~ Two Flying A's ~: Spring Cutting

Most of you know that we heat our house with a wood stove; we have a furnace but only use it when we are going to be gone during the winter which doesn't happen very often. Anyhow, we love the wood stove heat. It seems to heat the house better then a furnace as it heats the surface of everything, not just the air and its cheaper.

Of course, having a wood stove means that you must have wood to burn in it. If you have been to Battle Mtn, you may ask," Are there really trees around here that you can go cut for firewood?" to which I would answer, yes! You do have to drive a bit-the closest spot being about 70 miles from here and if you love spending time outdoors in the mountains then this isn't a problem.

We always start cutting our wood as early in the spring as possible as weather permits, this way it has plenty of time to dry before we need to use it-we cut green wood and dead wood-depends on whats available when we get to where we are going.

Our first trip was on a perfect day. The weather forcast said a chance of thunderstorms and not to hot!!

Once we got to our destination the clouds came and went all morning and afternoon with a few sprinkles here and there-it was wonderful!!

If you know how to back a truck and trailer, you can get them just about anywhere and my goal was as close to the trees that we were cutting since the girls and I were loading it.

Jessie showing so much excitement to be out gathering wood-NOT! I think she would of rather stayed home and did school-thats okay, we doubled up on lessons the next day.

Bryan going to town 'limbing' the limbs that were left from some previous wood cutters. We have many times filled our truck and trailer with wood that people have left including whole trees-its really a shame that so much would be left behind. We pretty much take it all-the little stuff is great for those small fires that you need to take the chill off of things and you also need the little stuff to get a nice bed of coals to burn the large stuff all night not to mention the occasional out door 'camp' fires on a summer evening.

One should never run chainsaws without proper protection-those things are scary!! I tried the small one and said, Nope, not for me!

So, when we go cut wood, we do stop and take a lunch break and few snack breaks and well, Marisa was having so much fun that she had to re-charge her batteries!! What better place to take a nap though!!