Saturday, November 8, 2008

Gathering wood


I wrote the other day about the rain of Oregon (and it's resulting green-ness). Something else Oregon has a lot of is trees. We are known primarily for our beautiful Douglas Fir forests, but we have a lot of other types of trees, too. One of the benefits to living on a wooded piece of property in Oregon is the easy access to firewood. Now, before you start thinking that I'm cutting down all my pretty trees to burn in my cozy fireplace, let me tell you that this is not at all the case.

While the previous owner of our house told us that once a year he'd cut down a tree and use that for his year's supply of firewood, taking walks around our property now, it's clear that there is already so much wood in the form of fallen branches:

...random piles of wood:

...brush piles (please note donkey- chewed loved bark):

...and previously felled trees:

that we won't have to be doing any tree cutting of our own for a long time.

Our current wood pile is all from scavenging just what we've found on the ground:

Of course, everyone knows that kindling is an important part of any good fire, so the other day, taking advantage of a momentary break in the rain, I went out in search of small sticks and branches.

I had helpers:

Brownie and Ian were highly suspicious of the red bucket that was standing in the middle of their yard all of a sudden:

Brownie-the-brave decided cautious and thorough investigation was required:

Every angle needed to be checked out:

Every piece sniffed:

Once Brownie gave his two "hooves up" approval, Ian-the-timid decided it was safe to check out:

Even Pistol eventually moved his big butt down the hill to take a little look-see:

If there's one thing I never feel when I'm out in the woods these days, it's lonely:

At the end of our time, we had filled three containers full.

Thanks for the help, boys!

14 comments:

  1. Glad I found your blog. I'm enjoying the tales of your 'boys' and the rest of your foster 'kids'. What a lovely setting!

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  2. That is one thing that I did not have to do when I was there....collect firewood. How long will that pile last you, ya think? Well past January?

    Im on my way to meet Goatgirl right now to get firewood....and to eat scones....I wonder if we will talk about goats.

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  3. You have the sweetest boys there! What characters.

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  4. What a blessing not to have to buy a cord of wood to keep you warm. Do you need wood for heat, or just for the coziness and ambiance?

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  5. Good exercise for all Danni girl. Maybe Pistol's big butt will slim down a bit!! But what I really want to know is...what happened to Roxy? Is she allergic to hard labor?

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  6. I'm surprised they didn't 'help' by dumping your buckets. :)

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  7. I need you to know that you have singlehandedly made me fall in love with donkeys. I keep telling my husband that I want to get some when we move someplace with land. He totally thinks I am kidding.

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  8. That's it...I'm gonna have to quit coming here. I want a donkey now more than ever, yours are just too adorable. I'm not sure hubby would understand that I brought home another animal because I fell in love with them on someones blog, lol!

    Great post! Happy firewood gathering.

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  9. I do the same thing every Fall. Go out and gather kindling and fallen branches. I use my woodstove for winter heat as well as beauty. I usually have wood gathering helpers too, but the two-legged kind, not the furry four-leggers like you have. Ha!

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  10. Oh how this makes me want Donkeys.
    Great post. Isn't it wonderful to live with animals?

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  11. Here's a tip for you-Make some manure tea and put it in a sprayer and spray those trees that the donkeys are chewing on. Re-apply every once in a while. If not those trees will be next years firewood.
    Yep frugalmom's on her way. We will talk about goats and eat scones.

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  12. You aught to put some pack frames on those 'boys' and put them to work. They should be able to carry a fair bit of fire wood out of the forest for you.

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  13. Now that we've gotten the woodstove installed, we've been into picking up deadwood too. Although, I don't have trees like that on my property. Donkey helpers either. You lucky girl! :)

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  14. We have trees as well and after windstorms there is always a great deal of branches and such down. The thing is Danni, I don't have those cute donkeys to help me. Do you suppose it would look a little strange to have my hens pulling the logs up to the house. I can see it now.....teeny chicken harnesses hooked up to a wee little wagon. It would take me years to gather any wood.

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