Wife Often gives me a hard time about how much wood we have and why I keep bringing more home. Like others said I try to rationalize with her that I could be golfing, fishing, etc... that would be more expensive and less productive. That seems to buy me a little more time. I don’t feel bad about it at all as CSS is my only individual hobby outside of family things.
Yes, I have been told we had enough, I remind her she likes the vacations the wood we sell affords...we burn some, sell some and give some away as a ministry. She doesn't want me to cut alone, so she goes with me and helps. She told me for our 30th anniversary to use the money I was gonna buy a ring with to get a better splitter. She runs the splitter and stacks now. She even helped my CAD for Father8 Day, helped purchase a new MS461...
Just maybe the stairs are what is keeping you young so you are still able to hoard at this time. I know that occasionally I grump when going up the stairs but I am convinced that over the long haul they keep you healthier!
I do most of my wood. On top of that, I work with my best friend to process his plus what gets sold at his place. Been slacking the last couple of years, but still have around 3 years ready to go. Doing better this year, but still need to pick up the pace.
So in the small town we live in (myself, wife, 2 boys, 14 and 12), someone told me that my wife was complaining saying," we have tons of wood, i don't understand why he keeps bring more home, i don't even know where he hides it after its split." Word gets around in a place like this. I thought that was funny. I know she likes to be warm too, just like most of you have said about your wives. One thing about my wife is that she knows enough to know that she doesn't know.......if that makes sense. A couple days ago I had a guy come by to give me a quote for rain gutters all the way around the house. I got the quote, and I knew SHE COULD NOT KNOW how much it would cost, otherwise its a No Go. So, I knew I had to sell it good to her. I told her they will be made of steel, gauranteed forever, if something ever goes wrong they will come out and fix it for free, showed her the brochure, everything. And told her it was definitely needed. She actually said and I'm not kidding, "Well, your the man, so you know better than I do about these things. So if its something that is needed, do it. Just don't tell me how much it costs." She knows our house is almost 100 years old and water intrusion around here can destroy a place. We are getting new rain gutters.
I think like many things, things can be taken for granted or made to look easier than they really are. One of our hens was about 18-20’ up in a tree on a branch. The wife asked if I could set up the ladder and she’d get the bird. Sure! Set it up and held the bottom still. She got up about 4 rungs and legs started shaking. I said honey I don’t mind doing it. No, I’m good. Goes up another rung, ok you can do it. When you do something a lot and are good at it, others can underestimate how difficult it really is to do. Used to happen all the time in construction. Something we could do in an hour would take your average homeowner all day if they could do it at all (usually couldn’t). Then they complain about a price not accounting for that experience, tools and equipment needed, insurances, vehicles, etc. Sometimes people need a reminder/reality check. If any of us stopped burning wood and your spouse saw the heating bill for the winter, their attitude would change pretty quickly.
I totally agree with this. My grandfather (lived to 100) had stairs in his house and he used them all the time. Mom used stairs all the time until her hip disintegrated. Now with the new hip she is looking at tackling stairs again. Flat walking is great to keep doing and keep in shape but I think stairs uses different muscles. I may disagree with this statement as I get older but right now I keep using stairs.
My wife has been asking me the same question for years now. I’m nearing my own self- imposed limit, so those questions should stop soon, ha ha.
