Sunday 27 August 2017

wood

i sincerely apologize to my international readership for another post about my adventures in wood splitting. after taking a break to rest my weary bones, yesterday i was back at it. a few gnarly and highly uncooperative chunks of wood met their maker. it's been an excellent learning experience for me, too bad it's happened so late in life. my dad was always splitting wood but he never took the time to give me any advice, he just gave me that axe and told me to start whacking.

i was having a hard time holding a wedge and bashing it with the big sledge hammer so this morning i hopped on the scooter and picked up a small 4 lb sledge.

it's a terrific little piece of equipment, i should have picked one up years ago. but 30 years ago i was strong enough to swing a full sized sledge hammer with one hand. so it goes.

the photo above is a patio tomato that has a few specimens ready to pick but i'll keep them on the vine for a few days just to annoy the lovely mrs myshkin when i boast of my success.

here's photo of a "pineapple" tomato.  from what i've read, pineapple tomatoes don't turn red so it's hard to get an exact reading on how ripe they are. i love the smell of tomato plants and i also love it when spiders arrive in late summer.  i'll not only be monitoring the tomato, i'll be monitoring the growth of my favorite spider.

now here's my excellent household tip for those readers who have bothered to read this until the end.

if your garbage stinks in the hot summer weather, throw a freshly split piece of wood into the bin. our garbage is no longer picked up every week, now it's bi-weekly and in the hot summer weather, it can really stink. a few weeks ago i tossed a piece of gnarly wood in the bottom of the  bin and the disgusting garbage odor was replaced with the wonderful aroma of douglas fir. it's similar to cedar.

billy says he loves you sons of bitches.

11 comments:

  1. I'm glad you solved your wood problem! I was having trouble using a full sized shovel awhile back. It made a heavy load for my back. I ended up getting a child's garden shovel. It works great. Sometimes smaller is better.

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    1. yes, if in doubt, opt for the smaller size. i'm only getting weaker, not stronger at this stage of my life.

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  2. That's a great garbage tip. You could market your gnarly wood as an outdoor air freshener.

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    1. the only problem is the city frowns upon big chunks of wood in the bin. years ago, before automated pick-up, the garbage man would have tossed the wood back.

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  3. That's a great garbage tip. You could market your gnarly wood as an outdoor air freshener.

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  4. I like you so I'll say this one more time and then I will shut the hell up. Harbor freight wood splitter less than 250 bucks with a coupon. No bulging discs, no surgery. Hell, you might want to try having sex with a woman and wood splitting can get in the way of that! All I am going to say on the subject.

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    1. thanks for your concern mr rat. i'd need at least the 20 ton model and it would probably be impossible to get the huge rounds onto the splitter. the main thing i've learned is there are some knots that will not split, a chainsaw would be necessary.

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    2. I had the 20 ton splitter and it would go through ANY knot. It might screw the wood up but it would go though anything. And big rounds wasn't a problem for it, it would tip down and you could just roll the round into place. Of course a splitter doesn't make much sense unless you are splitting a lot of wood every year like I did.

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    3. it's a challenge for me. when i can't do stuff like this, put me out to pasture.

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  5. Excellent news on the wood war. Glad the tide turned in your favor. Excellent work on the tomato, Mr. Rosewater. Thank you for the household tip and give my best to BP. Take care.

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