How I spend my week

Okay, it was only a four day week, but still…

As mentioned in the two previous posts, I was up at the Bolt Hole from Tuesday through Friday. The temperatures were only in the 80s according to the thermometers on the porch, but the humidity must have been around the 90% level. So, of course, I was there to do some very physical labor, namely cutting and hauling wood, splitting wood and, finally, cutting grass.

When I got there, I found two very impressive stacks of wood that Mark had already split and laid up.

The stack is approximately 6 feet tall and 24 feet long. Logs were cut about 18-20 inches long so each stack is that deep/thick.

The green tarp on the right covers some well seasoned dead wood ready to burn.

I needed to make a similar contribution to our effort.
First task was to haul the previously cut wood out of the forest (and cut some of the downed logs in the process). That, plus rebuilding portions of the trail to get the ATV over some treacherous spots, took much of Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday. I worked 50 minutes to an hour and drank about a quart of water every hour. Perspiration was literally pouring off me whether I was in the shade or not.

Here’s another view of Mark’s stacks with the ATV (Yamaha ProHauler) and some of the rounds I had hauled out of the forest.

All day Wednesday was spent cutting and hauling rounds of tree trunks from the forest. By Wednesday evening I had a sizable stack of rounds hauled out of the forest and ready for splitting.

It took most of Wednesday to haul all these rounds up and get them ready for splitting. The pile was about 10’ x 12’ by 3’ consisting of maple and beech.

Starting at 8:30 AM on Thursday and working until 5:30 PM with an hour+ break mid-day, I reduced the stack of rounds to this:


Not too shabby. I figure it will come close to matching Mark’s stacks. I left it for Mark to stack since I still had to cut the lawn and then get back to PA Friday afternoon.

Friday was just as hot and humid with thunder booming in the distance. I quick stepped my way behind the lawnmower and managed to get the entire think done in two hours fifteen minutes. Then it was time to take a nice cold shower, pack up, climb into my air conditioned truck and drive the 4 hours to PA.

Despite drinking over a gallon and a half of water a day, I still dropped 5 pounds. I’m sure some of it will reappear as I relax over the weekend but then, next week it’s retaining wall time!