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Elbow grease

Writer's picture: CroneCrone

I am pretty impressed with my work.


Just once a week and, what, four visits now? So this is my pile of firewood.



And here are the stakes and posts and then, behind, the binders.



I really hope at least some of them get used. That they don't just rot there.


When I first arrived, the sky was blue and the colours of the hazel bark were mesmerising. It's like the sheen of fish scales, with iridescence and a pearly glow. But it was cold, so I was working hard. The stool was a big one, with the stems close together and hard to access, hard to cut low down. I would not have managed it without the Silky saw.


Most of the posts, stakes and binders were sub-optimal - too bent, really. Using the billhook to remove the sticky-out bits helps and I enjoy that part of processing the wood. I don't enjoy cutting so much to go on the scrap/firewood pile. It's a lot of work and a bit pointless if no one uses the wood.


When I rested, I listened to the birds: tits and wrens; dunnocks, robins and blackbirds; crows, magpies and jays. A woodpecker. Kites far overhead. A squirrel hopped past, digging something out under one of the stools.


In the meadow, I checked the sheep. Layla is fat, so fat she can hardly run, and she grunted like a pig while eating sheep food from my hand. The mouflon are adorable, sprinting and bounding over, but incredibly flighty. The two Hebrideans look clever and knowing.


It was a good day.

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maplekey4
Jan 14, 2024

My Mom used to talk about "elbow grease" and she used a lot of it around home and on the farm! Looks like you've been using a lot of it (e.g.). Great to see your efforts sorted into neat piles. Good photos. So you're not sure if it's going to get used? Hope it does.

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