Cutting firewood is always a major chore for Rob and I. Since we had 3 grandchildren over 10 yrs old visiting from PA, we thought it would be a perfect outing for the kids and would give them something new to do.
We would leave the house sometime around 6:30am, drive up the mountain 1 to 1 1/2 hours. It took longer to locate the tree than it took to get there. The children would fall back to sleep in the back seat.
Rob would locate a tree then proceed to cut it down. I was always ready to move the truck just in case his tree was taller than he thought or if it fell a different direction than he planned!
We always had to hurry and clean up the mess before any vehicles came through. We were usually high enough we didn't see a lot of other people.
The fun part began when he started cutting off the sections and rolled them down to the road. One tree the children had to roll them about 100 ft before they could get to a place they would roll.
While Jaci was rolling them down the hill,
Carter and Karen were setting up a barrier so the sections wouldn't continue across the road and on down the mountain.
At one place we lost three sections down the mountainside so Rob cut off a big log and rolled it down hoping it would stop at the road but it continued rolling across and down the other side. Some of them you can hear rolling for a long time, others get caught partway and if we have a chain along Rob can pull them back up with the truck.
After he pulled the log onto the road. Carter and Jaci held the tape measure so he could cut the sections small enough they will fit in our stove.
While Grandpa cut down the tree the three cousins would go off exploring.
Carter took this picture of the butterfly on the wildflowers.
Relaxing till it was time to roll the wood.
It took two people to roll these logs onto the trailer. The trailer was loaded before the tree was completely cut up.
Carter relaxing after rolling the logs onto the trailer
Karen posing on the stump till Grandpa needs his tape measure.
This tree was a lot taller and bigger around then he thought!!
After we got the trailer, our three helpers rode home on the wood. It took about two hours to get a load home. The children looked like little tar babies till we reached home. We had dirt road all the way.
The fun part, splitting the wood!! The little boys were so disappointed they couldn't go along to the mountain so they were really eager to help split the wood. It wasn't long till they
found out it was a lot harder than they thought.
The finished product. I am dreaming of warm cozy winter days!!
We are very thankful we got our wood early. Our mountain is on fire now.
Its hard to believe the view in these pictures will be forever changed.
The Mesa Fire
Council and Indian Valley ID
This is the view from our deck.
A helicopter getting water from a local pond.
Heading back to the fire.
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