Firewood 2011

Today I did a real job. Now is the best time to work on firewood.
1. Firewood price will go up later on.
2. From last year's experience, I don't want to work once snow is on the ground.
3. The most importantly, fishing (guiding & tying also) is slow now.
4. Further more importantly, now I can really focus on FALL FISHING!!

It's very hard to find firewood in reasonable price with trustable quality. I had to make several calls. I think I did well on that. I needed a chord = 4' x 4' x 8'. Last October, right after moved in, I had to get firewood and still had to go fishing. I made a good deal as for money paid, but I had to haul all by myself with my truck bed. Very hard and time consuming. This time, the price included delivery and it was worth paying.

Why I bought blocks? Because a chord in blocks is cheaper than a chord in split. Besides, my landlord owns a wood-splitter. Have you ever seen these? It's not that much a difference in price for wealthy people but I'm cheap. Besides, I can split for the size I want. One doesn't want all to be too small. I actually split them relatively large so I can get away with a few piece a night. Again, this is from last winter's experience!! - how to start a fire, maintain the fire and room temperature, and last all night long - YES, mastering firewood and wood-stove is sort of ART!!

As I push the lever the BLACK BOARD will go forward and push the wood into the "V".
Day didn't start smoothly. I first went to buy fuel (regular gas). Then I had mechanical problems to get it run. I could finally get it running and splitting after 11am. When I was done, it was 3pm!! During that time I only sipped a cup of coffee. I kept working with great concentration under Indian Summer sky. After one hour meal break, I stacked into piles, picked up "chips" for fire-starters, and brought the machine to my landlord's house.

I made TWO PILES like this. I got everything done by 6:40pm!!
CHEERS!! PBR tasted as well as after good fishing day!!

Life in Montana, especially in winter, can be tough. I don't mind some work but this may not really be a work compared to what 19-th century mountain men had to do.
Anyway I feel a great accomplishment. It was a warm day at least so I might have been tempted to go fishing. But from the practical point of view and for my near-future plan, I resisted the urge. Maybe I should get out and eliminate some more whitefish from my system but probably I did enough for past two days as I'm the WHITEFISH KING!! Now I'm really getting ready for the fall fishing next month and winter life.

CHEERS, again!!