Firewood Friday

I was going to post this blog yesterday, but I didn't get around to it because of our work on the motorhome antenna.

Steve has been busy busy busy in the backyard. Look at this pile of firewood! He's just like a beaver. Actually, he cut down some trees last year and he had left the wood in large round pieces. Now it was time to take care of them, so they can season and dry out. 

He borrowed our neighbor's wood splitter, and took care of splitting up the entire pile of wood into smaller chunks. Now we can dry it out and use it for campfires in our backyard. The only problem is, as he uses the wood splitter, he just tosses all the cut pieces onto the ground. Pretty soon he had that great big pile to deal with!!!

Now, if you have a pile of firewood and you happen to know a couple grandkids that would like to come over and help???  It just so happened that on Friday they only had a half day at school. Hmmmm so they were off Friday afternoon. It was the perfect time to go and steal them and put them to work!

And work they did! My oh my, look at all of the wood that they helped to stack. They did very well and they did it all without so much as a bit of bickering or fighting between them.

At the same time, Grandpa was doing something new in the backyard that had them both intrigued. He had cut some holes in the three stumps that were left behind. He filled the holes with charcoal and some slow-burning tiki torch fluid to get it going. Soon he had all of the stumps smoldering. It's been so dry in Wisconsin the last couple of weeks that he didn't dare start this until now. After two straight days of rain, things were finally dampened down and not so dangerous to light a fire!

The grandkids decided it was a perfect opportunity to roast some hot dogs for an afternoon snack! This was during their break time.

I got such a kick out of them sitting there, huddled over the smoldering stump, cooking their hot dogs. They even cooked one for Grandpa and myself. No buns, no condiments,  just right off the roasting sticks. 

They had done pretty good with stacking the wood but there was still quite a pile left in the back.  We were running out of time and energy. They only had a couple hours to be here, because they were going on up to their cabin for the weekend. As soon as their parents were done with work at 5, they were getting picked up to head north. They easily got 2/3s of the pile done.

They had to play a bit in the mud too...  since they were wearing our big swamper mud boots.  They put in thick wool socks to fit their feet.  

It's so much fun to just slosh around in the puddles and look for things in the grass.  They had so much fun, doing simple things.  No electronics, no expensive fast food, no high priced toys or equipment.  Just old rubber boots, hot dogs on a stick, and good ole fresh air! 

Guess who ended up in the mud?  (for once, it wasn't Clayton!)   She had to change into my clothes until hers could be washed and dried. 

Clayton tromps around in the mud, in his own little world, singing songs and enjoying the outdoors.  Makes my heart sing to see him like this.  Enjoying life. Being an innocent kid.  Away from the realities and mess that our world is becoming. 

Here is the fire pit in the backyard that we will use the firewood in. We really can't take it with us camping anywhere, because of the emerald ash borer infestation in Wisconsin. We're not allowed to transport firewood. So this will just stay in the yard and we will use it for backyard family campfires.

While the big kids were busy working on the firewood, this littlest munchkin was helping me put out some cute little garden gnomes, mushrooms, and fairy princess house garden figurines. 

She helped pull all of the old dead weeds from last year

 and then put out all of the little figurines.

Another project that the guys tackled was planting Steve's new cherry tree. Clayton got out the shovel and the wheelbarrow and went right to work. He really tries hard and puts all his effort into it. 

Look at him working that shovel. What a strong kid for only just turning 9 years old. He dug the entire hole for the cherry tree and helped to plant it. 

Some day he will look back at the huge cherry tree, and remember that he was the one who planted it for his grandpa.

He looks pretty proud of himself even though the winds had kicked up and it started getting cold out. Was time to get back inside of the house! 

We did surround the tree with tall 7 foot stakes and some deer mesh to protect it from the deer. We will see how well this works, or if we need to go to stronger fencing. I also spray anything that might become a "deerlicious" detectable tasty treat with watered down hot sauce in my sprayer bottle. It is seems to work to deter the deer --- and I just have to go around every few weeks and spray again. 

While we were huddled up inside for the last hour or so, we had time to quick whip up a treat to take to their cabin. The girls carefully counted out the marshmallows while Clayton was busy washing his hands. 

Soon all three kids were helping to make one of our favorites, Rice Krispie bars. The bars always taste better when they're made with everybody to help in the process. Plus sprinkles!  Of course, we always make sure there's enough left over in the bowl that everybody can get some with spatulas at the end.

Here is the pan of Rice Krispie bars that they can take to the cabin for the weekend. They also had time to make a second pan to leave here for their Grandma and Grandpa!

It sure was a fun way to spend a few hours on a Friday afternoon. Especially since they had no school, what a better way than to spend it here at grandma and grandpa's house. Although they never expect to get paid and they try to refuse it, we gave them each a little bit of green folding money for giving us a hand. Clayton said a better payment is to just get a great big hug. Awww isn't that sweet?

Maybe next week they can come back and help with the rest of the pile.

~~~~~~~

We took a nice walk yesterday evening with Binney.  We start out with crossing the big backyard. But then, she has started to play a fun new game with us. She likes the reward feeling of being cheered on and greeting us with ecstasy and excitement if she runs to us when we call her name. 

So about every fifty feet, she stops and waits and stares at us until we get too far away.

Then she rushes to us with an "Oh joy, Oh joy" expression on her happy little doggy face. We greet her with praise and pats on the head. What a happy girl.  

~~~~~~~

It's getting to be a beautiful day today. We are going to double check the Dicor sealant on the motorhome roof antenna, and then maybe do a couple little projects around the house. By this afternoon it might be warm enough to take the canoe for a paddle.