into your truck and wave goodbye even while he is talking to you, otherwise you will never get to leave, cause he won’t stop talking or putting random pieces of wood in your truck! He doesn’t seem to mind the rudeness though, he is the cheerful sort.
So this year we are going to do our damnedest to stock up on enough wood that we don’t have to go out there until April to restock. We are filling the wood shanty, and then we will start building another pile along the back or side of our house. That way when the wood starts to run out in the shanty, I can spend an hour or so restocking it with wood from the side of the house (which will be covered in tarps) and let it dry out before using.
So thats our Friday mornings for the next month or so. Its kinda a fun way to spend your time really. It feels good to be in charge of heating our own house. I know it sounds weird, but its the same feeling I get when I pick a squash out in the garden or pluck eggs out from under one of my chickens. It feels more real somehow. And yeah, its ALOT more work that just turning on the heater, or buying a dozen eggs, but its satisfying, good work.
Wow, didn’t think I was going to go on and on about getting firewood like that! Sorry folks! On a slightly different note I spent the afternoon cleaning and organizing my studio last week, and man was that ever needed! I must have gotten enough cat hair out from under my shelves to make another cat, that is, if Brandon would let me have another cat. But it also got me really excited to make some stuff! Finding long lost art supplies will do that to a person. So I’ve been working on a few things that are not jewelry related. A couple more whimsies (I think I may post them in the one of a kinds page of my website), a bit more done on a wedding shrine I’m working on for some married friends, and this crazy fish plate. I’ll get more into the fish plate when its finished, cause I feel its gonna be good, as in, its so silly it makes Brandon’s eyes roll, when I’m not looking. But thats not the point, the point is that I’m having a great time playing in my studio, and in my yard.
Hopefully I’ll post a bit more regularly, but we’ll just have to see about that!
