What Our Kids Look Like After Too Much Ice Cream

Warning! Do not feed your children ice cream after 8:00.

Life For Some of Us in Northern Michigan

It's getting to be that time of year again. Time to start thinking about heating the house. Echh!
For the past few years we have been using wood as our primary heat source, with propane as a backup. This year, instead of buying 10 cords of wood, (which would help heat our house most of the winter) Jason decided to start going through the woods around our house and "clean" them up by cutting up all the dead and downed trees for fire wood. He bought his very own new chain saw, and has been hard at work for over a month. Every other evening after coming home from working all day and eating a hearty dinner, and also for several hours on the weekends, he goes out cutting, stacking, hauling chopping and stacking again. Slowly our wood room has been filling up. And now, in early September, he is almost finished!! I'm so glad because I miss him. Here are some pictures of the whole grueling process. It is such hard work but for those of us who still need money to buy gas and groceries at the end of the month, it saves a lot of money.

Here was an interesting tree right behind our house that Jason decided to cut down. It had a huge base, with 7 separate trunks coming out of it. Depending on how the tree is leaning and where he wants it to fall, ( preferably not on him ) he under cuts it...

then cuts it from the other side and then... TIMBER! down it goes.

After He cuts a tree up, he loads as much as will fit in the trailer, and hauls it back to the house with the 4-wheeler. (Thank you SO much Ken and Judy for letting us use your quad and trailer! He could not have done any of this without them!)

Then he hand splits the logs that are too large to burn in the stove.
Anybody feel like coming over and helping him so he doesn't break his back??

Isaac, on one of the rare occasions that he actually did help out, stacking a pile in the basement.

Work boy Work!

Now in our 12'X 11' wood room we have 4, 7' high rows of cut and split wood.
Aaaahhhh, when I walk in the room it smells like freshly cut wood, gas, and sweat from my hard working man.

Don't you just love how the logs look all together?

I'll help you next year honey, I promise. Unless I'm pregnant again. HAHAHAHAHAHA JUST KIDDING. I know, I know, I shouldn't even joke about such things. Bad Emily bad.