Emergency mode! East Pole Journal V. II, Episode 15

Yesterday (Sunday) was supposed to be an easy day. I had planned to spend the working part of the day

preparing for a bull rush this week to finish cutting firewood for next year and then relax and start working on where I’m going to live this summer, vaccination and some doctor visits.

Goal? Easy peasy

Silly me. I did notice the snow starting the previous evening and overnight, but I wasn’t ready for what I saw in the morning. When I first went out onto the deck I stepped into almost two feet of new snow. That wouldn’t have been so bad, but when I shoveled some, I could barely lift the shovel; heavy, wet snow. The roof can handle what was up there but I wasn’t so sure about this added weight. So my easy day turned into a good six hours shoveling snow off the roof of the cabin. I even had to break out the Frogg Toggs rain gear (Amazon, about $20) my friend Joe May had suggested buying after I had soaked my Carheartts on another such day we had a couple of years ago, as it was raining or snowing lightly the whole time I was up there. First round soaked my Carheartts; I couldn’t believe how much the suit weighed when I took it off. So I went to the Frogg. Over all, all I can say is I got all of the snow off some of the roof and some of the snow off all of the roof. I am pretty sure I reduced the load by at least half. Going to the edge of the eaves on the north side, which is on the downhill side of the cabin takes more of a circus performer than I care to be. So it goes. I was too tired to eat by the time I finished. But there were still chores.

One of them involved bringing some wood up for the evening and overnight fire. As I looked at the dwindled emergency pile I finally had to admit there wasn’t enough to last as long as I plan to stay. More panic. I took a few up that I thought would last overnight which didn’t leave much for the next couple of weeks if I have that long. As I went through the evening my mind explored as many of the possibilities as I could imagine, ranging from just giving up and bugging out to finding a source of new wood for the duration. What seemed the best of which was to find another beetle-killed spruce and cut it up, but worried about how long it would that take and how it would delay finishing up next year’s piles.

On waking the next day, I looked out the window at the tree I had decided not to cut earlier when I made the first stack to get me through this winter. I decided it was doable and went about preparing for the cutting included slogging a trail through deep snow to it. I had what I thought was a good way to cut and in what direction I wanted it to fall. I also set a goal. I would have a split pile of firewood on the deck before the sunlight hit it.

In felling the tree I managed to drop it across both my trails coming up the hill to the cabin. Don’t laugh. I planned it that way. I went down it and cut and cleared both trails first. What this left me was three access points with solid trails to pull the sled filled with wood up to the splitting yard. And my trails were fine and useable. Enough said. Split firewood on the deck; I made my goal with more than an hour to spare. It wasn’t enough admittedly but it was enough to make the goal with plenty more available just one long sled pull away and an afternoon that I can now use to clear all that snow off the remaining birch still on the ground and ready to split. Why has that taken so long? Well I am now at the lower part of the trunk. About the best comparison I can think of is they are about the diameter of the base drum in a rocker’s kit and 18 to 20 inches long, each weighing more than I can lift. I can barely move the halves when I get that first split. If this were easy everybody would be doing it.

All told, despite the original panic a satisfying couple of days and still some time. Forecast is sunny days and cold nights for a while with more snow in the distant future. I wonder if I can make it until May.

The total mayhem. With all that slash it should make a pretty good bonfire.

LATER: Looking downhill I think I’ll have a bonfire with that slash sometime this weekend.

East Pole Journal