If a Tree Falls in the Forest

I've been training hard during the last couple of weeks with my new pickleball partner for Wisconsin's largest pickleball tournament, taking place this weekend.  After that, I'll be ready for a "pickleball break."  

 

Thursday night Round Robin

Julia and I made reservations at one of our favorite COE campgrounds on the Mississippi River next week, where we can now take advantage of 50% off with the Senior Pass ($10/night) with electric. 

This morning, after taking Callie on a four mile hike in the country, I saw something very disturbing up near my Scamp.

Close Call

We had been experiencing a severe drought, and then over four inches of rain dumped on Wednesday and Thursday night.  The branches and leaves of the trees eagerly soaked up the moisture, causing severe stress for the now top-heavy oak. The trunk snapped and landed about two feet from the tongue of the Scamp 

It took about three hours today to cut up the part of the tree that blocked access to the Scamp,, move the rounds to my firewood processing area, and drag the small branches back into the woods.  On a hot and humid day, I may have set a perspiration record.  There is another twenty or thirty feet of uncut trunk going back into the woods.  It will make quality firewood but will wait until a cooler day. 

I ended up moving vehicles around and put the Scamp in our driveway until our camping departure.  There is another double trunk tree nearby (to the right side of the photo above, and it has a severe bend without breaking yet.  It'll be interesting to see if it's still standing when we return from our trip.  The  trunks are under far too much pressure from the wet branches to safely fell at this point. 

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Throwin' Down Wood

I've been sleeping really well since the Daylight Savings' time change.  Several days per week, Julia gets up early at 4:50 a.m. and goes to her morning "Boot Camp" work out at the high school.  When I owned the coffee business, I woke at 4:50 every morning, but that isn't my preference anymore

I heard her get up and forced myself to go back to sleep--probably took less than three seconds.  I didn't wake up until about 6:30.  My first groggy thought was that it was raining.   Nope, she was back and had turned the shower on. 

This morning, I made up a batch of sourdough for baking tomorrow morning and then played a couple of hours of pickleball.  This afternoon, Callie and I hiked Gibraltar Rock.

There were a ton of people at Gibraltar.  Both parking lots were nearly full.  No off-leash dogs though, so it was fun to take Callie along.  On top of the cliffs, I walked by a large family, noticing there was a very special off-trail wheelchair with treads instead of tires.  When I mentioned that I had a son with Duchennes who would love "the nice ride," she let me know that her young son has Beckers muscular dystrophy and that the chair was the result of a lot of fund-raising.  It warms my heart when I see that families of disabled kids go the extra mile for special experiences.  

We didn't have a tank wheelchair for Justin, but he did have a lot of special experiences, including swimming with reef sharks in Bimini for his Make-a-Wish.  And we definitely took his conventional wheelchair to places that took it out of warranty coverage.  These days, we have a hard time getting him out of his dorm room, but that's where his tools are (computer, phone, tv) and where he feels most independent.  Everyone has to hike his own hike.

This afternoon, I spent a couple of hours in my woods, throwin' down wood.  It sounds a lot cooler than it is.  I cut up a fallen oak tree on our property a few days ago.  The rounds are way up the hill.  I threw the rounds down the hill until I could get them close to my woodpile. It's a whole lot easier than using a wheelbarrow. 

The rounds start where I'm taking the photo and are scattered up the hill from where I'm standing.  It only takes a couple of throws for the smaller pieces of wood.  The bigger rounds generally take three throws unless I'm particularly lucky in the way that they bounce down the hill.  Julia has her boot camp.  I have my wood throwing and processing.

While today was beautiful, rain is predicted for the next three days.  When it stops raining on Friday,  I will hand-split the rounds for wood heat during the winter of 2024-25. 

 

Next winter's wood is already in the pole shed.  I've got enough stacked and seasoning for the winter after that.