Getting out to the woods with my buddy and my Dad to saw some firewood is the best thing ever. No better stress relief anywhere. Dad will be 79 this year and can keep up with rest of us easily. He still likes to go and we are glad to have him along. The woods are our playground Some folks just don't get it....but I'm sure you guys do
I hope there are people like that on are on this site that can pass along things to the next generation that we have learned. I have only been a member for a short time but it looks promising
Dad could walk off the face of the earth and I'd never bat an eye, but my great grandfather was the greatest man I've ever known. He raised me up like I was his son and it was awesome cause he retired when I was just old enough that I remember it. That old man taught me more than any school teacher ever could.
You know it's funny. With this snow storm we just had, I thought a very similar thought while out snow blowing our driveway. When I get outside working by myself, I enjoy the solitude of the moment. I've always found it humbling when you are snow blowing your driveway, and just stop for a moment and shutoff the machine. With the exception of a passing snowplow or another neighbor running a snowblower, everything is peaceful and serene. Now that I am processing my own wood, I suspect I'll find similar moments like when I snow blow the driveway in the winter. That same quiet that is healing the sole. Thanks for sharing, and you are not stupid. We are all just cut from a different cloth than everyone else out there. Enjoy my friend. Jason
So many thoughts racing in my hollow head reading this. I came to wood burning late in life. I was in my early thirties when I took a leap and studied up and put in a wood stove by myself and fired up for the first time ever. I have always been an introvert and the older I get the more of a recluse I become. I immediately fell in love with c/s/s. I never could have dreamed I would find contemplation and confession in a cord of wood. I am however jealous of the memories being shared of you guys with your dads and making memories with your kids. Kids were gone before I became a wood stove weirdo so I didn't have the opportunity to indoctrinate them. As far as dad...it finally got to the point that a zero contact policy is best. I wish he could be the man grandpa was. I strive to be nothing like him and feel sorry the kids don't have the grandpa figure to idolize how I did. Enough therapeutic downloading on you guys.
Who compared woodhoarding to sitting in a tree stand! For me the past few years, stand sitting is torture compared to anything firewood related. Hungry, cold, have to pee. I mean your not likely to get excited when you hear a 200 lb buck crunching your way and having it turn out to be a Chipmonk...
Usually it is Scotty and me talking about sitting in a treestand. I love it until it gets down around freezing and then it no longer fun. Up until then, it is a great place to be on nice day. I've also captured several videos and still shots of deer. Sometimes the cameras are right near where I'm hunting so when I view them, I get that peace all over again. I think many of our parents or grandparents well remembered the depression. I was born shortly after the end of the depression and near the beginning of World War II. I remember many things that when I was young I wondered why they were kept but during the depression they had to make do with whatever they had. One thing that always amazed a lot of people is balls of string or twine. To me it was natural because it was just something we always kept. A little string? Just add it to the ball. Tear something down? Pull all the nails. Nails bent? Straighten them so they can be reused. Simple things but not many do things like that today. Perhaps one exception is with oil. It doesn't matter if it is chain oil or motor oil. We always have drained the last drops out of the cans. It took many times to fill a container but look at the dollars saved. Especially today with the high price of oil.
I do a lot of those things thanks to the old man. He was born in 1919 and man the stories I heard. Moonshining before it was cool, wearing rags for clothes etc... he told me one of the best things he ever got for Christmas was a 5 cent cork gun. I know he would have been proud the other day. I needed something to cover about 2 feet of wood stack. Figured a feed bag was about ideal.
Not sure if it is true but I have been told draining every drop of oil in a bottle is a bad thing. More bad small stuff in new oil that the filter needs to take out and contaminates settle to the bottom. Draining too long allows the the settled stuff drain from the bottom of the bottle.
And my wife's grandfather was a runner! I know her father was always ashamed of that fact but I thought it was sort of neat. We also found where he used to make the stuff.
My grandpa was a runner during prohibition from Chicago mobs to the north woods of Wisconsin. Interesting stuff I've been finding out about him. It all makes sense now.
This is a very nice thread. I'm glad it got going. The solitude of splitting wood on a cold winter's day is something I really love. While most are bundled up in the house there's a kind of quiet joy in just being out there in the cold and the air. Those days pass so quickly! The best of times is to be watching the sun disappear with a well-earned beer looking over a day's work knowing the warmth of the house is not far away. It isn't for everyone. And, that's a good thing indeed.
I was talking about firewoodin' with my dad recently. He remembered "Going out in the woods with my buddy and coming back with the back seat full of firewood and the trailer full of empty beer cans." I'd never heard him say that. We had a very good laugh. He's been "dry" for 30+ years now.
