Working with the Boy

I ordered our newest load of cord wood back in September and it’s been sitting in our driveway ever since. I meant to start working on it in October, but I kept procrastinating. Then I meant to start at the beginning of November. Again, I procrastinated.

The boy has been asking me the entire time when I was going to start. He even was asking to help out. He was hoping to swing an axe this year. I had to put a damper on that one.

The cold hasn’t been remarkable, but it has been steady this Fall. As a result, our supply of ready cord wood has been dwindling steadily as well. We’re going to need to replenish it and the wood doesn’t cut itself. Or split itself or stack itself. Bummer, that.

So today was the day. Right after hockey practice.

I was on top of the wood pile, cutting up logs when the boy appeared down below. He wanted to help. He wanted to use the log splitter and asked if he could start it up. I told him what to do to get it started and also how he could run it. He eagerly set to it. After his first pull on the starter cord, though, it was apparent he’d need help.

I got him up and running and we spent the next couple of hours cutting, splitting and stacking. He ran the splitter including loading the wood. After I was done cutting the wood up, I set to work with the axe to split the other pieces and help the operation along. Nice thing about straight grained oak is it splits so easily.

The boy stuck it out through the whole operation, including stacking the wood up. The stacking was the most tedious part for him. At one point, he disappeared and I assumed he’d had enough. Instead, he reappeared a couple minutes later with some ice water. After his little break, he rejoined the work and we finished up. It was a far cry from the last time when his attempts to help were so short lived. The difference a year makes.