Back to work!

After a lackluster weekend of overcast skies and cool verging on cold temperatures, the sun came out today and the temperature soared to 78 degrees late this afternoon. That, however, may be the last we see of the sun until Wednesday. Forecasters are saying we may get some severe thunderstorms tomorrow; the kind of storms that bring strong winds and large hail. I could do without the hail and wind, but we do need a little rain. The last two days promised some rain but didn't deliver more than a sprtiz now and then.

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Looking at the forecast, the Tundra needing an oil change on Wednesday (1:00 PM), and our departure for Yarmouth, Maine for this weekend's wedding on Thursday morning, I decided it was time to fire up the log splitter and go through the wood I had stacked on the side of the house. I checked the motor oil and hydrolic fluid in the machine and then gassed it up. The splitter fired up on the second pull of the cord. It then ran like a dream for five hours as I got all the large logs split into smaller pieces. There were lots of pieces that didn't need splitting as they were skinny wood. And a lot of the old stuff was dry and split easily, but all the grey birch--blown down in a spring wind storm--needed to be split so it can dry before I need to burn it this winter. That birch wood was the largest in diameter and, naturally, the heaviest because of its water weight.

Split wood at the Aerie 2011_06_27

I worked up quite a sweat despite the low temperatures and being in the shade for all but the last hour or so. I also made an enemy in the robin which nested on that corner of the house. Let us say the bird was NOT pleased with either my presence or the noise form the splitter. I half expected to get dive-bombed at any moment. If it had been a blue jay I'm sure I would have scars on my head this evening. As it was, I would take a ten minute break every hour (union rules) so as to give the adult a chance to get back to the nest and set for a while. I didn't hear any cheeps coming from the nest, so I'm assuming that there are eggs and not baby birds up there.

Somewhere, however, there is a robin's nest with babies for I've watched an adult bird collect worms from the lawn before flying off with them dangling from its beak. We seem to have a huge number of robins on our little patch of grass. I can stand on the deck and watch five or more hopping about or chasing one another off a particularly promising patch. While watching those five on the lawn, there may be two or more flitting about in the trees either chasing or foraging on caterpillars or shadbush berries. I've watched birds collect nesting materials and head off into the woods. Makes me wonder what's wrong with the other corners of the Aerie. We've had three different nests in the past but this year we've only got one.