All It's been far too long of a hiatus for me. This spring I coached two softball teams for our league, and let me tell you, it was a brutal spring. Just to give you an idea of just how brutal a spring this was for me, I never had time to put in my garden. The beds are sitting dormant. With the spring season at an end, practices twice a week and two weeks before our next tournament, I can now turn my attention back to my projects. When last we left this southern RIer, he had a load of logs in his front yard that he planned to get cut and split before softball ramped up. Well that didn't happen, and his load of logs are still sitting there. Right now I am finishing a remodel of a bedroom my son is moving into. The walls are up, I've taped and currently finishing mudding the joints. That will be done tomorrow with one more coat and then sanding. My wife can then take over and paint the room. This will allow me to get outside. First up is a new rabbit hutch. The old one is not working as I intended and it's a great deal of work to keep clean. I should be able to put that together this Sunday. Beyond the rabbit hutch is creating an area to stack all of this wood and the load of logs that needs to c/s/s. My son and I need to clear, dig up the area and then put down some stone and stone dust to make a good level compact area for the pallets to sit on. Once the pallets are in place, I can start cutting, splitting and stacking. I need this done ASAP so that I can get another order in. My son works for my supplier, and I noticed he has a ton of logs waiting for me. Well not all for me, but plenty for me to get two to three more loads. Last time I talked about my plan, I had high hopes of completing 12 cords this year. It would be doable if I didn't have softball picking back up at the end of August. To that end, my plan is to get roughly 8-9 cords done by end of summer. That is roughly 3 loads from my supplier. Loads average 2.5-3 cords. My hope is to get two done by end of summer. If I am able to get three done, I'll be ahead of the game. Softball in the fall goes until Columbus day weekend with one tournament after that. Which means I can get back to cutting, splitting and stacking this fall. One thing I don't think I mentioned are several trees on my 1 acre lot that I plan to take down. Several of them are gnarly cherry's that I'll mix into the other wood as we stack it. I know that the cherry and even the other wood I cut and split this year needs 2-3 years to properly dry. However; as you all know and have commented to me in the past, I must start somewhere. This is my year to start building my hoarding. Oh on a side note, there is a guy in town that built an interesting fence around his property. Now I know the old adage here that if there are no pictures, then it didn't happen. Tomorrow I have to go to town, and will get some pictures to share with you. He's lined his property line with wood racks. Over the past month, he's been slowly filling the racks. As you drive-by, all you see are the 8' stacks of wood that act as his privacy fence. Southern RI's tourist season is in full swing, and just as heavy a tourist load as usual. I hope tourist don't liberate his fence of wood for their campfires. Missed everyone here. Good to have time to catch up and post again. Jason from RI
Welcome back Jason. Yes, summers do get busy! Oh, btw, that cherry does not need 2-3 years to dry as it is a quick drying wood.
By the way, my daughter was with me, and thought I was completely nuts stopping to take this pic. I tried explaining that if I didn't get the picture, the guys/gals on the forum would never believe it happened.
I feel your pain. School ball ended just in time for travel to start. We have played 7 tournaments so far starting Memorial weekend. Did get the 4 th weekend off. Only 4 more tourneys to go for us. We did get a garden in for the first time in a few years, weeds are growing just fine. We have plenty of tree length wood I cut last fall, it's 100 miles from home though. Been trying to get someone to bring it down to me when they need to bring a truck this way for service, that hasn't gone so well this year. The lawn could be hayed. Wouldn't give it up for anything.
Wow you are playing in 11 tournaments this year? My god. Do you need my address to send me a check? At 500/tournament around here, that would be on expensive tournament season.
She plays on Maine Thunder for 6 tournaments in Maine Mass and NH. Her pitching coach put a team together for the other 5 that his company sponsored and pays the entry fee. It's a pretty good deal there. Those are all local tournaments. In the end it's still a huge individual expense for the year. We travel 2 hours each way for practice November through early April for Thunder. Hotels are not cheap anymore and I do like to eat. It's all worth it in the end. Wouldn't give it up. What team are you with? We have played a bunch of RI teams in the past.
We are a newly formed league from Narragansett and South Kingstown in southern RI. This is our second year of FastPitch Nation. We have teams at the 14U, 12U, 10U and 8U age levels.
I think it's great what you're doing. We are 14u right. Been doing ASA since she was 8. Went all the way through little league unfortunately there is not enough interest in our area for jr/sr league. Keep it up and it is rewarding. I'm able now to not have to coach, I still help out a lot and sit with my iPad and do Gamechanger. That helps us tons when facing the same teams at different tournaments.
Hey Jason that fence is about what I have been doing, Course I don't call it a fence as then I have to get a permit and such so I just call it my rustic renewable privacy hedge
I was lucky enough to be a kid with a father that did that. He coached on certain years, drove me to and from practices, and whether he was coach or not, would load almost the whole team in the van and shuttle us to and from tournaments. Yep, even hung a tire infront of the fence so I could practice while he worked. I am so impressed by all of you dads, be it sons or daughters.
