What I've been up to...

No motorcycling news to report, but I've managed to stay busy. Winter made a brief appearance here then it kind of went away. We've had some pretty mild temps considering it's now the first week of December. Today it was a sunny 42° and tomorrow is supposed to be just as warm. I'm sure that winter will return later this week. I saw the forecast for this Friday, high of 13°, low of -4°...

I found an ad on Craigslist for some free firewood. The guy that posted the ad lives down by Hayward, about 30 miles away. He had two pictures in his ad...

He had put up a pole shed and these were cut down when he cleared the land. I think he kept the oak for himself and was giving away these poplars. They're not the greatest firewood, but hey, free is good and when the wood dries, it will burn just fine. So, I called the guy last Tuesday and went to see just what I was getting myself into. I had just left my buddy John's place so I was close by. The log owner and I discussed schedules and I agreed to come out on Friday and probably finish by Saturday.

After I looked at the pile, I called John and asked if he wanted to get some exercise this weekend. I told him about my find. So late Friday morning, I loaded up the truck with my saw, gas, extra chains, and assorted supplies and met him by the LCO casino. He followed me out where the logs were.

John and I spent the next couple of hours cutting, splitting, and loading wood. The owner set up his splitter for us so we didn't have to lift whole, heavy, wet, 18" diameter chunks into our pick ups.

John and I had loaded our trucks and were headed out by noon. There was still a lot of wood left to cut up...

John unloaded his truck then went bowling... I drove home unloaded mine and went back for more. By the end of the day I had this stack in my driveway...

Knowing that there wouldn't be enough daylight left for a third round, I cut and split until late in the afternoon. I left this pile for Saturday...

Today, I met John out at the wood pile at 9:00. We loaded up what I had already split. Then we cut and split the rest of it. He took a pick up load and I filled mine. There was still about a half a load left. I went home, unloaded, and went back for the rest.

When I was done, the log pile looked like this...

On the way home, I stopped off at the lumberyard and grabbed some free pallets.

Here's all the free wood I ended up with...

I had a quick lunch and a couple of ibuprofen. John came over about 2:30 and we fired up our log splitter and my tractor. We worked until sunset.
We filled an open spot in one of my wood piles with the stuff we split. The bright wood is the new stuff. It's a stack about 7½'L x 4'H, one row deep.

The fun will continue tomorrow.............