Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Snow calls for firewood


The apprentice learns more new tricks! To say the least, it's been quite a winter in Pennsylvania this year. As a result, we have been using up firewood like crazy. We heat the shop via a fire barrel stove that needs to be fed regularly to keep the climate inside this big building comfortable enough to work every day. After weeks with temperatures between -10 and 15 degrees, the dried firewood supply has dwindled.

On the first day that snow wasn't actually falling from the sky last week, we took to the yard and turned logs into tinder. Jeff manned the tractor, delivering big logs to areas of hard, snow-free ground. Rob fired up the chainsaw and cut the logs down to reasonable lengths. And, thus, I was left to chop. Swinging a giant (well, 'giant' for a girl who is 5' 4" on a good day) maul over my head and managing to land in a place that splits a log in half is not something I would have anticipated to be part of my skill set; but, consider it added to the resume, ladies and gentlemen. Not only did I actually manage so split firewood, I didn't even break my wrist(s). Score!

As the winter seems to have no sympathy and we are forced to welcome another 4" of snow today, there is least somewhat warmth within the walls of the shop (and my upper body strength is increasingly more impressive). Rob is still hard at work perfecting the design and techniques to build the small wall cabinet that will compose our soon-to-be third level course so keep your eye out for updates on that. In the meanwhile, enroll in Practical Woodworking and/or Advanced Joinery in 2014 so you can join us for the new course when it's launched!

Until next time, I hope that everyone in the local areas is staying warm and safe in this horrendous winter.




No comments:

Post a Comment