Went back out and dug a path to one of the 'ugly' bins I started last fall. Of course the pup had to check it out.
Thank you, Sir. I had already saved the pics of your wood shed/ racks. Nicely done! The "regs" are a little vague. I try to fly under the radar and mission accomplished. With that said, I have been using a less permanent looking arrangement for the last 30 years. Basically a non-permanent roof. I am going to shield my wood racks from view behind lattice and stockade fences. I need my left need done. I had it repaired in 1999 and it last over 25 years. Always get the the extended warranty for those replacement hinges! It felt good to get out there and get some done though, didn't it! I was involved in a study by the VA regarding the mental impacts of not being able to work like when we were younger. It's hard to adjust the brain to accept declining physical abilities. The term "I can't" was never in my vocabulary. It is now, but more in the sense of, I can't do it all at once. I have also stopped trying to calculate how long something will take to do. It takes till it's done. For me at least, it was a hard concept to grasp. I also try to break projects into chunks, to help manage my limitations.
All of your work looks great. Glad you were able to at least get started, I know where I would be if I had to deal with all that snow...
I still say you can be proud to be able to do the work you can do. I know there are those who think they understand but you can't fully understand some things that others are going through and have lived with for years. So we just keep plugging around, because we are still human. I will also never forget that one old saying I heard so often in my youth when I struggled so hard. "Walk tall, walk straight and look the world through you eyes. Be proud of what you can do."
Great post, and all good stuff. Mentally it definitely felt good to get out in the wood lot and do something 'firewooding' (physically not so much). Seems like it was only a few years ago I was hauling logs out of the woods by hand, scrounging firewood on a daily basis, processing for hours, and that's just the firewood side of things. Now, on a lot of days, I'm just glad when I can walk short distances without being in pain. When everything catches up to you, it sure happens quick. And I agree that the mental aspect is more than half the battle. This isn't the place to get into all that, but the Navy docs gave me five years back in '07 due to the extent of my injuries from the war, so when I retired I figured I was basically coming home to live out what little time I had left. I wanted to do that in the mountains that were always my 'place of solace'. While it hasn't been easy, I beat their odds (so far), and I believe the mental aspect was a major part of it. I saw a lot of friends and peers go the route of meds or alcohol (or opted for worse), but if you can make those mental adjustments, difficult as they may be, you can keep plugging along. And slinging firewood has been a big part of my therapy, as stupid as it may sound to those outside of the FHC world. We actually hit temps around 40 yesterday, which around here is almost t-shirt weather for firewood processing. ↑↑This↑↑ Thanks. What's that old saying..."you don't know someone until you walk a mile in their shoes". I guess I keep (and will keep) this thread going as a way of therapy. I post some things I'm doing/have done, post a few pictures (because I was told years ago that FHC people like pictures), and keep on plugging along. The small amounts I get done are chump change compared to most on here, but that's irrelevant. I'll just keep on doing what I can, when I can and be content with that. And when I look at my flue pipe when the woodstove is chugging along, you would never know that the fire is going because there is nothing whatsoever coming out the flue, and that's a sense of pride (considering how many chimneys I see of people burning wood looking like they're a diesel exhaust at a tractor pull).
I agree...great therapy...my doctor even agreed to give me a pass on 3 vigorous gym workouts per week if I agree to split more wood by hand And on your tractor pull comment...I have to admit looking down my nose a bit at the neighbors that still have smoke dragons...smoke is wasted BTUs after all!
When I was 10 yrs old, we had a huge snowstorm......I know, ya'll just call it winter......we had 20" on flat ground, well over 36" in drifts. Dad couldn't get to the store, so this friend of his that liked to visit him and drink coffee in the mornings, came up our driveway with an old Dodge Power Wagon 4x4 and got him...must have wanted coffee or get away from home bad...... It even snowed in the Bahamas.
Right. We just keep doing whatever we can. Once in a while the day is like diamonds and other days you get stones thrown at you. My battle began at age 4 when polio hit me hard (before the vaccine) and left me unable to walk. I fortunately was able to overcome that. Now they tell me I have post-polio syndrome. That's life. Then an injury at age 42 hit me hard. Here I am after 18 surgeries still trying. I am now 83 and have been forced to take things very slow. I hate it but have to live with it. So I am no better off than most others but I can still smile and drive and work with tractor and atv and on and on. Will continue as long as I can.
I get a lot of motivation from you and some others on here (as well as a lot of good advice) and it helps me keep things in a positive light. I wasn't feeling too well yesterday however it was a rare bluebird morning so despite the temps being in the teens, the pup and I went out to dig out one of the partial stacks and get the wood I had split the day before stacked there and in the ugly bin. The pup was lying around and supervising of course... Some of the pieces that were uncovered while I was trying to dig out those oak rounds are some old red oak stump chunks I've had lying around for quite a while. I split one of the chunks and was going to toss the pieces in an ugly bin but decided to try burning a piece instead. I'm pretty sure these stump chunks were from a tree I felled back in 2020, and they have been (mostly) under a cover for the last few years. I was pleased to see that the pieces burned just fine with no hint of moisture.
EODMSgt you have a nice spot, a great dog, some of the best equipment around. It is great that you can get out and do something. You have achieved a lot. I'm pretty sure I mentioned this before, I have to quit setting goals for amount of work and the time it takes for myself as they are rarely met now-a-days. But, as long as you can still motivate yourself and do stuff...... Like we used to say, joking around, during my employment days... “Do something……even if it’s wrong!”
Much appreciated. And I think that's one of the big reasons I came back to FHC after my hiatus, it's a great place for a kick in the a** to get and stay motivated. We used to have a leadership saying back in the military similar to yours "Make a decision, even if it's wrong!".
If there are things you would like to get done in a certain amount of time, just hire a younger person to do the work. That works for me
No younger people around here to hire and from what I've heard from business owners in the area, most don't want to work anyway.
I used to hammer at my sons with that same expression. I tried to get them so they weren't afraid to make decisions. If they are wrong then you can fix them but if you don't made a decision, what is going to happen?
