Looking for writing-related posts? Check out my new writing blog, www.larrykollar.com!

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Long Day

Too long. Good thing we turn the clocks back tonight; I needed even more than the 25 hours we get today.

After Mrs. Fetched’s helper ended up “forgetting” about a minor detail like keeping up with his probation, he got carted off to jail. Smooth move, Ex-Lax… you got a wife with a baby on the way and you pull that kind of stunt? Forget about The Boy helping; on Saturdays even the crack of noon is a little too early for him. So… “all we have to do” (a phrase I absolutely dread hearing from her) “is open up the half-houses.” This took us well past noon, then her dad decided he needed to do some miscellaneous stuff — which for him means a stream-of-consciousness waste of several more hours. By 4 p.m., I suggested lunch would be a good idea and he agreed.

wood stackMeanwhile, there was a bunch of wood cut up in the pasture, waiting for “someone” to gather it up. Mrs. Fetched needed to do something else in the chicken house, so she suggested I start loading up the wood and she would join me when she got finished. So… about an hour later, DoubleRed came down the chicken house road in her little Rio. She asked me if I needed help; I said, “sure, park your car across from the gate and come on over.” We didn’t get all the wood, but we’d got as much as we could deal with at the time, so we ran up to the house and unloaded it. One piece was a little large, and I got the splitter. DoubleRed was telling me a story of how her mom tried to get her to split some firewood once, and rescinded the idea after she nearly chopped herself and her brother. I drew a bead on the log, took one whack, and it came apart.

“Show-off,” she said.

“I got a lucky shot that time,” I reassured her.

This picture isn’t all of what we got — we put some in the garage to save a little time for the night-time armloads — but some of the stack was already there. (The top of the stack comes about to my chin, for perspective.) This should last us at least a week, maybe two, and there’s plenty more where that came from. Our burn rate averages about a stick an hour.

As we were on our way back to get DoubleRed’s car, we saw it coming up the road the other way. Mrs. Fetched had finally remembered that we had to shoot a community chorale — singing an English version of Brahms’s A German Requiem — and we had about two hours before it started. We got showers, fresh clothes, the cameras, and away we went. We managed to get through it without changing tapes… but we were down to the last one or two minutes. Whew! Supper, groceries, putting Crissy the Complete PITA Dog back in her pen (and blocking her wormhole she’d dug to get out)… and here I am.

Maybe if she doesn’t have another chicken house freakout tomorrow, I’ll be able to bring more wood home (and split the larger pieces).

Can we set the clocks back… oh, 24 hours? I want a real Saturday, the kind that doesn’t involve chicken houses.

6 comments:

  1. Hiya FAR.

    You are way to busy. Just as some businesses have interns, I think you need to find one for FAR Manor. You could tout it as preparation for real life. :)

    Hope you get a break soon.

    Take care.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Far! Cutting wood, eh? One of my favorite activities...Real relaxing for me. I usually do this in the early spring when I can walk on the snow. Nice clean area to buzz through, plus not as much underbrush to contend with. Frozen wood splits a lot better, suppose you wouldn't have that option there either... ha! Wish I was there, I'd help ya! (sitting back nursing a beer, while watching you work! ha!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey guys!

    FM, the wood part is, like Yooper says, kind of relaxing. In the fall, you have nice temps, sunshine, and a little exercise… what's not to like? Now I could do without the chicken houses, especially since we haven't even gotten up all the wood yet (and have yet to start on the trunks!).

    Yooper, yeah we don't get much frozen-wood time here. You can nurse the beer while I work; I wouldn't want you out here showing me up. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh… Mrs. Fetched came down to help me load up some today. We were looking at what hadn't even been cut up yet and I said, "this is probably enough to last us all winter, if we can get it cut up." She nodded.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Heh, ha! that was your que Far!!! Hand her the saw! ha!ha! (just kidding)......

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey FAR,
    I wish I could send some of that busted maple in our back yard down your way ... we haven't gotten the rest of the tree taken down yet (thanks hell job from hell), but it could probably keep you in firewood for quite some time. You're welcome to come up and cart it all away if you like! :-)

    Yeah, I felt cheated with that extra hour too ... I've been exhausted for weeks now! Wish I could just hibernate for the winter and really rest up....

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcome, and they don't have to be complimentary. I delete spam on sight, but that's pretty much it for moderation. Long off-topic rants or unconstructive flamage are also candidates for deletion but I haven’t seen any of that so far.

I have comment moderation on for posts over a week old, but that’s so I’ll see them.

Include your Twitter handle if you want a shout-out.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...