Wood......and more wood.....the forever project

What a difference between here on Whidbey Island, which we love, and the desert, which we also love.

One major difference is that on Whidbey Island we are always dealing with wood.  It is a constant.  (In the desert the constant is sand).

On Whidbey Island we are either cutting wood, getting it cut, trimming it, splitting it, carrying it, or burning it.  All year round.  Every year.

Last summer, before we left on Road Trip 7 we had our local tree company take down about five trees.  Four of them were leaning over the small lane that our neighbors use that crosses our property. We didn't want them to fall and hurt anyone, so took them down as a precaution.

And we had one more taken down close to our house, also as a precaution.   In the past 11 years I would guess something like 30 trees have been taken down (including a few that fell).

Here is the tree company taking down the trees last summer:

We had them leave the trees on our property, so this spring we are starting on a long-term project of getting them cut, taken to our lower garage to dry, and split.

Here I am dressed for combat, with steel-toed boots, Kevlar chaps, helmet, and face guard:

We probably won't get it all taken care of for 2-3 years.  And when we are done we will have enough wood in our lower garage to last 10 or more years.

It is a lot of work, but it's fun and it's good exercise.   And it saves a lot of money using this renewable resource instead of burning propane to heat the house.