So Amy’s teenage son has been having trouble finding a job. Well, hey no problem, I got a job for ya. See all this wood here? I’ll pay you $10/face cord to split it, and $10/face to stack it. I cut all of the rounds and positioned the equipment - got a decent 5’ saw log out of it too. Amy and her son did all the splitting and stacking - 2 face cords total for the day. The stacks were a little short there in the middle so all the rest of that probably has to go on top. Not too bad of a job on the cribs either. So I spent my day drinking beer and cooking sap. Fired it with the last of my hard maple from the tree I built my workbench out of. Had half a mind to hang on to this stuff but I just don’t have room to save it all anymore. I’ve got a couple boards leftover in the shop anyways.
Naw, you didn't pay for wood. You paid for the opportunity to drink beer and watch For realz tho, nice way to teach him a good work ethic. Most kids don't wanna do laborious work nowadays.
Yeah, that’s hopefully the point. I grew up on a farm. Made a lot of hay and firewood every summer. I had 3 lawns to mow too. I was pretty good at any sort of physical labor jobs, but they take a toll. I knew my brain was pretty strong too so eventually ended up back in school and became pretty successful with computers too. Whenever I see a kid riding his bike with a string trimmer across the handlebars I know he’s going to be alright.
Great thing you've done there Shawn. Looks like you are still a bit muddy around there too. Hopefully things will dry up soon. Maple syrup season and mud season seems to be one and the same. Have you tried mixing a little syrup in with the beer yet? You might try it before it gets to the syrup part; maybe about 3/4 there and mix that with the beer. Yummy!!
Just a great post on so many levels Shawn, between the subject matter and the pics. Teaching a kid to split and stack is something that will always stay with him. Keep boiling that sap!
Way to go Shawn Curry, but your looking at this the wrong way.. You are NOT paying for wood. You are making an investment in that child's education and future. An excellent investment at that!
Well he came back for more today and brought a friend; and they put up 2 more face cords. Before pic was taken a few weeks ago. They tried out the Fiskars today too - I set em up with a couple of butter ash rounds at first to reel em in. Then they wanted more so we grabbed a couple of the big maple rounds I had them working on from the back yard. The first one stopped them cold for a good 20 mins. Then I proceeded to humiliate them. Lots of good firewood fun today. I think they might be actually enjoying the work too.
Thats more like it ! I was thinkin that you made it sooo easy for him by letting him run the hydro splitter
Very nice Shawn Curry The guy that does garbage pickup for us has a son that was looking for some work this past summer. Wife wanted some help so I said sure. Like you.. we paid $10 per face for stacking, he did pretty well. It was towards the end of the summer and we had most stacked already, so he only got like 2 face done. He's already asked about more work this year, I think my wallet may be a bit lighter by the end of summer.
I don't really mind the exercise that it provides, I do little enough of that as it is. I just find it the more tedious (boring) part of the CSS triad. I think it's also the most time consuming part, so yeah, since it appears I will be doing all of the cutting and splitting solo this year, I will NOT mind some help on the stacking. I do have to say though, it is very nice to see a teen that is willing to work, albeit a bit 'slowly'. But hey, it was his first time stacking. Hopefully he'll be a bit quicker this year.
