Whew! This old oak is making me work up a little sweat.

Another great day out here in the woods! A little woodpecker is happily tapping a carol. Merry christmas!

So quiet and calm out here in the woods today.

I did nothing wrong....

You can be mad at me all you want, that's your privilege, but just remember this; you made it everyone's business by posting the negative comments all over the place, over and over again. How did you think I was going to eventually react to it? To coin one of your own phrases; "this is me... this is who I ...am.... it's part of me....."

And the fact my very own sister, who claims to be so strong and tough, was whining and carrying-on like that....was just embarrassing! I expect that kind of behavior from the lesser people, but not from my closest family and friends!

By the way, I never deleted anything, quite the opposite, I SAVED everything. You did.

The old sled gets a new look!

This morning I took the tub off the old sled frame and built a platform and side stakes on it. I wanted to build it a little beefier, but I ran out of recycled lumber!


Still quite a bit of snow and now they just issued another winter storm warning for tomorrow. I think the snow is going to stick around for awhile.


It was an absolutely gorgeous day!


A nice little pile of dead white oak, the bark already falling off as I split.


And here is my improved(?) winter wood hauler, all loaded up. Hauls about twice as much as the old tub. It will be interesting to see if it lasts until Spring!


A few little snow-covered white pines and a white oak in the background with it's leaves on it yet.


A red pine plantation.


The sun setting over a stand of jackpine/white pine mixed.

Thanking God

As I had prayed for, the firewood has been selling very well. This weather is sure good for business. It is so nice to have a little extra income help ease the struggle to survive. I LOVE WINTER! Thank you, God, for giving us this weather in our time of need so that I might learn to work harder and more efficiently, and benefit from that labor!

An afternoon in the woods.

The road to work.


Yup, splittin' in that stuff.


The winter woods.


My workstation.


Loaded and ready to roll.


A bigger load than I normally like to haul in the old sled.


And....tonight's sunset.

Working in the woods in winter....

It was a great day to be outside in the woods! Getting ready to cut a tree:


The tree down and all cut up.


Vrooooom! Vrooooom!


Gotta eat food with a lot of animal blood in it to split with that baby in the winter!


That one little tree wouldn't have even filled my trailer, but it was two loads in the old sled.


Hauling the second load up.


This scene did a lot to raise my recently disappointed mood. There isn't much that makes me feel better than the sight of a nice row of firewood, covered in snow, surrounded by trees, with a beautiful blue sky in the background.


Even the sight of this snow-covered brush made me smile contentedly. Never mind that just a little while before some similar Hazel brush smacked me so hard in the face that it made my lip bleed. Not a big deal for me. When you cut wood in the raspberries and brush, something always ends up bleeding almost daily. I actually look fondly at all my scars, like they were battle wounds!


Mmmmmmmm.


Another self-portrait!

Hey! Here i am out in the woods, enjoying the day, cutting a little wood, and posting on daenabook! With my $8 phone.

Another gorgeous day!

As soon as I'm done with the laundry, I'm heading out into the woods! No calls for firewood so far, so I'm going to go run the saw a little bit. Maybe that will lift my spirits some. I doubt very much I will ever get back into the Christmas spirit within the next week, but I am going to continue doing the things I enjoy, even if lately every time I see the snow and feel the cold that I used to love, brings back memories of the barrage of b.s. and my failed crusade against the Total Downer Club over the last couple of months....