Steel Toed Boots and Shorts

Happy first day of spring everyone!  Or should I say Happy Nowruz everyone!  Today I learned from Mr. Gian Ghomeshi that not only is it the first day of spring, but it is also the first day of the Iranian calendar.  Apparently they have celebrated this day for two thousand years, and hold onto your panties (drum roll please) it is NOT a religious holiday.  Wow.  Go Iran...go Iran...go Iran...woot, woot.  Don't ask me why I'm all pumped about that, I just am.  Maybe it's because I've been watching a few of the Intelligence Squared debates with AC Grayling and Richard Dawkins on You Tube for the last couple of days.  Maybe because it's just refreshing that finally the media report about the middle east is positive instead of the usual bomb-fest.
Anyway...today is the first day of spring and boy has it sprung and in a good way.  It was sunny, (still is sunny), warm and wonderful.  We went out into the back forty and cut some firewood.  Me with my trusty little red chainsaw, Lulu, a pair of steel toed boots, and a rather sexy pair of assless, bright orange chaps, and of course hubby with his manly saw, and manly safety equipment for his manly sized needs.   We managed to buck up three pretty serious trees and then took five trailer loads out to the tree marshaling area.  Drying and lay down area?  Wood lot?  Tree graveyard?  I still don't know what to call it.  But the open spot where we used to have our camper which we are now using to stack and dry our firewood for next year.

So far this is what we have managed to drag out of the bush.  Tomorrow the splitter is going to try and do some serious damage to it so Ms. OCD can start stacking it.  I still have twelve smaller piles in the back, back forty which need to be trailered out to the Tree Graveyard, but unfortunately where those piles reside the trail still isn't quite wide enough to get the trailer in there.  (Anytime the urge takes you over you can click on the pictures to embiggen them.)

Did I mention that it was a sweet, sweet day today?  After our foray into the logging business I went back and changed into shorts.  Why yes that glow you see in the sky is the light reflecting off my pale, white legs.  Just so you can see that, I kid you not, here are a couple of pictures of what it looks like in this here neck of the woods. 

Mirkwood

These are some pretty big chunks of logs from a pine tree which have been chopped up because the wind blew this dinosaur sized tree down a few months back.  I figure there is enough wood in this pile to build a cabin the size of Southfork off Dallas.  I stuck my Keene clad foot in the picture to give you some perspective, the hubby says that it makes the logs look smaller.  Yes as a matter of fact he is still alive after insinuating that my delicate, tiny, graceful foot is not so tiny and may actually make the logs look smaller than they actually are, strange that.  Anyway...this itty-bitty pile of wood, which happens to be stacked higher than me, is what he wants to cut up for kindling.  He has some issues me thinks. 

Did I mention that the temperatures actually hit 31 degrees in the sun today?  For my American readers that is in Celsius.  To convert that to your temperature use the following weasel formula 31 X 6/25 + 0.8 - 3/4 X 11 = Really Warm.  (Notice how I got to use the word weasel in a math formula?  Yeah I thought that was pretty good too.)  And just so you don't think that it is all sunshine and puppy dogs I thought I would add a picture of one of two spots in the back forty which gives a whole new meaning to Mud Bogging With Wood. 

Aren't you glad I added this picture?  I know I am.  That way you won't feel the need to come and hunt me down and beat me about the shoulders and head because I live here and you don't.  Well perhaps it isn't exactly paradise.  Maybe it's like a muddy, tree infested, water surrounded, work inducing, briefly bug free, section of nature which I happen to dig.