Friday, August 20, 2010

20 - August, 2010 Wood splitting...



We always start the day with a hot cocoa/french vanila mix.  After that it's breakfast and off to work ... sort of.  I got a B-Square scope mount for my MAK-90 a few days ago but it had low mounts with it which meant I installed a short, cheap, scope on it to shoot it until I could get better mounts.  I got a high mount the last time we were in Eureka so I installed the new mounts and a better scope on the rifle.  After getting it zeroed in at 100 yards this was my final 3 shot group.  The wind was gusting pretty strong from the right which I'd like to think was the cause of the high left hit on the target (or it could have been some poor shooting on my part!).  I think a trigger job is next.  

P. S. Don't listen to my wife if she tries to tell you that the target was only 25 yards away.


We had some wood left over from last fall that still needed to be split.  When I cut the tree down it had no needles on it but when it fell water started leaking out of the base.  We got the chunks loaded up and brought home then covered them with a tarp to split them after they dried out.  When the wood is wet like that the splitting maul just kind of sticks instead of splitting the wood as it should.  Plus the grain was twisted which added to the difficulty. It has been seasoning for a year now so it was time to get them split.  This photo was taken at 11:12 AM.


This photo was taken at 12:52.  Note thte photographer's feet sticking up on the edge of the hammock while she took the picture? 


Finished at 2:47.  This is the west side of the pile.


This is the east side.



I stopped splitting wood a couple of times for breaks, once for lunch and once to turn the alfalfa so that it would dry faster.  It was sunny and windy today but the alfalfa will still need a couple of more days to dry enough for storage.  We planted this plot several years ago just to see how well it would do.  Hopefully we can eventually get enough ground cleared to plant an acre or so.


She thought I was sleeping!


Susan putting the green onions (now dried) in the bottle for storage.  The cat was supervising.


Susan stripping the leaves and flowers off of St. John's Wort to store it in the bottle.


Three squash we've harvested the last couple of days.



This is what it looks like at night here.  We use reading lamps instead of overhead lighting most of the time.  The lamps are 3 watt LED's.  In the winter the two lights and the two netbook computers and the DSL router would be our only power draw after dark.  During the spring/summer/fall we also have the refrigerator plugged in and running off the battery bank at night.

We got the Sept/Oct issue of Backwoods Home magazine today.  I have an article in it beginning on page 36.  I have two articles in the current issue of Modern Survival magazine and articles sold to Fur-Fish-Game and Primitive Archer magazines that will be published in future issues.  Susan had one in the last issue of Modern Survival Magazine and has one coming up in Countryside & Small Stock Journal.

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